Planting Seeds: 3 Minute Connections That Transform Your Relationships

What if three minutes a day could transform your relationships- and your whole sense of connection? 

Discover how tiny, intentional gestures can spark big ripples across your community.

In this episode of the Practicing Connection podcast, Jessica and Coral spotlight the overlooked power of small, intentional outreach. Inspired by the “3-Minute Rule,” they explore how three minutes a day spent reaching out - with no agenda -can strengthen bonds, expand networks, and boost both appreciation and purpose. 

Listeners get actionable steps to make this practice stick, hear about the ripple effects of genuine connections, and find out how consistency in small gestures leads to a thriving community - both personally and professionally.

Bonus: Try the “3 for 3” connection habit!

• For the next five days, spend three minutes each day reaching out to three people: send a quick thank you, a simple check-in, or let someone know you’re thinking of them (no agenda, no ask).
• Share your favorite message (anonymized if needed), or a reflection on how this small habit affected you, in our LinkedIn group.

Let’s plant connection seeds together and inspire others to keep the ripple going!

Further links and resources from this episode:

• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: practicingconnection@oneop.org 

Transcript

JESSICA BECKENDORF: [00:00:00] Hi, thanks for listening to the Practicing Connection Podcast. I'm Jessica, and today Coral will share a practice with us about something that might sound small, but it can have an incredible ripple effect. The simple act of reaching out. We'll explore how a few intentional minutes each day can strengthen our relationships, our communities, and even our sense of purpose.

Hi Coral. How are you?

CORAL OWEN: Hey Jessica. I'm doing really well, thanks. I absolutely love this topic because it reminds me that connection doesn't always have to be a big, time-consuming effort. It can kind of feel that way sometimes, but often, it's really the smallest gestures that can create some of the deepest impact. Simply a text, a quick check-in, or just a short note that says, “Hey, just thinking about you.” Doesn't have to be huge or massive to make a massive impact.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, absolutely. You don't have to like stand outside their window holding a [00:01:00] boombox above your head. I know it's a different kind of a declaration, but anyway, and I really think that so many of us want to be better about that. We mean to reach out to people. I mean, I know I do all the time. I think about people I want to reach out to. We mean to reach out to people that we care about or to follow up after a really good conversation. I mean, hello conferences. 

But it's really easy for that intention to get lost in the day-to-day busyness.

CORAL OWEN: Yeah, absolutely. I think a lot of us, I'm actually totally speaking for myself here, you know, thinking about connection. It's like, “Oh, I need to call so and so,” and it's just like trying to find the time and space to do that big catch up, it can feel really intimidating. And what we're going to talk about today is really a way to build that habit into your life in a very simple, approachable, doable way.

And it only takes but a few minutes to help you stay genuinely connected.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, let's talk about it before we get into the actual practice [00:02:00] itself. Why does this matter?

CORAL OWEN: Yeah, so when we talk about practicing connection, we're often thinking about how to build and strengthen relationships over time with our colleagues, friends, family, community members. But the catch is the connection. It doesn't just happen, right? It takes intention, even when that action itself is quite small.

And so I like to think of it as, aptly named: practice for today, as well as planting seeds. So you might not see anything grow straight away. But each little outreach, each little moment of care or gratitude, it really does have the potential to bloom in unexpected ways.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah. And that, I mean, I know that the term ‘planting seeds’ gets used for a lot of things, but it really is such a beautiful image and in this case, it really takes the pressure off. You're not reaching out with an agenda or expecting something back from the person. You're just tending to your relationships in small but consistent ways.

CORAL OWEN: Exactly. And, this idea really [00:03:00] has been wonderfully captured. If you're familiar with the entrepreneur, Jesse Itzler, he shares this practice in a very similar vein. He calls it the Three Minute Rule and, put simply, it's the practice. That did inspire today's episode in the large part. But the idea is simply to spend three minutes a day, and you can certainly modify this too, to suit your own daily timeline.

But as a core practice, we invite you to just spend three minutes a day reaching out to three people. And the anchor here though is that there's no ask, no goal. It's just a moment of connection. And whether it be a text or a quick note or a voice memo, which I'm a huge fan of, bit by bit, these really tiny, small gestures, or seeds, if you will, they build a powerful network of really genuine relationships.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, I love that. It's really practical, but it's also heart centered, right? And it's something you could even say human centered. 

CORAL OWEN: I love that.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: And it's something that we can all do, you know, no matter how full our [00:04:00] schedules are.

CORAL OWEN: Exactly. Alright, so let's just cut to the chase, and here is how to try it each day. Take three minutes. You can even literally set a timer if that is helpful, and reach out to three people. It could look like sending a quick thank you to a colleague, writing a text to a friend you haven't talked to in a while, writing a short message or sending a quick voice memo to someone who has made an impact on your life.

And again, just to reiterate, the key here is there's no ask, there's no agenda. It's just connection. And you could even say, “Hey, so and so, no need to reply. I just wanted to let you know X, Y, and Z.” It can be as simple as that, and you know, truly, it doesn't have to be perfect or profound. It's just this simple, straightforward note of just thinking of you sharing that small sentiment that can make someone's day, and just help keep that relationship alive.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, and the [00:05:00] great thing about this is it's small enough to actually do. You know, we all have three minutes somewhere in our day, even though it sometimes doesn't feel like it. So like between meetings while the coffee's brewing, you know, before we log off for the day. and I think you and I talked a little bit about this beforehand, that we can also make this about one person, right?

We could, you could even just reach out to one person. You don't have to make it three. It doesn't have to be perfect like you said.

CORAL OWEN: Yeah, absolutely. I'm thinking the car line school pickup. There's lots of places that we can, you know, while we're in the midst of waiting, not to fill space with more things, but I think intentional things that we can slot into those waiting spaces can really add up. And really, the key here is doing it consistently.

It becomes part of your rhythm. And whether it's three people a day or one person a day, kind of the cool math here is that if you do the three people a day, it adds up to over a thousand [00:06:00] connections and touch points for that year. And you know, not every one of those will lead to something big, but together collectively, it forms a web of trust and generosity that strengthens both your personal and your professional relationships.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah. And it's not just about the other person, right? So reaching out like this keeps you in a mindset of appreciation. I would say it reminds you that connection is everywhere, and it takes just that small little spark to keep it alive. And the more you're reminding yourself that this is something that's really important to do, the more you're going to notice those moments that you can write about, or that you can reach out to a person about.

CORAL OWEN: I think that's such a really, that's a beautiful reflection too, and that is the beauty of it. You're not just building your network. You're building your capacity for gratitude, for empathy, for presence and just absolute generosity in showing up for, yeah, for the people that you are connected with.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: So that's the practice for this episode. Planting [00:07:00] seeds, the three minute connection practice. Every day, set aside three minutes to reach out to three people. No agenda, just appreciation and connection. You can even tell them, “No need to get back to me.”

CORAL OWEN: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And just as a fun bonus, if you would like to take this a little bit of a step further and really set the habit, we've created a fun, bonus 30 x 3 challenge. It's a 30 day tracker to help you get and then keep this habit going. 

And it's just a fun way to visualize the connections that you're building, and sort of see your “Garden of Outreach” grow over the month. And we're going to link a printable version in the show notes for your reference.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Thanks so much for joining us for this episode of Practicing Connection. If you found it helpful, share with a friend or colleague who might enjoy a simple way to nurture their relationships. 

We'll be back next week with another practice. Until then, keep practicing. [00:08:00]

CREDITS: The Practicing Connection Podcast is a production of OneOp and is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, US Department of Defense under award number 2 0 2 3 4 8 7 74 3 3.