Its not what you know its who you know: How to Leverage Relationships & Gain Influence

Scarcity Vs. Abundance mindsets:

• Networking is NOT a tool to manipulate or control people & trying to use it to do so will work against you, believe me, your reputation in your field is the most valuable thing you have, don't fuck it up by doing some sketchy shit to try and get over... no matter what your situation is, you need to adopt the "abundance mindset" and realize that there is always enough to go around, your attitude should not be “whats in it for me” but “how can i help this person”.

How do you get contacts?:

• in short -communication... you need to be good at conversing & socializing, if your not, i highly recommend hitting up some type of social event and practicing there.

Boldness and Authenticity:

• Be your self, nobody wants to "network" their not computers their people they want to socialize, be natural, never try to sell anything, soon as that happens people mark you as spam and you become invisible, However the name of the game is standing out, this is not for the timid, being bold and different is not optional.

Influence & Leverage:

• Like I mentioned before, your goal is not to sell anything or use anyone. Your goal is to create a small community within a community where your liked and respected, you don't manipulate people into giving you opportunities or introducing you to people, they do it because they want to. All you do is line everything up to happen your way.

Money In the Bank:

• How do you line things up? easy, In boxing there's a strategy known as putting "money in the bank", what it refers to is throwing lots of body punches early in the fight so you tire your opponent out & make your job easy in the later rounds. This same strategy allows you to gain leverage politically within your community.

1. Find the community that you want influence in, if your into ABC, find the events and places where everyone else into ABC congregates.
2. Socialize -Alot. like its your job, this is a numbers game, the one person you don't reach out to now could be the one that's most beneficial to be aligned with later.
3. Win these people over, show them you have a personality. Don't solicit anything or people will put you in their mental spam folder.
4. Aim for the leaders, influence trickles down, if your friends with the leaders the followers like you to.

Using Relationships to your Advantage:

• Here's the fun part, now that you have all these relationships with people inside your community, Your job is now to give them the news of whatever it is your working on (give them news don't solicit) & allow their natural enthusiasm for whatever that news is to motivate them to want to be a part of it.

Congratulations Your a Big shot!

• Influence is awesome, use it wisely. Here's a video where marketing guru seth godin tackles this subject.