As you progress in your career, you gain broader experiences and build more connections, which helps you strengthen your professional network. At this point, your responsibilities increase, much like the successful individuals you are currently trying to connect with. So, how do you capture the attention of someone who receives dozens of invitations a week and hundreds of emails a day? And how do you find time to network with potential new clients or hire new employees when your schedule is packed with appointments and tasks?
Undoubtedly, following traditional advice given to entry-level employees, such as "Invite the person you want to meet for coffee!" or "Connect with them on LinkedIn!" won't work when trying to network with individuals who have reached the pinnacle of success in their careers. Instead, you need to use a completely different strategy, which I will call **"Inbound Networking."**
The term **"Inbound Marketing"** became popular in digital marketing over a decade ago, introduced by HubSpot founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. It refers to providing valuable content, such as articles or podcasts, that naturally attracts customers to you without the need to chase them directly (and without wasting time on cold calls or spending money on paid ads to attract customers).
Professional networking faces a similar turning point. Most professionals are constantly bombarded with friend requests on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, not to mention receiving a flood of requests for advice or opinions on specific topics. Therefore, any attempt to stand out using traditional methods amidst this overwhelming volume of requests is doomed to fail. Moreover, you likely won't have enough time to send a handful of unsolicited cold emails.
Instead, you can succeed in building a professional network with top-tier individuals by doing something completely different from others: attracting them to you using the **Inbound Networking** strategy. In other words, make yourself interesting enough that others are compelled to seek you out. Here are three ways to achieve this:
Identify What Makes You Unique
One of the quickest ways to build a relationship with someone is to find common ground (such as graduating from the same university, a shared love for pets, or a passion for clean technology). This is the minimum requirement, but if you want to truly capture their interest, you need to share something that seems unusual or intriguing to them. This often depends on context. For example, if I were in a room full of political professionals and mentioned that I had been an official speaker in a presidential campaign, it might be a nice fact but not particularly interesting. However, if I were at a political fundraising event attended by lawyers and financiers, that same fact would make me the center of attention and someone people would want to talk to.
The more interesting you appear, the more top professionals and decision-makers will seek to connect with you. The problem is that we often struggle to identify the most interesting aspects of ourselves because familiarity makes them seem ordinary, no matter how remarkable they actually are. Ask your friends to pinpoint the most striking elements of your resume, interests, or experiences, and then return the favor by helping them do the same. In one workshop I led, we discovered that one executive had worked as a ball boy at the US Open Tennis Championships in his youth, and another lawyer was passionate about surfing and regularly rode waves off the coast of New York City. Both facts were enough to make for fascinating conversations.
Be an Exceptional Expert
Genuine expertise is often what captures others' attention and increases their desire to engage with you. If you possess deep knowledge about a topic that interests someone else, you'll quickly rise to the top of their list. Since I started publishing books, countless colleagues have reached out to me for advice on finding literary agents or improving manuscripts before publication.
Sometimes, it’s even better to develop expertise in a field unrelated to your primary work. Take Richard, a financial journalist whose story I shared in my book *Reinventing You*. He built deeper and stronger relationships with his sources after he started writing part-time about food and beverages. He found that his Wall Street contacts began reaching out to him for recommendations on the best new restaurants and venues to host their clients.
You can also use unconventional expertise to build multi-dimensional relationships. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett can certainly have a good conversation about business topics, but it’s their shared passion for bridge—played at an expert level—that strengthened their bond, ultimately leading to Buffett’s decision to donate billions to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
When you’re an expert in a particular field, you can often connect with people who are otherwise hard to reach, engaging with them on equal footing. One of my friends is an executive at a company but is also passionate about producing jazz music. Recently, he was invited to the home of one of the world’s most famous rock stars as the artist began promoting his work for Grammy consideration.
If you know a lot about beverages, nutrition, salsa dancing, email marketing, or any of millions of other topics, those interested in these areas will be drawn to what you have to offer.
Be the Center of the Network
Building a strong network isn’t easy, especially if you don’t have the authority or influence to attract important people. But John Levy, based in New York City, believed that the best way to get invited to the party was to host the party yourself. Over six years ago, Levy started hosting dinners twice a month under the theme "Influencers," inviting prominent figures from various fields. Now, his dinners attract a who’s who of elites, including Nobel laureates and Olympic athletes, though his success certainly didn’t happen overnight.
Start by inviting the most interesting professionals you know and ask them to introduce you to the most interesting people in their networks. Over time, you’ll build a massive network. At some point, you’ll gain enough momentum that professionals who’ve heard about your dinners will reach out to you for invitations. As Levy joked in a magazine interview, "I hope to achieve something one day that’s worthy of an invitation to my own dinners." When you’re the host, organizing a great event gives you the freedom to invite successful people you might not normally consider peers, but who seize the opportunity to network with other high-level professionals.
I’ve also hosted over 20 dinners to expand my network and meet interesting people, but it’s certainly not the only way to network. Any professional who puts in some effort to create a group for networking or idea-sharing on platforms like Meetup or Facebook can achieve similar results.
Everyone is trying to capture the attention of successful people. If you want to connect with them, overcome the barriers to reaching them, and build lasting relationships, the best strategy is to make them come to you. The most effective ways to ensure you’re on the radar of the people you want to meet are to **identify what makes you unique, become an exceptional expert, and position yourself as the center of the network.**