Latest / QUESTION EVERYTHING / Fighting for Our Friendships: The Science and Art of Conflict and Connection in Women's Relationships with Friendship Coach Danielle Bayard Jackson
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Big things happen when you're pretty, pretty bold, pretty clever,
- 0:08Speaker 1: pretty strong. I'm Danielle Robe and each week my guests
- 0:12Speaker 1: and I have conversations that.
- 0:13Speaker 2: Put a new spin on pretty. This is pretty smart.
- 0:19Speaker 1: Hello to my pretty smart people. I hope you're having
- 0:23Speaker 1: a great week. Today's episode is about friendship. So if
- 0:28Speaker 1: it means something to you, if the episode rings true,
- 0:33Speaker 1: if you learn something, please send it to a friend,
- 0:38Speaker 1: send it to your mom, your aunt, your group of girls.
- 0:44Speaker 2: I have to tell you, it's.
- 0:46Speaker 1: One of the most fun that I've ever had recording.
- 0:50Speaker 1: Our guest is quite phenomenal, and she calls friendship the
- 0:55Speaker 1: great equalizer. What she means is, it doesn't matter if
- 1:00Speaker 1: you're on the playground in elementary school, you're in college
- 1:04Speaker 1: and a sorority sister, or you're in your thirties, forties, fifties, sixties.
- 1:10Speaker 1: We're all trying to navigate friendship. And despite the reputation
- 1:14Speaker 1: that romantic relationships can get it, turns out navigating our
- 1:19Speaker 1: platonic relationships can be just as tricky. Some of our
- 1:23Speaker 1: very favorite comfort shows are excellent portrayals of female friendship,
- 1:28Speaker 1: highlighting why these relationships are so so special and often
- 1:33Speaker 1: so complicated too, from sex in the city, and.
- 1:38Speaker 3: I cannot believe that you would judge me after everything
- 1:42Speaker 3: that we've been through.
- 1:43Speaker 2: Too insecure.
- 1:44Speaker 3: I can't be the only one who wants to make
- 1:46Speaker 3: this work Molly, and.
- 1:48Speaker 2: Yes, even the women of Golden Girls.
- 1:51Speaker 3: I'd had the.
- 1:51Speaker 2: Money, I could have been living in a swinging condo
- 1:54Speaker 2: instead of with I better not say anything till I've
- 1:56Speaker 2: had my coffee.
- 1:58Speaker 3: A slut and a moron.
- 2:01Speaker 1: It is well documented just how hard it can be
- 2:05Speaker 1: to navigate bumpy moments with friends. After all, we all
- 2:08Speaker 1: have different expectations, needs, ways of navigating conflict. If you
- 2:13Speaker 1: really think about it, why would we ever expect it
- 2:16Speaker 1: to be seamless?
- 2:18Speaker 2: But so often we do.
- 2:20Speaker 1: We expect friendships to just happen to be for our
- 2:23Speaker 1: friends to just know how to show up for us.
- 2:29Speaker 1: And that's especially highlighted in life's moments like birthdays, weddings, funerals.
- 2:37Speaker 1: And that's where Danielle Buyer Jackson comes in. She's kind
- 2:40Speaker 1: of a relationship expert, but for female friendships. It started
- 2:46Speaker 1: after she found herself helping sort out friendship challenges with
- 2:50Speaker 1: girls in high school classrooms. Later inside the walls of
- 2:54Speaker 1: her own pr agency. From there, she saw a need
- 2:58Speaker 1: and she became a certain women's coach, and she brings
- 3:02Speaker 1: the same care and curiosity that relationship experts use in
- 3:06Speaker 1: helping couples to understand and optimize our platonic friendships. Her
- 3:12Speaker 1: new book, Fighting for Our Friendships, is a masterclass in
- 3:15Speaker 1: conflict in connection and communication. So, whether you're trying to
- 3:21Speaker 1: make new connections, contemplating letting a friend go, don't know
- 3:25Speaker 1: how to deal with a friend that disappointed you, or
- 3:28Speaker 1: you're struggling with built up resentment, today's episode is the
- 3:32Speaker 1: ultimate guide in creating and sustaining meaningful female friendships. I
- 3:39Speaker 1: think we can all agree how much they bring to
- 3:42Speaker 1: our lives, you know in that vein. I want to
- 3:47Speaker 1: mention this if you're a person whose female friendships don't
- 3:51Speaker 1: bring a ton to your life, I've also been there,
- 3:56Speaker 1: and I really worked online. So wherever you are in
- 4:01Speaker 1: your friendships, this episode is for.
- 4:04Speaker 2: You, Danielle.
- 4:10Speaker 1: I've never said this before. Danielle, Welcome to Pretty Smart.
- 4:14Speaker 3: Oh my god, I'm so excited to be meeting you
- 4:16Speaker 3: and to be diving to this conversation.
- 4:19Speaker 2: Me too. Your title is Female Friendship Coach. Yeah, you wrote.
- 4:24Speaker 1: In your book that people were very skeptical of that
- 4:27Speaker 1: at the beginning.
- 4:28Speaker 2: Why were they skeptical?
- 4:29Speaker 3: Because it's like, is that a real job? You know?
- 4:31Speaker 3: And I started off as a high school teacher, and
- 4:33Speaker 3: I feel like that was met with a lot of
- 4:35Speaker 3: like reverence and respect. And then I was a publicist,
- 4:38Speaker 3: and then that made me feel like a badass. And
- 4:40Speaker 3: so now being at parties and people are like, what
- 4:42Speaker 3: do you do and being like, oh, I'm a friendship
- 4:44Speaker 3: you know, I think people are so skeptical because we
- 4:46Speaker 3: don't see friendship itself as something that commands that kind
- 4:50Speaker 3: of respect.
- 4:51Speaker 1: And what did you see in high schools that you
- 4:54Speaker 1: thought this was such a needed thing.
- 4:56Speaker 3: Yeah, So I taught seniors. So I have twelfth graders,
- 4:59Speaker 3: they're about to go into the room world, but between
- 5:01Speaker 3: classes and after school, it's the number one thing they
- 5:03Speaker 3: wanted to talk about. So I kind of had like
- 5:05Speaker 3: a front row seat to how their issues with connection
- 5:09Speaker 3: and belonging directly impacted their confidence, their attendance, their mood.
- 5:14Speaker 3: And then I left the classroom and got into public
- 5:16Speaker 3: relations and I'm like, I'm working with these beautiful, high achieving,
- 5:19Speaker 3: charismatic women and it wasn't long before I found out privately,
- 5:23Speaker 3: secretly they're struggling with issues and their friendship with other women.
- 5:27Speaker 3: And that's when I was like, okay, so this is
- 5:28Speaker 3: a thing. And for the past six years, I've dedicated
- 5:31Speaker 3: my career to studying what the latest research has to
- 5:34Speaker 3: say about women's cooperation, communication, and conflict.
- 5:37Speaker 1: I love that you just started your own career. Yeah,
- 5:40Speaker 1: it was born out of necessity.
- 5:42Speaker 3: Yeah about you know, if you google books, At least
- 5:45Speaker 3: at the time that I got into it, there weren't
- 5:46Speaker 3: many friendship books that popped up, and of the ones
- 5:50Speaker 3: that came up, there mostly for children. And it's like, okay,
- 5:52Speaker 3: because that's how we see friendship that surely a child
- 5:54Speaker 3: would need support, but if you're an adult you should
- 5:56Speaker 3: have it figured out.
- 5:58Speaker 1: Well, I definitely didn't. Did you have it figured out?
- 6:00Speaker 3: Oh no, I'm still learning. I'm still figuring it out.
- 6:04Speaker 1: Do you feel like I guess it's kind of like
- 6:06Speaker 1: a lot of pressure too, Like people really expect you
- 6:09Speaker 1: to show up as the friend.
- 6:11Speaker 3: Yes, they do. It's funny because sometimes even on social
- 6:14Speaker 3: people will come and like, oh God, I wish I
- 6:16Speaker 3: was friends with you, and just like, oh good don't
- 6:17Speaker 3: let my real friends do that because they'd be like, girl,
- 6:19Speaker 3: let me tell you. So I'm figuring it out too.
- 6:22Speaker 3: I'm a woman out here in the world figuring it
- 6:24Speaker 3: out too. But it is helpful to look at this
- 6:26Speaker 3: research and stuff because it certainly informs the decisions that
- 6:29Speaker 3: I make with my friends.
- 6:30Speaker 1: So you said when you came onto the scene, there
- 6:33Speaker 1: weren't a ton of books. I think there's so many
- 6:35Speaker 1: books about romance. There's a few books, there's not very
- 6:39Speaker 1: many still about friendship. What do you think that says
- 6:42Speaker 1: about how we value it in society?
- 6:44Speaker 3: You know, especially for women, it's something that is the
- 6:47Speaker 3: big milestone partnership, being partnered. And even our friends, they're
- 6:50Speaker 3: well meaning, but they're like, okay, so what's the update
- 6:52Speaker 3: with the guy. Are we getting closer? It's like all
- 6:55Speaker 3: this pressure to move toward this accomplishment. So of course
- 6:58Speaker 3: they're going to be all these resources that emerge to
- 7:01Speaker 3: support you on that journey. But I think we still
- 7:03Speaker 3: see friendship as like an easy, natural, organic thing, And
- 7:06Speaker 3: for women especially, we're like, oh, you're naturally communal, Like
- 7:09Speaker 3: what support do you need? Go talk to your girls.
- 7:11Speaker 3: But it's complicated. We know that to be true. But
- 7:14Speaker 3: if there's an assumption that it should be natural and
- 7:17Speaker 3: that something's wrong with you, if you can't get it right,
- 7:19Speaker 3: then you're not going to see a lot of resources
- 7:21Speaker 3: emerge to support us through what I would argue is
- 7:24Speaker 3: probably one of the most important relationships you'll ever have.
- 7:27Speaker 1: Why do you say one of the most important relationships
- 7:29Speaker 1: you'll ever have.
- 7:30Speaker 3: I mean, friendship should be at the heart of romantic relationships.
- 7:32Speaker 3: So we start right there. I'm not into you know,
- 7:35Speaker 3: a guy liking me if I don't think you'd make
- 7:37Speaker 3: a good friend to me, you know, because the liking fades,
- 7:40Speaker 3: and so friendship should be at the heart of romantic relationships.
- 7:42Speaker 3: But also, you know, for women specifically, you know, the
- 7:45Speaker 3: research tells us that seventy percent of a women's social
- 7:48Speaker 3: network is other women. So to me, I'm like, well,
- 7:50Speaker 3: then I better figure out a way to connect with
- 7:54Speaker 3: other women because it's it's everywhere. So yeah, I think
- 7:57Speaker 3: there's a lot of we have to figure out culturally
- 7:59Speaker 3: to raise friendship to the spot where it should be.
- 8:01Speaker 3: But I do see things cleaning that way. We're friendship content,
- 8:04Speaker 3: so that makes me excited.
- 8:05Speaker 2: Tell me about the data I know you're a data girl.
- 8:08Speaker 1: What does it say about how our friendships impact our life,
- 8:11Speaker 1: our health, our emotions.
- 8:13Speaker 3: Yeah, so I get so excited about this because a
- 8:15Speaker 3: lot of times when we talk about female friendship, it's like,
- 8:19Speaker 3: you know, here are some ways to you know, go
- 8:22Speaker 3: to brunch, here are some spots, and it's like, that's
- 8:24Speaker 3: all fun. But there's so much discourse around friendship as
- 8:27Speaker 3: like a recreational thing that you put in the margins
- 8:30Speaker 3: of your lives and it's fun, and it is, but
- 8:33Speaker 3: there's just way too much research that draws a direct
- 8:35Speaker 3: line between your female friendship specifically and your physical, mental,
- 8:38Speaker 3: and emotional health. And so, you know, the first thing
- 8:41Speaker 3: is that when women are stressed, one of our stressed
- 8:43Speaker 3: responses is to go and gather with other women. So
- 8:46Speaker 3: many of us are already familiar with the concept of
- 8:48Speaker 3: fight or flight, but they did that study again, this
- 8:50Speaker 3: time with women, and they found that we have other
- 8:52Speaker 3: responses we do. We do it's called tend or befriends.
