Your network is your net worth. But how do you build one?
There are no absolute answers obviously, but this week I read 2 articles that do partially answer the question. Every week I share what I learned here. I spent last week thinking about network effects and people who've purposefully done that well. Luckily, I stumbled across 2 great resources.
- Jeff Goins from Goins Writer
Jeff Goins is one of the most popular bloggers of our time. He shared how his first 9 blogs had failed between 2006-2009 in this podcast episode. Goins writer was his 10th attempt in blogging.
In 2 years he had 10k subscribers and made $150,000. Let me summarize what changed.
Tools change often. Strategies sometimes. Principles never change
Set internal goals
"All my failed blogs had 1 thing in common. I had quit them." So with Goins Writer, he made 1 decision. He'd write EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR 2 YEARS. And if he failed to get 250 subscribers at the end of 2 years, he'd quit.
Give more than you take.
For every 1 thing he'd sell, he'd give away 3 things for free. So before he wrote his first book that he sold, he gave away 3 books for free. He's since doubled down on that strategy giving away books, guides, webinars etc.
Jab, Jab, Jab. Right Hook - Give, Give, Give, Ask
Become someone's case study
This is my favorite. A lot has been written about guest posting as an engine of growth. But why will popular blogs allow you to tap into their audience?
What if you HELPED them by writing for them?
An example of this is Jeff Goins becoming Michael Hyatt's case study. Michael, in those days, was teaching his readers about implementing lead magnets. Jeff did exactly what Michael had asked and reached out to him with his results.
"I did this enough times with enough people that some of them started talking about me"
Michael asked Jeff to write a chapter in his book "Platform".
An important insight that Jeff had in the process was, everyone is looking for testimonials. If you implement someone's strategies and ask them to share your story, there's a chance you get to tap into their audience. You're helping them for sure, but every relationship starts with a favor.
Play long term games with long term people - Naval
- Peter Boyce - Partner at General Catalysts at age 30
How do you become a top VC at a top VC firm at a young age?
You build a networking juggernaut. Peter has built the most impressive personal CRM I've seen. Let's break this nut ...
Peter understands that most of his great investments will come from his network. So he created a networking machine. A comprehensive database of all his connections. The better and more extensive your connections are, the better your access to great investment opportunities. All great VCs know great investments is about relationships with great founders. No access, no opportunities.
Peter tracks every single person he ever meets in his Airtable. Here's what he captures -
-Name + Contact + location
-Circle (college, work, non-profit)
-Functional (professor, investor, founder)
-Status (If Peter has done something to keep in touch recently)
-Affinity (what the person is into like sports, productivity)
-Last touch (the last time Peter sent someone an email)
-Active (does he consider the relationship with the person to be currently active?)
-Cadence (how often Peter should be chatting with the person like weekly, monthly, quarterly)
-Events (events this person was invited to by Peter last time)
-Mutual (any mutual connections)
-This week (a list of people he'll connect to this week)
-Interests (what this person is interested in like art, books)
But what's the point?
Looking to invest? Here's a list of the founders you know.
or "say that the New Museum is doing an opening. I can use this to find out, for example, who I might be able to invite to see new art and catch up with there. I use this quite a bit."
The use cases go on and on ...
But the most powerful use case is probably this one
"When I’m meeting with someone, I write down the names of connections I should make – people I should introduce them to because they could be helpful in terms of advice, input, or thoughts. For example, I was in a meeting with Mike from Otis, and I thought that Stephanie French, who's a board member at the New Museum, would be great for him to meet with."
Peter Boyce executes networking like a master. Everyone will be better off with connections that'll help them. And you end up being the mutual bond among 100s of connections.
This was from Dan Shipper's article. Give it a read, it has so much more :)
