Book ~ "Every Conversation Counts: The 5 Habits of Human Connection that Build Extraordinary Relationships" (2021) Riaz Meghji

From RiazMeghji.com ~ In "Every Conversation Counts", TV host and human connection keynote speaker, Riaz Meghji, tackles this uniquely modern question:

Why are we so connected and yet so alone - and how can we reconnect?

We all crave connection. We were never meant to live alone or communicate only in “likes” and retweets. Meghji digs deep into the dangers of isolation and loneliness, our social pandemic, that were brought into sharp relief by the coronavirus crisis. 

Sharing personal insights from powerful interviews and years of on-air experience, Meghji offers 5 simple habits for building extraordinary relationships. He explains how to spark authentic conversations, win trust, create new business, and collaborate effectively.

Meghji points a way forward to a better future - one in which we express genuine curiosity about others, listen with our whole hearts, show up as our authentic selves, and make every conversation count.

The company I work for recently hired Riaz to do some training with our team (about 100 of us) and it was done via Teams meetings (live webinars).  He's a nice fella and I liked our training and found it useful so I was interested in reading his book.

Riaz lives in Vancouver, BC, and to be honest, I'd never heard of him before our training.  He has hosted for Citytv’s Breakfast Television, MTV Canada, TEDxVancouver, CTV News and the Toronto International Film Festival.  In this book, he shares tips and tools, drawing from his years of interviewing, on-air experience and just generally talking with people.

There are three parts:

1. An experience in isolation
2. The 5 habits of human connection
3. The future of human connection

I enjoyed this book.  I liked the writing style ... it was comfortable and conversational.  Riaz often uses one of the things he had talked to us about which is storytelling.  The Covid pandemic has isolated us so much that reading this book is a nice reminder that we still need to connect with people even though most of us physically can't (Ontario has been in lockdown since November) and what it will be like once all this is over.