I started sharing everything about my life and business on The Sweaty Startup podcast in December of 2018.
On last week’s episode of the that podcast I talk about how the wealthiest folks I know got their start. Hint – it isn’t the way you think it might have happened. Check that out here.
Back to the Internet…
I used to think it was a waste of time. That building a following on social media was a fools errand. I even recorded this podcast episode in April of 2019, about 10 months before I got serious on Twitter, talking about how building a brand online, dependent on the platform, was a risky move.
Then I started sharing everything about my business on Twitter. Through threads just like this breaking down my deals and sharing more and more about how our business works.
My partner was apprehensive to say the least. “Nick, why would you share so much about our business online? Nothing to gain and our competitors will simply rip off our practices and compete with us.”
He had a valid concern but I had a feeling our network would explode so I asked him to trust me and continued onwards.
Our network did explode. As the follower count grew so did our investor list. We began raising money from folks I met on Twitter. To the tune of $25 million in 2020-2021. We began to hire employees we met on Twitter and met Marshall at SupportShepherd (which, as you know, has been a complete game changer for our business and we now have 18 employees in the Philippines working on our team). Deal flow began appearing through the DMs, and just a few months ago we closed on a $3.7 million deal in North Georgia we sourced through a member of my Facebook group who had also done a consulting session with me.
Simply put – sharing our tips and tricks and methods on the internet did the opposite of what we were worried about – it helped us make more money and grow our business. It didn’t create more competition (or at least a noticeable amount). Instead it made smart people reach out and want to do business with me and work with me.
This episode of my podcast (interviewed by Moses Kagan at re-convene LA last year) tells the story in full of how I got started and what happened when I started sharing online.
Then I ended up writing a Twitter Mastery course that over 200 people have taken (the feedback has been great) to share my strategy and how I think about growth / engagement on Twitter.
The bottom line:
Sharing what you know on the internet is networking on steroids. Your network can explode before your eyes. If you’re not from a wealthy real estate family and don’t have potential investors as uncles and neighbors, this is an excellent alternative.
Create a Twitter profile and start adding value where possible and thank me later.
We can also learn a very valuable lesson about networking in general… Too many people do it all wrong – walking around with their hand out saying “help me, help me, help me!” The winners get really good at something and walk around trying to help as many people as possible
Onward and upward,
Nick