Transcript

The 5 Part Process to Networking Effectively - From the Archive

I feel like I can rule the world, I know I could be what I want to I put my all in it like my day's off a roadless travel, never looking back Hey, what's up, folks? Interim producer Bar Shop here again with another episode from the Archive. This one is a quick hit, um, probably from about two years ago. Sean dives into his networking process, which felt like a good fit based on our episode from Wednesday. If you haven't listened to that episode, go back and listen immediately. Uh Sean talks about his trip to LA, and within that episode, he tells a story about his business partner Ben, who, in his words, is the best networker he's ever met. So

This episode I'm about to play felt like a really nice pairing to that episode. Um, but I will stop talking and let Sean take it from here. Enjoy. Yeah. All right, let's talk about networking. Uh that is one of the most annoying buzzwords in the business world.

Uh nobody wants to be a networker. Or nobody I know, at least, that I nobody I like wants to be a networker, right? When we think of networker, I see schmoozing, suit wearing, kind of like fake complimenting, business card handing out or uh, you know, loves to be at a conference and just, you know believes that the only way to to send an email is to

Shoot it your way. Right. So nobody wants to be a networker, but everybody everybody wants a badass network. And pro you've probably heard the phrase Your network is your net worth. And um It's not true, but uh there's some truth in it, like all like all cliches. And so um

You know, I wanted to to And um I used to have this thing I I I wrote I half wrote a book. Like ten years ago.

uh of all the things I had learned my first year Doing a startup. And uh I never published it. Maybe I should someday. These are t it's turning now into, I guess, podcasts like this or my newsletter. uh go to Seanpurry.com. You should be subscribing. That's where I put out stories like this. But Anyhow, the um

The the phrase I used was, I said, networking is like Noah's Ark, right? You know the the old fabled story of Noah's Ark. Um so here's kind of how it's like Noah's Ark. Um you have the flood. And uh I would say for most business n most startup businesses um

Th just assume the float is coming, right? For a startup by default, you're gonna fail. You have to like do something to get out of failure into success. And so the flood is coming and your network is your best chance of surviving because within your network, you're gonna find knowledge, expertise, capital, strategy, different things that you're gonna need in order to survive. Uh okay, number two, build it before you need it. So you don't wanna try to build your network when you need a network, right? If you wanna fundraise

that's not the time to build your connections with investors. Uh it's it's too late at that point. Uh and it's very transparent exactly what you're doing is very transactional. So you don't build r a real network. You don't build real relationships. And so you wanna be placing deposits into those bank accounts. for months or years before you ever are trying to make a withdrawal. And uh so that's why build it before you need it and you wanna build it with the intention of it being mutually beneficial, right? You wanna be depositing so that they have something in their their account from you. You're giving before you're you're gonna end up asking for something. Number three.

Keep it kosher. So uh you know, in the story of Noah's Ark, God, you know, granted Noah and his followers the right to kill some of the animals and eat their meat, but Um, you know, f it had to be done in a certain way. And it's the same principle with your network. You want to use but don't abuse your network. Everybody hates that guy who's just constantly asking and constantly using the network, um, rather than it being a true, you know, friendship or or sort of allyship where we'll help each other out. Um and we'll we'll know where the line is where you're asking for too much. Okay, number four.

You want two of everything. So what I do when I build a network and this is I've never heard anyone else talk about this, but it's it's made common sense to me and I think you should do it too. Is You want to pair up

Every member in your network with another. So Um, often when you're networking, you're going to people that are, let's say more successful, more knowledgeable, more connected than you. That's very frequently the case. And so that creates a the potential for kind of a one way dynamic, right? And you gotta think, why would this why would this person on the other side

If I'm gonna if I know why I would want uh to be connected with them because they're they're smart and they're they're experienced and they have capital and they have connections. Why do they want to connect with me? Well First, have some confidence. They want to connect with you because you're an interesting person doing interesting things. That you're fun to be around, uh, that you're kind and you'll help them, you know, w without them even needing to ask.

But the second thing is when you're building a network, you don't want them all just to be connected to you. You want them to be connected to each other. Right, so when I meet somebody And I p I mean uh I have two people in my network. I raced introduced those two dots to each other, right? I want them to connect with each other. And now I've added value to both of them. uh just by connecting them with each other. So that's how you want two of everything, just like Noah had two of every animal on the ark. And um and by the way, I used to feel uh this weird sense of like, I don't know, jealousy'cause I would introduce two people that were in my network and all of a sudden they would become best friends and they would do business together and often they wouldn't even be including me in that stuff.

And I used to think, Oh man, maybe I shouldn't maybe I should be trying to keep everybody to myself. But obviously that's a naive, short sighted way of thinking about it. It's a natural human in human reaction, but it's not the right response. The right response is to say, hell yeah, I want all the people around me to be winning. And I have so much abundance in my life of success, of connections, of all this stuff. Uh, you know, I couldn't even use anymore. My cup is overflowing. And uh so if they're having a great time together, they're doing business together, fantastic. That's a win for me. Those are two people in my network who are winning because I was able to connect those dots. And the last piece, number five.

Do the work. Building the ark was a lot of work. And um you gotta do the work yourself. You gotta Google stalk everybody. You gotta find common ground. You gotta make time. If they like hiking, then you better lace them up and you better meet them on the trail at six AM, right? Don't be lazy and don't suggest generic coffee meetings and and that stuff. This is more like dating. It's courtship, right? You uh you gotta figure out what the other person's into. You gotta speak their language and you gotta you gotta help them out. And you're not doing it just to schmooze with them, right? You're doing it because that's just the h decent friendly thing to do is to think about what the other person's interested in and try to meet them where they are. And um so if you wanna build a great network, you gotta do those five things. Let's recap them. Prepare for the flood.

Number two. Build it before you need it. Number three. Keep it kosher. Don't don't you know, use but don't abuse your network.

Number four. Get two of everything. Pair your people in your network to each other. Everyone who you meet, you should introduce to another person in your network. And number five, do the work. Don't be lazy. And so yeah, networking it could be schmoozing if you're if you're sort of talentedless if you're if you're sort of talentless or

Uh callous about the way you go about it. Um, but I think it's different. It's maximizing one of the most valuable resources around you, the people that that that are that are in your orbit. And it's a renewable resource. It's in your control. Um you you're able to build it and uh it's the sort of the gift that keeps on giving once you build it. So that's it. Noah's Ark. For networking. If you like this uh this little story, you should uh sign up for my newsletter. I put out stories like this once or twice a week. And um I do a lot more of these written than I do in audio. So so if you like the stuff, you should join. It's just my name, Sean Puri.com.

And uh go sign up. I think there's like thirty thousand people on there now. We wanna get that to a hundred by the end of the year. All right. Enjoy.