What if next week’s Super Bowl ends up becoming a waste? (The Patriots are big favorites to win.) What then? Upcoming during the first quarter of Super Bowl Sunday will be Audi’s tasteful assault on a decade’s obsession with vampires. It’s especially different from your average car commercial considering the HEADLIGHTS are the star of this show.

Branding the Throne: What Advertisers Could Gain From a Little Hip-Hop Hustle

Making collaborations work—easy in concept but rarely do things emerge as such in real life. And that’s why this article finds Kanye & Jay-Z’s project so unique: because it’s defined by everything it did and didn’t do.

There’s something to be learned here. Read it.

How to Get A REAL Education. (WSJ)

For everyone else who does not fit into the mold of esteemed professions like doctor or lawyer.

Spark Notes Version:

1. Fail Forward (using risk to develop experience)
2. Find the Action (where is the innovation happening in your industry?)
3. Conquer Fear (instead of masking nervousness during public speaking)
4. Write Simply (How to more clearly articulate your vision)
5. Learn Persuasion

Click the link for some damn good dialogue.

Building Rapport: An Introduction to the ABCs of Relating to a Potential Business Contact

The one thing that most handicaps young people in their first interactions with potential contacts is a lack of elocution.

Why is writing a thank-you letter so gruelingly arduous for young people but a break-up text message requires such little thought process?

In this search to understand each other, of bridging the old and new, how can a passionate young person relate and connect with a seasoned veteran working in that young person’s desired industry?

With an upcoming video, Eddie and I will further explore a simple formula to more easily build rapport with potential contacts that extends beyond the recycled material. Again, much is said over what networking is and how it theoretically works, but rarely does anyone teach the application of it.

…and that’s where we come in.

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Strategy for Courting Potential Business Contacts

The common problem in teaching networking, especially to young minds, is that it is a concept generally identified by what it is and how it theoretically works, but rarely is there an extended analysis of the actual application of courting business contacts.

Most network models seemingly illustrate a structure where contacts naturally exist within the periphery; that mere acquaintance is enough to convince them to offer services. The problem is that it does not factor in the self-interest of these contacts. Would you really extend yourself to help someone simply by knowing their name and a vague but shared history of a few past experiences? 

Change Focus.

I had once disastrously tried to utilize a contact at a social event when, before I could finish my opening thought, they had already finished my entire conversation with a dismissive summary of their progress. I stood there stammering to create some kind of momentum again but more importantly it was a moment that taught me the necessity of stepping out of yourself, or at the very least, learning to better “hide your cards.” I liken this scenario to telling the other team what your upcoming play is and expecting them not to take advantage of what they know is coming.

Being Suggestive.

To test whether or not a contact might extend a favor to you, it’s best to suggest what you’d like to see without the inclusion of that contact because it then creates a moment where they can decide to act (in the form of a commitment) or tastefully decline an opportunity to help you.

Eddie will be posting a video shortly detailing the options you could pursue.

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What other strategies have worked for you, Rascals? How did you better yourself to best leverage potential opportunities?

Our next post will examine another step in the process of networking: Building rapport with new contacts in order to better relate with them.

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