Why Creatives and Founders Need to Start Meeting for Lunch Again

I've been having many conversations lately with many people - friends, colleagues, people I meet at cafes about how working from home is messing with our heads. What many say, is that we never really processed what happened during the pandemic and how it changed us

The flexibility we've gained with remote, home and hybrid working has come with a HUGE cost. For creatives and founders especially, this shift has been particularly devastating. We've lost something essential: the spark that comes from genuine human connection - to create and bounce ideas off one another

We've traded connection for flexibility - and lost both

Connection – recognition - sits very high on our emotional needs. Without it, we're lost - lonely, numb and bored. We've also lost all the in between bits of connection which helped us have a stronger and more patience collective muscle: small moments of connection (whether it be on transport, at a cafe or your work cafeteria), those natural pauses and transitions and casual interactions that kept us feeling grounded (and human).

What we think is flexibility has actually tied us to our desks for longer and more hours!

Research backs this up: A Gallup Report found that only 18% of employees are engaged with work and feel that they belong. Yet the wear and tear on our socialization also comes at higher health cost - driving up levels of anxiety, depression and the early onset of cardio vascular disease - with WHO reporting that 1 in 5 adults now feel socially isolated with feelings of loneliness.

For creatives, this isolation is particularly damaging. Creativity thrives on serendipitous encounters, random conversations, and the energy that comes from bouncing ideas off other people. When you're stuck in your home office, staring at the same four walls every day, inspiration becomes harder to find. You also prehaps find it harder to you, digging deeper into the internet will only lead you through a labyrinth of nonsense, yet give no real inspiration

The Modern Work Trap

Now, instead of driving to a meeting with the radio on and some time to just passively be, we jump straight from one video call to the next. We're on a Teams/ Zoom call while also answering and checking all our other channels and devices - our brain and thoughts shattered and fragmented.

This fragmented way of working is killing our creativity and draining our mental healthThe casual conversations that used to happen in hallways, the ones where you'd learn about team morale, get early warning about problems, or stumble upon brilliant solutions simply don't exist anymore.

The Lost Art of the Business Lunch

I quickly realized: these micro-changes aren't enough. We need something bigger, something that forces us out of our isolated bubbles and back into meaningful human connection.

Remember business lunches?

They used to be a staple of professional life. Not the stuffy, expensive affairs you see in movies, but simple get-togethers where colleagues, clients, and collaborators would share a meal and actually talk to each other.

Somewhere in our rush to optimize everything, we forgot the power of breaking bread together. Lunch meetings became "quick coffee chats" that turned into 15-minute Zoom calls. We lost the ritual, the rhythm, and most importantly, the relationship-building that happens when you sit across from someone for an hour without the distractions of home or office. This is critical to our professional world - we build better and deeper networks - we promise to deliver more in returns than Linkedin or other online platforms.

For creatives and founders, lunch meetings offer something that no video call can replicate: unstructured time. The best ideas don't come from scheduled brainstorming sessions. They emerge from the spaces between topics, the tangents, the moments when conversation flows naturally from one subject to another.

Why Your Best Ideas Happen Over Food

There's science behind why sharing meals sparks creativity. When we eat with others, our brains release oxytocin, often called the "bonding hormone." This chemical doesn't just make us feel good – it actually enhances cognitive flexibility and creative thinking.

A 2019 study published in the Journal of Creative Behavior found that people generated 23% more creative solutions to problems after sharing a meal with colleagues compared to those who worked alone. The researchers attributed this to a combination of relaxed atmosphere, social bonding, and the natural conversation flow that happens over food.

Think about your best professional relationships. Chances are, many of them were deepened over meals. There's something about the act of eating together that breaks down barriers and builds trust in ways that formal meetings simply can't.

The Founder's Dilemma

If you're a founder, you probably tell yourself you don't have time for lunch meetings. You're wrong. You don't have time NOT to have them.

Running a company is fundamentally about people – your team, your customers, your partners, your investors. Every one of these relationships benefits from deeper connection. The insights you'll gain from a casual lunch conversation with a team member are worth more than six formal one-on-ones. The trust you'll build with a potential partner over tacos will accelerate deals better than any PowerPoint presentation.

Serial entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, famously built his network through what he calls "small goods" – small favors and interactions that compound over time. Lunch meetings are the ultimate small good. They show you value someone enough to spend unhurried time with them.

The Creative's Need for Inspiration

For creatives, lunch meetings serve another crucial purpose: they fill your inspiration tank. When you're stuck in your home studio or office, your creative inputs become limited. You see the same things, talk to the same people, consume the same media. Your creative well starts to run dry.

Meeting different people for lunch exposes you to new perspectives, different industries, fresh challenges. That conversation with a marketing director might spark an idea for your next project. The story a fellow freelancer tells about their latest client could inspire a completely different approach to your work.

Creative director and author Austin Kleon advocates for what he calls "scenius" – the idea that creativity emerges from scenes and communities, not isolated genius. Lunch meetings are a simple way to tap into your local scenius, even in our increasingly remote world.

Making It Happen: A Simple Framework

Starting a lunch meeting habit doesn't have to be complicated. Here's a framework that works:

Start Small: Commit to one lunch meeting per week. Pick someone you already know but haven't seen in a while.

Keep It Simple: You don't need reservations at fancy restaurants. Food trucks, casual cafes, even a picnic in the park works. The goal is connection, not culinary excellence.

Be Intentional: Don't just catch up on work. Ask about their current challenges, what they're excited about, what they're learning. Be genuinely curious about them as a person.

Mix Your Circle: Don't just meet with people in your industry. Some of the most valuable conversations happen with people who see the world differently than you do.

Follow Up: Send a quick message after your lunch thanking them and mentioning something specific you discussed. This shows you were present and engaged.

The Ripple Effect

When you start having regular lunch meetings, something interesting happens. Other people start reaching out to you. Word spreads that you're someone who values real connection. Your network grows organically, and more importantly, it grows with intention and depth.

You'll find that your mental health improves. Having something to look forward to in the middle of the week – a real conversation with a real person – breaks up the monotony of remote work. You'll come back to your desk energized and often with new ideas.

Your work will improve too. The insights you gain, the relationships you build, and the creative inspiration you gather will compound over time. Problems that seemed insurmountable will have solutions. Projects that felt stale will get new life.

The Time to Start Is Now

We've spent three years adapting to remote work, but we've never really questioned whether all of our adaptations were good for us. It's time to be more intentional about bringing back the human elements that make work fulfilling.

Maybe the way to negate some of the crappy parts of remote work is by figuring out how to make it more like it was when we were all in the office. But we don't need to wait for companies to mandate return-to-office policies. We can start rebuilding connection one lunch at a time.

Your mental health, your creativity, and your career will thank you. So will the people you

invite to share a meal with you.

Who will you have lunch with this week?