‘People don't have a lot of the social skills’ to connect, says friendship coach—her top tips for making new friends

Cnbc · May 07, 2026 · 525 words · By Gili Malinsky

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What to know about ‘People don't have a lot of the social skills’ to connect, says friendship coach—her top tips for making new friends

In 2018, Alexandra Friedman moved back to her hometown of Seattle to take a job at Amazon, ready to start a new chapter and make some new friends.

Claims checked 8

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center75%

Right25%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

In 2018, Alexandra Friedman moved back to her hometown of Seattle to take a job at Amazon, ready to start a new chapter and make some new friends.

Why it matters

But she quickly realized while she was putting herself out there and meeting people at local events, "it was very challenging to connect, to go deep with people," she says.

Common ground

So she decided to throw her own dinner party on the roof of her apartment building with a big picture theme for attendees to discuss: fear.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: ‘People don't have a lot of the social skills’ to connect, says friendship coach—her top tips for making new friends?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that In CNBC's new online course, How To Talk To People At Work, expert instructors share practical strategies?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/07/a-friendship-coach-shares-her-top-tips-for-makin…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 8 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 3

verified Verified By Reference 3

info Single Source 2

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Claim 1: “In CNBC's new online course, How To Talk To People At Work, expert instructors share practical strategies”

CORROBORATED

Two independent cross-references from CNBC directly confirm the existence of the online course 'How To Talk To People At Work' and its purpose of sharing practical strategies.

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cross reference SUPPORTS — CNBC's new online course, How To Talk To People At Work
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/04/how-to-figure-out-which-stoc…

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cross reference SUPPORTS — In CNBC's new online course, How To Talk To People At Work, expert instructors share practical strategies to help you use everyday conversations to gain visibility, build meaningful relationships and …
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/07/ive-studied-highly-creative-…

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Claim 2: “Friedman ended up throwing monthly dinner parties over the course of a year”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence mentions a LinkedIn profile for an Alexandra Friedman who worked with children, and a general vlog about dinner parties, but nothing confirming that this specific person hosted monthly dinner parties for a year.

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web search NEUTRAL — Our 2nd annual dream planning dinner party I hope you enjoy this "host with me" vlog! IN THIS VIDEO:+ Dress: https://www.nuuly.com/rent/prod...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUnh3Qc0opM

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web search NEUTRAL — View Alexandra Friedman’s profile on LinkedIn, a professional community of 1 billion members.Feb 2018 - Jun 2021 3 years 5 months. Worked with children experiencing poverty and collaborated to organiz…
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-friedman10

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web search NEUTRAL — Finally, this is her chance. Her husband Brian, an astronomer having an unsatisfactory affair, is upset. Who will cook his dinner? Eva, he complains, is attention seeking. But word of Eva’s defiance s…
https://oceanofpdf.com/authors/sue-townsend/pdf-epub-the-wom…

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Claim 3: “she started hosting $35 ticketed events”

SINGLE SOURCE

One web search result mentions a 'Friendship Workshop' hosted by Alexandra Friedman on Eventbrite, but it does not explicitly state the ticket price was $35. The claim is supported by the context of her hosting events, but the specific price is not verified by multiple sources.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Alexandra Scott Billings (born March 28, 1962) is an American actress, singer, and teacher. A trans woman, Billings played one of TV's first openly transgender characters in the 2005 film Romy and Mic…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Billings

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Alexandra Gucci Zarini (née Gucci; born 1985) is the founder of the purpose-driven luxury fashion house AGCF, a children's advocate and founder of the Alexandra Gucci Children's Foundation. She is the…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Gucci_Zarini

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Laura Syril Friedman (born December 3, 1966) is an American politician and former film producer who is the member for California's 30th congressional district. A member of the Democratic Party, she pr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Friedman

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 4: “Friedman looked for events on sites like Eventbrite”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

While evidence shows Eventbrite is a platform for finding events and that Alexandra Friedman uses it to host her own, there is no specific evidence confirming she used it to search for events herself.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Amira Gad (Arabic: أميرة جاد) is an art curator, writer, and editor in modern and contemporary art and architecture. She's currently Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at Museum Boijmans van Beuning…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amira_Gad

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Following is a list of some notable students and alumni of Stanford University.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stanford_University_al…

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web search NEUTRAL — Find your tickets. Contact your event organizer.Event Marketing Platform. Eventbrite Ads. Payments. Industry.
https://www.eventbrite.com/

+ 2 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 5: “In 2018, Alexandra Friedman moved back to her hometown of Seattle to take a job at Amazon”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence contains general information about the name Alexandra, the city of Seattle, and Amazon, but no specific evidence confirming that Alexandra Friedman moved to Seattle in 2018 for a job at Amazon.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989), also known as AOC, is an American politician and activist who has served since 2019 as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional distr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria_Ocasio-Cortez

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Amazon has been criticized on many issues, including anti-competitive business practices, its treatment of workers, offering counterfeit or plagiarized products, objectionable content of its books, an…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Amazon

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Seattle ( see-AT-əl) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It is the 18th-most populous city in the United States with a populat…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 6: “Today, she runs a full-fledged friendship coach business, Connection Feast”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources (Meetup Pro, LinkedIn, and The Org) confirm that Connection Feast is a community/business focused on human connections and meaningful conversations, associated with Alexandra Friedman.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Easter, also called Pasch () or Pascha or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the Bible's New Testamen…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Human cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. The meaning of "cannibalism" has …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_cannibalism

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Italian Americans (Italian: italoamericani [ˌitaloameriˈkaːni]) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Americans

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 7: “Over the past eight years, she's worked with more than 2,700 people”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of general Wikipedia entries about the name Alexandra and other people named Alexandra, with no mention of the number of people she has worked with.

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 8: “Other experts have recommended sites like Meetup as well”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results confirm that Meetup is widely recommended and used as a tool for meeting new people and building social circles.

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web search NEUTRAL — "Being an engineer and thinking more entrepreneurial is really coming from organizing a Meetup group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tJPvKHBtaA

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web search NEUTRAL — Meetup is touted as an ideal app for meeting people. But what makes it so great?Here are some of the biggest reasons why Meetup is still a great app for building a social circle and for networking wit…
https://www.makeuseof.com/reasons-why-meetup-great-for-meeti…

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web search NEUTRAL — “People have far fewer social activities [with work] to have downtime and to ideate and to just meet new friends than they did beforehand.” From 2020 to 2022 the number one searched term on the platfo…
https://www.worklife.news/culture/remote-worker-meet/

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.