By Brett Kaufman. 8 years using relationships to build sales pipelines, from political fundraising to a 7 figure business to running matchmaking for two communities. Over 1,000 introductions facilitated.

Networking office hours work when you run them as an intro desk, not a coffee chat. Block one recurring time each week, split it into 20 minute slots, make people write their ask before they book, and end every slot with an intro you will make, a clear no, or one next step.

That is how to run networking office hours without them turning into three more coffees a week.

You know the week this fixes. A searcher texts asking if you know an SBA lender in Ohio. A founder in your mastermind wants a family office that writes direct checks. A CPA you met at a dinner wants to “pick your brain.” Each ask lands at a different hour, in a different app, and each one gets “let me think on it.” By Friday you owe five intros and remember two.

I run matchmaking for two communities and have facilitated over 1,000 introductions. The asks never stop. What changes is whether they arrive in one place, at one time, with the context already written down.

What are networking office hours for someone who makes intros?

They are a standing block where people bring you one ask and leave with a decision. Not mentoring, not a catch up, not a pitch meeting.

Think of it as intake. Office hours are where intro requests come in. Your weekly intro block is where they go out. Keep the two separate and neither one eats your week.

How to run networking office hours, step by step

Here is how I would set it up from zero.

1. Pick one recurring time. Same day, same hour, every week. A 90 minute block holds three 20 minute slots with a 10 minute gap after each. The gap is where the intro gets written down.
2. Make a booking page with three required questions. The questions are below. No answers, no slot.
3. Share the link with the right people. Your communities, people you already know, and anyone a trusted contact sends you. Not your email signature.
4. Read every ask the night before. Search your network for the match before the call, not during it. Five minutes of prep per slot is the whole job.
5. Run the slot in three parts. Five minutes on the ask, ten on the match, five on the close.
6. Close with one of three outcomes, out loud. “I will ask Dana today.” “I don’t know the right person, but Mike might.” “No, and here is why.”
7. Ask the other side within 48 hours. Never connect two people before both say yes. The double opt in intro template has the exact texts.
8. Log it and set a check date. Date, who to whom, the one line why, who asked. Check back at 30 days.

What should the office hours booking form ask?

Three questions. Each one saves you ten minutes on the call.

1. Who are you trying to reach?
   (Role, industry, geography. Example: SBA lender, $2M to $5M deals, Ohio.)

2. Why now?
   (The dated reason. Example: LOI signed Oct 20, need a term sheet in 30 days.)

3. Who have you already talked to?
   (So I don't send you someone you already know.)

The second question does the most work. An ask with a date is an intro you can make this week. An ask without one, like “would love to meet investors,” is usually not ready, and a polite no is the kindest answer.

Which office hours format fits you?

Most deal makers should start invite only. Here is how the formats compare.

Format	Who books	Best for	Watch out for
Invite only link	People you already know	Most operators and advisors	Fills slowly the first month
Community link	Members of your mastermind or group	Hosts and matchmakers	The same three people book every week
Public link	Anyone who finds it	Someone building a name for the stage	Pitches and cold asks crowd out real ones
Group session	Four to six people on one call	Peers who can intro each other	Confidential asks do not belong in a group

The tool is the easy part. Cal.com’s free plan includes unlimited event types for one user. Calendly’s free plan includes one event type, which is all office hours needs, and its Standard plan is $10 per seat a month billed yearly if you want more. Either one lets you add required booking questions.

How do you end each slot so the intro actually happens?

You say the outcome out loud and write it down before the next person joins. Promises made on a call and not written down are the intros you owe and forget.

Here is a worked example of one Thursday morning. The people are illustrative, not real.

• 8:00, a searcher. Form says: SBA lender, Ohio, LOI signed last week. You already found two lenders the night before. Outcome: you will ask the one in Columbus tonight.
• 8:30, a founder. Form says: family office, industrial services, raising this quarter. No direct match in your network. Outcome: you name a wealth manager who knows two family offices and offer to ask her first.
• 9:00, a CPA. Form says “pick your brain.” You ask for the one client situation on her desk. She has an owner who wants to sell in about 18 months. Outcome: you offer to ask a searcher you trust if he wants that conversation, once both sides agree.

Three slots. Three open intros. All of them written down before 9:30, each with a date and a one line why.

What goes wrong with office hours?

The block is simple to start and easy to let rot. Four things usually break it.

• The same few people book every week. Cap it at one slot per person per month.
• Asks arrive without a reason. Hold the line on the “why now” question.
• The promises leave the call in your head. Ten minute gap, every time, no exceptions.
• The 30 day check never happens. Nobody sets a reminder for a favor between two other people. That is why the value of most intros goes unrecorded, and why the intro ledger has a check date column.

Office hours are one piece of the larger super connector operating system: capture, context, the intro ledger, and the daily ten minutes.

Where FRONT OF MIND fits

The hour is the easy part. The work is everything around it: finding the match the night before, remembering what each person told you, asking both sides, and checking back a month later.

That is why I built FRONT OF MIND. In the gap after each slot, say both names and a sentence out loud and it is filed. Ask Liala out loud, “who do I know that is an M&A advisor” or “who lives in Miami,” and you get the right people with why, which is the night before prep done in seconds.

Every morning the app opens on your 10 minutes for today. Intros to make this week show up with dated proof on both sides. Follow ups that are due come with a one line reason why today and a draft written like a text, 40 words max. Nothing sends without your tap, and it learns from your edits.

It runs in your phone browser, and you can save it to your home screen. Your contacts are encrypted. No one on our team looks at them. Export and delete anytime. If FRONT OF MIND doesn’t surface people in your network worth reaching out to within 72 hours, we’ll refund you. No questions asked.

Start free with your first 25 contacts and 1 intro, and see which ask you can answer first.

See how it works