- 8:56Speaker 3: So fight or flight or tend or befriend. So when
- 8:59Speaker 3: we're stressed, additional responses we might have are to go
- 9:02Speaker 3: tend to those who we deem as more vulnerable. And
- 9:05Speaker 3: make sure they're okay, or to go and be friend
- 9:07Speaker 3: and group and gather with our girls, and it decreases
- 9:10Speaker 3: our cortisols. So that's probably why when you're stressed out
- 9:13Speaker 3: and you call a girlfriend, you bump up up afterwards.
- 9:15Speaker 3: It's just like this kind of like a hive, like ah,
- 9:18Speaker 3: because that's what we do. And so for women who
- 9:20Speaker 3: don't have that outlet, you might you know, risk not
- 9:24Speaker 3: having that benefit. And then you know women, they've done
- 9:27Speaker 3: studies with women who are going through breast cancer and
- 9:30Speaker 3: the ones who have a strong expansive social network tend
- 9:34Speaker 3: to have better outcomes. Let me say it like that. So,
- 9:36Speaker 3: I mean, there's just so many ways where having strong
- 9:39Speaker 3: relationships with other women impacts other areas of your life.
- 9:42Speaker 1: I leave dinner with my friends and I feel so
- 9:47Speaker 1: much happier and better about life. And so is that
- 9:50Speaker 1: is that everyone or that's like predominantly female.
- 9:53Speaker 3: Well, you know, hanging out with friends no matter who
- 9:55Speaker 3: you are, is like such a mood boost, right, But
- 9:57Speaker 3: I think for women it's maybe so much more satisfy
- 10:00Speaker 3: because it is safe and okay for us culturally to
- 10:04Speaker 3: share about our feelings about our health. There's you other
- 10:06Speaker 3: resource that shows that we're more likely than men to
- 10:08Speaker 3: talk about mental health, work, things that are relational. So
- 10:12Speaker 3: it does feel very satisfying, whereas with men, maybe in
- 10:16Speaker 3: some spaces they're not They feel like they don't have
- 10:18Speaker 3: the same freedom or that it says, okay, so maybe
- 10:20Speaker 3: y'all are going and playing ball, but did you really
- 10:22Speaker 3: get counsel, did you get emotional support? You know? And
- 10:25Speaker 3: so it looks a little bit different.
- 10:27Speaker 2: You mentioned you started as a high school teacher.
- 10:30Speaker 1: Are there things that you saw girls deal with in
- 10:34Speaker 1: friendship in high school that we grow out of as
- 10:38Speaker 1: adults or do you see too often that we actually
- 10:42Speaker 1: aren't growing out of those things? You know?
- 10:44Speaker 3: I always say I think it's the same things I've
- 10:45Speaker 3: worked with teenagers and adults, like that fear of rejection,
- 10:49Speaker 3: that fear of not belonging is the same. We might
- 10:51Speaker 3: hide it differently or navigate it differently, but a lot
- 10:53Speaker 3: of times when you don't want to initiate something or
- 10:55Speaker 3: reach out or tell another woman like, Okay, you seem
- 10:58Speaker 3: really cool, I'd love to get coffee, feels like a
- 11:00Speaker 3: social risk. That's the same. And so it's so funny
- 11:04Speaker 3: because I made the foolish mistake of thinking I wouldn't
- 11:06Speaker 3: have to deal with that when I was no longer
- 11:07Speaker 3: a teacher. But you know, I learned very quickly that
- 11:12Speaker 3: at every stage of womanhood, we're trying to navigate that
- 11:14Speaker 3: kind of relationship.
- 11:15Speaker 2: That's interesting. I read it. Have you read it Tools
- 11:18Speaker 2: of Titans?
- 11:19Speaker 3: No.
- 11:19Speaker 1: Tim Ferris, who's a podcaster, it's like his book, Yeah,
- 11:22Speaker 1: and he has it's an anthology, so he has like
- 11:25Speaker 1: best of interviews in there. And Gabby Reese, who I
- 11:29Speaker 1: think was a volleyball player, talks about going first. And
- 11:33Speaker 1: when I read that part, it changed my whole life
- 11:35Speaker 1: because she says when I walk down the street, I
- 11:37Speaker 1: smile first. When I'm in a new room, I say
- 11:39Speaker 1: hello first, and it's never bad to go first.
- 11:44Speaker 2: I really try and emulate that, So that's nice to hear.
- 11:48Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I honestly, I feel like that changes the
- 11:51Speaker 3: game because we're often waiting for these cues that guarantee safety. Well,
- 11:57Speaker 3: if she smiles at me first, then okay, I'm safe.
- 11:59Speaker 3: You're not all do it back. But it's just very
- 12:01Speaker 3: reactive and we have to feel more empowered to be
- 12:04Speaker 3: the authority figure and the author of our own friendship
- 12:07Speaker 3: story and so you know, it sounds kind of like
- 12:09Speaker 3: woo wu, but it's like, if you tell yourself I
- 12:13Speaker 3: am a connector that's who I am like as an identity,
- 12:17Speaker 3: then you're more likely to lean into those behaviors because
- 12:19Speaker 3: it's an extension of who you are, as opposed to
- 12:21Speaker 3: seeing as behaviors that you sometimes try on in a
- 12:25Speaker 3: fleeting moment of confidence. It's who I am. So I'm
- 12:27Speaker 3: going to text what are you text back? Or not
- 12:29Speaker 3: you cross my mind? So I'm going to say, oh,
- 12:30Speaker 3: I'm thinking of you. I hope you're doing okay because
- 12:32Speaker 3: that's who I am. So I think that reframe was
- 12:35Speaker 3: kind of helpful.
- 12:35Speaker 1: It really is interesting too, because I read in your
- 12:40Speaker 1: book that you in the past you were quote unable
- 12:44Speaker 1: to be vulnerable in your friendships. So you were nervous
- 12:47Speaker 1: about being the authority, You were nervous about sharing what
- 12:50Speaker 1: you really felt.
- 12:52Speaker 3: What does that mean and why.
- 12:54Speaker 1: Is vulnerability so central to our female friendships?
- 12:57Speaker 3: Yeah, well I'm trying to figure that out. You still, like,
- 13:01Speaker 3: what is that reluctance to let friends see you be
- 13:05Speaker 3: weak or weird or like to let you see me
- 13:08Speaker 3: in these states? And still working through that on some things.
- 13:11Speaker 3: But you know, self disclosure is like the glue of
- 13:14Speaker 3: women's friendships. Sharing and having her share with you. It's
- 13:18Speaker 3: how we establish and negotiate trust. So if you think
- 13:21Speaker 3: about it, like, if you're starting to lean into being
- 13:22Speaker 3: friends with another woman, you're probably sharing a little more
- 13:25Speaker 3: because you like her and you're trying to like start
- 13:27Speaker 3: a friendship, so you're sharing to queue to her. I
- 13:29Speaker 3: like you, I'm trying to bond with you. And when
- 13:31Speaker 3: you're in an established friendship and there starts to be
- 13:33Speaker 3: mistrust or you're like turned off by something, you share
- 13:36Speaker 3: less and she notices that I've seen a lot of
- 13:39Speaker 3: jokes on TikTok and stuff and social media around you know,
- 13:41Speaker 3: you know pov, you know when your friend's slowly fading
- 13:44Speaker 3: you out, it's because we start to get the one
- 13:46Speaker 3: word answers and we're like, yeah, cool, because we share
- 13:51Speaker 3: and that's how we signal closeness and whenever there's tension,
- 13:54Speaker 3: we tend to withhold. And that's just kind of like
- 13:56Speaker 3: how that parameter of our friendship state.
- 14:00Speaker 1: So now having like knowing that that's something that you're
- 14:03Speaker 1: working on, what is your barometer? Because sometimes I'm trying
- 14:06Speaker 1: to share less. I feel very open bookie, and I'm like,
- 14:11Speaker 1: you know what, maybe not all my friends need to
- 14:13Speaker 1: know all the things like what is that line?
- 14:17Speaker 3: Yeah? Okay, so okay. So this is a great point
- 14:20Speaker 3: because now when we think of the word vulnerability, most
- 14:23Speaker 3: of us do think about self disclosure. Like if I
- 14:24Speaker 3: say you need to be vulnerable, like, okay, I need
- 14:26Speaker 3: to share something big, but I always like to differentiate,
- 14:30Speaker 3: you know, sharing some big childhood trauma thing that might
- 14:33Speaker 3: be a level ten of vulnerability. But the best way
- 14:35Speaker 3: I've heard vulnerability defined is like taking a risk of
- 14:38Speaker 3: possible rejection. So that could be with positive things too.
- 14:41Speaker 3: So telling another woman like I really like you and
- 14:44Speaker 3: I would love to hang out might feel very risky
- 14:46Speaker 3: to me, you know, So that's vulnerability too. So it
- 14:49Speaker 3: just means like, am I safe to make mistakes here?
- 14:52Speaker 3: That's vulnerability. That's do I feel safe to shine here?
- 14:54Speaker 3: Which is a big one. Is it okay for me
- 14:56Speaker 3: to tell friends like, oh my god, I got this opportunity?
- 14:59Speaker 3: Or do I feel like that make me a target?
- 15:01Speaker 3: So vulnerability is I'm going to do or say something
- 15:03Speaker 3: and I feel like it could cost me. They might
- 15:06Speaker 3: look at me differently or misunderstand me. So in that way,
- 15:09Speaker 3: can you make yourself known and seen. It might not
- 15:13Speaker 3: necessarily entail self disclosure directly, but just being seen is
- 15:18Speaker 3: not being totally put together in front of your friends.
- 15:20Speaker 1: I really like that level one through ten. Yeah, when
- 15:25Speaker 1: I remember that one. Okay, friendships and conflict. Yeah, the
- 15:29Speaker 1: title of your book is called Fighting for Our Friendships.
- 15:33Speaker 1: Why is conflict so central to your book?
- 15:37Speaker 3: Okay, So there's a lot of content on how to
- 15:39Speaker 3: make friends, and I love talking about it. I do,
- 15:42Speaker 3: I do, And you know, we have so many life
- 15:44Speaker 3: transitions that you know you're always going to be having
- 15:47Speaker 3: to make friends new friends, right, But I don't see
- 15:50Speaker 3: as much content on conflict, and when I do, it
- 15:53Speaker 3: feels hyper situational, like, okay, well after this many tries,
- 15:58Speaker 3: then stop calling her, Like it's very epic. But it's like,
- 16:01Speaker 3: I want to take an aerial view. What is that about?
- 16:03Speaker 3: Like why do we fight over certain things? How do
- 16:06Speaker 3: we constitute a violation? It's different from the way that
- 16:10Speaker 3: men do. And so I feel like we have more
- 16:14Speaker 3: successful and satisfying friendships if we learned how to handle conflict,
- 16:18Speaker 3: because it's inevitable. But what's so interesting to me is
- 16:21Speaker 3: that we anticipate conflict in every other context. Like I
- 16:25Speaker 3: know I might get into it with my coworkers. I know,
- 16:27Speaker 3: I'm probably gonna get into it with my boo. Okay,
- 16:29Speaker 3: we're gonna have to talk, babe. You know. But there's
- 16:31Speaker 3: something about friendship where we subscribe to the idea that
- 16:35Speaker 3: it should be easy because we just have chemistry, especially
- 16:38Speaker 3: if it's with another woman, like like I should have
- 16:41Speaker 3: to explain it, like you're a woman. Yeah, we have
- 16:43Speaker 3: like intuition, you should know. So when conflict does happen,
- 16:47Speaker 3: I feel like it's the only context where it happens.
- 16:49Speaker 3: And we suddenly see that conflict as evidence of, oh,
- 16:52Speaker 3: we're not as compatible as I thought, because this is
- 16:54Speaker 3: like awkward. Maybe we're not as closed. And so we're
- 16:57Speaker 3: ending friendships prematurely because it's like a foreign concept to
- 17:01Speaker 3: push through the conflict with a friend.
- 17:03Speaker 1: So I have certain friends who and this is always
- 17:06Speaker 1: a red flag to me.
- 17:07Speaker 2: I don't really want friends anymore.
