Finally got a regular spot at the Wednesday freelancer coffee in Boise

After going maybe twice a month for six months, I started seeing the same faces and now have three people I actually text for advice. How do you all make those first real connections at a meetup?

3 comments

3 Comments

fionat5512d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly just show up and talk to people like they're people. I went to a design meetup for a year and my big win was finding someone who also hates the new bus schedule. We text about that, not work. It's not a networking mission, it's coffee.

angela72812d ago

Isn't it funny how it just clicks after a while? I stuck with a weekly run club for months before I actually made a friend. The trick for me was stopping the small talk and asking one real question. Instead of just talking about the weather, I asked someone what they were listening to to keep going. That led to swapping playlists, then to grabbing a smoothie after. It's about finding that one tiny shared thing beyond the main reason you're both there.

webb.hannah12d ago

Yeah and sometimes it's the dumb stuff that sticks. I met my now best friend at a book club because we both hated the main character in the same way. We spent the whole walk to the parking lot just ripping on that guy, and then it was like, okay, we have to keep talking. It wasn't about loving the book, it was about hating the same part.