People Aren't Products - Focus on Genuine Connections

I'm probably going to get some flack from this from the rise, grind, and hustle crowd, but I've spent enough time selling things, pitching things, building things, transforming things, surviving things, (among many other things) to and with other humans that I feel pretty confident saying that people aren't products. Additionally, every person you meet shouldn't be viewed first and foremost as a potential customer of you.

Now don't get me wrong, we all have some degree of pitching and selling ourselves that we do every day in our personal and professional lives, but with the rise of influencers and carefully manicured social presences, it feels more and more like interactions with other people are often being reduced to a transactional level.

In many cases being liked is no longer about whether someone simply views you in a favorable manner, it means:

• Did they like my post?
• Will they subscribe to my content?
• Will they buy what I'm selling?
• Will they support my causes?

When we reduce the people we meet to the potential commercial value they represent to us, we are leaving behind the richest aspects of our potential connections with people.

I've been selling things to people in some form for over 25 years. To this day I still get calls and messages from people who were my customers 20 or more years ago. This week alone I was on a single zoom call with no less than 6 people who I first worked with over 20 years ago when I was cutting my teeth on being a leader in technology (The metric I chose to highlight on that call was that 80% of the people on that call had seen me with a drink in my hand).

The reason why I keep coming across folks over and over is because I am genuinely interested in connecting with people and building relationships that last.

No hacks, no secret tricks, or mind control techniques.

Just old fashioned genuine interest in them as human beings and being emotionally invested in their journey's even when time and all the chaos of life keeps us apart for years or decades at a time.

What does that look like for me?

• Showing up for them
• Answering messages from them,
• Calling them back (though sometimes it takes me far too long to do so),
• Hyping them up
• Supporting their causes
• Liking their posts
• Subscribing to their content
• Connecting them to people I know
• Being a friend

I take my relationships seriously and celebrate people's wins and mourn their losses often from afar.

Very often I'm asked by folks to help them get access to someone in my network, and If it is something that makes sense for both parties and isn't just a one sided attempt to sell or pitch them something that may or may not be valuable to them, I'll gladly make the connections.

At the end of the day and at the end of this journey I am on, will I regret that I didn't extract the maximum commercial value from my relationships or will be content that with the richness of the relationships I made along the way?

Remains to be seen, but I know what I'm betting on.