Danny Moynihan’s Brilliant Open Coffee Moment

It was around 11:30 am.

I just closed the main pitching activity at the recently-held JGL Open Coffee activity and told everyone to gather at the hallway of 47 East to take a quick group pic.

And so we did.

After that, I told everyone it was free time.

You can probably imagine what happens next.

Wondrous chaos.

People began to just talk with one another. Small groups of 2, 3, and four people began to form.

Energy filled the room.

And then, incoming senior student Danny Moynihan unassumingly enters the room.

He quickly introduced himself to me, and then apologized for being late (he was from the south and got lost).

He then asked:

“Is the pitching done?”

“Yes, it was a few minutes ago.”

“Can I try to pitch?”

“Uhm…alright, let me try gathering them”

I then tried shouting: GUYS! CAN WE JUST GATHER QUICKLY FOR A QUICK PITCH?

…

I shouted again.

It was no use though.

People were very much INTO their conversations.

So I told Danny: “Sorry bro, it’s going to be tough to gather them like this.”

“Can I try, though?” Danny asked.

“Be my guest.”

After around 10 minutes, Danny miraculously got some of the people sitting down in an adjacent room, with half the people still having small conversations in the hallway.

Then, he got up on an elevated part of the room.

Then he proceeded to do what had to be THE LAST THING I’D EVER THOUGHT I’D SEE IN AN OPEN COFFEE EVENT.

You just have to see it for yourself: (go full volume)

Of course, by the time he finished, EVERYONE’S EARS were glued now glued to his every word. He then calmly gave his pitch. (and got more than a few people interested)

Now THAT, I thought, was pretty entrepreneurial!

(Lesson here: NEVER miss a JGL OPEN COFFEE session 🙂