Week 52 - People are different people 🤷‍♂️

Hey my friend, I’m currently connecting with nearly 40 people per day, and they fall into these 4 categories:

• freelancers in Warsaw

• freelancers in Berlin

• hiring professionals in Poland

• community experts worldwide.

Why these four? Easy. The first three ones are because I’m growing the freelance market in Poland. The last one is for spreading the word about Community ROI (it’s a very valuable resource, and I fully believe that every commmunity expert needs to listen to it).

I have a specific process for connecting:

• initial message - to spark someone’s interest and accept my request

• second message - to explain why I’m connecting, and start the conversation

• third one - a simple reminder to continue if we stopped at some point

• fourth one - a story of what the value is (in my understanding) and why we should talk

• final - telling that I’m giving up, leaving some valuable resources, and that whenever they are ready, I’m here.

Yes, sometimes the sequence varies. But the main part is that I’m sending from 3 to 5 (sometimes 6) messages to one person.

And guess where most people answer? Right, around 3rd or 4th.

I don’t know why, maybe I’m sending shitty messages in the beginning, I’m still testing. What I definitely know is that people are different people.

One day, almost within 10 minutes, I received 2 totally opposite messages:

• “Stop sending me this bullshit.”

• “I admire your persistence! Sorry for not answering earlier.”

The same message. Two opposite reactions.

Which again proves the point that there are your people, and others. So if at any moment you feel like a conversation isn’t going anywhere, just stop it. There are thousands of people who would admire what you do, and will be happy to talk to you!

tl;dr When you connect with new people, have your clear “why?”, be persistent, and walk by people who don’t want to talk to you. No hard feelings 😉😉

On another note, I’ve had a pretty shitty week. And no matter that I was doing dozens of things I thought to be “productive”, I felt like I was not going anywhere.

In addition, I’ve got over 4K delay in payments from a client, and 2.5K past due payments I have to make 🤷‍♂️ Which is kinda okayish, solvable, but drives me nuts! 🤬

The fun part is that because of my being pissed off, I stopped being extra kind and understanding. And just started saying what I feel to some people who weren’t nice in answering me.

Of course, I haven’t harassed anyone (should I try that, too? 🤔), but matched their tone of voice, and used a little bit of good-old sarcasm.

Magically, their behaviour changed ✨ And we’ve even had some good conversations after all. Which led me to this: sometimes raw emotions are better than being nice.

tl;dr Being nice and positive is good, even great, but no one has the right to talk shit to you. And if they think they have, some good old sarcasm won’t make things worse. On the contrary, it can make things better 😉

And, woohoo, it’s the 52nd edition, which means that I have been running this newsletter for over a year! Such a milestone! 🥳🥳🥳

And thank you so much for being here with me on this journey 🤗

So yeah, that’s it for this week, and if you have any questions, thoughts, ideas, or personal examples of how to build better human connections, please answer this email, or connect with me on LinkedIn, and let’s talk 🤗🤓

💡 What influenced me this week 💡

Thoughts of the week:

• “Part of my vitality is coming from me breaking the news on something that everyone on X already knows about to everyone else on LinkedIn.” - Daniel Berk, Creator Spotlight podcast

• “Start with a long-form piece, make 2-3 social media posts out of it, ask follow-up questions, finish with a long-form piece with extra learnings.” - How Stories Happen podcast

• “If you’re building something, ask: can non-customers see this product in action? Can you design it so that using it naturally puts your name in front of other potential buyers?” - Indie Hackers newsletter

• “Success doesn't come from saying yes to everything that comes your way. It comes from saying no to the things that don't matter so that you have space for the things that do.” - Sahil Bloom’s newsletter

Song of the week:

Book and quotes of the week:

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers

“Without comfort, you will lack the strength to sustain either.”

“You’re an animal. And animals have no purpose. Nothing has a purpose. The world simply is.”

“It is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.”

Tools that I use with referrals:

• Descript - for anything around podcasting and video editing

• Beehiiv - for a newsletter (that’s what you receive 😅)

• Text Blaze - to access message templates with shortcuts (like “/ty”)

• Exali - promo “FROMYURII” - indemnity insurance for independent experts in Europe

• Manus - for building complex systems and projects

Daily actions:

• tell 1 person what I’m thankful to them for

• read a self-development book/listen to a professional podcast for 15 minutes

• make a valuable post/comment on LinkedIn

• tag 15 people in my connections database

• connect with 40 interesting people on LinkedIn

• invite 5 people to join the 👋Friendworking newsletter

Weekly actions:

• transcribe one new episode of the Creator Spotlight and Personal IPO (bi-weekly) podcasts, learn something from them, and connect with guests on LinkedIn

• connect 2 people who I believe need to be connected

• invite 30 people to follow the Community ROI podcast (and ask for some feedback).

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or questions, please 👇

And if you’d like to have more 👋 Friendworking in your life 👇

See you next week! 👋