So I'm going to say something a little crazy here, which is that I think if you watch this entire video, you'll add millions of dollars in net worth to your life over time.
And I think I can say that because growing up, I came from nothing.
It was just me, my mom, and we had zero connections.
But at just 19 years old, I was able to cold call my way into a job on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs.
And since then, I've now raised millions of dollars for my own startup from top VCs.
And it's all because I realized one thing early on, and that's that your network is your net worth.
But the problem is if you don't have any connections or you come from nothing, how are you supposed to even start building a network?
Well, good news is that I'm gonna teach you everything that I've learned, because I've learned that it's both really easy and really hard.
And so I'm gonna break down for you every single step that I've learned of how you first get your foot in the door anywhere you wanna go and then, over time, build a network worth millions of dollars that allows you to meet the people of your dreams.
So let's get started.
So before we can dive into any of the day-to-day tactics of what we're literally gonna do, we first need to take on the right mindset or the right mental framework.
That's best gonna set us up for success.
And we're gonna learn that mindset through the lens of a thought experiment where I'm actually gonna have you close your eyes and imagine that you're scrolling on your phone checking your email.
And you're actually kind of ruthless with what you allow to take your attention.
Like promotional email, swipe away.
Cold generic sales email, no chance.
And you kind of have to be this way because you have so much going on in your life right now.
And so now I want you to imagine that dream person that you'd love to build a network with or connect with, and realize that they're probably 10 to 100 times more busy than you.
And so you have to ask yourself the question how am I, in their doom scroll on their phone, going to cut above the noise?
Because this is the bar you have to play at.
If you wanna have a fighting chance of building a long-term successful network.
Network like you have to cross this.
I'm going to pay attention to you threshold and the number one way to do that is to have the other person realize that you can provide them some sort of value because, if you think about it, all relationships are built off of some sort of value, whether that be financial value, because you think you can actually do business with this person or make more money because of this person.
Or it can be social value, because you're connected through your network and you actually like this person, you want to hang out with this person.
Or, beyond that, it's emotional value as well, because you feel connected to a person or because you want to give back to this person and pay it forward.
And so now we're going to take this framework of giving the other person value and use that to jump into the very first step here, which is how do you make your first few connections?
So, in order to make our first few connections, we first have to decide who we actually want to reach out to.
Where I want you to first think about two different kinds of people.
Number one is people that you can reasonably get access to.
So those could be your colleagues, your classmates or recent alumni, or someone in your community that you already kind of know.
And then number two people that are a little bit more out of reach for you, but you can still possibly get into.
Because let's say you're trying to get a job at Microsoft.
The reality is that you're not just gonna get into Bill Gates and get him to give you a job.
The likely answer is that you're gonna have to network with, let's say, fellow software engineers on LinkedIn, build a relationship and then have them introduce you to the product manager who's hiring for a role that you actually really wanna get into.
And so for me, back in the day when I was first interviewing at Goldman and thinking about how am I ever going to get any of these people to respond to me?
I bucketed my outreach into two different categories.
Number one was all the analysts or all the recent grads who actually thought I had a decent chance of getting into, because either we went to the same school or maybe they were working in the specific group that I wanted to work in.
And then number two was the really big boss, the managing director, who I figured if I spoke to enough analysts and built a relationship there and built prior context, I'd actually have a better chance getting him to respond, because I get to say hey, I've actually spoken to X and Y in your group and they suggested that I should reach out to you to learn more about working at Goldman.
And so now that you figure out who you actually want to reach out to, this then begs the question how do we actually get them to respond?
Well, the answer is cold outreach.
And this here brings up the first value bomb of this video that I'm really excited to share with you, which is how do you actually send a good cold email?
Because we've all received a ton of really shitty and generic cold emails.
I don't want you to be like this, where they're just massive walls of text or they're super generic subject lines and there's just no chance you will ever respond to them.
And so instead, I want you to remember our core principle of adding value, because if we want someone to respond to our cold email, we need to figure out what kind of value they're interested in.
And so in my case, when I was first reaching out to people at Goldman, I tried to find some sort of shared connection which is a form of emotional or relationship value.
So whether we went to the same school growing up, or we're from the same area, or we root for the same sports team, I would always find some sort of angle of how we can actually make a connection.
So rather than sending some sort of generic subject line like informational interview request, I'd send something on the lines of like fellow Eagle Scout reaching out because I knew in their incredibly crowded and competitive inbox.
