Why does nobody in my local network group mention the boring follow ups that landed real work?
Creative pros network meetup in Portland back in March. 40 people in a rented room. Everyone swapped cards and talked about their portfolios.
I emailed 12 people after. Got 3 replies. Two were basically nothing.
But the third guy, a motion designer named Ray, sent a full breakdown of how he priced a project for a shoe brand. Real numbers. Two rounds of revisions. He didn't ask for anything back.
Three months later he passed my name to a client. $2,400 job out of a single follow up email nobody else bothered to write.
The group chat is full of people posting new reel edits and asking for feedback. Almost nobody posts about what happened after the handshake.
So I want to know. What did you send after a networking event that got a reply? Not the clever intro. The follow up. What did yours say?
Man, I gotta disagree with the framing here. People do talk about follow ups, they just don't post about them in the group chat because it feels like bragging. The room is for swapping work and getting eyes on your reel. The inbox is where the real stuff happens. You wrote 12 emails and got one hit. That's a normal ratio, not a broken system. Thing is, most folks send a follow up that says "great meeting you, let's stay in touch" and that's it. No hook, no reason to write back. Ray gave you something useful with no strings. That's the whole trick and it's not really a trick. What did I send after a meetup? I asked one guy what software he used for a specific client thing he mentioned. One question. He answered. We talked for a year. Then he had too much work and threw me a job. So the follow up matters way more than the event. The group chat just isn't built for that part.