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Hot take: I wasted 2 years networking at the wrong type of events
I used to hit every big chamber of commerce mixer in Phoenix, thinking more people meant more chances. Then last month I went to a small meetup at a coffee shop in Mesa with maybe 15 people. One guy there gave me a direct referral that landed a $3,000 contract the next week. It hit me that those big mixers were just handshake factories where nobody remembers you. The real business came from building actual trust with a few people, not collecting 50 business cards in an hour. Has anyone else found that smaller, focused groups pay off way better than the big networking events?
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charlienelson1mo ago
Hang on, are we sure about that though? I've gone to some big chamber events where I met one solid connection who spun off into three or four more down the line. That coffee shop meetup in Mesa sounds nice, but what if that one guy just happened to be a fluke? I've been to small groups where nobody had any budget or authority, and I walked out with nothing but empty promises and a bitter aftertaste. Plus, those big mixers let you cast a wide net and find the few real players hiding in the crowd, which you can't do if you're only talking to the same 15 people every month.
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