Then the first guest arrived. A few more showed up at the door, a few more came within minutes.
Suddenly, I was distracted by talking to people as the violinist was played in the background. I looked around after an hour and the room was full. It wasn’t a huge crowd, but it was respectable. The chatter was loud enough, the music drifted through the office space, people were laughing, talking, and engaged with one another. “A marketing success”, I thought to myself.
But the next day, I realized that I hadn’t had any real conversations. I was busy flitting around being the host. I was greeting guests, pointing them toward the drinks, making the same shallow remarks over and over again. The guests were happy so I was happy. But, I hadn’t spent any time going deep in conversation. It was all surface level chit chat. It was good enough for a Valentine’s Day party, but not for building a referral network.
