Short version 2021- Met on group Zoom business call, people hinted they should date, Jackie took Matt’s headshot months later, which is where they finally met in person. 2022- Matt & Jackie crossed paths at a couple in person networking events, and an Augie alumni event, having lots of side conversations. Those side convos turned into their first coffee date. Full version -Spring 2021- Matt’s company joined BNI, a business networking group that Jackie had been a member of since 2016. They meet weekly with 20 people. At the time, the meetings were on Zoom, so, being a solopreneur, Jackie attended every week and Matt attended with colleagues on rotation every 6 weeks. -August 2021- Matt was selected to give a 10 minute presentation about his company. He was introduced by Dan, a member who knew Jackie well, and also knew that throughout her time in BNI she had mostly been single. He read Matt’s bio, & he couldn’t help but notice lots of commonalities. As he read each line, Dan pointed out the similarities by naming Jackie after each one. “Matt lives in St. Louis Park, Jackie” and “Matt likes to run and spend time with family at the cabin, Jackie,” and “Matt was an Augustana Viking, Jackie.” Where it asked spousal info on his bio, he wrote, “hopefully one day” and where it asked about kids, Matt wrote, “hopefully one day.” Since that was just a Zoom call and there was no follow up necessary, Jackie & Matt did what any true “business professionals” would do, and ignored the attempted set up. -December 2021- MKS hired Jackie to photograph headshots at their office. Guess who was on the list… they met for a brief 5-10 minute session between other employees, and once again, ignored that anything had happened in August. Although, Jackie was glad she had brought her step stool that day. He was taller than she thought just going off what she had seen on Zoom! That headshot is still on the MKS website today. -Early summer 2022- The BNI group finally started meeting in person, so Matt attended in the early summer. Jackie saw him in the parking lot on the way in and offered to show him to the room, since it can be tough to find. They sat next to each other and Jackie filled him in on the inside jokes of the group. -Late summer 2022- Later that summer it happened again on Matt’s next BNI rotation. That day, Jackie’s business shpeal highlighted how she had just photographed an Augie alumni gathering in the twin cities. They continued to have side chatter during the meeting, always starting conversations, but never finishing them. Matt made a comment that he wasn’t very connected to Augie anymore. Jackie asked, “do you want to be?” Matt said, “sure, why not?” -October 2022- Jackie forwarded the invite to Matt to attend a bowling Augie alumni gathering. No extra words, just a nervous forward of an email. She was starting to really like the conversations they had. He accepted and showed up! He made a casual comment that he’s only on social media for the Facebook events his friends invite him to. Toward the end of bowling while Jackie was talking to another alumn, Matt said a quick goodbye and slipped out. -Later that night… Jackie couldn’t stop thinking about how compatible she thought they were. She added him on Facebook. Maybe this way they could be connected beyond their work emails. He accepted right away. Wait a minute, he had said he wasn’t on socials very often… she messaged and called him out right away.