Four tips to ditch the meal and really connect
No Burger, No Meeting 😁
Four tips to ditch the meal and really connect.
How do meals play a part in our entrepreneurship?
Is it the fuel for activity management, the excuse to meet, both, or another reason?
Bonding is the purpose for me and this newsletter, pure and simple.
I like to use coffee as the bonding agent for me, it used to be invitations of food, breaking the bread, grabbing a meal, however I needed to change that as the food was taking over the experience of true bonding. In this newsletter I would like to share how the absence of a key component during a connection can shake off the norm eat/talk/eat/talk pattern.
The functional aspect of the “grabbing a meal together” is easy, as the function allows for quiet time for the other to talk without the pressure of impatience for the guest. But what happens when you take that out?
True networking happens.
I just had one of the coolest networking follow-ups.
Ever wonder where those cool photos of food come from on menus or marketing material, or on commercials when they show that sizzling burger that is five inches tall and just dripping with barbeque sauce, topped with all the fixins’ – onions, pickles (I love pickles), and maybe some lettuce. Oh! Can’t forget cheese! Yellow cheese slowly moving down the meat at it soaks up the heat of the meal.
Those look awesome!!! Do not let the food sabotage the networking!
Mental picture set. Ignore the grumble of your stomach for the rest of this newsletter.
Now take that away, how do you have a conversation in this day and age, when talking to a businessperson/entrepreneur, when the very survival of said entrepreneur is the use of time efficiency and scaling work. It is always this and that. Doing two things at once. Eating and Talking. Drinking and Podcasting. Speed and time management rules most situations. Pride and opportunity costs can quickly make a networking event a sales pitch.
This is a no-no. Don’t do that.
Sales pitches are necessary but be cautious of making every meeting a Fuller-Man door-to-door experience.
Door-to-Door sales (D2D) have a purpose, and networking is not one of them. In most scenarios, the Fuller-Man years are behind us, and not to disrespect the field of field sales, the D2D method has proven to be effective in certain instances and remains a valid usable technique. Just look at all the magazine subscriptions I have piling up that I do not need.
True networking is a different type of selling, it is the core of relational business methods where service to your network brings the sales. In the afterthought, after the connection is made. During the dinner conversations that follow with other connections. Through side conversations with customers. The heart of networking is the referral game.
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Back to the main topic of the story. Removing the meal and introducing a beverage instead.
The after-network meeting is necessary to establish a tangible connection. I like to visit the person in their creative space to see the magic. Magic was what I saw 100-fold in this example. I met a food photographer. I have met photographers before, a profession that I idolize as I do not have the talent. The images they see through a lens is dramatically different from what I see. I am the monkey watching Picasso work and saying, “look at the pretty colors,” it is sad really. Only in my adulthood do I find the appreciation growing to be exponential on encountering the magic that is experience.
The gravity of the visit started out with a warm welcome of water or a coffee, and unfortunately, I was late (completely misjudged the time to get there), that was completely on me. The quick walk through the office area where the business end gets done, we enter the studio. I accept the water, a new brand of flavored water, new to me anyway.
Hint water was pretty good.
The studio was marvelous. I wonder if a writer can have a studio, which has such a ring to it? After setting down my notebook and grabbing that water the tour started. Again, I am the monkey here seeing how the magic is made and not once did the expert make me feel undervalued as a person. Each explanation held with it an understanding of customer service to provide patience and the love of photography.
Then the showing of backdrops, shelves of dishes, stories of collaborating with clients and the perfect burger. Oh, and did I tell you there is a fully equipped kitchen in this space. Talk about giving the client opportunities to recreate a masterpiece right there instead of asking them to schedule again when its perfect.
How many burgers does it take to make a perfect one?
This is a silly question, and I did not ask that because I am a fan of all burgers. I love diversity and being inclusive to all burgers I meet. Listening to the stories of chefs creating the perfect looking plate was filling my mind with a newfound love for photography.
All inclusive burgers need love too.
So, let us take a moment to share my experience with photographers. I also apologize to any photographer that I generalized in the past. Your profession has shared the need for details only you can see. I have had my picture taken a million times at school picture days with the stars & space backdrop and I have tried to capture things with my phones and polaroids (yes, I dated myself).
Then a couple of years ago I had a professional headshot done.
WOW!
The result was so different than anything in my past. Mad respect for professional photographers out there AND I had no idea that the field was so diverse. Now I have met a food photographer. Two niches that command respect in the photography world. Mad respect peeps.
Back to the topic of coffee offered and time during our networking. After the tour we sat at a table, wood grained with a comfortable chair. Both fit perfectly into the studio/industrial/open format, and we talked. Just talked.
The lack of a meal was no hindrance at all, and the pauses were so natural to allow for depth and deep meaning. During this meeting we discussed everything from how we both ended up sitting there, face to face. How our industries have changed, for the good and some for the bad. Openness was the key, and because there was no meal to dictate the end, we ended up talking to the point where our partners were texting asking when we would be home.
Just as we are discussing without a meal my wife texts with a picture of our dinner that night. 😁
You laugh, but that happened.
That is when I knew it was a success. Sales were the last thing on my mind however we did discuss a bit how we could be of value to each other and our networks. Its not forbidden to discuss business it just should not be forced on the moment.
It is a wrong fit if the whole situation is forced. For facilitating getting an unforced fit follow a few tips (alliteration by accident).
The tips of this newsletter are:
Find a comfortable place to meet. Ideally at the location of the connection guest to see the magic and inspiration come through the conversation.
Make sure distractions are limited. For instance, try not to have the vise presidential debate on. It will be hard to concentrate when J.D. Vance and Tim Walz get their mics cut off. Another one, and this is big, silence the phone and in my case, I like to face it down, so I do not even see the notifications pop up.
Reflect on the meeting afterward while listening to cool coffee shop music like Bakar “Hell N Back” or Teyana Taylor “Issues/Hold On.” (I’m doing that now)
While reflecting grab the feeling you felt during the meeting and use that to drive your mission of seeing how you can support your network. I prefer to do this over Nespresso coffee at home, but a cool coffee shop works great to..
Enjoy your day, Handprint Content.