I needed to find some sort of way to stand out from the crowd.
And so, as you think about writing a great cold email, I want you to follow these concrete steps.
Where number one, I want you to do your research on the person you're reaching out to.
So I want you to know what they value, what their goals are, what their current challenges are and who they are as a human being, which is all information you can pretty much get on anyone out there on just their LinkedIn.
And then number two is I want you to customize your outreach for this specific person.
So rather than sending a robotic message like, hi, I want your job.
Instead, I want you to think about sending a message like hey Josh, I just read your article on XYZ and it actually inspired me to take so-and-so action.
Because a message like that is so much more personalized and compelling, especially if you balance it with the very last step, which is to also make sure you're being punchy and concise.
Because if you write someone a novel, they're not going to read it, right?
Because we have to optimize for that mobile scan ability that we had talked about before.
And now what we're gonna do here is take this formula and send at least 10 of these cold emails, because we need to have the mindset that most of our cold emails, if not almost all of them, will get completely ignored and ghost it.
Because, just like any other skill, you have to get better at over time.
Your first few coding emails aren't going to suck.
But it's the true first test of your success, on whether or not you're gonna persevere through the fear of rejection, actually shoot your shot.
Because if you don't learn how to get through this fear and this insecurity, you're never gonna be able to create an outsized outcome for yourself in life.
And also the good news is that if you follow any of these note templates here, you'll get at least two or three responses for every 10 that you send.
So now we're in step number two because we have our first few conversations teed up, where we've sent a bunch of cold emails and we finally got in our first few responses of people who have agreed to have a conversation with us.
And so now in order to not show up like a robot, you just need to do two things.
And the first one is just nailing the small talk where a lot of people who are super efficiency minded and what have you, are just like John.
What is the point of small talk?
Like, how do I do this?
Why are we talking about the weather?
But at the end of the day, all small talk really is is just an initial modulation of getting to know each other's energies and where someone's at.
Like it's not actually about the weather.
It's just about connecting with someone and building an initial rapport.
And you can always gauge pretty quickly on whether or not the other person is down to small talk.
And so, now that we've nailed the small talk, we need to also nail number two, which is coming into the conversation prepared.
Where, if you think about why you actually reached out to this person in the first place, there's probably some choice that they made in their life or some success they've had in their life which is resonating with you and why you actually want to talk to them.
And I want you to take whatever that thing is that you're genuinely interested in and run with it in your preparation.
Where, instead of asking really generic questions that are high level, like hey, what's your job?
Like
Instead, I want you to ask questions like hey, I saw that you worked on that really big Amazon deal.
How did that go?
What were your learnings out of that?
Because I want you to think about the thousand other people who are competing with you for this person's time, asking for this person to have a coffee chat with them.
And then therefore, how we can cut above the noise if we show up overly prepared and really genuinely interested and passionate about what they do.
Because if the conversation goes well, then we get to do something that's super critical and super important for building a successful network, which is to have a call to action.
Where back in the day, when I was still trying to get my foot in the door at Goldman.
Whenever I'd have a great conversation with someone, I'd often end the conversation asking the question.
Hey, I really enjoyed this.
Is there anyone else you'd be open to introducing me to?
Because you realize over time that the most effective way to get an introduction as quickly as possible is not to throw your heart out sending thousands of cold emails, but instead to get a warm introduction.
Because with warm introductions we can really dive into the meat of this video, where you're sending hundreds of cold emails and through that process you'll actually land a couple of conversations where half of those conversations might actually be dead ends.
But through those conversations you'll actually meet one or two people that you'll hit it off with and they'll introduce you to more people.
And then through those people, you'll meet even more people.
And then you'll get invited to this meetup or that meetup.
And over time, what you'll see here is the power of compounding.
But here's the thing.
Compounding doesn't just happen.
You also have to be doing two other things to really stoke that flywheel.
And these next two concepts are the whole fun of this video, like the whole reason I wanted to make this video, because it's how you actually play at that next level.
And so the first of these two concepts is learning how to play the long game, where a lot of people will make the mistake of saying oh, once I can get in, I'm good.
But the very best networkers know that learning how to get your foot in the door and building your first few relationships is only the first step into a much larger game.
Because, let's say, you meet someone at a networking event or some sort of party, they're not just gonna immediately do business with you or introduce you to their most famous friend.
You have to first build a relationship with them and add value to their life in some sort of way.
