I’ve met a lot of people this week through the DLD Innovation Conference that’s taking place in Tel Aviv.
You make a great connection, and it’s time to exchange contact info. “Do you have a business card?” is slowly being replaced by “Can I get your email?” or “What’s your WhatsApp?” and even “Here, I’ll add you on Facebook.”
Choose your preferred medium.
After the connection, you might send a follow-up message and a link to your LinkedIn for more context. So you’ll be remembered.
The New Business Card
If I feel there’s interest from their end, I send a link to my passion project – which happens to be my blog. My blog is my most naked expression of my heart. It gives people an intimate glimpse of what makes me tick. And not only that – my values, my passions, and how I think.
In return, people have sent me their side projects. Maybe it’s a deck to a new fund they’re launching, their design portfolio, or a link to a community they’re passionate about.
Or, they’ll open up about how one of my posts resonated and made them feel.
Vulnerability really does strengthen connections.
If you don’t have a side project right now, that’s okay. Share a book or podcast you love, or provide some follow-up thoughts on a topic you discussed.
More Than Just Another Contact
A sea of business cards and LinkedIn notifications. Faces we can barely remember.
Today, we add so many contacts, only to miss the real connection.
I’d rather connect deeply with a few people – some who may become long-term friends – than make tons of new contacts.
In the future of work, we are not just our job titles. How can a single white page summarize us? And how can we properly grasp the core of another person when we just have the memory of a short conversation, followed by a LinkedIn notification?
If you’re lucky, your passion project may not be just a side project – it may be your career. That’s when you’ve made your career the vehicle for your values and life mission. You might even have multiple careers and projects at once, each reflecting your varied interests. Or, you might have an intense hobby. It doesn’t matter if you make money from it or not.
I believe that if you share your passion projects with the world, you’ll attract your tribe to you. It may be one of the truest ways to do so.
Maybe you’ll even meet the love of your life. Ha, who knows. But at the very least, you’ll make some great friends who get you.
Your soul travels faster than the speed of light. It’s pure. It has the power to touch so many people at once.
Create from the heart, then share it. You’ll be surprised who comes running into your light.
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