Your Network is Your Net Worth

Authentic networking trumps impersonal marketing tactics. Learn how building genuine relationships and strategic connections can lead to unexpected opportunities and significant project wins.

Once you embrace the fact that sales and marketing are essential for growth, the next question becomes, how do you effectively implement these strategies? There's a spectrum of methods from social media marketing to personal networking, but not all strategies are created equal, and different strategies work better for different products and services. It's important to explore what works best for your business.

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Let me share a vivid example of a strategy that backfired spectacularly. One summer, we decided to go big. We sent out over 15,000 cold emails hoping to blanket every business in our area. The results – zero clients acquired. If I remember correctly, we may have scheduled maybe two meetings. This experience was a hard lesson in the importance of personalization and genuineness in outreach.

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Mass emails, especially those that lack a personal touch, often come off as insincere or spammy, reflecting poorly on your brand. It's also just kind of annoying. On the flip side, our most effective strategy was thoughtfully building a robust network. This didn't involve direct selling, but rather fostering genuine relationships with thought leaders, professors, business owners, and the like. By strategically expanding our network, we increased what we like to call our luck surface area or your chance of being lucky.

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This is equivalent to the action you take towards your passion, multiplied by the number of people you effectively communicate. Your passion and activities to business growth can be unpredictable, but by nurturing these connections, we set the stage for lucky breaks in the form of referrals and collaborations.

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Genuine relationship based networking is more effective than impersonal marketing tactics. Invest time in building authentic relationships with industry leaders, potential clients, and peers. Prioritize quality interactions over quantity. Our networking efforts paid off in ways we couldn't have imagined. Connections led to referrals, and referrals led to projects. It was never about making a sale on the first interaction. Instead, it was about laying the groundwork for trust and mutual respect with regards to the value each person could bring to the table.

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This approach underlines the fact that your network truly becomes your net worth. The relationships you build, the value you're able to showcase in these interactions. That's what sets the stage for sustainable growth and business success. Your network is your net worth. Emphasize personalization. Strong relationships can lead to unexpected and significant opportunities. Foster connections not just for immediate gains, but for long term mutual benefit.

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Engage in community or industry groups to expand your network. Tailor your communication to each client or lead. Show genuine interest and understanding of their unique needs and challenges. 

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Allow me to share an example of a web of interactions that led to our first six figure video project. In college, I helped found a consulting club called Consult Your Community (CYC).

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In CYC, students engage with low income and minority owned small businesses over the course of a semester through an innovative program in which they're trained to provide business owners with comprehensive, pro-bono consulting services. One of my members introduced me to a business owner of a web design company in the area, thinking we could share insights over coffee. We bonded over entrepreneurship, building robust business workflows and client trust, and her passion for doing meaningful, creative work.

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After just one great meeting, there was a sense of established trust between us. We became confident that each of us could refer one another to clients that needed to partner for our core services. There was a sense of established trust between us. We became confident that each of us could refer one another to clients that needed a partner for our core services.

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Fast forward a few months, and the UNC School of Nursing reached out to us for help with a video project to market a new program they were close to launching. And coincidentally, Alex's web design company just completed a website redesign for them, and then referred them to us for help with this. The project manager was a fan of the work we produced, which showcased the broad based impact of nurses and the purpose of their program to help build nursing leaders.

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When she left for a new role at the UNC School of Social Work, she was staffed to lead a sizable online education project for a new public course on trauma education, because of the success of the last collaboration. We were her first call, and that became our first six figure video project. Remember, entrepreneurship is as much about building strong, authentic relationships as it is about having a great product or service.

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Your journey in business is intertwined with the connections you make and the impressions you leave. Keep these lessons in mind as you navigate the exciting world of entrepreneurship.