(Sadly) It's Who You Know, Not What You Know

Networking Experience

A domain expert in your industry

This would be someone who's engaged in the same type of business activity as you would like to be. They may own the same kind of company that you would like to own, or they may be a technical expert who knows a lot about the kind of product or service that you would like to produce.

1) Who they are and what their background is.
A self-published author. Majored in Library Sciences in college.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.
They're an industry expert because they have a book out there that they have to self-market and be a constant entrepreneur for.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.
My friend used to work in the library and she ran into this lady and exchanged contact information with her and then passed it onto me. I emailed her and got a response even though I wasn't sure I would.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation?
They just gave me some advice and options saying to weigh the pros and cons of self publishing and to hold onto it as a fallback.


5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
I don't want to self-publish but at least knowing the alternatives and how this was achieved would be helpful.

An expert on your market

This would be someone who is targeting your market with similar products services -- or knows a lot about conducting customer research in your area -- or represents a major piece of your market (this might be most applicable with B2B markets).

1) Who they are and what their background is.
A prototypical customer. The usual teenage reader who feels strongly and fanatically about the fandoms they're in. You know, regular kid stuff that qualifies you as being a kid.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.
They're actually in the bracket I'm targeting, so they'd know better than anyone how to tailor to it.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.
I knew this person back at my previous school and we were acquaintances for a while and the topic just came up in conversation in social media and they thought peer reviewing would be fun.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation?
They gave me feedback and in exchange I gave them my feedback on their current project.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
Being a young person myself, it's still nice to have a second opinion on what the youngins out there are into.

An important supplier to your industry

This would be someone who is selling products and services to other organizations/firms in your industry.

1) Who they are and what their background is.
This grown adult woman is in the literary publishing market, part of the team that decides which manuscripts sent to them get selected to be further processed and turned into real novels. She worked at a big publishing house in New York City and still has a friend who works there.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.
She's an important supplier because she supplies which works get put into the market to be sold.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.
I knew her through the best friend of an aunt of my mutual close friend. Phone numbers were exchanged, text messages and emails were sent, a LOT (and I mean a lot) of waiting was done on my part, and badda-bing badda-boom, I contacted her.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation?
They're giving me some advice on getting a literary agent through the conventional ways, but I told her I already tried all those ways and so now I'm waiting for another response.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
Hopefully I can befriend some important people who admire my spirit and wanna humor me with some shortcuts since the usual way isn't cutting it for me.

 

Reflection

This experience has helped me be more active in putting myself out there and maybe it'll feel less difficult to get in contact overtime once I make enough connections. This differs from previous attempts because usually I run into a dead end with no responses no matter how much I reach out, so that's a nice change.