Vent: A talk with a guy at the Corktown coffee meetup made me feel like I've been doing this all wrong

I was at the usual Tuesday morning thing at that spot on Michigan Ave, just doing my normal thing of handing out cards and giving my quick pitch. This older guy, maybe in his 60s, asked me what I was really looking for. I gave my usual line about 'growing my network.' He just nodded and said, 'Yeah, but what's your actual problem right now? Who do you need to know?' I froze. I've been going to these events for like 8 months, and I realized I've just been collecting contacts, not actually solving anything. He told me his best connections came from asking for one specific introduction, not just being another face in the crowd. It hit different because he was so calm about it, like this was obvious. Now I'm looking at my list of 200+ LinkedIn connections from Detroit and wondering how many are actually useful. How do you guys shift from just meeting people to building connections that actually fix a problem?

2 comments

2 Comments

joelp811d ago

Man, my buddy had the same exact wake-up call last year.

-1

phoenix_singh22h ago

Yeah, that "wake-up call" thing is real. It's like one day everything's fine, then a single event makes you see all the small stuff you've been ignoring. My buddy finally went to the doctor after his scare and had to change his whole diet and sleep schedule. It's crazy how it takes a big jolt to make the small fixes.