Networking progress ? (or are coffee chats a waste of everyones time)

Just wanted to hop on here cause Im pretty much the only finance guy in my circle so this is the only place I can really ask this, and hence BEING  the only finance guy ive had to take a lot of iniciative coming out of my comfort zone and networking with folk. its been a pretty mixed bag overall but mainly been targeting ib analysts and pe analysts as I look to land my first internship. From what I understand I have a pretty  average response rate of about 40% from cold emailing. My convos average about 40 min with the longest lasting approx 3.5+ hours (in person) and another one with a pe micro fund associate lasting 1+ hour over zoom (and dw I always time check at the 15 min mark). most of these conversations ultimately result with guys asking for cases or projects ive been working on in school etc. I guess my question is are these dudes just being nice and trying to be helpful or are these good signs and am I actually moving the needle (sorry for the long ass novel just been on my mind)