How to Meet New People

Whenever someone at a party asks me what I do for work, I rarely know what to say.

I do a lot of things. I work for Jeremiah Davis helping him produce videos, I run social media ads for businesses, I talk shop with freelancers and entrepreneurs in my IGTV series, I write copy and create websites. So when someone asks me what I do, I spin the wheel of options around in my brain until I land on the one they seem most interested by.

Most of the time I just end up tripping over this question, so I try to change the subject as quickly as possible.

Because of this, I’ve come to dislike the typical “what do you do” question. It’s so plain and it puts people in autopilot. I hate getting the glazed over, half-hearted response from people when I ask what they do.

So I’ve discovered a better question.

“What did you do today?”

Every time I ask this question, I see people’s eyes snap out of auto-pilot, and then they really look at me, and start telling me what they did. I’d much rather hear about the new restaurant someone went to, or their overbearing boss, or the movie they saw than what they do for work. From here, I try to dig into as many details about what they did as possible, asking follow-up questions. My goal is to ask as many questions as I can before they realize they should probably reciprocate.

This helps me actually connect with people on a human level, and escape the canned conversations. Obviously, the we eventually start chatting about work. But with even just a little backstory and trust, people are a lot more likely to be honest about what they do and actually share their goals with me. And that achieves the purpose of networking 100 times better than asking what someone does outright.

I encourage you to try to get out of the question routine at networking events and parties. Real human connection is at stake.

I hope this was helpful for you, please share it with a friend who you think will find it valuable.