Most people treat networking like fitness. They lie on the sofa for three years eating chips and drinking beers, watching sport instead of playing it. Then they wake up one day, realize they've gained 20kg professionally, and can't climb the career stairs anymore.
Sound familiar?
You go three years without talking to anyone in your network. Then you panic. Coffee meetings everywhere. LinkedIn messages flying. Desperate energy everywhere.
Here's the problem: You wouldn't train for a marathon by doing nothing for three years, then running 100km the week before the race. Your network works the same way.
When I launched Tier One People 10 years ago, I had 5,000 contacts in my database. Most people would email all 5,000. Spray and pray.
I did something different.
I filtered that list down to 98 people using a specific method. That was my critical 5%.
Those 98 people generated over 95% of my business results in the first year.
Here's the truth: 95% of your results will come from 5% of your network.
Not 10%. Not 20%. Five percent.
Break your network into three tiers:
Tier 1: Former bosses and colleagues who are now in hiring positions. People who know what it's like to work with you and can now make hiring decisions.
Tier 2: People with massive networks. Clients, law firm partners, investors, VCs, board members. People whose job is knowing other people.
Tier 3: Everyone else.
Your critical 5% is Tier 1 plus Tier 2. That's your focus.
Here's what everyone else writes:
"Hi X, how are you? Not sure if you heard but I was made redundant the other day. I'm on the market and I've attached my CV. Would love to catch up for a coffee, my shout."
See the problem? You're leading with your need. You're asking for too much. And you're valuing their time at the price of a flat white.
Here's what works:
"I'm thinking about a few possible career paths and as someone I highly rate and whose opinion I trust, I wondered if you had two minutes to chat. I know you won't sugarcoat things."
Two minutes. Not coffee. Not lunch. Not a job.
Two minutes is incredibly hard to say no to.
When you ask people for two minutes, they ask you for coffee.
When you ask them for their honest opinion, they give it. I've never met a single person who didn't enjoy telling me what they really thought.
But here's where the magic happens:
As soon as someone says "I think you should do X," they feel responsible for helping you do it. And they follow up with "Let me introduce you to Y."
Now you get another meeting with an influential person who could hire you. And you arrive pre-endorsed.
This is the compound effect. One conversation generates 1-2 warm introductions. Those introductions generate more conversations. Those conversations generate opportunities.
When I sent my two-minute message to 98 people, I had 60 meetings confirmed within 3 days. That's a 61% response rate.
Not because I'm special. Because the message made it easy to say yes. And because I focused on my critical 5%.
Years ago, I watched a sales rep push past me at a networking event and try to force his business card on a CEO. She calmly put her hands behind her back and said:
"You don't need to give me that. What you need to do is get someone I know and trust to give it to me."
That taught me everything about networking.
Stop trying to build trust from scratch with cold emails and forced connections. That takes months or years.
Instead, leverage the relationships you already have. When your former boss introduces you to their colleague, you don't start at zero. You start at 50%. You borrow their trust, their credibility, their relationship capital.
That's why warm introductions are 10 times more powerful than cold outreach.
Your critical 5% might be 10 people. It might be 50. It might be 200. The number doesn't matter.
What matters is this: Stop trying to network with everyone. Start identifying your critical 5%.
Better contacts beat more contacts every single time.
Listen to the full episode for the complete T1/T2/T3 framework, exact email templates, and the two-minute call structure that turns conversations into opportunities.
Download the Network Activation Worksheet with email templates, conversation scripts, and tracking tools.