- 17:09Speaker 1: Tell me friends that always have conflict with other friends
- 17:13Speaker 1: because I know it's coming my way. What is the
- 17:16Speaker 1: line between healthy and unhealthy conflict?
- 17:19Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah, because we have some
- 17:21Speaker 3: friends who there's always something and it's like, can you
- 17:23Speaker 3: can you find some kind of peace like in your life?
- 17:26Speaker 3: Any to me?
- 17:27Speaker 2: That's unhappiness in yourself?
- 17:28Speaker 3: Oh totally? Oh yeah, I mean okay, So I like
- 17:31Speaker 3: to just define it like this, you know, you know,
- 17:34Speaker 3: so if we're in a friendship, I'm bringing my goals,
- 17:36Speaker 3: my knees, my preferences, sensitivities to the table and you
- 17:40Speaker 3: are too. Okay, at some point there's going to be
- 17:43Speaker 3: competing interests. At some point, something I need is something
- 17:46Speaker 3: you can't give. It's going to happen. But the difference
- 17:49Speaker 3: between healthy and unhealthy is, you know, if it's healthy,
- 17:52Speaker 3: we're trying to figure out how to meet this school together.
- 17:55Speaker 3: Somebody has the need we're trying to meet. Like it's
- 17:57Speaker 3: it's constructive, so we're talking, looking through it, we're taking
- 18:01Speaker 3: space to figure it out to think that's constructive. But
- 18:04Speaker 3: as soon as it's like I'm gonna do things to
- 18:07Speaker 3: maintain disconnection, what is the point. So that means the
- 18:10Speaker 3: silent treatment because I'm upset at you or being punitive
- 18:14Speaker 3: women who punish, you know, if she wants to do that,
- 18:16Speaker 3: then I'm barely gonna talk to her, then what's the point.
- 18:19Speaker 2: That's not nice.
- 18:20Speaker 3: I'm roping in a third party. I'm telling a friend,
- 18:22Speaker 3: but I'm not telling her like you know, she and
- 18:24Speaker 3: I we can't see. I like, help me out here.
- 18:26Speaker 3: That's different. But if it's like, do you feel like
- 18:29Speaker 3: sometimes she gets shady? Because I feel like sometimes, what
- 18:31Speaker 3: is the point? So when it comes to that tension,
- 18:34Speaker 3: what are we doing to mend it? And if it's
- 18:36Speaker 3: if we're doing things that only deepen the disharmony, that
- 18:40Speaker 3: is unproductive.
- 18:41Speaker 1: Speaking of red flags, yes, so you ask your followers
- 18:47Speaker 1: to weigh in with their new friend red flags, and
- 18:51Speaker 1: the answer from women was overwhelmingly the same.
- 18:55Speaker 3: Yeah, what was it her talking about other people?
- 18:59Speaker 2: Gossip? Yeah?
- 19:01Speaker 1: What Susie says? I Sally says more of Susie than
- 19:04Speaker 1: of Sally. No one likes a gossiper mm hmm.
- 19:08Speaker 2: It's bad vibes.
- 19:09Speaker 3: And we all, like you know, we all have our moments, right,
- 19:12Speaker 3: like I love some good tea, like she did what
- 19:14Speaker 3: you know, But there's something about we just met or
- 19:17Speaker 3: were new and our conversation is you tearing down another woman?
- 19:22Speaker 3: For most of us, we're taking the message of like Oh, okay,
- 19:24Speaker 3: so I wouldn't be safe here. What would she be
- 19:27Speaker 3: saying about me? You know? So, so it doesn't do
- 19:30Speaker 3: much to help move that friendship forward in a safe.
- 19:32Speaker 1: Way when I'm gonna keep asking you about this line
- 19:36Speaker 1: because I think you walk it so beautifully. Gossip can
- 19:40Speaker 1: also be bonding sometimes. Barbara Walters, who I love. Everyone
- 19:45Speaker 1: who listens to this, no, I knows I love Barbara.
- 19:47Speaker 2: She famously was.
- 19:49Speaker 3: Like, loved gossip.
- 19:51Speaker 2: It's one thing I differ on, probably you.
- 19:54Speaker 1: But what's the line between okay gossip, bonding god and
- 20:00Speaker 1: problematic gossip?
- 20:01Speaker 3: Yeah? So Deportannan is a socio linguist who looks at
- 20:06Speaker 3: the way women speak the way men speak, and she
- 20:09Speaker 3: defines it as are you talking about them or talking
- 20:11Speaker 3: against them? And that can help you see, Okay, what
- 20:15Speaker 3: are we doing here? Because one of the top topics
- 20:18Speaker 3: people talk about is other people just from like a
- 20:20Speaker 3: sociological standpoint, and to some degree, gossip is a good thing.
- 20:24Speaker 3: Like it came to have a negative connotation that we're
- 20:26Speaker 3: just like slaming this other person. But you know, historically
- 20:29Speaker 3: the word has come to mean something negative, but it
- 20:31Speaker 3: really means, like we're talking about a person who's not
- 20:32Speaker 3: in the room. To some extent, we have to do
- 20:35Speaker 3: that interesting because it helps us establish norms, Like if
- 20:37Speaker 3: I come to a new job and people are like, hey,
- 20:39Speaker 3: you know, you want to be careful of this behavior
- 20:40Speaker 3: because this happens. It's showing me what's acceptable here, what's not,
- 20:44Speaker 3: who's an ally, who's a foe. So at some point
- 20:47Speaker 3: I need that information exchange to know. But there's a
- 20:50Speaker 3: difference between we're just like, oh my god, isn't she awful?
- 20:53Speaker 3: She is awful? Right, Like she's bad vibes is a
- 20:56Speaker 3: totally different objective.
- 20:58Speaker 2: You know, with someone or against somebody?
- 21:00Speaker 3: Yeah, are you talking about or against? That's really interesting?
- 21:05Speaker 2: Okay.
- 21:06Speaker 1: Jealousy, friendship, Jealousy you say sometimes it can be beneficial.
- 21:11Speaker 2: M M, I don't understand.
- 21:14Speaker 3: Can you please tell me what you mean? Yeah? Okay. So,
- 21:17Speaker 3: as I've learned it, the difference between jealousy and envy
- 21:20Speaker 3: will start there. So envy requires two people and jealousy
- 21:24Speaker 3: involves three. So envy is I want something you have
- 21:28Speaker 3: I wish that was mine envy, But jealousy means I'm
- 21:31Speaker 3: scared that something I have is going to be taken away.
- 21:34Speaker 3: So if we're tight friends and a new girl comes
- 21:36Speaker 3: and you keep talking about how amazing your new coworker is.
- 21:39Speaker 3: Eventually be like, Okay, okay, that's enough, because I'm jealous
- 21:45Speaker 3: over you. I'm jealous that she might take what I
- 21:47Speaker 3: already have. Nbia is I want we have. Right, But
- 21:50Speaker 3: jealousy could be a good thing in terms of it
- 21:52Speaker 3: tends to activate friend keeping behaviors, So it might make
- 21:56Speaker 3: me step up and do the things I need to
- 21:57Speaker 3: to keep our closeness because I like, well, this might
- 22:01Speaker 3: get taken from me, so now I step up. It
- 22:03Speaker 3: can be constructive in that way, but in terms of
- 22:05Speaker 3: friendship envy kind of like, oh, I'm jealous of you.
- 22:07Speaker 3: I think it could be helpful in terms of directing
- 22:10Speaker 3: me toward the things that I want and desire my life.
- 22:13Speaker 3: But as soon as it turns into I'm saying things
- 22:17Speaker 3: to humble you because I think you're getting little too
- 22:20Speaker 3: or I'm trying to like sabotage and give them the
- 22:22Speaker 3: way of you achieving certain things, or I'm trying to
- 22:27Speaker 3: tear you down, either verbally or mentally so I feel better. Right, So, like,
- 22:30Speaker 3: if you get a new apartment and my brain is
- 22:32Speaker 3: thinking like why does she get that, Like she doesn't
- 22:34Speaker 3: even that's where it would be a problem.
- 22:37Speaker 2: It's a huge problem.
- 22:39Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I feel like you cannot have people around
- 22:42Speaker 1: you that don't want the best for you.
- 22:46Speaker 2: I know, it's like a little evil eye.
- 22:48Speaker 1: Yeah no, that's like a quality that I really don't
- 22:52Speaker 1: have time for.
- 22:54Speaker 3: I mean it's hard because we always say, you know,
- 22:56Speaker 3: I want friendships where I can relax me myself, but
- 22:58Speaker 3: as soon as you feel like you're always on guard.
- 23:01Speaker 3: And now I'm measuring what I say and what I
- 23:03Speaker 3: share because I don't want her to make a little
- 23:06Speaker 3: passive aggressive remark or I don't her to think that
- 23:08Speaker 3: I think I'm all that. It's a lot of mental labor.
- 23:11Speaker 3: And you know, safety is like fundamental in a friendship,
- 23:14Speaker 3: and so if that's not there, I mean, come on.
- 23:16Speaker 1: I didn't realize that safety was such a big deal,
- 23:18Speaker 1: because I mean, safety is so core of any like
- 23:21Speaker 1: it's the core of any relationship, so obviously it would be,
- 23:24Speaker 1: but I didn't even think about that. This next question
- 23:26Speaker 1: could be maybe my biggest question of the whole interview.
- 23:30Speaker 2: Okay, yes, friendship expectations.
- 23:34Speaker 1: So women have friendship expectations that I don't see the
- 23:40Speaker 1: traditional man having, for instance, birthdays, bachelorette parties, baby showers,
- 23:46Speaker 1: celebrations of any kind. We are expected to show up
- 23:52Speaker 1: and show out in ways that men are just not
- 23:56Speaker 1: socially like the norm. Right, I feel like I hear
- 24:01Speaker 1: often that these celebrations, particularly weddings, are big sources of conflict.
- 24:06Speaker 1: I want to kind of go through some of them
- 24:08Speaker 1: with you. But over archingly, why do you think that
- 24:11Speaker 1: women expect more out of friendships than men?
- 24:14Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting because the research finds that women
- 24:17Speaker 3: have higher expectations of their close relationships in general. So
- 24:21Speaker 3: if you're a close relationship in my life, I expect
- 24:23Speaker 3: a lot of you, whether it's romantic or platonic. Our
- 24:25Speaker 3: expectations are just higher in general than men's. And I mean,
- 24:29Speaker 3: there's so many reasons for that. I think that for
- 24:31Speaker 3: a woman to woman friendship, it might be what we
- 24:34Speaker 3: said earlier about like, I expect that since you're a woman,
- 24:36Speaker 3: I expect you to be able to read what I need,
- 24:40Speaker 3: read my subtext and micro expressions, anticipate my needs. I
- 24:44Speaker 3: shouldn't have to articulate them. And I hear oftentimes women
- 24:47Speaker 3: say to me, I mean I should not have to
- 24:49Speaker 3: say that, like Danielle, like she should know. Like it's
- 24:52Speaker 3: just like crazy to us that I'd have to explain
- 24:55Speaker 3: myself because you should know you're walking my exact same shoes.
- 24:58Speaker 3: And so I think that right there starts to create
- 25:01Speaker 3: a little bit of a dissatisfaction.
- 25:04Speaker 1: Is the flip side of that that we if we
- 25:06Speaker 1: expect more, do we also get more out of our friendships.
- 25:09Speaker 3: I don't think it's if you expect more you get more.
- 25:11Speaker 3: I think it's if you communicate more, you get more.
- 25:13Speaker 3: Because I think the dissatisfaction we experience is compounded by
- 25:16Speaker 3: the fact that we feel like we shouldn't have to
- 25:18Speaker 3: say it. But I mean, you're never going to transcend
- 25:21Speaker 3: a level of closeness that means you won't have to
- 25:23Speaker 3: communicate anymore. I still have to tell my friends, you know,
- 25:27Speaker 3: not demands, but like, hey, I think this year I
- 25:30Speaker 3: want to I think I want to do it big
- 25:31Speaker 3: for my birthday. I never do and this year that
- 25:34Speaker 3: would be really important to me. I still have to
- 25:36Speaker 3: say that I can't do the whole I mean, it's
- 25:38Speaker 3: my birthday. Do I really have to spell that out?
