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Meeting Interesting People

by | May 25, 2023 | Open Leadership

serendipity

Yesterday I had a day full of meeting interesting people, a day full of serendipities and flow. The day had been planned out for five different meetings in central London but ended up with four and all but one of those was, in some fashion, not part of the plan the day before. It was an extraordinary day, I loved every part of it and how it flowed. Today, then, I’ll simply share a “day in my life” as it happened.

My day began waking up in my home on my own the morning after a road trip to support a family member with an exciting and positive move. I then headed up to town by train for a coffee meeting at a venue that was changed late the day before. My friend had then found a hidden gem in a central location with a private garden, and on what felt like the first day of summer, it was just a gorgeous location for a highly stimulating and positive conversation with them about “what comes next” for them.

After that, my next meeting was close by and with an author, speaker and thinker. A mutual friend had introduced us and felt we would have much to talk about. As it turned out, our conversation was highly focussed on what they wanted to do with their work and who they would want to reach and why. I love such conversations, where I can blend listening and then asking questions (aka coaching), with some insights and potential direction. Of course, what greatly added to it was sitting by a shallow pool in the courtyard of one of London’s most legendary museums as the sun continued to shine upon us.

After those first two meetings, the second one of which finished a little after 1pm, my original plan for the day had been to go across town and use a meeting room for a few hours to have two client video calls to the Americas and then step out of there to host a network meeting through to 6:30 pm.

However, this is when things changed a little more and serendipity stepped in. As I walked to the tube station, I was advised that the network meeting had been postponed to a later date. As it turned out, the second of my client meetings had also been postponed to a later date, so now I was going to be free from 3:30 onwards. Before I could think about what to do with this time, I checked social media and found that a friend from Cayman was in London that day. I messaged them and yes, they were keen to meet, so after my client meeting (which happened to be with someone in Cayman!), I walked for a few minutes to meet my friend and one of their great friends (another wonderful and truly interesting person!) at an ancient London pub where we had a sparkling conversation for two hours.

What a great day, and it continued, as I then got the train back to my town at the edge of London and joined a team of six for a quiz night at the wonderful local wine bar.

A day of meeting serendipities and meeting interesting people.

Hmm, what will tomorrow hold?