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From an early age, we both had a knack and a passion for understanding and encouraging people. Youth sports and school leadership roles triggered Lee’s thirst to learn more about leading teams. Julie’s fascination with psychology started in third grade as she followed her father’s readings and her mother’s teachings.
We both studied psychology at Florida State University and met the spring of our junior year when a mutual friend lobbied Lee to vote for Julie as president of the Psychology Honor Society. Julie was elected as president. The following fall semester, we happened to sit next to each other in a psychology class.
Lee became interested in Julie but was looking for a unique and memorable way to reach out to her. So, he made up an imaginary exchange student named Hermann von Wagner from Leipzig, Germany, the city in which the field of psychology was born (an inside joke for Lee). Hermann wanted to get into the Psychology Honor Society with a 2.0 GPA, so he wrote notes and put them in the Honor Society president’s mail slot for Julie requesting to be admitted.
Lee later learned that Julie is the eternal optimist, so she considered the possibility that Germany might have had a different grading scale, and maybe a 2.0 GPA was the equivalent of an “A” in Germany (no internet to verify back then).
After a month of correspondence between Julie and “Hermann,” one day during class Lee turned to Julie and asked, “So, how is Hermann doing?” After some processing, Julie was equally taken aback and impressed by Lee’s creative (and a bit wacky) approach. His unconventional attempt to connect with Julie led to a first date, a 39-year (and counting) marriage, a 27-year business (and counting), and three thriving adult children (no more counting!).
The initial connection for us, although admittedly unorthodox, set the tone for how we proactively connected with others to build our family, our business, and our community. We have studied and tested strategies for human connection for 30 years. Now, we have written this book to empower you to more easily and effectively interact in real life and, ultimately, unlock elevated wellbeing and performance.