- 25:41Speaker 3: It's just I mean, you could hold onto that if
- 25:43Speaker 3: you want to, but essentially your friends never really know,
- 25:47Speaker 3: like are we low key? Are we not? Are we?
- 25:50Speaker 1: You have to communicate now what happens if the expectations
- 25:55Speaker 1: are mismatched with what people are willing to give or
- 25:59Speaker 1: show up as. So, for instance, bachelorette parties, I'm gonna personalize.
- 26:06Speaker 3: Yes, hypothetically, I hate bachelorette parties.
- 26:11Speaker 2: And I know that's like similar to admitting that you
- 26:13Speaker 2: don't like dogs.
- 26:14Speaker 3: So I'm scared to admit this dangerous territory. Very Oh Joe,
- 26:18Speaker 3: I get you, But tell me why what is it
- 26:19Speaker 3: that has you just so turned off by them?
- 26:21Speaker 2: Okay?
- 26:22Speaker 1: I travel a lot for work and personally, so to
- 26:26Speaker 1: carve out travel for a specific bachelorette feels like a
- 26:31Speaker 1: lot for me. Yeah, because I don't feel like I'm
- 26:35Speaker 1: getting a lot out of the experience, which I know is.
- 26:37Speaker 2: Selfish, but like, I don't like a lot.
- 26:43Speaker 1: Of the common activities. You're inviting me to a spa,
- 26:47Speaker 1: I'll get on a plane. Yeah, if you're inviting me
- 26:49Speaker 1: to wear a penis hat and go out till three am,
- 26:52Speaker 1: I'm not in. But I'm totally cool if that's your vibe.
- 26:57Speaker 1: I just don't want to be there, and I'd love
- 26:58Speaker 1: to show.
- 26:59Speaker 2: Up for you in a different way.
- 27:00Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually don't know if I'm navigating this.
- 27:03Speaker 2: Well, what would you say to so much?
- 27:06Speaker 3: When I ask you? How do you say no? Like
- 27:08Speaker 3: when you get that invitation, you see the itinerary, how
- 27:11Speaker 3: do you manage that?
- 27:12Speaker 1: Okay, So one of my really close friends, I actually
- 27:15Speaker 1: went because I knew it was really important to her,
- 27:17Speaker 1: and I was like this, sometimes you need.
- 27:20Speaker 2: To give in relationship.
- 27:22Speaker 1: But for friends that I know don't care as much
- 27:24Speaker 1: about a bachelorette, I'm like, listen, this is really tough
- 27:29Speaker 1: for me with travel and financially. I don't want to
- 27:35Speaker 1: upset you. If it's very important to you that i'm there,
- 27:38Speaker 1: I will show up.
- 27:40Speaker 2: I'd rather show up for.
- 27:41Speaker 1: You in a different way, like if we can go
- 27:42Speaker 1: to dinner separately and celebrate, etc. And they're usually like,
- 27:47Speaker 1: I don't give back, you know. And some of my
- 27:49Speaker 1: friends even have said to me with the invitation, I
- 27:52Speaker 1: know they know me enough to say I know this
- 27:53Speaker 1: isn't your thing, but you're obviously invited, which I really appreciate.
- 27:57Speaker 3: Sure, sure, Yeah, bachelorettes can be tricky. I think it's
- 28:02Speaker 3: because it feels like, Okay, I only get one of these,
- 28:04Speaker 3: and so you know, from the perspective of the bride,
- 28:06Speaker 3: I only get one of these. This is my time.
- 28:09Speaker 3: I've been looking at examples of this for like thirty years.
- 28:12Speaker 3: This is my turn, and like such grant expectations. But
- 28:15Speaker 3: I was once talking to this therapist who specializes in
- 28:17Speaker 3: helping women during their wedding season, because so what Carara
- 28:21Speaker 3: the bridal coach, shout out to her. But she was saying,
- 28:24Speaker 3: and it was like such brilliant advice. She said that
- 28:26Speaker 3: sometimes a bride is so fixated on the vision she
- 28:31Speaker 3: loses sight of the relationships. And you were trying to
- 28:33Speaker 3: fit those relationships into the vision, and you're gonna have
- 28:36Speaker 3: to do some soul searching. Really, you're considering ending a
- 28:41Speaker 3: friendship because you have a friend who can't make it,
- 28:44Speaker 3: can't afford it, doesn't want to do certain activities that
- 28:47Speaker 3: she feels like are compromising for her. Now you're questioning
- 28:50Speaker 3: the entire relationship. And I get being disappointed. I get
- 28:54Speaker 3: having the picture of all my favorite girls in one
- 28:55Speaker 3: spot celebrating me. At the same time, it's very romantic,
- 28:58Speaker 3: it's very fun. Idea but you know, you're going to
- 29:02Speaker 3: have to call into question like, Okay, what evidence has
- 29:05Speaker 3: this woman given me over the course of our friendship
- 29:08Speaker 3: that she supportive, attentive down for me. Okay, if this
- 29:12Speaker 3: is inconsistent with everything else she's done, I'm gonna have
- 29:15Speaker 3: to just just be bummed and move on. But I'm sorry,
- 29:19Speaker 3: I see too many of these conversations on social that
- 29:21Speaker 3: are like, well she does an X y Z, she's
- 29:24Speaker 3: not a real friend, and that list is just getting
- 29:26Speaker 3: really long and really specific, and at the end of
- 29:29Speaker 3: the day, whether it's wedding, bridal party, whatever, just the
- 29:34Speaker 3: context of the history of our friendship outweigh this moment
- 29:39Speaker 3: where I really want something and she can't make it,
- 29:41Speaker 3: I mean, a little nuanced you know.
- 29:44Speaker 1: Well, Also, it feels like in this day and age,
- 29:46Speaker 1: it's got this celebration has gotten really large. Like it's
- 29:49Speaker 1: one thing if you're asking everyone in that city to
- 29:52Speaker 1: come to dinner one night, versus like travel to New
- 29:55Speaker 1: Orleans and meet me there for three days and take
- 29:57Speaker 1: off a day of work right bye, you know, like
- 30:00Speaker 1: it's just a lot.
- 30:01Speaker 2: I think, yeah, mm hmmm.
- 30:03Speaker 3: I think for the woman in that role, like look
- 30:05Speaker 3: at how many barriers are erected during your ask. So
- 30:08Speaker 3: if it's commute time off, money, I mean like you
- 30:12Speaker 3: have to really think through those things because their costs,
- 30:15Speaker 3: they are financial. Whatever, I'm away from my babies for
- 30:18Speaker 3: three days. What are all the costs that are required
- 30:22Speaker 3: of friends to show up for you? And that's somebody
- 30:24Speaker 3: you got to be kind of practical.
- 30:26Speaker 1: I love the part of your book where you talk
- 30:28Speaker 1: about weddings. I don't like everyone needs to read the
- 30:32Speaker 1: book because it's just it's so it was.
- 30:35Speaker 2: I savored it.
- 30:36Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, thank you for saying that.
- 30:38Speaker 1: It is. I mean it to my core. It is
- 30:40Speaker 1: so freaking great and fun to read. Oh good, Okay,
- 30:44Speaker 1: it really made me think, one I want everyone to
- 30:48Speaker 1: read the wedding section. But the one thing that stood
- 30:50Speaker 1: out to me was you said a lot of friendships
- 30:52Speaker 1: end around that time.
- 30:54Speaker 2: Why is that?
- 30:55Speaker 3: You know? It makes me kind of like annoyed when
- 30:57Speaker 3: people dismiss wedding stuff. Is like, oh gosh, here we
- 31:00Speaker 3: go with the drama, and it's like, well, yeah, because
- 31:04Speaker 3: this is the one time in your life you're expected
- 31:06Speaker 3: to put your friendships on display and to rank them.
- 31:10Speaker 3: So maybe my whole life I've been thinking, I'm like,
- 31:12Speaker 3: you're number one girl, and when you choose somebody else
- 31:15Speaker 3: to be the maid of honor, you've got me questioning everything.
- 31:19Speaker 3: And I mean, this is client after client I've had
- 31:21Speaker 3: these conversations with We're talking like reasonable women who are like,
- 31:25Speaker 3: she didn't choose me, and I don't know if I
- 31:27Speaker 3: want to continue the friendship. And I don't think it's
- 31:30Speaker 3: petty because they're calling into question. Wait a second, have
- 31:33Speaker 3: I been a fool? I've been thinking we're super tight
- 31:36Speaker 3: and for you to select this other person makes me
- 31:39Speaker 3: question my place in your life. And the research does
- 31:41Speaker 3: show that mutual prioritization is very important for women. So
- 31:45Speaker 3: if I'm your number two girl, I like to feel
- 31:47Speaker 3: like you know you're my number two girl. It makes
- 31:49Speaker 3: me feel good. Yes, And so as soon as you
- 31:51Speaker 3: discover that you're like number four but you've been thinking
- 31:55Speaker 3: you're number one, you're trying to kind of gauge what
- 31:57Speaker 3: that means, and it's really hard.
- 31:59Speaker 2: Do you think what parties should be abolished?
- 32:02Speaker 3: I can't tell a woman what to do. I will
- 32:05Speaker 3: say I am happy to see women leaning into saying
- 32:10Speaker 3: you know what, I'm not going to have a bridal party.
- 32:12Speaker 3: I'm just gonna skip it. I'm seeing them do that
- 32:15Speaker 3: more and I am hearing them report a certain level
- 32:18Speaker 3: of joy and freedom and making that decision.
- 32:22Speaker 1: So, speaking of this bridal party stuff, you cite a
- 32:25Speaker 1: study in your book that says that only half of
- 32:27Speaker 1: friendships are reciprocal, which.
- 32:28Speaker 3: I was actually very shocked by that.
- 32:31Speaker 1: How do you not get your feelings hurt by a
- 32:34Speaker 1: friend that's not reciprocal or doesn't rank us as high
- 32:37Speaker 1: as you rank them.
- 32:38Speaker 3: I don't know how you not get your feelings hurt.
- 32:41Speaker 3: You will get your feelings hurt. And I will say,
- 32:43Speaker 3: you know, it's a relatively small study, but I will
- 32:45Speaker 3: say it matches stories women I've shared with me. I'm
- 32:49Speaker 3: seeing it reflected in real life, and I mean, just
- 32:52Speaker 3: when we think about it, it can be hurtful when
- 32:55Speaker 3: we discover this. But your friends lives have been constructed
- 33:01Speaker 3: in such a way over the course of their lifetime
- 33:04Speaker 3: that perhaps you're like their number four girl. And I'm
- 33:07Speaker 3: saying these numbers very arbitrarily. But perhaps you don't rank
- 33:10Speaker 3: as high in her life as you rank her in
- 33:11Speaker 3: your life because of how her life's been designed. You
- 33:15Speaker 3: have to ask yourself, is it worth me letting it
- 33:17Speaker 3: go because I discovered she doesn't hold me as close
- 33:20Speaker 3: as I hold her. Now we're not saying the respect
- 33:22Speaker 3: looks you should feel respect. I feel safe with you.
- 33:25Speaker 3: But if I realize my girl is like kind of
- 33:28Speaker 3: has another bestie and it looks like they might be
- 33:31Speaker 3: closer than she is with me, I can see that
- 33:34Speaker 3: being kind of hurtful. But you have to step back
- 33:36Speaker 3: and ask herself. Hold on, if I call her, does
- 33:38Speaker 3: she show up? Does she have my back? Do we
- 33:40Speaker 3: laugh when we're together? If I need something she's there?
- 33:43Speaker 3: Does she teach me new things? If all of that's
- 33:45Speaker 3: in place, I don't know. I've just found more joy
- 33:48Speaker 3: and my friends. Was being able to do that? If
- 33:49Speaker 3: I have sense that a friend's kind of close with
- 33:51Speaker 3: somebody else, and it's like, oh, if when we're together,
- 33:54Speaker 3: we're together and we can all pardoner have a good time,
- 33:57Speaker 3: can I find a way to not get distracted by
- 33:59Speaker 3: the closeness Olympics and instead be able to enjoy what
- 34:02Speaker 3: we do have.
- 34:04Speaker 2: Tell me if you find this too in your friendships.
