The Power of Networking

Networking is the single most important thing you can do to land your dream job. Or maybe you’re trying to land a new brand deal, client, podcast guest, new golf buddy or whatever is it you care about, networking will be one of the most beneficial things you can do to find success.

Below I will detail each job I’ve ever had and the process of landing the actual role. LET’S RIDE!

(reply to this email after you read with some feedback por favor)

Aon 🤝 Colgate & Matt Lalli

Insurance baby! Not the job or industry I had in mind when I went off to college and started the job search.

Backing up a bit, I was extremely lost when it came to the job search. Everyone knows how important your junior year summer is (summer heading into senior year) to find an internship.

Colgate is a fantastic academic school. The only reason I got to attend such a fine institution is because I was a very fast runner that whacked dudes really hard with a long pole, otherwise known as the sport of lacrosse. My SAT scores were absurdly embarrassing and my high school grades were decent at best. But hey, hate the game don’t hate playa. I got in!

I had always been a super out-going guy that liked to connect with people, but Colgate really introduced me to the idea of networking, like with adults who have like real jobs.

The lacrosse team had a cool program that connected kids on the team with a Gate Lax alumnus in the working world, and my match was Matt Lalli.

Colgate is the type of school that sends 90% of their kids to a finance gig in NYC. I thought I had to follow suit.

I kept failing the job interview process at big NYC banks. A hiring manager at a bank for a Sales & Trading job asked what my dream job was in an interview, and I said, “GM of an NFL football team”. Safe to say I did not get that job.

Scrambling last minute for an internship, I connected with my assigned “mentor” Matt Lalli, who had spent several years at a large company called Aon. They are an insurance broker with 70,000+ employees worldwide.

After a few phone calls where Matt got to know me, he got me an interview at Aon for their internship program. I learned my lesson and didn’t tell my future boss I wanted to be an NFL GM and landed the summer gig.

This was the first experience that taught me the true power of networking. Thanks, Colgate & Matt!

ESPN 🤝 David Lloyd

After an internship + six months of a full-time job at Aon following my graduation, I realized I wasn’t built for the insurance world. Just didn’t have that Jake from State Farm dawg in me.

My side-hustle of Morning Blitz taught me I had an extraordinary passion for sports media, so I quickly turned my attention to trying to work in sports.

I’m a creature of habit, I turned to the Colgate alumni directory and tracked down the email of man by the name of David Lloyd. If you’re a sports junkie like me, you’ve seen his beautiful face on SportsCenter for almost 30 years.

I reached out to David to sign-up for Morning Blitz. He did. Then after cultivating a friendly relationship (very important step), I reached out about his time at ESPN. I didn’t ask for a job right away, I asked in a curious way about his experience in the sports media industry. When I finally felt we were in the “friend zone”, I asked him if he would recommend me to the HR department for a specific job opening at ESPN in the marketing department that I had found on their careers page. He did.

Make sure you build a genuine connection with those you are reaching out to.

Some people think just because you ask, you shall receive. In order for someone to go out of their way to help you and put their reputation on the line to recommend you for a job, YOU FIRST NEED TO BUILD TRUST.

Without David’s help, there’s no way my insurance heavy resume is flagged by the Worldwide Leader in Sports.

After a long interview process, I landed my legit dream job working at fricken’ ESPN. Thanks, David (I know you’re reading this because you’re an absolute legend)!

After I got the job, David let me watch an entire SportsCenter set standing 10 feet from him in the studio. To this day, that was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had having watched SportsCenter for 7 hours a day growing up.

TorchPro 🤝 Tommy Vailas, Kyle York & Matt Fornataro

Now for a bit more unique networking sequence.

After a year at ESPN, I wanted to pursue the entrepreneurial life. I had dreams to take what I was doing with Morning Blitz to the next level.

Sometimes your greatest networking asset can be your best friends instead of your alma mater or business relationship. Actually, most of the time. Use your boys/girls.

Tommy Vailas had been my brotha from another motha since high school. He’d known about my passion for sports media, which reminded him the VC firm he worked for was affiliated with another sports media company, Kompany39.

Tommy made the introduction to his CEO and founder at York IE, Kyle York. I got to know how brilliant of a dude Kyle was after a few meetings and he quickly introduced me to Matt Fornataro, who had started Kompany39.

