Talking to strangers
Ages ago, I listened to the audiobook version of Keith Ferrazzi’s “Never Eat Alone.” It had some helpful tips on networking, though I still question the central premise. I look forward to eating alone.
When I travel for work, I’m usually by myself. And when I’m by myself, I like to catch up on my reading, listening and resting. I’m an introvert who requires nourishing solitude to recharge his batteries. So I’m typically not one to go to happy hour after the sessions are over. If I’m in transit, I’ve got headphones in and am trying to enjoy the scenery.
And yet, we all must stretch out of our comfort zones at times. I talked to a stranger at an airport earlier this year with no expectations whatsoever. The results of that conversation were surprising.
I was waiting for a flight at National Airport, and the gate attendant wanted to tell us all that the wi-fi on the plane wouldn’t be working. He walked around and told us individually instead of making an announcement, because it turns out our flight only had 15 passengers. I noticed a flash of purple when he came around to talk to me.
“You’ve got a Northwestern lanyard,” I said. “I went to Northwestern… did you?”
In fact, he did not. But his daughter did, and had recently completed her MBA at the prestigious Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She was living in New York and loving life, and dad was very proud. I mentioned that I’d gone to the journalism school, and he asked what I was doing professionally these days. I told him I was happily working as an executive coach. He nodded and wished me a safe flight to Kansas City.
A blink of an eye later, I heard, “Excuse me, did you say you were an executive coach?”
The woman sitting next to me had overheard our conversation and leaned over to introduce herself. Turns out she works for a capacity-building nonprofit that runs a leadership development program, and they were looking for coaches! She wasn’t on my flight, so we exchanged contact information and pledged to stay in touch.
The following week, I joined the coaching roster of that organization, and got assigned to a brand-new client.
In my roughly four dozen years on this planet, this is the first time that I’ve ever found work by talking to a stranger. I have a feeling it won’t be the last.