- 34:06Speaker 1: I find a lot of things change seasonally, So, like
- 34:10Speaker 1: you know, if I'm in the same sort of time
- 34:12Speaker 1: of life, as my friend for instance, like I don't
- 34:16Speaker 1: have kids yet, my friends that have kids, I see
- 34:18Speaker 1: them getting a little closer because they're bonding over different things.
- 34:21Speaker 2: And my friends that are single, we're bonding and one.
- 34:24Speaker 1: It kind of ebbs and flows, and you don't want
- 34:26Speaker 1: to just throw away those friendships because you're in a
- 34:28Speaker 1: different season.
- 34:29Speaker 3: I believe women's lives change more rapidly and drastically than
- 34:35Speaker 3: men's lives through the life cycle for a lot of
- 34:38Speaker 3: different reasons. But because of that, I think that there
- 34:40Speaker 3: are those traditional periods that make us kind of think like, wait,
- 34:43Speaker 3: I can't relate to you anymore? What's happening? Everything feels
- 34:45Speaker 3: so different and new, and you know, in those times,
- 34:48Speaker 3: we have to ask ourselves like like give ourselves a
- 34:50Speaker 3: little bit of grace because we've never had practice being
- 34:52Speaker 3: friends this way, you know. So I think a lot
- 34:55Speaker 3: of us go to like, oh my god, it's happening, Like, yeah,
- 34:57Speaker 3: I can't relate to her. She's not showing up for me. Well,
- 34:59Speaker 3: she's never had a friends with a baby before, so
- 35:01Speaker 3: she doesn't really know, like what do I do here?
- 35:04Speaker 3: What do I even ask about? Maybe she doesn't want
- 35:06Speaker 3: to dedicate the brain cells to asking about the differences
- 35:09Speaker 3: between diaper cream, you know what I'm saying. So I
- 35:11Speaker 3: have to be like, Okay, she's not gonna be as
- 35:14Speaker 3: invested in this conversation as I am because it's not
- 35:17Speaker 3: her world. But she still demonstrates interest, but she can't relate.
- 35:21Speaker 3: And what I've found is that if you guys can
- 35:23Speaker 3: find a way to figure out, Okay, how do we
- 35:25Speaker 3: want to be friends in this new stage? I mean
- 35:27Speaker 3: in talking about it the way you wouldn't a romantic
- 35:29Speaker 3: relationship again, if you send something changing with your manner
- 35:32Speaker 3: and be like, Okay, babe, what's happening with us? I
- 35:34Speaker 3: don't feel connected? What's going on with the friends? We're like, oh,
- 35:37Speaker 3: I guess, I guess this is it, or we're like
- 35:39Speaker 3: trying to read subtexts in her text like yeah, okay,
- 35:41Speaker 3: well she's been acting. We're trying to decode same thing. Hey,
- 35:45Speaker 3: I feel like since I've had a baby, like you
- 35:46Speaker 3: and I feel off. I miss you, I miss you,
- 35:49Speaker 3: and I know things are weird, but like I'm trying
- 35:51Speaker 3: to figure out how we can still like stay strong,
- 35:52Speaker 3: you know, like why can't we normalize doing that with
- 35:55Speaker 3: the friends to help her feel called in to help
- 35:57Speaker 3: her feel your top of mind. For me, I'm acknowledging
- 36:00Speaker 3: the change, so it's not like a secret we keep
- 36:01Speaker 3: dancing around. It feels weird, right, What are we going
- 36:04Speaker 3: to do to stay connected? And the last thing I'll
- 36:06Speaker 3: say is something I found to take the pressure off
- 36:09Speaker 3: of my friends being able to keep up with my
- 36:11Speaker 3: changing lifestyle is having community to supplement those relationships. So
- 36:15Speaker 3: if I'm a new mom and I find myself growing
- 36:18Speaker 3: increasingly frustrated that my friends don't get it, maybe I
- 36:21Speaker 3: need to be in a mommy group where I can
- 36:23Speaker 3: geek out on mommy stuff and I feel seen, I
- 36:26Speaker 3: feel affirmed in that very specific way. And now I
- 36:29Speaker 3: find myself releasing friends from the expectation to have this
- 36:32Speaker 3: knowledge and investment. You know, So as long as they're
- 36:36Speaker 3: demonstrating care and affirming that identity like I recognize your mom,
- 36:40Speaker 3: then can I find a way to just manage expectations?
- 36:44Speaker 2: That is so proactive and awesome.
- 36:47Speaker 1: I love that idea, like, go search for what you're
- 36:50Speaker 1: looking for instead of putting all of the expectations on
- 36:52Speaker 1: one person. Correct, that's fabulous because we don't do that
- 36:55Speaker 1: in romantic relationships either, right, like, if you're dating someone
- 36:58Speaker 1: who doesn't like golf, you're not gonna necessarily make them golf, right, Okay,
- 37:04Speaker 1: you say, we are only trying to answer the same
- 37:07Speaker 1: two questions when it comes to friendships.
- 37:10Speaker 2: What are they?
- 37:11Speaker 3: So we're trying to ask, you know, can I love
- 37:15Speaker 3: fully here? And who is going to love me fully? Like?
- 37:19Speaker 3: I want to love and I want to be loved,
- 37:21Speaker 3: and you know, we get into the details, which are
- 37:23Speaker 3: important because we need to know the day to day
- 37:25Speaker 3: business of friendship. But essentially you're only asking those two questions. Ever,
- 37:30Speaker 3: if it's a question about like texting and she doesn't
- 37:32Speaker 3: text me as much as I or she didn't show
- 37:34Speaker 3: up for my thing, and does she you're really asking
- 37:37Speaker 3: about does she love me as much as I love her?
- 37:40Speaker 3: You know? Does she love me? Am I overinvested in this?
- 37:43Speaker 3: I mean really, it's always strips down to trying to
- 37:46Speaker 3: answer those two questions. And I feel like keeping that
- 37:48Speaker 3: in mind will help us when there is conflict because
- 37:51Speaker 3: we get caught in those details. Essentially, you need to
- 37:54Speaker 3: you're trying to be reassured she cares as much as
- 37:57Speaker 3: I do, and I am safe to love freely. It's
- 38:00Speaker 3: always that and I feel like it's just something to
- 38:03Speaker 3: cling to when you find yourself losing sight of like Okay,
- 38:06Speaker 3: well she was late two times but you know, or
- 38:08Speaker 3: she didn't respond to my story, but she is like
- 38:10Speaker 3: active on social but she didn't respond. When we get
- 38:12Speaker 3: into that, it's really because you're starting to be suspicious
- 38:16Speaker 3: that she's in love you as much as you love her,
- 38:18Speaker 3: or that your love's being taken for granted. It's the
- 38:20Speaker 3: same two things. And so I would just advise any
- 38:23Speaker 3: woman who's feeling caught up in the ups and downs
- 38:26Speaker 3: of this week's scenario, if you got honest with yourself,
- 38:30Speaker 3: is it really about those two things? And then what
- 38:32Speaker 3: can you do to go and get some security for
- 38:35Speaker 3: those two questions.
- 38:37Speaker 1: I love how no matter what I come at you with,
- 38:39Speaker 1: you have a zoomed out perspective of what this relationship
- 38:43Speaker 1: is and it really gives people so much grace.
- 38:45Speaker 3: Oh, I'm so glad. And you know what, Honestly, I
- 38:47Speaker 3: think it's because, like keeping it real, I've been on
- 38:50Speaker 3: both sides, like you know, and I think the feedback
- 38:55Speaker 3: that I hear from people that I really appreciate the
- 38:57Speaker 3: most When people say, like, gosh, you're never really villified
- 39:00Speaker 3: one person or the other. And I don't want to
- 39:01Speaker 3: be the girl who's like I mean, I see both sides.
- 39:03Speaker 3: I see both sides, but essentially, like, yes, I've been
- 39:06Speaker 3: the friend who's disappointed people. I've been the friend who's
- 39:08Speaker 3: been disappointed. It's just too easy to vilify the girl
- 39:12Speaker 3: who didn't show up to the thing, or who doesn't
- 39:14Speaker 3: text back, or who cancel plans with you to go
- 39:17Speaker 3: with her. Man Like, that's annoying. But it's too easy
- 39:19Speaker 3: to be like, ah, fake friend. She's a fake friend.
- 39:23Speaker 3: She's a person who's gonna make choices to disappoint you,
- 39:26Speaker 3: and you're gonna have to figure out, okay, is this
- 39:28Speaker 3: happening so frequently that I don't feel safe here? But
- 39:31Speaker 3: as far as the she is fake, so I'm done
- 39:34Speaker 3: with hers. Just it's just too easy and it's reductive.
- 39:41Speaker 1: Can you guess the number one most common complaint after
- 39:44Speaker 1: any first date, first meeting, or interview, I wish they
- 39:49Speaker 1: had asked me more questions. I studied the art of
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- 39:58Speaker 1: The most interesting thing is to be interested. But sometimes
- 40:02Speaker 1: it can be awkward to enter a conversation, or you
- 40:05Speaker 1: just don't know what to ask. Here's the solution, two words,
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- 41:12Speaker 1: Question Everything is not a game. It's a game changer.
- 41:20Speaker 1: When I was growing up, I had really high expectations
- 41:23Speaker 1: of friends because I was always like ten going on
- 41:26Speaker 1: thirty five, Like I feel like I'm thirty three and like,
- 41:29Speaker 1: I'm I'm finally at the level with all my friends,
- 41:31Speaker 1: Like we all have the same expectations now, But when
- 41:34Speaker 1: I was younger, I had like I wanted them to
- 41:36Speaker 1: eat loyal, and I was I had very high expectations,
- 41:38Speaker 1: and my dad would always be like Danielle. Different friends
- 41:41Speaker 1: for different reasons, and I could never get it because
- 41:44Speaker 1: I wanted somebody to be all the things I've grown
- 41:48Speaker 1: up to realize. Different friends for different reasons is a
- 41:50Speaker 1: really great mantra. When do you know when it is
- 41:54Speaker 1: time to release a friend? How do you know if
- 41:58Speaker 1: it's I have a hard time. I think all women
- 42:00Speaker 1: do throwing away friendships, especially if there's history there.
- 42:04Speaker 2: When do you know it is time to let go?
- 42:07Speaker 3: Sometimes there are the egregious, obvious ones that we know of.
- 42:10Speaker 3: If a person's constantly lying, you know, things like that,
- 42:13Speaker 3: so goes back to that trust and safety that we
- 42:15Speaker 3: talked about. If a friend is talking about you like
- 42:18Speaker 3: I'm nice with you, but then I'm saying things that
- 42:20Speaker 3: tear you down, so we know some of the obvious ones. Right,
- 42:22Speaker 3: she does something so explicitly hurtful, You're like, we can't
- 42:26Speaker 3: keep doing this. I think the ones that feel a
- 42:29Speaker 3: little more tender and gray are Okay, I do love her,
- 42:33Speaker 3: but I also feel like I don't have the energy
- 42:35Speaker 3: to put into it anymore. And I think the main
- 42:37Speaker 3: driving force of this friendship is the history, you know,
- 42:40Speaker 3: so it becomes like an obligatory friendship, like she's been
- 42:43Speaker 3: here twenty years. I mean, it'd be messed up. Even
- 42:46Speaker 3: though I find myself not relating to her, not caring
- 42:49Speaker 3: to call to get the life updates anymore, just some
- 42:51Speaker 3: kind of like meth I think those are harder to
- 42:54Speaker 3: figure out. And honestly, I think the first sign that like,
- 42:56Speaker 3: maybe it should end is if you're constantly wondering if
- 42:59Speaker 3: you should Yeah, might be one sign, you know. And
- 43:03Speaker 3: then also making sure it's not a matter of you know,
- 43:05Speaker 3: she held you accountable for something or you're just you.
- 43:08Speaker 3: Guys are facing conflict, so being able to differentiate is
- 43:11Speaker 3: this whole thing coming to a close, or am I
- 43:14Speaker 3: uncomfortable with this weird season we're in of having some
- 43:19Speaker 3: tension over this thing. You have to be able to
- 43:21Speaker 3: tell the difference. But I know that it's really hard
- 43:23Speaker 3: when women do arrive to the conclusion of like, I
- 43:25Speaker 3: think this is done and knowing how to articulate that
- 43:28Speaker 3: because it feels risky.
