I Stopped Networking To Build Relationships — It’s Disgusting. So I Do These 5 Things Instead

Networking is like trying to take a toddler to the dentist.

It’s painful. Over the past ten years, I have met mentors who have run hundred-million-dollar companies, been close friends with the Priceline dude, and led billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions.

I admittedly networked wrong early in my career. I would time block time each week to “reach out,” and it was a massive waste of time — to the people, I was annoying.

Building a successful eight-figure business requires me to meet great people, but not by extracting people’s time.

These are my five rules for building deeper connections:

Always be valuable.

If you want other people’s attention, you have to be someone who can help them.

You have to create value in every conversation. GaryVee calls this his 51% rule. Always give 1% more in a relationship than the other person.

If you can continue to help people in areas that are meaningful to them, you’d be amazed at what that does.

Be extremely curious.

Oliver Burkeman says to “be a ‘researcher’ in relationships.”