keeping up with your industry.

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A question I received yesterday:

“How do you keep track of all?”

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I get this a bit.

My friend was asking about how I know what’s going on in the startup space.

He just moved back to Australia and was curious.

The recurring question is on the how.

So today I’m going to walk you through a top-line process for staying all over a niche.

I’ll use the startup niche - but keep in mind you can apply this to whatever industry you’re across (and should).

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This is a part of business development - and you don’t really get taught or shown this stuff, you just pick up on it over time.

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I’m dividing it up into:

1) Keeping tabs

2) Engaging and helping

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Keeping tabs

This is staying across what happens.

I do this by subscribing to multitudes of newsletters, connecting with relevant people on LinkedIn (used to be Twitter), and lurking or being active in key communities.

For newsletters I’ll have my main email address for some key ones - and I filter all newsletters (including mine) with the word “Unsubscribe” to my “Marketing and Newsletter” folder.

I sometimes miss important things that have “Unsubscribe” in the email - but it’s not very often and its worth it for the sanity.

I also have a “burner” email account (my old Hotmail) that I send a larger volume of newsletters to. This is linked to Outlook (not my Gmail) and I can just load it up and skim for things a few times a month.

This is as close as I get to “news”.

I don’t read the news and was surprised when my friend asked me if I think Trump will win the election the following day - I didn’t know it was happening that day and my mental health is better for it.

I’m also in a number of communities connected to the startup space.

Some I lurk in, some are paid, and some I’m quite prolific in.

Here I keep track of asks, common questions, and ways to help.

The same goes for LinkedIn connections.

I am connected to a lot of people in this space - some of whom are loud on the platform and always broadcasting what they’re after and what they’re looking for.

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Engagement

These are things I notice that are asks, an angle I add value to, or requests for help.

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An ask is things that newsletter owners or VIPs/influencers pop into their channels that I could potentially help with.

Angles are harder to describe - but higher leverage.

These are bits of information I can use to help my business and are usually long-term plays.

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I’ll give you some examples:

The VIP treatment

Many moons ago, Chris Guillebeau (a writer I love) dropped that he would be visiting Australia soon.

I was working at Google Sydney at the time and offered him lunch on-site.

He accepted and I got to spend an hour picking the brain of someone I admire.

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The strategic cold outreach and help play

The founder reached out to me on LinkedIn as he is setting up a new AI ecosystem getting built in Docklands.

We spoke on the phone and then I met him and his co-founder on-site a month or so ago.

There’s nothing I can do for them immediately and directly, but I connected them into 4 different people in the ecosystem I know are good introductions - because that sort of helping might reap rewards later.

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Out of the blue social media

Last week someone posted on Sydney Startups they were looking for someone with my skill-set.

I tend to stay away from these posts as it’s a pile-on of people offering their services - but it was a good fit and we jumped into another channel and have moved things forward from there.

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This is part of the game!

This isn’t the whole process - but this cadence of keeping the eyes open, looking for ways to help, being selective about where and how much time is spent, and repeatedly doing this nets value.

The best business owners I’ve met do this instinctually.

They know what they’re looking for, how to help and connect along the way, and keep doing this until an orbit of value creation builds around them.

Keep hustling!

-Marshy

p.s. Got a question on this? Reply to my email and I’ll give you a quick outline on how you can apply this to your situation.

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