I had many phone calls and in-person meetings with Matt over the next couple months. Nothing was overnight and never should be. Remember what I said about cultivating a relationship? You need to really put the effort into a relationship to make it meaningful.

Finally, Matt and I got to the point in our relationship that we were ready to take the leap of faith together and start the journey of TorchPro.

Without utilizing my friend Tommy, connecting with Kyle York and building a meaningful relationship with Matt, the last three years of my life building TorchPro never would have existed.

Thanks Tommy, Kyle and Matt!

Shadow Lion 🤝 Ben Rawitz & Gilad Haas

Now for how I got this insane opportunity to work with Shadow Lion.

It was by far the longest timeline of networking I had done yet.

I kinda like the phrase “relationship cultivating” instead of networking. But that’ll never catch on, so I digress.

Ben Rawitz has been Tom Brady’s longtime business manager and later co-founder of Shadow Lion, TB12’s creative media studio that I now work for.

The relationship started in late 2019. I had found out about who Ben was through I podcast that had been sent to me. Ben’s story of hustle really resonated. Plus, Tom Brady had been my idol since I was old enough to understand who the Patriots were and of course wanted to have some sort of 10^th degree of separation from him to Morning Blitz. No shame.

I sent Ben a DM on Instagram with the link to the Blitz. He subscribed out of good faith. We gave him some time to get familiar with the product, then I reached out to get on the phone just to further introduce myself and the vision of the Blitz.

Again, emphasizing the cushion of space here and not being so strong off the start forcing an agenda.

The call went phenomenal. Ben and I just hit it off as friends more than anything. There wasn’t a huge next step besides becoming boys and him enjoying Morning Blitz.

Flash forward to Super Bowl 54 in February 2020, right before Covid hit.

I was in Miami for the Chiefs vs. Niners game with my father and Tommy, who you met earlier. We knew Ben was in town and set up our first ever in-person meeting together just to say waddd up.

Well, Ben had been reading the Blitz for months now and was impressed with the format, execution and everything else that came with operating Morning Blitz.

He had a newsletter concept he had been working on meant for Tom Brady and his network of high-achievers to help stay in-the-know on relevant topics. He asked if we could help him bring the idea to life given our backgrounds in newsletters.

The answer was an immediate yes.

It’s a cool, invite-only newsletter project that maybe I can get into more details about in a future blog post. BUT I worked my socks off for a good 18 months creating content and managing the back-end operation, which was an effort that really impressed Ben.

Coming back to this point again, I cultivated the relationship in a very authentic way that made a lasting appreciation.

Throughout my time working on this project, I was introduced to Ben’s co-founder at Shadow Lion, Gilad Haas.

Ben and Gilad watched me grow and work my ass off at TorchPro for 3 years (had to stop helping out day-to-day on that project when I joined Torch). The relationship had really continued to grow on a personal level with them, and when the time came to talk about a longer-term relationship and full-time position at Shadow Lion, it was a much different conversation than just an interview process.

Through my relationship building with them, they knew what they’d be getting from me as a full-time employee, and we both understood it as the perfect fit.

So shoutout Ben and Gilad for signing up for the Blitz 5 years ago.

The power of networking will truly make your dreams come true.

Rarely will you land a job with a blind resume application or land a new client with a cold email. The warm intro goes such a long way. Find your warm intros and tap into that.

Connect with me

If approached the right way, I will never say no to a networking call. Feel free to respond to this email if you want to connect! Or just shoot the shit about Drake Maye being the right fit for the Patriots. Either convo works!

How to connect:

• Reply to this email

• My LinkedIn

• My Twitter

• My IG

I’ve had hundreds of calls with college kids about the job process, and every single time I try to over-emphasize the importance of networking. I am absolutely convinced it is the best way to land your dream job.

I want to be a college career counselor in my next life. Maybe.

Landing a dream job can take a lot of luck. Well, you can create your own luck by putting yourself in touch with new and exciting people.

Don’t be the guy spamming people. Play it cool.

You have to understand the working adult is a very busy person and taking 15 minutes out of the day to chat is actually a bigger task than you’d imagine. Time is precious.

That being said, people like to talk about themselves and what they do. Or maybe that’s just me.

See you next week, Legends! My sister is getting married this weekend. LFG!!!!!!!