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What 8 Months of Intentional Networking Did for My Life and Career
I quit my job and focused on building relationships for eight months—here’s what happened.
Read time: 6 minutes
Hi Proactive Professional,
I want to start off 2024 by saying thank you. The support from everyone that has subscribed, referred friends, given feedback, engaged with posts, made valuable introductions and encouraged me to continue, has changed my life in the best way possible. Sharing these learnings while learning alongside you has led to the most fulfilling work I’ve ever done. I’m excited to continue to grow together in 2024 🤝.
In 2023, I decided that I was doing a poor job of building meaningful connections in my professional and personal life, so I set out to change that. I started reading more books, attending events, and trying to figure out how the heck people are able to prioritize relationship building while juggling work, family, friends, and hobbies.
I found out that very few do it well because of the herculean effort it can take.
Think about it: We run into potentially meaningful connections everywhere we go, be it school, work, conferences, events, hobbies, activities, or even a quick coffee break. But most of the time, we don’t interact intentionally, we forget to follow up or keep in touch, or we do so only when we need something.
These new contacts often become lost in a sea of people we will never interact with again. Conversely, those who did a good job reaching out or keeping in touch reap massive benefits like:
Personal fulfillment: The people you surround yourself with and the way you interact with them plays the largest role in personal happiness and fulfillment
Career success: Ability to lean on relevant connections for career advice, new job opportunities, promotions, bringing fresh perspectives into work, and being a valuable team player
Business outcomes: Be it hiring, investing, building a business, securing partnerships, or selling a product, everything in business has to do with connecting well and maintaining relationships meaningfully
Instead of telling you how you should achieve this, I'm going to show you what ~8 months of focusing on building meaningful connections did for me.
To set the stage, I've always been decent at interacting with those around me and trying to keep in touch. But, that leaves a lot to be desired. So in April of 2023, I decided to go all in on building meaningful relationships and see where it took me.
What followed:
50+ in person networking events since May
Countless books, articles, and podcasts consumed
150+ meetings with new and current contacts, focused on adding value and learning about challenges in connecting
The Result of Focusing on Building Meaningful Connections for 8 Months:
1. Started the buildbetter Newsletter
With my background in finance, strategy, and aviation, I didn't think I would ever enter the writing arena. So how did it happen?
I began to go to events to build meaningful connections. I would focus on finding someone with shared interests or experience and let conversations flow from there. I wasn't looking for small talk, instead I would focus on finding one or two people that I could speak more deeply with about their interests, passions, and goals.
Each conversation led to a similar topic: relationships. People spoke about the connections they spend the most time with, grievances about working with certain colleagues, and leaning on connections for support in business outcomes or career advancement.
I became more convinced than ever of two truths:
Creating meaningful connections is the most important driver of fulfillment, success, and happiness.
Everybody can do a better job of connecting meaningfully.
With that in mind, I noticed that sharing my learnings, experiences, and exploring new ways to connect would be a common way to help many people improve their situations.
And buildbetter was born.
2. Growing buildbetter to 800+ Subscribers
Again I want to thank every person who has read this newsletter, shared it with a friend, interacted with a social post, or has supported this journey in any way. I couldn't have imagined this newsletter growing to this number when I started it as a side project.
As I started learning more about connecting meaningfully, I began to focus on two of its most important traits:
Showing genuine interest
Giving before you get
With these as my North stars of every event, dinner, phone call, reconnection, and interaction, I was able to form more meaningful connections this year than the last five years combined. As I added value, made warm introductions, and gave perspective on how relationships could further drive people towards goals and fulfillment, the subscriber count continued to grow.
One of many networking events
3. Meeting My Co-Founder and Launching My First Company, Rolotech
As I continued to form new meaningful connections, I became more aware of a huge problem. People had little control over their most valuable resource: their relationships. Through each new connection I made I learned about difficulties in at least one of the following areas:
Organizing and accessing their networks
Creating deeper relationships when creating connections
Remembering context about their connections
Keeping in touch over time
These were problems I wanted to solve. So much so that I quit my job leading the strategy team at Blade Urban Air Mobility to create a better solution.
I had conversations with people passionate about the issue, which spurred warm intros to others who felt the same way. Finally, I met Ankit Sanghvi. Although we couldn't connect over the phone right away, he signed up for buildbetter and saw I was focused on helping people create meaningful connections. When we finally connected, we noticed we were both actively working on the same problem.
We started collaborating daily, doing research, and building. The result was launching our company Rolotech—the modern rolodex, with the goal of making it easier to manage, navigate, and nurture your connections. With current beta testers and a backlog of interested users, we are excited to unlock people's most valuable resource—their networks.
Early interaction with my Co-Founder
4. Began Hosting Unique Networking Events
As I met more and more people at events, I noticed that the best connections started with a shared interest or experience. For me, above all else, that was soccer, entrepreneurship, aviation, traveling, and food. When I started in one of those areas, it would break down boundaries quicker and lead to deeper conversations.
But those conversations were hard to find! Sometimes I'd go through 50 interactions of small talk until I got to one conversation where we really got to know each other. It was exhausting and felt like I was putting in a lot of work for very few meaningful connections.
Then I attended a one-off soccer networking event hosted by Tim Frazier. We all played a soccer game, and then got to know each other. It was clear how well everyone connected when we started with a shared interest and then networked after, so we decided to team up and make it a regular occurrence: Pitch on the Pitch.
Now, 20 people gather weekly at Pitch on the Pitch to play some soccer, get to know each other, and support one another in our endeavors. I’ve found passion-focused networking events like Pitch on the Pitch to be the most accessible way for me to make real connections.
5. Got Engaged to My Best Friend
Relationships aren't all about work or business outcomes. They’re also about personal fulfillment and finding happiness by surrounding yourself with close friends and family.
I'm very big on family, close friends, and all of my loved ones. The fulfillment and purpose I have gained throughout life from being around these people was a major driver in wanting to create this newsletter and Rolotech in the first place.
This year I took a big step forward by getting engaged to my best friend and celebrating it with as many loved ones as Fire Island could take during monsoon weather conditions.
2023 was a major shift in my life for the better and I owe it all to meaningful relationships. The ones I strengthened, the new ones picked up along the way, the learnings I had from each interaction, and the people who I have leaned on for support and advice in unfamiliar times.
My path wasn't very logical: Finance to Aviation to Entrepreneur focused on meaningful connections… but that's the power of focusing on connecting meaningfully for only 8 months. You learn more about yourself than you ever thought possible. Think about what would happen if you commit to it for a lifetime.
What I’m committing to this week for building relationships:
👋 Reconnecting with five former colleagues I've lost touch with
🙏 Showing gratitude to connections that had a major impact on me in 2023
🎯 Setting a few goals on giving more time to the people that matter most in 2024
🤔 Reflecting on my 2023: Who did I do a good job of keeping in touch with and how can I replicate that?
What are you committing to this week? Reply to this email!
Helpful links:
Sign up for the early access to Rolotech—modern rolodex
Best of luck building,
Devin