The one hack that changed my career

And that I come back to time and time again

Usually I try to stay away from the clickbait titles, but I allowed myself to indulge this time because I’m so passionate about this hack.

First, apologies for my absence. In my final weeks in NYC, I was struck down by Covid for 4 weeks (how retro does that feel?), and was also facing a black mould infestation, as well as dealing with an extended family of rats in our yard. Greatest city in the world, am I right? I’m now recovered and settling back in Europe, and am very happy to be turning my attention back to my beloved Substack.

Installation by James Turrell, one of my favourite artists

Let’s get into it.

As someone who’s only ever worked for myself, I’ve had to be scrappy and entrepreneurial in order to make progress in my career. Let me tell you a little story about how I got started. Many years ago, in that glorious pre-Covid era, I graduated with an MSc in Entrepreneurship from the University of Amsterdam’s business school. I got to looking for jobs, and wasn’t making much progress. For a very free-wheeling and laid-back country, the Dutch job market is surprisingly traditional. In order to get an entry-level marketing job, you were expected to have done a Bachelor’s in business, a Master’s in marketing, and have one or two marketing internships under your belt. I had been a teen writer, contributing to the Huffington Post since the age of 15 (back when I wanted a career in journalism, which ended the day I found out how much they get paid), a member of the European Youth Parliament (little more than an excuse to party with hot European boys but it sounds profesh), and had done all sorts of marketing adjacent things, but was told time and time again that my CV “made no sense.”

One day, out of the blue, a friend in Belgium messaged me, asking if I’d be able to write a bunch of articles for her brand’s website. It was the golden era of content marketing: I had to write 20 articles that were search engine optimised for the girlboss, which were then turned into Pinterest funnels. I loved the work, and it got me thinking… Maybe this could be something I did full time?

Long story short, I decided to kick off my career freelancing, which in hindsight was pretty bold. As I got started, one thing became abundantly clear: I needed to build a pipeline of fun and interesting clients.

Here’s the hack:

To do cool things, you need to be connected to cool people.

And to connect with cool people, you need to give them a reason to talk to you.

Remember, at this point I’m a 23 year old wannabe Carrie Bradshaw, spending way too much money sitting in cafés and curating the perfect Instagram shot. I was under no illusions as to the fact that cool and successful people wouldn’t have a whole lot of interest in meeting with me.

I realised that I would need to come up with a genius reason for people to speak to me, so I got to thinking about what I could offer people. The answer? Coverage in articles. I was already writing for publications big and small (from The Guardian to random Dutch trade magazines), and would often quote people in my articles.

I made a list of everyone I wanted to speak to: people who ran co-working spaces where I figured I could find new clients, people who had their own brands that might need marketing support, speakers and writers and podcasters and anyone doing something cool.

Next, I reverse-engineered my articles. Rather than reaching out to people who might be relevant to the article I was writing, I specifically pitched articles on topics that would allow me to speak to people on my list. Funnily enough, it worked like magic. I found that people were thrilled to be quoted in publications, even if they were very small or very niche. I wrote article after article on everything from the boom of coworking spaces, to advice on avoiding burnout for female entrepreneurs, interviewing a few people from my list for each article.

There are lots of reasons why this worked well.

1. You’re leading with giving. In my case, this looked like providing value for that person in the form of press coverage.

2. You’re creating multiple opportunities to speak to people. There’s the first interaction, when you message asking them to interview them. Then there’s the interview itself — if I thought there was potential to become good friends with the interviewee, I’d suggest meeting in person. And then there’s the publication of the article a few weeks later, when you can share it with the interviewee and subtly let them know you’re available for support with XYZ.

3. The more quotes you include in your article, the fewer words you have to write yourself…

Over time, using this approach I was able to build a thriving networking of incredible people, most of whom I’m still friends with to this day, and many of whom I’ve worked with in some capacity. Once people know you, they’re more likely to trust you, and then hire you.

I remember interviewing an Amsterdam-based woman named Sara for an article about staying inspired as a freelancer. She messaged me literally a few days later, saying “hey — you’re an English native speaker right?”. I am indeed, and she ended up hiring me to create a tone of voice guideline document for a brand she was working with. Sara would never have thought to bring me on to the project if I hadn’t met her the very same week, and it was one of the first times I realised this hack was really working out for me. I went on to speak at an event Sara hosted, and have worked with her on client projects on and off over the past 7 years.

Years later, I started a dinner club with my friend Gemma, and I saw the beauty of this approach in action once again. We would cold message people from Reddit, Meta, Snap, Pinterest, TikTok, and all sorts of cool companies on LinkedIn inviting them to one of our London dinners. I’d say 95% of people said yes, a fabulous hit rate given people had to pay for their own dinner and didn’t know us at all. We’ve been hosting these dinners for almost 4 years now, and I’m always blown away at how excited people get to receive an invitation, and how much they enjoy the dinners. Turns out, there is magic to be found in creating something — it’s a great way to get access to people (in a non-stalker way) by providing them with something of value.

So, how can you use this hack in your own career?

Remember — whether you’re in a full-time job, have a portfolio career, or are considering a freelance move, to do cool things, you need to be connected to cool people.

And to connect with cool people, you need to give them a reason to talk to you.

The best way to do this is to create your own thing. Make sure it’s something you’re genuinely passionate about, or you’ll never keep it up. It’s also important that you’re doing something authentic — this isn’t intended as an easy social climbing hack. You’re trying to create something valuable that people want to be associated with and involved in.

Examples could include:

• A podcast

• An industry newsletter

• A dinner club

• A Substack interview series

• A book club

• A panel event series based around a theme

• A YouTube channel

• An online community

• A running club (please no)

• A coworking community

• A zine

Getting started

Once you get started, invite some people you know to get involved. Don’t go straight for Emma Grede or Mark Cuban — you’ll probably be disappointed (saying that, definitely shoot your shot later down the line). Start smaller, and build up. If you’re running an interview series, for example, ask a few friends to be featured before you start reaching out to people cold. Make it easy for the person to say yes, too. When we interview people for our Social Capital series, we provide them with a Google Form with the questions, and also offer a phone call or voice notes as another means of replying — it makes it way easier for people to say yes. Obviously, if someone says no, don’t push it. Have fun with it, and remember the follow-up. Send the person the finished product when it’s ready, and invite them to share it on their socials if they’d like. Check in with them down the line, and keep nurturing that relationship — you never know where it might lead you.

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On the Connection Pending Substack, we unpack the art (and science) of connection: from who to meet and how to meet them, to building your own ecosystem and creating those right-place-right-time moments that spark opportunity, whatever your goals in work of life. Start here with The 100 Connections Challenge — it might just change your life... You can find Phoebe at the imaginatively named phoebedodds.com.