Your net worth isn’t worth ‘X’

I am really excited about this post because it is actually insanely important in what ever you do in life. Networking is a skill that is learned through experience, but I have some great tips to share on this important aspect of any career or job. Want more money? Want a better job? Tired of being overlooked for promotions by people with fewer skills? It's all about networking.

The turning point in my life was when I learned how to effectively communicate and create opportunities for myself. Networking is something I am skilled at and have successfully applied in various environments throughout my life, until I joined web3 and somehow forgot about most of the skills I had learned. So, this post is as much for you as it is for me. It serves as a reminder that you can refer to before attending an event or meeting people to network within a personal or professional capacity.

You often hear the saying "your network is your net worth," but I'm here to tell you that it's not entirely true, or at least you may be doing it wrong. And that's where the story begins.

In 2011, I started a new job at an architectural studio in Central London. It was an exciting opportunity to work at a prestigious design studio, and from the interviews I had, I felt very welcome and built a good rapport with the director I was going to work with even before joining the studio. As I had experience and connections with one of the industry membership clubs, my boss at the time invited me to attend all the events related to airport architecture. I made an effort to talk to people and would give my boss a quick overview of individuals to follow up with for potential opportunities. I was acting like a typical business development manager outside of the office and built a network of contacts for myself also.

Fast forward to 2014, I had the opportunity to start my own business. At the time, I had a good job but was leaving for various reasons and was looking for a new opportunity. I was passionate about architecture and had a lot of experience in airport development, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The opportunity presented itself to work on a development in a historic department store in Central London. I was thrilled and took the chance to set up my own practice. It was an exciting time, and I had the opportunity to work with some amazing people. I made incredible contacts and worked hard on networking by attending events, and things went well. Some of the key things I learned about networking during that time were:

1. Pitching

   Knowing how to bring what you do into conversation is super important. The number of times I have heard someone just airdrop directly into a pitch is insane. I see it also on twitter spaces. Its annoying and you will instantly loose the traction of the person or people that are listening to you. So find your angle. You don’t want to sound desperate but be confident in what you are discussing.

   People are genuinely curious and so sometimes you just need to break the ice. Simply introduce yourself and start talking about something related to the environment or a mutual person you know. People tend to ask what do you do. If they don’t ask them what they do. Refer to point 2 for tips on this also. So if I am asked what I do for example:

   Easy!

   “I am an architect, I specialise on airport development. I run my own practice and work in X & Y airports a fair bit but I am currently working on this super exciting project airport project”. 

   Don’t have a project to refer to? No problem…

   “I am actually doing some research that would be applicable to airport X & Y I think it would be interesting to see something like this in an airport. What do you think? “

   The Carrot being the last bit. If they are intrigued enough they will ask more questions and you have just laid up a ‘Whats your opinion question‘ if they are not then conversation will move on and to be honest they probably do not have much of interest for you in the first place. So find your angle and your entry to further the conversation, if its a lead you want to have of course. Read my post on “Stop wasting your time’ also to give you some tips on avoiding wasting your precious time.

    

2. Genuineness & Listen

   This is by far one of the most important. You are there to network so you need to be interested in what the other person is doing not only with what you are offering. It is actually easy in web3 as there are genuinely some fascinating things happening so be genuinely interested and stop thinking about your pitch. I can usually see it in peoples eyes or voice if they are trying to rush the conversation to get to their pitch.

3. Follow ups

   I can not overstate this enough. If i had to pick one area I fail mostly in is follow ups. We are all very busy but if you have a good lead you need to keep following that up. You need to keep at it and nurture it. Good way to do it is to set up a remind in your calendar to follow up. In some other posts I will cover how you can use some AI assistances to do this effectively also.

4. Leverage

   I use leverage a lot talking about working or developing yourself in web3 but most don’t understand what it means especially in web3. If I get to know you for one year you are more likely to introduce me to someone else for work or for a project. Works same with whitelists and allowlist. I always go to people I know first. Leverage who you know and work on those relationships.

5. Events

   Nothing beats meeting in person. I have attended 3 events this year in web3. One was in Portugal as I realise the benefit of meeting people beyond the computer. Social media is great, twitter spaces is great, even discord stages but meeting up creates a more binding bond which takes you further than networking but as industry friends. More on this later.

6. Offer value first

   Provide help, support, or valuable insights to others before asking for anything in return. Building goodwill strengthens relationships. This is super important also. I find sometimes i connect with someone on twitter and within like 30mins they want to hold a meeting with me. If you do this you need to be ready to give. Its super important to strengthen the relationship before asking for anything.

