Took a call at a coffee shop and three strangers handed me their cards

I was chatting with a supplier on speakerphone about a 12k contract and two people at the next table introduced themselves after I hung up, so is it worth working from public spots more often or was that just luck?

1 comments

1 Comment

gavin_reed19d ago

I read a piece in the Harvard Business Review a while back about how chance meetings, the kind you can't plan, are where a lot of real deals start. They called it the "water cooler effect," but for freelancers and remote workers, coffee shops are basically our water cooler. Three people handing you cards isn't just luck, it's a signal that you're in a spot where people are open to talking shop. The key is that you were on speakerphone, so they heard a real, specific problem being solved, not just generic chit-chat. If you're quiet and just scrolling, nobody's going to bother you, so the visibility only works when you're actually working out loud. I'd say do it more, but only for calls where you're okay with a little audience, it's a cheap way to network without dressing up for a conference.