A Repurposed Life by Ronni Kahn & Jessica Chapnik Kahn

Author:Ronni Kahn & Jessica Chapnik Kahn [Kahn, Ronni & Kahn, Jessica Chapnik]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2020-08-19T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 25

THE LUNCH MEETING

So much of my education came from the Macquarie Foundation. They were serious about investing in social entrepreneurs. There were lots of us. And they didn’t just invest with their money. They’d find guest speakers and have training sessions, and really educate us in invaluable ways. I was invited to participate in many different events and experiences that helped improve my skill set, and it felt amazing. Weeks after receiving my very first seed money from them, Julie arranged an important meeting for OzHarvest, for more fundraising opportunities. She said I was to meet two women from a Melbourne foundation who were quite powerful in terms of giving away money. They were coming to Sydney to meet people; little did I know that this lunch would end up being one of the biggest learning curves of my career.

It was at the Museum of Sydney. I’d never been there to eat before, and when I arrived, I could see it was a very fancy lunch. In the event sector, we didn’t go out to fancy lunches with clients. I’d often meet clients at their homes, where I’d look around their house, learn about them, tell them how I could best reflect their lives in their event. So this fancy lunch date to discuss business was a pretty new idea to me. And my understanding was, people are very, very busy, so above all, don’t waste their precious time. I wanted to be effective and respectful. I decided beforehand that I wasn’t going to eat lunch, because I wouldn’t be able to eat and talk at the same time, plus this would make it a swift meeting for them.

The women arrived, dressed to the nines. ‘Are you going to eat anything?’ they asked.

‘Oh no, I don’t eat over lunch meetings.’

They looked at each other. ‘Oh. Okay, well … we’re eating.’

‘Okay, sure,’ I said. ‘I can just talk while you eat.’

‘Would you like a glass of wine?’ they asked.

‘Oh, no, I don’t drink at lunchtime.’

They looked at each other again. ‘Oh, okay, well … would you like a cup of tea?’

I said, ‘No, no, a glass of water will do me just fine.’ They looked at each other yet again.

Their food arrived, and they proceeded to eat their lunch. They ate while I talked and talked and watched, and slowly died of starvation. Two minutes after I finished giving my spiel, they just started chatting amongst themselves about other things, completely uninterested in anything I had just said. And I continued to sit there and watch them, while I sipped my water. It was the most terrible, awkward meeting of my life and, obviously, there was zero connection. I was mortified by the end of that lunch. There was nothing left to do but excuse myself. Thank God I left before dessert! I was weak at the knees from hunger, but I had thought that my approach was the right thing to do. Needless to say, I never received a single dollar from them.

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