- 43:30Speaker 1: I'm going to I was debating whether I was going
- 43:33Speaker 1: to ask you this or not on camera, but I'm
- 43:34Speaker 1: going to go for it.
- 43:36Speaker 2: A friend.
- 43:37Speaker 1: I had a friend that I've been friends with since
- 43:39Speaker 1: I was like ten years.
- 43:40Speaker 2: Old who did an agregious thing.
- 43:43Speaker 1: My boyfriend, like in twenty seventeen, broke up with me
- 43:47Speaker 1: and we were still living together, and one night he
- 43:50Speaker 1: didn't come home and.
- 43:52Speaker 2: I was beside myself.
- 43:55Speaker 1: I was going through I was like Carrie and Sex
- 43:57Speaker 1: and the City, like going through Burgers apartment. I was
- 44:00Speaker 1: looking at everything, couldn't find anything. He wouldn't answer my calls.
- 44:05Speaker 1: And this friend is always up early, and I said,
- 44:08Speaker 1: you know what, I'm just going to drive to her house.
- 44:10Speaker 1: It's like six blocks away because it's early and I
- 44:13Speaker 1: need to like climb in.
- 44:14Speaker 2: Bed with her and just like I can't be alone.
- 44:16Speaker 2: I'm freaking out.
- 44:17Speaker 3: Yeah, me on the edge of my seat right now.
- 44:19Speaker 1: So I drive to her apartment and she has two
- 44:24Speaker 1: windows beside her door, and I'd knock on the door,
- 44:28Speaker 1: no answer.
- 44:28Speaker 2: So I look through the window and they're on the couch.
- 44:32Speaker 1: They're not touching, but they're on the couch together, and
- 44:35Speaker 1: neither of them had been answering my calls. So I
- 44:40Speaker 1: was heartbroken for a lot of reasons. Right, I was
- 44:43Speaker 1: actually more heartbroken by her than him, because right I
- 44:47Speaker 1: had no at that point, I didn't have as many
- 44:49Speaker 1: expectations from him or with him. She and I are
- 44:53Speaker 1: still friends. I love her deeply, I do not trust
- 44:58Speaker 1: her the same way, and all of my other friends
- 45:02Speaker 1: cannot believe that we are still friends. It was not
- 45:06Speaker 1: a relationship I was willing to let go of.
- 45:10Speaker 2: I still hold on to it a little bit. In
- 45:13Speaker 2: your expert opinion, what do you think?
- 45:19Speaker 3: Wow, okay, I'll say this. Let me see that you
- 45:24Speaker 3: hear the ambulance.
- 45:25Speaker 1: I feel like a friendship emergency.
- 45:29Speaker 3: So I get a lot of messages that are like
- 45:32Speaker 3: essay style, bah, should I end it or not? And
- 45:36Speaker 3: I know this might not be satisfying, but I always say,
- 45:39Speaker 3: like girl, at the end of the day, I'm not
- 45:40Speaker 3: here to qualify your friendships. I see my role as
- 45:44Speaker 3: offering things for you to consider as you make that decision.
- 45:48Speaker 3: But to be like, yeah, I basically everything he said.
- 45:50Speaker 3: End that. You know what I'm saying. But if you
- 45:52Speaker 3: have determined Hey, that was a weird moment. We talked
- 45:56Speaker 3: about it something I'm not sure, but when I look
- 45:59Speaker 3: at what value this offers me and the discomfort or
- 46:04Speaker 3: whatever damage that was done, and I weigh them out,
- 46:07Speaker 3: for me, offers more value than it does pain or disappointment.
- 46:12Speaker 3: That is for you to decide. And if there was
- 46:14Speaker 3: discomfort and it was disruptive and you all are finding
- 46:18Speaker 3: or have found ways to kind of repair or mend,
- 46:21Speaker 3: that's your business, you know. Even if your friends who
- 46:24Speaker 3: love your like let that go. If you have determined
- 46:26Speaker 3: it offers more value than pain or disappointment or discomfort,
- 46:31Speaker 3: and then that is for you to decide. And if
- 46:33Speaker 3: you both are showing up intentionally pouring into it to grow,
- 46:35Speaker 3: to repair whatever ruptures emerged, that is for you to
- 46:39Speaker 3: to decide.
- 46:40Speaker 1: Yeah, I felt like it was not of her character,
- 46:42Speaker 1: so I was okay, But it's I appreciate that perspective.
- 46:45Speaker 2: I really like that.
- 46:46Speaker 3: Yeah, And I hear that because you know, I've been
- 46:50Speaker 3: through something and I shared a story in the book
- 46:51Speaker 3: that I like, deleted and put back in and deleted
- 46:53Speaker 3: and put back in because of like, Okay, I like
- 46:55Speaker 3: to look like I have it together where I made choices.
- 46:58Speaker 2: I don't want to give it up.
- 47:00Speaker 3: Yeah that friends were like that's not cool and was embarrassed,
- 47:04Speaker 3: was like mortified, And so that's why I say, I
- 47:07Speaker 3: can see both sides. But what I love is what
- 47:09Speaker 3: you just said of like it was so not her
- 47:12Speaker 3: that I was like, Okay, when I look at things
- 47:14Speaker 3: whole picture, it's something I still want to fight for,
- 47:17Speaker 3: and so I respect.
- 47:17Speaker 2: That fighting for friends.
- 47:19Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go.
- 47:21Speaker 1: What our behaviors to adopt to become a better friend.
- 47:24Speaker 1: I saw in one of your tiktoks you say we
- 47:26Speaker 1: should work on expressing platonic desire more. Yeah, like what
- 47:30Speaker 1: does that mean? Platonic desire? What does that look like?
- 47:33Speaker 3: So we all want to feel desired, Like I even platonically,
- 47:36Speaker 3: I want to know that my friends are somewhere like man,
- 47:38Speaker 3: I miss Danielle, Like it feels good right, But I
- 47:42Speaker 3: think we I often say, like even the word romance,
- 47:46Speaker 3: if you look up the definition, it says something about like,
- 47:48Speaker 3: you know, to delight and like curiosity. So to some extent,
- 47:52Speaker 3: how can you have a little romance in your friendships?
- 47:54Speaker 3: I'm thinking of you. You look so pretty in this picture.
- 47:57Speaker 3: I'm taking you out tomorrow, like, you know, in a safe,
- 48:00Speaker 3: appropriate way. But how can I give myself permission to
- 48:03Speaker 3: actively express how much I want you in my life,
- 48:06Speaker 3: how much I appreciate you, instead of doing things like
- 48:08Speaker 3: oh my god, like you should know we've been friends
- 48:11Speaker 3: for so long.
- 48:11Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it is so fun to spoil your girls. Yeah,
- 48:14Speaker 1: and to feel.
- 48:15Speaker 2: Spoiled by your girlfriends.
- 48:16Speaker 1: I agree, there's something about that that's very cool.
- 48:19Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 48:20Speaker 1: Do you have any advice for ambitious people? I feel
- 48:25Speaker 1: like my ambitious friends all talk about this issue. They
- 48:31Speaker 1: care so deeply about their friendships because they are ambitious
- 48:34Speaker 1: about friendship and they are also overwhelmed by what is
- 48:38Speaker 1: required to be a great friend and build whatever it
- 48:42Speaker 1: is they're doing.
- 48:43Speaker 3: So I hear you saying for women who are like
- 48:46Speaker 3: either managers or entrepreneurs, like high achieving women and friendship,
- 48:52Speaker 3: how do they kind of like balance that? Yeah?
- 48:54Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it could be also for people
- 48:56Speaker 1: who are moms.
- 48:58Speaker 3: Right, Like, that's really exhausting.
- 49:01Speaker 1: How do you balance, you know, like, when you are
- 49:04Speaker 1: an overworked, underpaid person so many of us are, how
- 49:09Speaker 1: do you balance friendship and everything you have going on?
- 49:12Speaker 3: Yeah? Okay, that's such a great question. Because I know
- 49:15Speaker 3: so many of us feel that way, like I want
- 49:16Speaker 3: to be a good friend that I don't know if
- 49:17Speaker 3: I have it at me. The first thing I'll say
- 49:19Speaker 3: is burnout is real where we feel so overwhelmed with
- 49:24Speaker 3: the volume of demand in our lives that we feel
- 49:27Speaker 3: like we don't have it to give. So I want
- 49:30Speaker 3: to start there because I know women have that heart.
- 49:33Speaker 3: I want to show up. I don't think I even can,
- 49:36Speaker 3: and I want to validate that. I will also say
- 49:38Speaker 3: I think it's helpful to reframe what you think a
- 49:41Speaker 3: good friend is because if for you it is a
- 49:44Speaker 3: lot of gestures and a lot of going out and
- 49:46Speaker 3: a lot of then you are going to say, okay, okay,
- 49:48Speaker 3: I don't think I have all that to give. And
- 49:51Speaker 3: I like to think that a lot of us can
- 49:54Speaker 3: increase being a good friend by just like one degree,
- 49:58Speaker 3: by being active on the things you already think. Because
- 50:00Speaker 3: a lot of us we do think about our friends often,
- 50:02Speaker 3: or we see something that comes to mind, I think
- 50:04Speaker 3: being active on the thing you already do would be
- 50:08Speaker 3: a big, like a huge step and require less lifts. So,
- 50:12Speaker 3: for example, if I'm in Target and I see something
- 50:14Speaker 3: and it reminds me of her, like to snap a
- 50:15Speaker 3: picture and send it, I mean like really on the spot.
- 50:17Speaker 3: But for the person receiving it's such like augh, oh,
- 50:21Speaker 3: like you.
- 50:21Speaker 2: Don't even have to buy it for them, just off
- 50:23Speaker 2: a photo. I love that.
- 50:24Speaker 3: I mean really that's it, because again it goes to
- 50:26Speaker 3: those questions of like do you care about me? So
- 50:28Speaker 3: to know that today I crossed your mind, or to
- 50:31Speaker 3: like activate a memory, which nostalgia is really powerful and
- 50:34Speaker 3: bonds people. So even to snap a picture of a
- 50:35Speaker 3: mug and be like, oh my god, this reminds me
- 50:37Speaker 3: of spring Break two thousand and two, and can be like,
- 50:38Speaker 3: oh my god, I don't you know so, but just
- 50:41Speaker 3: that moment, like it's like it's a reminder of like
- 50:43Speaker 3: me and you alone in this vault, right, like our
- 50:45Speaker 3: private little bubble. And so those things activate it. And
- 50:48Speaker 3: then if you do feel like you're coming into a
- 50:50Speaker 3: season where you're overwhelmed, to even frontload it, like I
- 50:53Speaker 3: care enough to tell you I'm going to be out
- 50:56Speaker 3: of commission for a while, so to even say like
- 50:58Speaker 3: I'm starting to feel really over with all the mom
- 51:00Speaker 3: stuff and I just want you to know, like even
- 51:03Speaker 3: if I'm not texting you, I'm thinking of you and
- 51:05Speaker 3: if you guys go out and I can't make it
- 51:07Speaker 3: like I want to be there. I just need you
- 51:09Speaker 3: to know that. I mean that right there is like okay,
- 51:12Speaker 3: you care about me. Yeah, and so I mean even
- 51:15Speaker 3: if you don't have it to give, I think telling friends,
- 51:18Speaker 3: I want to be there for you. It's important to
- 51:19Speaker 3: me to show up for you. Those conversations help people
- 51:23Speaker 3: to feel safety and supported. It's not all the little
- 51:27Speaker 3: like then know her twenty dollars for coffee and sometimes
- 51:29Speaker 3: cender flower like it's those are really cute gestures, but
- 51:33Speaker 3: also it's the simple things. It's asking about an update
- 51:37Speaker 3: she shared with you last week. That is a big one.
- 51:40Speaker 3: I hear that often for a women is like I
- 51:42Speaker 3: don't know. I feel like she doesn't care, Like she
- 51:43Speaker 3: didn't even ask me about it. I told her about
- 51:44Speaker 3: exporting that she hasn't even asked sense, I mean literally
- 51:47Speaker 3: being like unprompted. Hey, you mentioned that thing with your
- 51:51Speaker 3: dad last week. Everything good, Just that it shows me
- 51:54Speaker 3: you were attentive, you care enough to ask. You're invested
- 51:57Speaker 3: in my life. So rethink what being a good friend
- 52:01Speaker 3: means and how much activity, hours and money is associated
- 52:05Speaker 3: with the image that comes to your mind, and can
- 52:07Speaker 3: you do a little rethinking of what it looks like
- 52:09Speaker 3: to show up.
