New Carson City company building connections

Those working for a new company with a growing footprint in Carson City like to cut through small talk to get to issues beneath the surface. That’s their business model, actually.

“Some of the small talk … It’s not that it’s not important, but it’s, ‘Oh my gosh, I am so busy, I have this meeting and that meeting, and oh my gosh I have to take to my dog to the vet today,’” said Lisa Pohll, outreach coordinator for Connections Central. “It (Connections) is more, instead of what’s going on in your day-to-day world, how you really feel about something.”

Another way to put it is Connections helps people slow down and talk to one another, its organizers maintain. The for-profit company was started last year by Washoe Valley resident Don Kuhl, who is retired after starting and selling the Change Companies, a national firm based in Carson.

Although the new company could be set up for a product line in the future — such as training materials for corporations, universities and prison systems — it’s being funded by Kuhl and run by a mix of paid staff and volunteers facilitating various meetings throughout the community. It started in the Nashville Social Club in downtown Carson and has since grown to a monthly meeting at Brewery Arts Center as well as weekly meetings at other local venues.

The meetings are free, and participants don’t have to speak.

“We aren’t planning on making any money, but from a structural point of view it makes sense,” Kuhl said of the for-profit structure, adding he would like the company to be a national model in the future.

What occurs during a Connections meeting? In the large formats, a general topic is explored before smaller discussion groups. Religion and politics are to be avoided as simply sharing stories is the goal, Pohll said. In smaller formats, such as the weekly meetings at coffee shops, participants select from preformed questions to lead their discussion. One example question shared with the Appeal was, “What are the impacts of holding a grudge?”

What Connections is not is therapy, said Pohll.

“We put table cards out that say ‘no therapy zone,’” she said. “It’s a story-sharing zone. That’s why I say it’s not therapy, but for a lot of people it’s very cathartic. We can’t give advice. We don’t give advice. We don’t want to give advice. But people walk away with a lot of great wisdom because of the different experiences and stories that have been shared.”

A March 26 Connections meeting at Comma Coffee in downtown Carson put the business model to the test. More than a dozen participants of varying age showed up. Their discussion wandered into tough subjects like suicide and end-of-life care. The conversation sparked some tears and some laughs. After the meeting, participants mingled and talked more.

Retired Carson resident Robert Hodgson said the meetings are addictive.

“I found it so engaging because the people are from all walks of life,” he said, “and all different experiences.”

Hodgson said in divisive times, the meetings focus on human commonality and the “essence of what make us civil in civilization.”

“The fact that there is a give and take, that there is participation and listening,” he said.

Seventy-eight-year-old Kuhl, who said he’s failed at retirement, explained how he wanted to create a company that could help people in the community. The company has been seeing about 500 participants a month, he said, and is planning a new meeting with veterans in Silver Springs on April 21.

“Whatever I’ve done before this was always national. I was always working regionally or nationally in larger organizations,” said Kuhl. “This is the first time I’ve ever touched a community. I mean, really trying to dig in and understand how a community operates.”

Pohll pointed to long-term studies on happiness and also to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s advisory last year regarding a public health crisis of post-pandemic loneliness and social isolation.

“There’s a big push right now for social health,” she said. “We have our physical health. We have our mental health. But a hot topic is our social health and our feelings of connectedness because there’s so much research out there that shows that the quality of the relationships we have in our life is the number one determiner of happiness as we get older.”

Pohll, Kuhl and others hope Connections is part of that social health push. Debra Soule, who was facilitating the March 26 meeting, said the conversations created by Connections are a “whole way of learning.”

For information, visit https://www.connectionscentral.org.