We Work With People We Know, Like, and Trust
Don't be afraid to invest in other people's success.
I’m hiring for various contractor roles right now.
I’m also fundraising for a new startup.
I don’t think you’d be surprised to hear that many of the people and vendors we’re working with now have invested in attending Meeting of the Minds, coming to dinners I’ve hosted, or worked with somehow in the past.
Put another way…
If you’re looking to accelerate your relationship with an influencer, super-connector, or potential client, one of the best ways you can show how serious you are about collaborating is finding some way to invest time or money into those connections.
You can invest financially and buy someone’s book or hire friends.
This morning, for example, I agreed to hire one of our Meeting of the Minds alumni to design a website for my new startup. Another MOTM alum designed the Meeting of the Minds site, as well as our branding guidelines. A third MOTM alum is prepping a
You can also invest time and give someone constructive criticism, double opt-in intros, or simply engage with their emails and social media posts in order to help them drum up conversations.
Anything is better than nothing.
It’s human nature. Who do I want to feature as guest keynote speakers for a private, invite-only network like Meeting of the Minds?
Someone that says they’d love to speak in front of the group and is awesome?
(Everyone wants to speak in front of high-quality audiences, and everyone thinks they are world-class at their craft!)
Or, do I want to work with people that invested in attending one of our in-person summits or monthly virtual “Deep Dives” to see what it’s like and support us before asking for promotion in return?
Again, this seems obvious, but I don’t think we are always as long-term-minded as we should be. I’m guilty of this, too, so no hard feelings.
But if I can make a small angel investment in a friend’s company because I believe in THEM, and want to see them succeed, then I’m going to do it in order to deepen our relationship.
If someone’s coming out with a new book, that they’ve poured their heart and soul into, I’m going to buy at least one copy because I know how much it means to that person.
If I can invest my time and speak at someone’s conference, to support their initiatives, assuming I care about them as a friend, potential collaborator, or “connector”, then sign me up and waive my fees!
I’m not saying you need to work for free, or spend ALL your money hiring friends.
But, if you are looking to quickly deepen relationships, then investing your time and/or money (two assets that are incredibly valuable) is a great accelerator.
You never know when it will happen…
But good luck will come back to you in droves.
ACTION: Take five minutes and brainstorm all the potential ways you can invest (financially or otherwise) in the success of your top contacts. What can you do to help your most promising prospects? What about the top “super-connectors” in your network? How can you support them now, with no immediate expectation of return?
Now, go help those people!
It won’t be surprising when they hire you or refer you in the next few days, weeks, months, years, or decades.
One more thing…
How can I invest in your success? Let me know…
- Jared
Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".
Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.
Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.
Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20.
As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.
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