- 52:10Speaker 1: One of the things that I love, or that at
- 52:12Speaker 1: least resonates with me of what I'm hearing you say,
- 52:15Speaker 1: is to say the things that are unsaid.
- 52:17Speaker 3: Yeah, that is really powerful. Yeah, but we've got to
- 52:21Speaker 3: have the permission because we do in every other place.
- 52:23Speaker 3: And it feels weird where women are like, Okay, does
- 52:25Speaker 3: that look thirsty or it feels vulnerable because if you
- 52:28Speaker 3: don't know if she feels the same way, does it
- 52:30Speaker 3: feel very vulnerable to like lean into looking in her
- 52:32Speaker 3: eyes and being like, ah, but I mean, I just
- 52:36Speaker 3: I know. I appreciate it when friends are like, hey,
- 52:39Speaker 3: thank you so much for yesterday. It's just like I
- 52:41Speaker 3: feel so connected to them.
- 52:43Speaker 2: That is so beautiful.
- 52:45Speaker 3: Okay.
- 52:45Speaker 1: Meeting new friends after school, whether it's high school, college,
- 52:50Speaker 1: this is a question that I.
- 52:52Speaker 2: Get most often. Oh, I'm always like, join a group,
- 52:56Speaker 2: join a volleyball team.
- 52:58Speaker 3: I hate volleyball.
- 52:58Speaker 1: I don't know, so, like, you have great advice on this.
- 53:02Speaker 1: What should people do when they are adult and trying
- 53:05Speaker 1: to make a friend.
- 53:06Speaker 3: That is definitely the number one question I get, and
- 53:09Speaker 3: I get it, but I'll say it typically comes with
- 53:11Speaker 3: some kind of qualifiers. So people want to know, how
- 53:13Speaker 3: do I make friends after college in a new city,
- 53:15Speaker 3: as a new mom, as a debar say, and I
- 53:17Speaker 3: hope that it shows us that we will always be
- 53:19Speaker 3: having to make new friends, so we better figure it out.
- 53:22Speaker 3: And I like to lean into that because a lot
- 53:24Speaker 3: of women feel shamed that they're even in that position. Oh,
- 53:27Speaker 3: I should already have my friend group. I'm thirty five,
- 53:31Speaker 3: stop it. And the research tells us that we replace
- 53:34Speaker 3: about half of our friends every seven years, which says
- 53:37Speaker 3: to me that we should expect some level of pruning,
- 53:41Speaker 3: like a natural process of people coming out and then
- 53:43Speaker 3: the churn bringing new people in. So we better figure
- 53:46Speaker 3: out how to make them because it's going to keep happening.
- 53:48Speaker 3: When your husband dies and your kids get out the house,
- 53:50Speaker 3: I mean like you're going to have to start over.
- 53:52Speaker 3: So there are three things I can give that's kind
- 53:54Speaker 3: of like dark in my no. When my husband dies
- 53:56Speaker 3: and you're like, oh my god, I need new.
- 53:59Speaker 1: Friends, obviously, well outlive them, that's what it's saying.
- 54:02Speaker 3: Because obviously he won't be here long, so you're gonna
- 54:05Speaker 3: need to know. But yeah, okay, So I can give you.
- 54:07Speaker 2: Three things, right, Okay.
- 54:08Speaker 3: So the first I would say is to get comfortable
- 54:10Speaker 3: leveraging technology. And I feel like gen Z is like
- 54:12Speaker 3: very open to this, and the rest of us are like,
- 54:14Speaker 3: I don't know. It doesn't make you desperate, it makes
- 54:16Speaker 3: you very resourceful. And so apps like Bumble for Friends,
- 54:19Speaker 3: I know is very popular. And if you have unconventional
- 54:21Speaker 3: work hours, if you are in a new city and
- 54:23Speaker 3: you're looking for like where's the diversity or whatever it is,
- 54:26Speaker 3: I can go into this place, show what I'm looking
- 54:29Speaker 3: for in this particular you know, vicinity, and find my people.
- 54:33Speaker 3: So it kind of expedites the process of finding your people.
- 54:36Speaker 3: The one thing I'll say with that is you need
- 54:37Speaker 3: to get into real life as soon as possible. So
- 54:41Speaker 3: this whole we're dming for three months, we're not doing that. Okay,
- 54:44Speaker 3: it looks like we click, she has good rapport, Let's
- 54:46Speaker 3: meet in your life. The second thing I would say
- 54:48Speaker 3: is to become more regular somewhere. So a lot of
- 54:51Speaker 3: us like romanticize how things used to be when we
- 54:53Speaker 3: were in school, and it was so much easier. It's
- 54:55Speaker 3: because we were clocking hours together. Because I saw your
- 54:58Speaker 3: face all the time, you're the option, so let's sit
- 55:00Speaker 3: together at lunch, you know. And it also lends itself
- 55:03Speaker 3: to something known as the mere exposure effect. And the
- 55:05Speaker 3: idea is that we tend to prefer people just because
- 55:08Speaker 3: they're familiar. So if I see a familiar face and
- 55:10Speaker 3: a totally new face, I'm going to lean to the
- 55:12Speaker 3: one I've kind of seen before. So how can you
- 55:15Speaker 3: make that work in your favor? Can I work from
- 55:17Speaker 3: the same coffee shop every Friday at nine? Can I
- 55:20Speaker 3: walk my dog in the same area every day? You know,
- 55:23Speaker 3: being mindful of safety and things, but those things make
- 55:26Speaker 3: you irregular, and it feels less intimidating to be like, hey,
- 55:29Speaker 3: what's up because I see your face all the time.
- 55:31Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 55:31Speaker 3: And the last thing I'll say is leverage the support
- 55:34Speaker 3: of super connectors. So you probably are one. I know
- 55:37Speaker 3: I'm one. Like we're those girls who are like, oh
- 55:39Speaker 3: my god, you should meet my friend so and so
- 55:41Speaker 3: that person, even if you two aren't close, but you
- 55:44Speaker 3: probably know that girl, right, that girl, And so it's
- 55:48Speaker 3: just like, how can you ask her, you know, send
- 55:50Speaker 3: the message that says something like I'm looking to get
- 55:53Speaker 3: more plugged in, and I thought of you because you're
- 55:55Speaker 3: always out in a bout and doing something interesting. So
- 55:57Speaker 3: I thought I would ask, so you know of any
- 55:59Speaker 3: events around town that you think are worth checking out
- 56:01Speaker 3: or any groups that should like get involved in. And
- 56:04Speaker 3: the average person is happy to help, like that's flattering
- 56:08Speaker 3: you thought I could help you. And best case scenario,
- 56:10Speaker 3: you even get an invitation to be a plus one,
- 56:12Speaker 3: so they might say, oh yeah, oh my god, I'm
- 56:14Speaker 3: in the book club. You should come. But you can't
- 56:16Speaker 3: expect to get the need met if you will not
- 56:19Speaker 3: make the need known.
- 56:21Speaker 1: It's really really well said, so good. Okay, last question,
- 56:26Speaker 1: you outline a specific type of friend that people are
- 56:28Speaker 1: going to encounter. I want to run down of these archetypes.
- 56:32Speaker 1: The first is the flaky friend who's she she sounds annoying.
- 56:39Speaker 3: Well, I know because I've been her. No, the girl
- 56:42Speaker 3: who you can't really rely on her. So if she
- 56:46Speaker 3: says i'll be there at ten, or if she says okay,
- 56:48Speaker 3: I'll send you that link or okay, and there's a
- 56:50Speaker 3: party that's like she's probably not going to And some
- 56:53Speaker 3: people see it's quirky and they're like, I'm not bothered
- 56:55Speaker 3: by it. But others are very bothered by it because
- 56:58Speaker 3: it feels like she doesn't care, feels disrespectful of her
- 57:01Speaker 3: time of your time, and so it's something you have
- 57:04Speaker 3: to negotiate because sometimes again we'll be like, oh, well
- 57:07Speaker 3: she bailed on lunch, so I don't know, I'm just
- 57:10Speaker 3: done with her. Have I ever said, girl, I love
- 57:13Speaker 3: spending time with you, and when you cancel, like it
- 57:16Speaker 3: messes up there to my day, like I carved out
- 57:18Speaker 3: time to make this happen. You know, you can negotiate,
- 57:21Speaker 3: But if she hears that and is still like, well,
- 57:22Speaker 3: I'm sorry, like that's just who I am who I am,
- 57:25Speaker 3: then you would have to figure out if that's something
- 57:27Speaker 3: you can work with.
- 57:29Speaker 2: The clinging friend.
- 57:31Speaker 3: Yes, the clinging friend. We all know that friends. You
- 57:35Speaker 3: know she wants more than you can give. It feels
- 57:38Speaker 3: it feels like the skales are unbalanced. You might experience
- 57:41Speaker 3: this as a lot of text messages, a lot of
- 57:44Speaker 3: bids for attention, more than you like, faster than you
- 57:47Speaker 3: can keep up with. She may express, you know, jealousy
- 57:50Speaker 3: over seeing you hang out with other girls instead of her.
- 57:53Speaker 3: Things like that They make you feel a little suffocated
- 57:56Speaker 3: and overwhelmed. You know, I know people are very familiar
- 57:58Speaker 3: with attachment styles. It's either that you're experiencing her as
- 58:01Speaker 3: clingy because she is very anxious and eager, or because
- 58:06Speaker 3: you're avoidant so it feels clinky to you because you
- 58:10Speaker 3: only want to talk like once every three months, and
- 58:12Speaker 3: she's like, can I talk to you like once a week?
- 58:14Speaker 3: You know? So again, negotiating is the key, So how
- 58:17Speaker 3: can I tell her, you know, not that she's too much,
- 58:19Speaker 3: because we want to be careful about causing other women
- 58:22Speaker 3: complexes and damaging them in the process. So I'm going
- 58:24Speaker 3: to be careful over you. I'm not going to tell
- 58:26Speaker 3: you you're too much, but I might say, hey, I
- 58:29Speaker 3: prefer to catch up on weekends, so I'm probably not
- 58:31Speaker 3: going to be good with like the daily text messages. Right,
- 58:34Speaker 3: what day works for you, like a Saturday or Sunday?
- 58:36Speaker 2: So you want to communicate your own limitations.
- 58:39Speaker 3: Correct instead of like you just do too much or
- 58:41Speaker 3: like it's like a little too much for me. You know.
- 58:43Speaker 3: It gives people like so to say like, hey, I'm
- 58:45Speaker 3: a little more low key with check ins. They're not
- 58:47Speaker 3: as frequent for me. That's kind of like my sweet spot.
- 58:50Speaker 3: So do you just want to meet up, you know,
- 58:52Speaker 3: every other weekends, you know, or if she sees you
- 58:54Speaker 3: with other friends and it's like, oh, I thought you
- 58:56Speaker 3: were busy, but you're Yeah.
- 58:57Speaker 1: No.
- 58:57Speaker 3: When I say I'm busy, I mean, like, you know,
- 58:59Speaker 3: it's important to me that I see all my friends,
- 59:01Speaker 3: and I'm trying to rotate everybody in and spend family time,
- 59:04Speaker 3: and so that probably won't let us do like back
- 59:06Speaker 3: to back weekends. But I definitely want to see that
- 59:08Speaker 3: movie with you that we're talking about. Oh my god,
- 59:10Speaker 3: can we pu please go next month? Because I can't
- 59:13Speaker 3: wait to see it with you.
- 59:14Speaker 1: You know. There's a term that someone taught me called
- 59:16Speaker 1: light and bright ooh, and I try and harness that,
- 59:20Speaker 1: and you do it so much because you're What you're
- 59:23Speaker 1: saying is like say it all with a positive spin. Yeah,
- 59:26Speaker 1: like just say that movie. I really want to see
- 59:29Speaker 1: that with you.
- 59:29Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, light and bright?
- 59:31Speaker 3: Yeah, totally Okay.
