Networking in 2025

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I met some executives from Axel Springer for breakfast a few years ago and as we sat down they handed out business cards. It had been a long time since that happened. 

The practice of carrying and sharing business cards has faded since the launch of the iPhone. 

Over the span of a three decade career in corporate, I collected more than 1,200 business cards from people I interviewed and met at conferences, mostly between 1990 and 2010. 

For fun I sorted the cards into three groups:

–900 cards were from people I could not for the life of me recall meeting. Some of the institutions rang a bell, but I couldn’t visualize the people at all.

–200 cards were people who I remember to some degree. I recognized their names or firms and have some recollection of when or where or why we met.

–100 cards were people who made a deeper impression. We did business or stayed in contact with or would like to meet them again.

That last group brought back memories: There was lunch with the editor of the Washington Post and a visit to the Financial Times. There were equity traders, portfolio managers, journalists, quants and geeks. Some went on to do big things. A few had died.

It’s a good life lesson that you need 1,200 meetings to get to 100 people who matter.

And you can’t really know in advance who those people might be. 

My view on how to network has changed in two big ways since 2022 when I left my corporate job and started my own agency ghostwriting for executives.

I previously focused time to building relationships within the firm or targeting specific individuals outside who I thought had information or relationships that would be useful. 

Now, I believe both of those approaches were mistaken. 

It left me with a network that was too narrowly focused and overly concentrated. Most of the people were either uninclined or poorly positioned to help my future business. 

My approach in the past three years has been to cast a much wider net and leverage social media to seek out meetings with people I think are doing interesting things. 

The focus is on connecting first, sharing insights and looking for ways to help one another grow. There is rarely a specific goal to an initial meeting.

It’s a shotgun, not a rifle shot approach which has led to more meetings, deeper relationships and a greater understanding of the business landscape. 

While the majority of the meetings don’t immediately lead to deals, they plant deep roots which often result in valuable connections later. 

It’s a slower, more organic approach better suited to a world where we change jobs often. 

And also an acknowledgement that it’s better to trust in serendipity to discover the people you need than to try to predict who they may be. 

There’s a reason 400,000 professionals read this daily.

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BRIEF OBSERVATIONS

MEMES: My mother asked me to explain what’s a “meme.” It’s surprisingly hard to define. I found this meme wrapped around a memecoin as an example to illustrate. I’m curious how many of you understand all the layers of reference.

AGE OF TUMULT: Timely reminder from Moses Kagan.

WRITING: Fitzgerald’s notebooks are filled with these pithy phrases and descriptions which he later assigns to characters. It’s something I love about his writing.

TRUMP ERA: We saw this in the first Trump administration. It’s going to be even more pronounced this time. Every day there will be a new initiative.

PLATFORM RISK: I started this newsletter in part to connect with readers directly and not be vulnerable to a platform that could be turned off.