Unpopular opinion: I was dead wrong about networking events

For years I avoided those meetup mixers because I thought they were just awkward small talk with people handing out business cards. Then last month I got stuck at one in Austin because my ride bailed, and ended up chatting with a guy who runs a print shop three blocks from my apartment. He showed me how he handles bulk orders with a manual feed trick that saved me 45 minutes on my last project. Has anyone else stumbled into a connection that actually made your work easier?

3 comments

3 Comments

hollyl4527d ago

Met a guy at one who fixed my website load times in ten minutes flat.

richard_anderson27d ago

That guy sounds like a wizard with servers or something. My buddy tried fixing my site once and accidentally took it offline for three hours.

the_robert23d ago

and honestly I was right there with you, I used to think those things were just a weird way to collect business cards I'd lose by the weekend. but that print shop guy changed my mind completely because he wasn't selling anything, he just showed me a better way to do something I do every day. @hollyl45 that load time story is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about, it's wild how one random chat can save you hours. I still hate the awkward part at the beginning where you're holding a drink and pretending to read a nametag, but now I actually stay for the whole thing. it's basically a cheat code for finding people who know stuff you wish you knew, you just have to get past the first few minutes of weirdness.