We needed a word for it: why "Relationshiping" came to life

We’ve had networking for decades. It’s sharp, tactical, and often transactional. Then we have relationships, a word that feels like an endpoint. A label. A status you’ve achieved once you’ve collected enough business cards or shared a few mutual likes on LinkedIn.

But what about the in-between? The living, breathing space where actual connection happens?

In a world where we talk more and more about emotional intelligence in business, we still didn’t have a word for the ongoing act of connection - the small, human, often invisible work of being in relationship.

So Relationshiping was born.

What is Relationshiping?

Relationshiping is the act of being in relationship - with presence, attention, and intention.
It’s what happens when we remember someone’s name two years after a single conversation. When we text a colleague just to celebrate their new website. When we show up not because we need something, but because we care.

It’s not networking. It’s not CRM automation. It’s not a quarterly “catch-up” calendar entry. It’s deeper and messier than all of that. It’s the kind of thing that inspired how we built Anchor - not to replace relationships, but to protect it.

Relationshiping is motion. It’s rhythm. It’s choosing to live inside our connections, not just document them.

Relationships aren’t fixed

Think about how we treat professional relationships.
“We’re connected.”
“I met her at a conference.”
“We worked together years ago.”

That kind of language freezes people in time - as if a connection made in 2019 still exists in 2025 without any effort or care. But the truth is: relationships don’t stay still. They deepen, drift, energize, erode. They’re fluid, not fixed.

And because we didn’t have a word for being in that fluidity, we defaulted to building them (sales speak) or nurturing them (marketing speak). But none of those words fully captured the real thing.

Relationshiping does.

Relationshiping is a verb for connection in motion

When you’re Relationshiping, you’re showing up. You’re following energy. You’re checking in. You’re sending that random article to someone because it reminded you of them. You’re introducing people to each other without expecting credit.

You’re not counting people.
You’re caring for them.

It’s not a tactic. It’s a practice.

And that’s the shift this word is trying to unlock:
From “how many people do I know?”
To “who am I in relationship with - and how am I showing up for them?”

Why we named it

Sometimes language limits what we can see. If there’s no word for something, it’s harder to value it - harder to notice it, talk about it, or teach it.

That’s why this blog - and the word it’s named after - exists. Because we’re ready to move beyond surface-level connections and into something more human, more alive, more reciprocal.

You don’t need to be a social butterfly.
You don’t need to be strategic about it.
You just need to care - and act like it.

That’s Relationshiping.