#71 - A guaranteed way to pique someone’s interest at a networking event

What I’m Watching

I’ve been a fan of Mads Mikkelsen since seeing him play the villain in Casino Royale back in 2006. So when I saw a YouTube video where he breaks down his most iconic roles, one of which was the Hannibal Netflix series, I had to watch it. I almost never watch gruesome stuff, but this is done so tastefully and strikes a balance of somehow making it beautiful that it’s hard to look away.

Resource of the week

For the most part, I avoid mainstream news outlets and like to consume news of current events from curated content creators. One of these is Dylan Page, who, if you are on TikTok, will almost certainly have seen his content.

On this note, it was entertaining to see on one of Dylan’s recent videos where he gets invited by ITV News for his opinion on the topic of people moving away from traditional news outlets and how they spun the narrative completely the other way!

Quote

“Time doesn’t heal emotional pain, you need to learn how to let go.”

Roy T. Bennett

News and trends

• Mortgage rates have likely reached a peak and will possibly register a fall in the Autumn.
• Properties in affordable areas are still registering an increase as Wakefield, Bolton, Telford and Derby top the table.
• I’m watching Twitter’s rebrand to X with a lot of interest. I still can’t decide if it’s a genius move or it’s just a very expensive doomed effort. There are certainly a lot of theories as to why he’s done it. Tweets are now x’s. But one thing is true, the social media space is moving at a pace that’s very difficult to keep up.
  

Thoughts

I’ve known from a very early stage that in order to succeed at most things, having a strong network is critical, it’s especially true in property. However, over the years I have refined my approach. I used to hear phrases like ‘Your network is your net worth’, and take that to mean to learn from the most successful people possible I could find.

While I think there is of course value in learning from people much further along the journey than you are, I don’t think this is optimal.

We’ve all been to networking events where there are people who don’t have anything to offer and just wanted to be given things whether it’s contacts or info. Don’t get me wrong, we all have to start somewhere and you might be lucky and run into someone who sees something and wants to mentor you but that’s rare. People are usually thinking about themselves at these events. You don’t want to be known as that person who is constantly asking for handouts. It’s about giving.

As an example at a networking event last year, I wanted to connect with a CEO of a finance company who didn’t seem too interested. Luckily I had looked him up and I have a one-liner that is pretty much guaranteed to pique someone’s interest in this sort of environment.

I went up and I said ‘You and I have a mutual connection on LinkedIn’. Of course, he said who and that got the conversation going. I leveraged the fact that I have a modest following on social media and said I would be happy to give his business some exposure since that was why he was there, which turned into a podcast and a contact going forward.

Even if you don’t have a following there are plenty of ways you can provide value for example connecting people from prior events or doing free work for a learning opportunity or showcasing your skills. People tend to reciprocate and the only way to gain value is to give it.

So here are some tips I go by:

• Always look at how you can provide value.
• Always follow up after an event if you want to stay connected.
• Aim to spend most of your time networking with people just ahead of you.
• Instead of asking for handouts, work hard, and build your profile to raise your level to get noticed by people to level the playing field.
• Go to as many networking events as you can and don’t be shy, the vast majority of people are very friendly and helpful.
• Figure out what the person wants and why they are there.
  

Hans