Unpopular opinion: I used to skip food biz mixers, but a chance chat over coffee changed everything.

I saw them as time-wasters, but meeting a sauce maker there led to a cross-promotion that boosted both our sales. Now I block out time for these meets each month.

3 comments

3 Comments

ray8162mo ago

That bit about side conversations being where the real connection happens is spot on. I see the same pattern everywhere, like how the best advice often comes from a random chat in a checkout line. We fill our calendars with formal plans, but the useful turns in life usually come from those off script moments. It's almost funny how much we rely on schedules when the real work gets done in the gaps.

white.ryan1mo ago

Forget the main event at those things. Show up early or hang back late. That's when people actually talk. I got my current gig because the guy next to me at the bar was complaining about a broken fryer. We fixed it with a paperclip, I told him about a better part, and he hired me a week later. The planned speeches are just noise.

adamwood2mo ago

It's funny how "a chance chat over coffee" is the key. Sometimes the mixer is just the excuse, and the real connection happens in the side conversations nobody schedules.