Networking Beats Content
Systems and wisdom on networking righteously
Everyone tells you to build an audience. No one tells you that the audience doesn’t matter until you know how to talk to real people.
Here’s the problem most solopreneurs have when building a business: they don’t have a system in place, so they’re not sure what the most important things are to focus on from the jump.
Think about it. As you’re building online, you come across a lot of content saying “you should focus on this”, and other content saying “you should focus on that”.
This makes sense—not everyone writes or thinks the same stuff. But that’s why as a solopreneur you’ve got to learn how to call the shots for yourself.
If you want to build a digital business, this article explains how networking well can take you in many positive directions.
P.S. I posted about networking a month ago (attached here below) and missed the actual point. Here it is in everything you read in this article.
NETWORKING BEATS CONTENT
Everyone preaches content first. But I’ve landed clients through relationships, not through best essays or consistent viral posts.
When you network, you diversify the amount of opportunities you can get. Instead of hoping that content brings in possibilities, you’re going out there and making sure those possibilities become a reality.
Imagine you just post content and sit back and do nothing else. It’s just a waiting game at that point. You’re putting your business in the hands of other people, waiting for others to contact you first if they like your content.
Even if you’re doing content and creating offers, without networking there’s no real distribution channel that your personal brand or business has. Ads won’t do it alone. On the other hand, intentionally building real relationships is worth it in the short term and in the long run.
In fact, I’ve found that taking the time to connect with other people has significantly improved my content in ways that writing content alone can’t. The interactions you have when building relationships turns into ideas for content.
When you just put out content alone, you’re saying “hey guys, my value stops here…”. I was here before, thinking that my content was so good that I didn’t need to do anything else. That people would find me because what I wrote was fantastic.
And your writing can be fantastic, it’s just that if you don’t network, you’re missing out on everything else that networking can do for you.
Consider flipping the narrative this week by looking at networking as something that’s just as—if not more—important than content.
REACHING OUT WHILE YOU’RE LEARNING
You don’t wait to build a personal brand, business or offer(s) to reach out. You reach out while you’re learning to do those things.
Because when you’re putting networking off to position yourself as someone that’s “ready”, that quickly becomes perfectionism. Then, what happens is that even when you build the offers, you’ll still be putting it off. So there’s never a better time to start networking than now.
If you’re a ghostwriter for example, you reach out to potential clients before feeling ready. “But what am I going to offer?”. Offer your curiosity. Tell them you want to learn more about them.
When I decided I wanted to ghostwrite for financial advisors on LinkedIn, I reached out to a few and asked to get on a call. I wanted to learn more about the industry. In one 15 minute call I got more insight about my ICP than I did solely creating content or scrolling on my feed networking with everyone else but my ICP.
That vulnerability is magnetic because it’s honest. Which brings me back to the previous section about networking beating content: when you focus on networking, then you can create content like “I reached out to someone before I knew how to help them. Here’s what I learned.” Otherwise, if you don’t network and get to learn about other people in your ideal network, what are you even going to talk about if you’re just starting off building online.
Below are three common things you do when you’re first learning how to build a business, and then next to it, how networking helps with that thing:
Content: networking helps you exchange ideas with others which you can later talk about in your content.
Offers: networking with your ICP informs you of their pain points and if you can create anything to solve those pain points for them.
Outreach: networking helps you diversify the amount or types of people you know and as a result you have more people to reach out to.
THE INVISIBLE POWER OF FOLLOWING UP
A lot of solopreneurs pitch once and disappear. On top of that, they’ll pitch people that they’ve never warmed up before.
I’ve done it too. No shame in it. What’s important is that you learn from it.
But by networking before you pitch someone, you keep relationships warm. Then, when you message people months later, you’re not just some random person that your potential client is hearing from for the first time.
Networking works best when you’re just regularly sparking conversations with people. Bonus points if you actually want to have those conversations with them (it shows). That consistency is what converts. Even though it can happen, oftentimes it won’t be the first conversation that converts. It’ll be the fifth one or the tenth one.
Overall, when you’re someone that likes to network, following up won’t be an issue for you. Because you already like to collaborate with people. So the more you practice networking in general, the more you build up the people-skills and courage to follow up with potential clients or business partners.
SERVICE OVER SELFISHNESS
Nothing beats networking with generosity.
When engaging with other people, I’ve recently been asking myself if I even want to send them a DM or not, or if I even want to comment under their post. I do this because I don’t just want to engage for the sake of engaging.
I know a lot of people online say you should meet a certain quota of engaging every day (a certain amount of comments, DMs or cold emails). And yeah, it’s important to hit your daily or weekly target. But give more thought into why you’re reaching out to someone. That way you can really know whether or not you’re reaching out because you genuinely want to work together or because you’re just trying to beat some number.
It doesn’t matter if you have 10 connections you barely talk to. It does matter if you have only 4 connections but they’re strong.
When I first started building online, I was selfish in thinking that I had to only think about me when networking. I would ask myself whether or not I would get anything out of the mutual engagement. I should have also asked myself if the other person would be getting something, or if I’d be able to help them in some way in return.
Have wisdom and discernment when networking. Are you reaching out to do good business instead of desperation? It’s worth it to pause for a couple of seconds and think about these things so that you can make sure you’re staying intentional.
IRON SHARPENS IRON
When you engage with someone, uplift them.
This is something I like to lean into. Even when it comes to my real-life relationships, I usually find myself trying to motivate others. I’m recently making i more of an effort to do the same online. I also usually aim to create posts with a slightly motivating tone. People are more likely to want to work with you when you’re an uplifting person.
This expression of iron sharpening iron is a concept I’ve seen in the Bible. Personally I’ve made it a point to not become an entrepreneur that wants to engage for the sake of engaging, but that wants to actually build sharp relationships.
When you network with people, let it come from a place of wanting to truly help them and sharpen them. Your words and the way you engage has a lot of weight in this.
Truly engaging with someone on a deeper level is how you solidify this iron sharpens iron concept in business.
THERE’S VALUE IN COMPANIONSHIP IN LABOR
Urge one another toward good deeds and treat others how you’d like to be treated in your business.
The truth is, we shouldn’t just grind alone in our business. There’s value in working with others who are aligned with a similar mission and that want to work just as hard as you. There’s a greater sense of purpose like that.
I guess what I mean is that you should want to seek other people to work with in general. When you collaborate with others, you have a chance to brainstorm even more ideas and build something strong.
Gosh I can’t wait to have my own team one day.
Networking is all in the follow up, asking genuine questions, and in the desire to build strong bonds that last for the long run.
What do you think?
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all the time!!!! 💯