A 5-minute chat with a guy at a coffee shop in Austin changed how I see networking events

He said most people show up just to collect cards instead of actually listening... and I realized he was right about half my own meetups last year. Has anyone else shifted from working the room to just having real conversations?

3 comments

3 Comments

morgan5122mo ago

And the funny thing is, the real connections happen when you stop trying to make them happen. I started ditching the name tag and just asking people what they're actually working on. Feels way less like a sales floor and more like, you know, actual human interaction.

hollyramirez2mo ago

37 business cards in my pocket from last month alone. Half of them don't even have a face attached to the name in my head. Finally figured out I'm just better off grabbing coffee with two people I actually like talking to.

palmer.jana22d ago

Ugh the "no face attached to the name" thing is so real! I've got a whole drawer full of cards from people I swore I'd email and never did, meanwhile the three people I actually clicked with I still text regularly.