Meetings have a bad reputation, and I have contributed to that reputation.
They interrupt work days, run over time, and waste hours we will never get back. Within these negative traits, the worst kind is the unclear meeting—no agenda, no purpose, just the ambiguous “let’s have a coffee meeting” request from people I do not know.
Over the years, I have become a “no agenda, no meeting” person. It has saved me time and sanity.
Recently, I received a message from a stranger that broke all my rules. He had commented on one of my LinkedIn posts, then sent a direct message: “Possible to have a zoom call before Jan 26th, 2026?”
As a “no agenda, no meeting” type of person, my first instinct was no. But there was one word in his message that got me curious—“before.” What is the significance of the date? Why the deadline? Who is this person, and why me?
I reviewed his LinkedIn profile for the second time. Builder, construction industry, many posts about projects. Nothing obviously connected to my work. The more I looked, the more questions I had without answers.
With this curiosity, I decided to say yes to a meeting with a stranger.
He was not truly a stranger
Turns out there are no strangers in today’s hyper-connected digital world.
We shared many LinkedIn contacts (although many of those contacts would also fall under the stranger category for me). He was active in posting about his company’s construction projects and generous in commenting on other people’s posts. His thoughtful question on my recent post about geometry and zoning policy made me reflect on whether I had the facts straight.
The more I scrolled through his profile and read his posts, the more I realized he was not a stranger but a professional contact I just had not met yet.
This shift happened gradually, somewhere between reading his third post and noticing our mutual connections. While we might have differences in our work, one thing became clear; he was no longer a stranger.
With that familiarity, I felt better about saying yes to his meeting request.
His specific and urgent request sparked real curiosity
I must admit his question, “can we talk before January 26th?” did what most cold outreach fails to do; it made me want to know more.
What happens before that date? Is he planning a development project? Would he become a client? There were many questions without answers, but one thing was clear.
This meeting was not going to be a generic hello meeting, the kind I would say no to. He definitely had a meeting agenda, even though I had not received a copy.
As a business owner, I get many pitches. Building materials manufacturers, job candidates, marketing companies offering free SEO reviews.
Of course, I have sent out many pitches over the years that resulted in silence.
My hunch is that their hit rate is probably as low as mine, which explains why so many people including myself resort to the spray-and-pray method—send the same email to hundreds of people and hope something sticks.
As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. People (including me) do things they see value in, not because someone asked.
The specific and urgent nature of his pitch was the successful kind. It sparked my interest and made me curious enough to learn more about him and his request.
Adding people to the zoom call raised the stakes
His effective approach continued after I said yes.
When his assistant sent me the zoom link, I noticed there were two other attendees besides him. My first thought was, why would he add more people to a first meeting?
After searching these names, I learned they were senior people in his construction company. While I tried to come up with possible reasons for their attendance, one thing was clear—he had a meeting agenda and probably shared it with the other attendees. I just had not received it yet.
With this setup, I got more curious and hopeful about the potential for working together. I recognized there were promising signs to this connection. A project possibility? A working partnership?
Going through these questions, I started thinking about the word “stranger” again.
Even though he was a stranger to me, maybe I was not a stranger to him. Does he already know me? From where, and in what context?
Once again, my curiosity was building.
Final Thought
I still do not know what will happen in this meeting. It could turn out to be just a polite hello with a few more people on the screen. But here is what I learned from saying yes.
My “no agenda, no meeting” rule has served me well over the years. It has protected my time and reduced pointless conversations.
However, this experience made me realize that the same rule might also be filtering out genuine business opportunities. The meetings that look inefficient on the surface might be the ones worth taking.
This stranger did not follow the usual professional outreach playbook. He did not send a formal agenda or explain his purpose upfront. Instead, he gave me just enough specificity and urgency to make me curious. That approach worked better than any polished pitch email ever could.
Maybe the problem is not vague meeting requests. Maybe the problem is that I have become too rigid about what a “good” meeting request should look like.
I will find out soon enough what happens before January 26th. Until then, I am left wondering—how many other interesting connections have I turned down because they did not fit my meeting criteria?
Turns out my “no agenda, no meeting” rule might need its own agenda item: “Discuss why this rule exists.”
Life Outside of Design Studio 