TIL the Detroit Young Professionals group actually works for networking

I used to think those mixer events were a waste of time, but last Tuesday I went to the downtown one and landed 3 solid leads in 2 hours. One guy I met there set me up with a coffee chat that turned into a referral worth $500. Has anyone else had a surprise win from a local group you wrote off?

3 comments

3 Comments

anna9832mo ago

wait, hold up - the one guy you met actually FOLLOWED THROUGH and set up a coffee chat that turned into a REAL referral worth $500? that's INSANE because usually people at those things just exchange cards and you never hear from them again. i went to a "young professionals" thing like 2 years ago and it was honestly just a bunch of people trying to sell their own stuff, not actually connect. but your story makes me wonder if i just went to a bad one or something. maybe the downtown events are better than the suburban ones? either way, that's a MASSIVE win for two hours of your time.

hayden_rivera9d agoMost Upvoted

Respectfully, I see it differently @gracea19 - smaller groups can still be full of people just pushing their own agendas if the vibe is off. Maybe the real key is just dumb luck with who shows up that day, not the event format itself.

gracea192mo ago

I used to skip networking events for the exact same reason until I tried one in a smaller city where the group capped attendance at 30 people. That forced actual conversations instead of people just working the room for sales leads. Within 20 minutes I had a legit lead from someone in a totally different industry who just liked my approach to solving a problem he mentioned.