- 59:32Speaker 2: The last one is the negative friend.
- 59:35Speaker 3: Yes, Sush. Some of us know her very well, right,
- 59:40Speaker 3: and it can come in different forms. Negative in terms of, Okay,
- 59:43Speaker 3: everything sucks in my life all the time. It can
- 59:45Speaker 3: be negative in terms of being really critical of your choices.
- 59:48Speaker 3: She always has something to say, and you didn't ask,
- 59:51Speaker 3: and she's telling you, like how it doesn't measure up,
- 59:53Speaker 3: so that negativity we can experience a lot of different ways.
- 59:56Speaker 3: This is so tricky because one of the reasons we've
- 1:00:00Speaker 3: value our friendship so much because we do have a
- 1:00:02Speaker 3: space to be like, oh my god, the world, the patriarchy,
- 1:00:06Speaker 3: and you have somebody who's like, oh my god, I know.
- 1:00:08Speaker 3: And one of the benefits of friendship is I have
- 1:00:10Speaker 3: somebody to take my troubles too. The thing, though, is
- 1:00:14Speaker 3: that if we expect that your friend should be your therapist.
- 1:00:18Speaker 3: I know, some people say she is, I get it,
- 1:00:21Speaker 3: but they're not, though, And I can help you through
- 1:00:23Speaker 3: some things, but you cannot expect me to have the
- 1:00:25Speaker 3: skills and availability of a therapist. It's not fair to me.
- 1:00:28Speaker 3: I'm your friend, not your counselor. And so we have
- 1:00:31Speaker 3: to manage that. And then finally I'll say, you know,
- 1:00:33Speaker 3: the gotman who are like relationship ogs. You know, they
- 1:00:36Speaker 3: often say that successful relationships have a positivity to negativity
- 1:00:40Speaker 3: ratio of five to one. So for every negative interaction,
- 1:00:45Speaker 3: you need like five positives to override it, just because
- 1:00:48Speaker 3: of how much we weigh negative interactions, So if you
- 1:00:52Speaker 3: took a if you got in a helicopter and looked out,
- 1:00:54Speaker 3: you know, over your friendship landscape, how many of the
- 1:00:57Speaker 3: last ten interactions were negative. That's all I'm saying.
- 1:01:00Speaker 1: I was just thinking about that with a friend. I
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: was like, I'm always drained when I leave this phone call.
- 1:01:05Speaker 1: And I was like, at first, I thought, well, I
- 1:01:08Speaker 1: think I'm providing more value than I'm getting in this relationship.
- 1:01:12Speaker 1: And I don't really like looking at friendships that way.
- 1:01:14Speaker 1: And I think what I really felt was the five
- 1:01:16Speaker 1: to one.
- 1:01:17Speaker 3: Yeah, So I like some point, yeah, like we're here
- 1:01:20Speaker 3: because it's it is a totally elective relationship. At the
- 1:01:23Speaker 3: end of the day, You're not a person I signed
- 1:01:25Speaker 3: a government contract to Mary, You're not my child, Like
- 1:01:28Speaker 3: I'm choosing to be here. So yes, use me when
- 1:01:31Speaker 3: you need me, you know, for something hard and to
- 1:01:33Speaker 3: go through hardship with you. But it's got to have
- 1:01:36Speaker 3: some degree of a fun and pleasure enlightness. That's why
- 1:01:39Speaker 3: we're friends, you know you It brings joy and pleasure
- 1:01:42Speaker 3: to my life as well, and so it's just easy.
- 1:01:44Speaker 3: It's really easy to kind of co ruminate and to
- 1:01:47Speaker 3: talk about our boss sucks, Like if we're work besties. Yeah,
- 1:01:50Speaker 3: but at some point somebody used to say, Okay, let's
- 1:01:52Speaker 3: give ourselves ten minutes and then like let's go get
- 1:01:55Speaker 3: ice cream because I'm so over talking about it. You know,
- 1:01:58Speaker 3: it's not dismissive. It's some times light. Yeah, it's light
- 1:02:01Speaker 3: and bright.
- 1:02:02Speaker 1: That's right, Okay, rapid fire. Danielle, what is your favorite
- 1:02:07Speaker 1: activity to do solo?
- 1:02:09Speaker 3: Read love that you were meant to be on this podcast?
- 1:02:15Speaker 2: Your favorite activity to do with friends?
- 1:02:18Speaker 3: Oh, sit on the back patio and run our mouths.
- 1:02:22Speaker 3: We don't have to go anywhere, we don't have to
- 1:02:24Speaker 3: like give a big tip to servers. We could just
- 1:02:27Speaker 3: like sit run our mouths in a low key space.
- 1:02:30Speaker 3: And that's just like that's my favorite.
- 1:02:31Speaker 2: Thing me too. I want to be on someone's couch.
- 1:02:34Speaker 3: Yes.
- 1:02:34Speaker 2: Love that you're in Florida so you could be on
- 1:02:37Speaker 2: a backpath. Okay, a routine habit that keeps you sane.
- 1:02:40Speaker 3: I like to journal in the mornings. I know that's
- 1:02:44Speaker 3: not like revolutionary, but it does work for me. It
- 1:02:47Speaker 3: works to wake up, to pray, to spend some alone time,
- 1:02:51Speaker 3: and to just kind of get those first thoughts out
- 1:02:53Speaker 3: has been really helpful.
- 1:02:55Speaker 2: Your book dedication.
- 1:02:56Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with book dedications. I feel like this is
- 1:03:00Speaker 1: your first book. There's a lot of like who and
- 1:03:03Speaker 1: what do I dedicate this to?
- 1:03:05Speaker 2: How did you come up with yours?
- 1:03:07Speaker 3: Yeah? So mine was, you know, to all the girls
- 1:03:09Speaker 3: I've loved before, because the book is about fighting for
- 1:03:12Speaker 3: it when you have something good. And I know that
- 1:03:17Speaker 3: there are friendships that I ended prematurely because I didn't
- 1:03:22Speaker 3: know better, or because I was stubborn or unequipped to
- 1:03:27Speaker 3: like have hard conversations, and so sometimes you know, I
- 1:03:31Speaker 3: you know, have thought about them in terms of like
- 1:03:33Speaker 3: the one that got away friendship wise, and so this
- 1:03:36Speaker 3: book is everything that I've learned and just kind of
- 1:03:39Speaker 3: like my dedication to the girls that could have maybe
- 1:03:42Speaker 3: still been in my life if I knew better.
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: Why'd you get emotional and you said that did you
- 1:03:48Speaker 1: think about someone in particular?
- 1:03:49Speaker 3: Yeah? I just you know, I think I have to
- 1:03:54Speaker 3: do the work in my brain to say, you know what,
- 1:03:56Speaker 3: I learned lessons from it and I can grow and
- 1:03:59Speaker 3: apply that moving forward. And I do think I have
- 1:04:01Speaker 3: current friends who would say Daniel's a good friend, but
- 1:04:03Speaker 3: it's because I've been a bad one. So of course
- 1:04:06Speaker 3: I'm learning and now I'm like, Okay, I got this,
- 1:04:08Speaker 3: but it's because I've been stubborn, or I've been a chameleon,
- 1:04:12Speaker 3: or I've been too sassy, too hard, too cold. I've
- 1:04:16Speaker 3: been all those things, and so sometimes I feel like
- 1:04:20Speaker 3: it's kind of like the ghost of Christmas past when
- 1:04:24Speaker 3: you're like or ghost of Christmas future. So I feel
- 1:04:26Speaker 3: like I'm telling women, like, trust me, if you continue
- 1:04:29Speaker 3: to be hard or cooled, or you don't get your
- 1:04:34Speaker 3: self esteem together and so you tolerate mistreatment, all those
- 1:04:38Speaker 3: things are going to cost you healthy, satisfying friendships. And
- 1:04:43Speaker 3: so at the heart of all of this is like
- 1:04:45Speaker 3: doing the own self work so that you can be
- 1:04:47Speaker 3: in good relationships. And I'm glad that I'm figuring it out,
- 1:04:50Speaker 3: but it has cost me some along.
- 1:04:51Speaker 1: The way, as somebody who had a hard time with
- 1:04:55Speaker 1: vulnerability in the past. Thank you for sharing that and
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: for being cvilulnerable. I thought your whole book was very vulnerable,
- 1:05:03Speaker 1: not just your own stories, but.
- 1:05:06Speaker 2: How you wrote it.
- 1:05:07Speaker 1: Because I feel emotional that every girl that reads this
- 1:05:13Speaker 1: book will take a look in the mirror and think
- 1:05:16Speaker 1: about all the girls that they've loved before and all
- 1:05:20Speaker 1: the girls they will still love in the future and
- 1:05:23Speaker 1: friendships are really tricky and beautiful and all of the things.
- 1:05:27Speaker 1: And I just think you're going to help a lot
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: of people with this book.
- 1:05:30Speaker 3: Oh, I appreciate you so much. That's my That is
- 1:05:33Speaker 3: my prayer always, is that for the woman who's holding it.
- 1:05:36Speaker 3: You know, I don't I can't say that this will
- 1:05:38Speaker 3: be the book that solves all your problems, but I
- 1:05:40Speaker 3: really do hope that it helps you confront some things,
- 1:05:43Speaker 3: and it helps you to more freely love other women,
- 1:05:49Speaker 3: and that it brings healing to women who need, you know,
- 1:05:52Speaker 3: some encouragement. So that's that's the prayer always.
- 1:05:54Speaker 1: Okay, my last three questions that I ask everybody, it's
- 1:05:58Speaker 1: a book you read that changed your life, something you
- 1:06:00Speaker 1: think everybody should read.
- 1:06:02Speaker 3: Ooh, there is a book called The Relationship Principles of Jesus,
- 1:06:07Speaker 3: and it's just nice to see these portraits of Okay,
- 1:06:12Speaker 3: how did he talk to people, how did he forgive?
- 1:06:15Speaker 3: How did he share truth? And it is definitely life changing.
- 1:06:19Speaker 3: I'll also say the book Platonic by doctor Marsa Franco
- 1:06:23Speaker 3: is like crazy awesome and I think everybody should read it.
- 1:06:27Speaker 2: I'm going to give you these fifty if you can pick.
- 1:06:32Speaker 3: Good. Okay, Iny, this was coming. This one says, what
- 1:06:35Speaker 3: do you want to be known for? Very on brand,
- 1:06:40Speaker 3: I would say I want to be known for helping
- 1:06:46Speaker 3: people see friendship differently. I think that's my most flattering
- 1:06:50Speaker 3: compliment is when people say like, wow, I never thought
- 1:06:53Speaker 3: about it that way. That makes me feel really good.
- 1:06:55Speaker 3: So I hope to bring that experience to women through
- 1:06:58Speaker 3: the book.
- 1:06:59Speaker 1: Danielle, what's the smartest decision you've ever made?
- 1:07:03Speaker 3: Oh? I think for me personally, I think having children,
- 1:07:09Speaker 3: which was very a very conscious choice do we want
- 1:07:13Speaker 3: to do this? And it's brought a lot of joy
- 1:07:16Speaker 3: to my life, and I'm so glad we made that decision.
- 1:07:18Speaker 2: When did you do it for the first time?
- 1:07:20Speaker 3: I think I was like thirty one at the time.
- 1:07:23Speaker 3: So my children are now five and two, and it's
- 1:07:25Speaker 3: just really cool and I'm you know, I'm learning a
- 1:07:29Speaker 3: lot of things through them, that they are their own people,
- 1:07:32Speaker 3: and they have their own personalities and interest and I'm
- 1:07:35Speaker 3: just learning a lot by watching them every day. So
- 1:07:38Speaker 3: I'm really glad that we lean to the parenthood because
- 1:07:40Speaker 3: it's taught me a lot and shape me as a woman.
- 1:07:42Speaker 1: I have to give you a hug. This was my
- 1:07:44Speaker 1: favorite conversation and so.
- 1:07:45Speaker 3: Really yes, oh my gosh, I am apreciate you. Oh,
- 1:07:49Speaker 3: thank you so much.
- 1:07:55Speaker 1: Okay, you know what time it is. Today's a good day.
- 1:07:59Speaker 1: To have a good day. I'll see you next week