The Single Most Effective Way To Build A Powerful Network For Yourself

When people think of networking, the first image that comes to mind is a room full of “Hello, my name is” stickers. Hands being shaken. Business cards being exchanged.

This isn’t networking. At least, not the effective kind.

I rarely go to networking events, if ever. I have never found that sort of meet-and-greet approach to build any longstanding relationships, which is essentially the foundation of a strong network.

Instead, I have focused all of my networking efforts in one singular direction: building myself through the information I share.

In short: I’ve completely ignored going to networking events and invested in building my own personal brand.

What does it mean to build a “Personal Brand?”

People make this far more complicated than it needs to be.

Building a Personal Brand comes down to two things:

1. Establishing yourself through various forms of credibility: High quality content implies a certain level of credibility; being published in credible publications; appearing on massive podcasts; speaking to crowds of people; collaborating with big-time Influencers; anything and everything that proves you know what you’re talking about.
2. Consistently putting out high quality content somewhere: whether that’s YouTube videos, Quora Answers, columns in a publication, Instagram posts, etc. As long as the content provides viewers/readers with a lot of value, is done well, and put out on a consistent basis.

If you can do those two things, do them well, and climb the ladder so that you’re eventually collaborating with other big names in your industry, you’ll never need to attend a networking event in your life.

Ever.

Because when you establish yourself and your “personal brand” by sharing high-quality content in credible places, here’s what happens:

1. When you send someone a cold email and you open with some of the things you’ve accomplished (credibility), they are far more likely to respond—and want to collaborate.
2. When you are constantly putting out valuable content to your ideal audience, people seek you out because they follow and read what you share and see you as the go-to resource.
3. Your online presence is clean and professional, and when someone hears about you, or meets you, and then looks you up, you are instantly seen as an established and credible resource in your field.

This is, quite honestly, the most undervalued way of networking. You could have the nicest business card on earth, but think about what year it is and where people go first when looking to get a background on someone.

They go to the Internet.

And if what they find is a vacant Twitter profile with a bio that says, “I like dogs and marketing,” a LinkedIn profile with a sloppily written bio and a slightly blurry profile picture, and a personal website that looks like it was made in 2002, then you’re done. All your credibility just went out the window, regardless of how talented or well-spoken you were at whatever networking event you just attended.

Your online presence, your “personal brand” can speak volumes. And if you do not take the time to invest in yourself and the value you provide people at scale on the Internet, how is anyone going to take your cold email seriously? How is anyone going to want to collaborate with you? Or even work with you?

I am young. I’m 26 years old.

Building a personal brand is what has allowed me to build a network for myself that I honestly never thought would be possible, especially at this age.

My personal brand is what has allowed me to interview people like Kevin O’Leary and Mark Cuban from Shark Tank.

My personal brand is the reason why I can submit my writing to massive publications now and they’ll take my work seriously.

My personal brand is why I wake up to a handful of inbound leads every single morning from people who have read my Inc Magazine columns on social media and digital marketing, or personal brand building, and want to work with me.

My personal brand is what has turned me into a ghostwriter for some very, very successful serial entrepreneurs and executives.

My personal brand is how I get invited to speak at events, to appear on podcasts.

My personal brand has literally been the doorway to every single opportunity I could have ever wanted for myself, as an author, a writer, a digital marketer, a ghostwriter, a brand consultant, and more.

No networking event or “mastermind group” can do for you what a personal brand can.

You should probably start building yours.

For anyone interested, I just released my first online writing course: How To Get Featured In Major Publications. Check it out!