And so I want you to take on the mental model of one of my favorite Naval quotes, which is play long-term games with long-term people.
Because learning how to initiate relationships is one thing, but what's going to pay infinitely more dividends is learning how to nurture the right relationships.
And there's two specific ways to nurture a relationship.
Number one is building trust.
And the number two is delivering immense value.
And so we have to ask ourselves, how exactly do we build trust in a relationship?
And there are three key building blocks to this.
Number one is reliability.
Like, do you do what you say every single time?
With number two being how consistent are you?
Like how regularly are you showing up in someone's life and how dependable are you in your reliability every single time?
And then lastly, is your authenticity and your honesty, because we can always tell in an interaction when someone's just being really salesy or really scummy.
And so, knowing that these are all the key pillars of how you build trust, one of the easiest ways to actually put this all into practice is just by sending thoughtful thank you notes where, rather than sending something generic like thank you for the time, or not sending anything at all, sending a thoughtful thank you note where you say hey, I really appreciated your point on X, Y and Z.
I can't wait to actually apply this in my own life.
Please keep in touch.
Like that is gonna be so much more differentiating and so much more memorable to whoever you're trying to build a relationship with.
Because what you can realize about deepening a relationship over time is it's just all about sharing genuine touch points together.
So, whether you're sending someone a quick congratulations on whatever milestone they just recently hit, or you're just checking on how someone's doing in a genuine way, like that is how you're going to maintain and deepen a relationship over time.
Because on top of that, you're figuring out how to add immense value.
Because we as human beings will always make time for someone who adds value to our life.
And so the number one thing that I always make sure to do in a business context or a sales context is to always ask the question of someone hey, what are your top goals?
Because if you know what someone cares about or what their goals are, then you can figure out how you can actually help them and solve their problems.
Where, for me, I might be meeting with a top creator or a top entrepreneur out there and they're struggling with getting more distribution and more views or more success in their business.
And so I'm gonna spend all of my time thinking about what are all the different ways I could possibly help them actually get to that goal.
So i want you to identify what your unique value is, which can be as simple in a certain moment as hey, i just saw this job and thought of you.
Or hey, i know you're interested in so-and-so topic.
I just saw this article and i thought you'd enjoy it all the way to something a lot more complex like, maybe you become the super connector of all people where, for anyone who wants to meet any other person in any other field, you can introduce them.
But my pro tip to all of this is to do all these things without any expectation of getting anything in return, Because people can always sense when you're being genuinely kind about something and just trying to give give, give.
And hopefully you're picking up on the theme that I'm having here is just if you just be a good kind, genuine person like you, will be successful long-term.
But what I've come to learn in my own business building experience is that the more you give, the more you get in return.
Because you start to build this reputation of someone that people want to do business with or someone that people want to hang out with.
And that just starts to compound over time.
It's just karma.
And that karma is going to turn into a flywheel, especially because you're doing this crucial last step, which is building and improving your own value.
Because in the beginning stages of our careers we have to hustle to make it and get people to pay attention to us.
But isn't the end goal for us to be the one that everyone else wants to network with?
Where, if you really wanna play at the most elite levels, your value needs to scale with your network.
Because people like Mark Cuban are never gonna spend any time with you, no matter who you might know, unless you also add value to his life.
And so simultaneously, while building your network, you also need to be building your own value, which can take the form of things like building your own success in your career, or building your own brand, or building your own audience.
And fortunately, we live in a day and age where it's never been easier to do all of the above.
Where, for me, the reason why other top creators are open to building a relationship with me is because I myself have built an audience as well.
That's implied credibility.
But you have to realize I didn't start there, right?
It was just one day.
I woke up with zero followers and started to start posting cringy videos which, over time, have just gotten moderately less cringy, and therefore I've found success.
And even in the business world.
The reason why people are open to talking with me is because I took the risk of going out there and starting my own thing.
And so the key takeaway I want you to have here is that both of the things that have built my credibility okay posting videos online and deciding to start my own thing I never had to ask anyone's permission for.
I just started.
All you need to have is the mindset that this is going to take years to pay off and you're probably gonna have to eat shit for a really long time.
But if you do those things and compound and play long-term games with long-term people, you will build a network worth millions, if not, hopefully for you, billions of dollars one day.
And so if I could distill down everything we talked about today into two concrete steps, they would be step number one start shooting your shot in a thoughtful and personalized way.
And then step number two, start building your own value.
And make sure to subscribe so we can build a network together.
