Growing Your Network Every Day
By Mitchell Schuckman, PCC | Founder, The Schuckman Group
When I was coming up in my career, a senior partner I respected gave me three words of advice about business development. "Always be networking," he said. "It's as easy as ABC." I smiled, nodded, and went back to my desk thinking it was the least useful thing anyone had ever told me.
He hadn't told me how to do it, why I should do it, or what he meant by ABC. Looking back, I can answer all three.
I was standing on the sideline at one of my sons' youth soccer games years ago, talking to another parent. He ran a mid-size logistics company. I was into my career at a large global professional services firm. There was no obvious connection between what he did and what I did.
He mentioned that a client of his was expanding into Europe and running into complications around workforce compliance. We talked for twenty minutes, I explained what I knew about the subject, and he asked if I would be willing to speak with his client. That conversation led to an engagement. A year later he introduced me to a CFO he knew well, someone I never would have reached through my connections, and that relationship produced work for the next three years.
I wasn't working my network. I was just curious about the person standing next to me.
That, I eventually realized, is what ABC actually means: Always Be Curious. Being curious in a conversation is networking, and growing your network will eventually lead to growing your business.
The Network That Slowly Stops Working
Most professionals I coach have a network that was built during specific windows of their career. The clients from ten years ago. The colleagues from a firm they left. The contacts from an industry conference they stopped attending. Those relationships are worth maintaining. But a network that isn't growing is one that is slowly losing its value.
The signs are subtle. The referrals that used to come in steadily start to thin. The introductions slow down. The professional can't explain it because they still feel well-connected.
Part of what's happening is natural. People move on, change industries, retire, or drift from the position where they could be helpful. An A-list contact from five years ago can quietly become a C-list one without either of you noticing. Every network has attrition. The professionals who keep their pipeline healthy treat adding to their network as a discipline.
Where Builders Look That Others Don't
The professionals I have worked with who develop business most consistently share something that has nothing to do with how many events they attend or how active they are on LinkedIn. They are curious about people, all kinds of people, and they stay in motion across a wide range of relationships.
The former colleague who moved to a different industry. The college friend who became a CFO at a company you've never heard of. The neighbor who just took a new role. The parent at the school event whose company is growing faster than she expected. None of these feel like business development. That is exactly what makes them worth pursuing.
The conversations are authentic. The interest and curiosity are sincere. And conversations approached with interest and curiosity expand networks.
What Staying in Touch Actually Looks Like
The builders I have coached don't only stay in touch by scheduling formal check-in calls. They stay in touch the way good friends do. A text when something relevant comes up. A WhatsApp with an article that made them think of someone. A birthday note that doesn't ask for anything. A short message following up on a challenge someone mentioned six months ago. Small gestures, sent without expectation, that quietly tell the other person they are still on your mind.
Those investments are small individually. Collectively they produce something hard to replicate: a reputation, across a wide range of people and industries, for being useful, caring, and interested.
That reputation travels ahead of you.
Five Minutes a Day
Think about someone you haven't connected with recently who matters to you. Keep a running list if that helps, a simple spreadsheet or notes app, anything that keeps names in front of you.
Reach out with something specific. Something you read that reminded you of them. A question about something they were working on. Not a networking note. A human one.
Five purposeful minutes a day. A message sent, an introduction made, a thread picked back up. That discipline, practiced consistently, is what separates a network that grows from one that quietly fades.
Always be curious. The rest follows.
Mitchell Schuckman is the Founder and CEO of The Schuckman Group LLC. He is a Professional Certified Coach credentialed by the International Coaching Federation and the author of I'll Tell You a Great Story. He coaches senior executives, partners, and BD professionals across professional services firms worldwide. theschuckmangroup.com
Note on privacy: Some examples are composites. All identifying details have been changed.