7. Be memorable

   This is a tough one and I have often been asked how to be memorable. To me its simple! I have 3 strategies and actually one is how I most of my architectural jobs. These are storytelling (surprise, surprise), being authenticity and listening. It is actually that easy. Be relatable. Think about people you like and what you like to listen to and project that from your own standpoint whilst staying genuine to yourself. You will be surprised how well this works for you.

8. Read - stay updated.

   Lastly please don’t listen to influencers telling you not to read. Reading is super important and actually proven to improve your focus, memory, empathy and communication skills. If you don’t like reading pick a magazine with a subject that interests you. It could be anything airplanes or music, get through as much of one article as you can. Do this daily and you will see it will become second nature to you. You will massively improve your knowledge and what you can talk about. Use Weekends to get a magazine and read snippets. Short stories are really good also as they help you to explain yourself easier also.

There are more things you can focus on but these, in my opinion, are super important foremost. You can really springboard your connections not only from a business standpoint but from a personal standpoint but that is your prerogative but if you are following me on twitter and took the time to subscribe to my newsletter I am guessing its because you want to grow.

Net worth metrics

This brings me to why your network is not your net worth. The 8 points highlighted are very important for networking but they teach nothing on what is net worth. There are 3 pillars I have gone by to creating a successful network with net worth that you never learn about in any productivity books or taught as part of business experience.

Lets start with the first. This is Quality. Sheer quality of your network is super important. I do not want you to go and trash all your contacts but what quality means is not to collect as many contacts as possible. This is not twitter (X) engagement where you are piling the engagement. Its about meaningful relationships with individuals, what you need to concentrate on are some individuals who have entered that business around the same time as you. That means you can grow together and develop together, its important to find people that can provide genuine support, guidance and opportunities. It is super important to meet regularly and discuss ideas and thoughts and support each other.

To put in perspective I am going to use twitter followers as an example. You will see that many people engage with similar sized follower accounts. You need to connect with people that are of similar size to you. It happens for events also. Recently there was a meetup in London 7 people attended that had twitter accounts ranging from 30K to 90K followers. Even though I had reach out to one of my contacts I was not invited. But that is business. Its harsh and you need to be real about yourself. Even if i went no one is probably going to give me the time of day to further my career. So you need to be realistic and grow with people at your level. It will help you both or the group to grow quicker too.

The second one is relationship depth. A strong network is not just what you gain from others, its cultivation of mutual respect in relationships. I have 5 people I speak to as regularly as I can in web3. Actually 6, the 6th runs his family business in South Africa but if i say i need to speak to him I know he is there and he knows I am there for him to. Support in relationship depth is built not only in months but years. Some argue web3 is less but I still think you need to go through the thick and thin of i t so need to go through the year cycle.

Also in Web3 it is ultra important having a trust circle. Many people are struggling to get work so they are desperate so support is really important because surviving together then can springboard your success when things pick up.

Lastly we have diversification of resource. This goes beyond money. A strong network can offer knowledge, expertise, emotional support, mentorship and access. Access is very important and opens doors. Once you open a door you need to do something pretty stupid to have it close again. Keep that in mind with all your decisions and use your relationship depth to help your personal and professional growth.

So your network is not your net worth because it is not about accumulating contacts. Its easy to get trapped in this cycle. A valuable network is one that emphasizes meaningful connections, mutual support and willingness to give back and help others succeed. Build those relationships that can enrich your life in various ways beyond financial measures. Use this period in the crypto cycle to build your network so you can accelerate your growth when things pick up.

Keep Exploring and Learning,

Chewie (Chewie On This) ✏️

100% written by human

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I love this tool and use it a fair bit. Gigabrain is useful for quick responses and the beauty is that it will provide you with sources and links with summaries. Real useful tool. How it does this is by finding the most useful discussions on reddit and other communities. It sift through the noise and analyse billions of comments for you. Get real answers from real people.

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Chew on it 😋😋or Spit it out? 🤮🤮

Ask me about something and i will tell you if i would chew on it or spit it out. 😁Simple. (FYI if you send me a DM likelihood is I will add it here 😂 Anonymous ofc unless you ask me).

I am going to Chew on it. 😋😋 

So TLDR Worldcoin is a token on the Optimism network associated with the founder of ChatGPT (Open AI). The concept is you can go get your iris scanned and they will hash connect it to an ID. There are concerns over privacy but ironically the reason why Worldcoin is pushing this is for privacy. I am going to get orbed for research purposes and will share my experience soon.

NFA. DYOR.