Word gets around.
You want to just cultivate good relationships with
all of the people you find interesting,
all of the people that you find are doing something that engages you.
And right now, it might not have a lot to do with what you're writing about or
what your careers doing, and that's okay.
Cultivate a nice, big network of people doing interesting stuff.
And I'll add as a corollary to that,
that I would not intentionally try to make part of your network, somebody who
does work that you don't respect just because they have a big following.
So I'm not saying go out and abuse those people, or be a brat,
or be annoying, because that's just foolish, that's just short sited.
But if you don't respect somebody's work, then trying to get them into your network,
it's just never going to work out.
Your audience is going to cry foul and you're not going to feel good about it.
It doesn't really work.
Build your network out of people whose work you admire.
There are so many people doing amazing things on the web.
You're going to find plenty of people whose work you admire.
So do not spend time trying to quote,
unquote, network with somebody who you're just not that into but
they have a big blog, they have hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
And somehow you think you're going to get something out of this.
So you're not going to get a piece of it.
So networking really comes out of following
the interests of people you find genuinely admirable.
And kind of related to that,
if you do get a chance to meet one of your blog heroes, do what you can.
And this is one of those you just have to try your best
not to be super visibly awestruck.
Now, you don't have to go the extreme opposite either, and
I've seen people do this, where they trying so
hard not to look awestruck that they come across as sort of being jerks.
It's not your job to call this person on your bs.
I mean, you can if you want to, but
I'll tell you that's a great way to really limit your opportunities professionally.
But you want to try not to, as my friend Pace Smith said,
try not to squee all over you shoes, if you can, it's tough.
Guys, when I first approached Brian Clark about writing for Copylogger,
I had to have like, two glasses of wine before I could even write the tweet.
I mean, I was nervous.
He was a hero.
I was very, very nervous about making that request.
So I do get it, but what might be useful to know is that,
when people admire your work that's really cool, that's fun.
And when I've worked hard on something and somebody says, hey,
I really liked that and I got something out of it, that's major.
I love that.
When somebody comes up to me and says, my God,
I can't believe I'm in the same room as you.
Can I touch your shirt?
That's just creepy, okay?
[LAUGH] People who do work you admire are not deities.
And it's weird to be treated that way.
And, frankly, anybody who likes being treated that way,
I would kind of steer clear of, that would be a red flag for me.
So just try to remember,
this person started the same place you did, just as a passionate
wordsmith who had something to say that they wanted to get into the world.
Treat everyone with respect, but you don't want or
need to treat anybody like some kind of god.
That's just weird.
So I'm always asked,
how do I get the attention of somebody who has a massive audience?
And we all want to do it.
Trust me, I've been there, okay?
The best way to attract somebody who has a big audience is to do something epic.
Do something really remarkable, and
content tends to be the easiest way to do that.
If you have a really remarkable blog, you can have four or five readers.