Found a weird trick to beat imposter syndrome at trade shows

Last month I was at a big logistics expo in Dallas and felt totally out of place surrounded by all these polished suits. So I started pretending I was just there to collect free pens and ask dumb questions like 'how fast does that truck actually go.' It worked weirdly well because people opened up more when I dropped the act. Has anyone else tried faking cluelessness to make better connections?

2 comments

2 Comments

evan_dixon671mo ago

@jesse773 yeah I feel that, the pen thing was more like a prop to break the ice. I'd grab one and be like "oh these are cool, what's your company do?" and then people just started chatting. Once they laughed about the truck speed question, I dropped the act and had normal conversations. It's like the dumb questions made me seem approachable or something. You ever try something like that?

jesse7731mo ago

Yo hold up, I gotta ask about the pen thing. Were you really just walking up to booths and grabbing pens without saying anything, or did you actually chat with people while you did it? Cause I feel like there's a difference between looking like a lost puppy who wandered in off the street versus someone who's genuinely just curious. Like did you have to keep up the clueless bit the whole time or did you drop it after you broke the ice and got real with them?