The simple & specific career advice I give everyone

As an entrepreneur and (sometimes) investor, I get asked for career advice fairly often. But since I’m miles away from where I want to be professionally, I’ve found the best way to answer the question is to flip it on its head.

After asking myself what I wish I had started doing earlier in my career, I was surprised by the obviousness of my answer.

While much of today’s professional media focuses on the importance of expanding your network, deepening it by investing in high ROI relationships is equally — if not more — important.

All that time spent blogging, attending events and even speaking on panels is fantastically helpful in expanding your network and making yourself more visible. But if it’s not simultaneously helping you strengthen your existing connections, then it’s not enough.

And, in my experience, it’s not entirely obvious how exactly we’re supposed to use the Internet to do that. So here’s a very specific and tactical set of suggestions I’ve been making recently.

1) Meticulously maintain a list of people you trust, respect and help you grow, learn, achieve. They could be former colleagues, current colleagues or neither.

2) Get personal opt-ins from 5–6 of them to join a “core” of people you’re going to keep updated on bi-weekly cadence.

3) Keep your updates short and focused on consistent themes, like: what you learned, what you did, what you want to do next period and how they can help. Manage employer confidentiality just like you would on a resume.

4) Actively monitor open rates/responsiveness and don’t be shy about replacing inactive folks. Opt-in is magical when done right.

5) Every quarter, set/refine an overarching theme/goal, track your progress towards it and evaluate your core members’ helpfulness. Adjust accordingly.

We’re currently testing this in as part of a new pilot program at Nextt. Sign up here or shoot me a note if you’d like to participate :)