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Here are some intriguing highlights:

1. Relationships matter. Relationships protect us during hard times, which improves our cardiovascular functioning and decreases stress levels. People that have very few social ties have nearly twice the risk of dying from heart disease and are twice as likely to catch colds (even though they are exposed to fewer germs due to being less social).

2. Support matters. Being in a tumultuous relationship can extend the time it takes for you to recover from surgery or a major injury.

3. Proximity matters. A friend who lives three blocks from you has dramatically more of an affect on your well-being than one who lives just three miles away.

4. Mutual friends matter. Your whole social network affects your entire well-being, which means that mutual friendships matter a lot. If you invest in these relationships you'll see a high return. Improving their well-being will improve your well-being. As I wrote in WGYB, lifelines have a DISPROPORTIONATE effect on your quality of life.

5. Time matters. If we achieve at least 6 hours of social time a day it increases well-being and decreases stress and worry. That 6 hours is definitely attainable because it includes time at work, talking on the phone, emailing, talking to friends in person, and social media. Even having 3 hours of social time decreases the chance of having a bad day by 10 percent.

6. Work friends matter. Thiry percent of people have a best friend at work. Those that do are seven times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and produce higher quality work. Those that don’t have a best friend at work have a one in 12 chance of being engaged – yikes.

Can you think of a time your network affected your health?
3 comments // In Relationship Trends and Research
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4 Tips from the RMA Idol To Stay on Top of Your Networking Game
Posted on September 23rd, 2010 by Keith Ferrazzi

To close out the RMA's second Pilot class, we had an "RMA Idol" contest. We asked participants to enter with their success stories. Meet the winner: Scott Zimmerman, president of Televox, who truly became a master networker over the course of 10 weeks. Scott shared his four top tips on how to stay successful with the RMA community - and now I'm passing them on to you.

1. Practice act of proactive generosity or social arbitrage at least once a week.

2. Challenge myself to reach out to one new aspirational contact a week.

3. Use at least one day a week to contact a minimum of 50 contacts.

4. Revisit one RMA lesson each week and examine ways to extend my application of the principles.

Thanks, Scott!

What tips can you add to Scott's list?
0 comments // In Relationship Development Skills
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Secrets of a Master Networker, 2.0
Posted on September 21st, 2010 by Keith Ferrazzi

Remember Rule 2 from the article that prompted NEA, Secrets of a Master Networker? "Take names."

The article talked about how I have call sheets by region, listing the people I know and those I'd like to know, so that when I'm in town, I can get in touch with them.

Yes, relationship management is important. Yes, we've evolved and refined that process. But that rule should really be "Develop Friends" not "Take Names."

Note: I said relationship management not contact management.

Business today is personal. The best business relationships have always been personal, but today we've taken it to a whole new level.

The edges between work and social life are blurring. People are shifting their social networks into their work networks and vice versa - business associates and childhood friends, side by side.

Business has invaded Facebook. Talent seekers are scouring MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube for their next star. Sales people are doing the same to get their friends to help them sell.

Have you Friended your boss on Facebook, or connected on LinkedIn? Do you send Twitter messages to your customers? You do now. Or should.

Social software permits rich interactions. What you feed into the system becomes another point we can use to connect.

We prefer to buy from people who are like us. You like Law and Order? Me too! That may not always be enough to move a sale, or get a job, but it shows your human dimensions, and in this wired world of digital communities and deep long-tail niches, that's how it's done.

When you enter a market, be a real person. Act like one, care like one, and feel like one. Those subtle signals, verbal and non-verbal, help people figure out how to react to you - and whether they should bother handing you any of their attention.

Tell me when being yourself turned your business contact into a friend.
2 comments // In Relationship Development Skills
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Four Reasons You NEED Relationships to Thrive, Today and Every Day
Posted on September 16th, 2010 by Keith Ferrazzi

1. You need to make a choice -- wake up and stop being a sheep. Choose to care about your business, the work you do, the people you do it with. No, I mean really care.

2. You need to stand for something, to do your work with a purpose larger than yourself - as a cause - that makes you happier, more passionate, and what you do more meaningful. . . Because happy, passionate, meaningful people - and companies - create extraordinary, profitable products.

3. You need to triumph over your lizard brain -- the part that wants you to conform and avoid standing apart from the crowd, that keeps you from sharing and connecting with others, not doing or learning new things, but playing it safe. The stronger support you have in place, the easier is it to fight Godzilla off.

4. How large your network is or how many relationships you have with important people doesn't matter -- a real relationship master knows how to leverage the network they have today to make ideas happen and get things done. Working with others to produce value rules the day’s agenda.

What step can you take today to make your relationships thrive?
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End Procrastination Forever (after you read this post)
Posted on September 15th, 2010 by Keith Ferrazzi

Stever Robbins' new book is out! Congrats Stever. Check out video and audio clips on www.SteverRobbinsBook.com - and of course, pick up a copy of the book at www.WorkLessAndDoMore.com.

Here is a tip from the book to stop yourself from procrastinating:

Thinking causes procrastination. No, really. We build up tasks in our mind, thinking they'll be huge, unachievable,or unpleasant. The remedy is to stop thinking and just start acting....

Make your brain happy by speed-dating your tasks.

1. List what you're procrastinating.

2. Start at the top and work on each task for exactly five minutes, then move to the next task. Use a timer to be precise.

3. When you're done, take a 5-10 minute break and do it again.

Five minutes is short; your brain will let you do it. Since you're hitting several of your procrastinated tasks, your brain knows you'll get to your other tasks just five minutes from now. It frees you to focus completely on the task in front of you, yet guarantees you'll go on to make progress on everything that's important.

How do you GET IT DONE when you need to?
1 comment // In Time Management
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Six Simple Tips for Opening Doors and Closing Deals
Posted on September 14th, 2010 by Keith Ferrazzi

Everyone could use a few tried-and-true sales tips, right? I asked Dylan Conroy, my head of West Coast Sales for Relationship Masters Academy, to give us some of his best tips. Enjoy!

If you haven't already signed up for our Early Bird special list for the November launch of our Business Relationship Mastery Course - all new and improved program after two pilots - please sign on the list below!

Dylan's top tips:

1. Generosity First: To get a meeting, offer money - that is, the meal's on you. Instead of “Can we meet for lunch sometime?”, say “I’d like to buy you lunch sometime.”

2. Connect Creatively: Invite them to something other than the standard office visit, coffee, lunch, dinner drink. Find out their hobbies or passions. An event with some type of personal enrichment takes them out of their defensive "this guy's trying to sell me something" mode.

3. Be Specific: Lock the meeting down to a specific time. If they say “next week,” tell them “I’ll call you on Monday.”

4. Have a Sense of Humor. Always open someone up on a front call. For example: 'Bob, the hardest working man at Cisco' or 'Joe, the man the myth the legend'. Sounds tacky but you absolutely HAVE to open up with humor and get someone off their guard. If you open up with, "Hey Bob, how are you doing today, this is Dylan Conroy from Ferrazzi Greenlight," you might as well hang up.

5. Be Polite. Always send a follow-up note after a meeting.

6. Don't Fear the Close: This is the way to approach a customer who’s on the fence about buying. Don't forget to ask for the deal EVERY time you talk to them. No one respects a weak close. Add value every phone call and always be closing. And if it's not going your way, then take the offer off the table. The more you try and sell them something the more they will lock up, but if you take it away from them, they'll want it more.