NEWSLETTER 6: HOW TO BUILD NETWORK

Youtube subscriber count: 846/10,000

Sep 22, 2025

This was perhaps one of the most exciting weeks of my life

For every guest I have spoken to one the podcast - 92 - I have spoken to x4 or x5 times the amount of people behind the scenes

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Exciting Week

A skill that I have worked hard to build is not only network but the rate at which I can build network

This week I filmed x6 incredibly exciting podcasts with

Lihong Wang - Former Quant Trader (Jane Street; IMC) & Founder of Freeport (YC backed)

Hunter Black (The Voice Australia)

Markus Nauheim (Partner Gibson Dunn)

James Frost (Buzz Founder)

David Esposito (President & CEO of ONL Therapeutics)

Raj Setty (Owner of Setty & Associates & CEO of Syyclops)

And behind the scenes many more exciting calls with execs at Hedge funds, VCs, Investment Banks

(More Markets podcasts….)

Here are 3 learnings from this week

1 BE INTENTIONAL WITH EVERYTHING YOU DO

In order to build a successful relationship, friendship, business partner whatever it is

You need to be intentional

Intentional in finding a time to call & sending them a link to speak

Intentional in having questions to ask them & follow up Qs

Intentional in ALWAYS sending them a thank you email after the call

Even being intentional with how you treat them

The most important skill in building strong relationships is the knowledge that everyone is human

We may all be of different religions, races, countries, socioeconomic backgrounds, political beliefs etc

But we are all human

We all have family, experience emotion, eat food, go to sleep, like Elton John, and care about the people around us

You don’t need something from every interaction - a connection, a reference, job offer, call etc

But you can be intentional in being a good person to them

Give Give Give

And great things will come back to you in spades

Be intentional about caring

Be intentional about delivering value (even if they won’t necessarily be able to provide any in return)

And Be intentional about spreading goodness into the world

2 BE KIND TO EVERYONE

It would be unrealistic to say that I am best friends with everyone I have met

But I do make a conscious effort to be friendly with everyone I meet

I can recall being in high school and my focus was often on the next club, university application or cool thing I was spending my time on

But I didn’t always have enough time for the people around me (I didn’t even realise this)

Even when I did spend time with people it wasn’t enough time to build the really strong foundations of a relationship (obviously not everyone but not as many people as now)

I noticed with my 2 younger brothers and mum on the other hand though

That people would not only want to spend a lot of time with them but also would rave about them whether they were in the room or not

One of my younger brothers became the Head Boy at Eton College

So this went from a point of theory to actuality of having time for people (no matter how cool, popular or talented they are)

Because as we all know people evolve

The coolest kid in school may not work as hard in the real world

And the quiet kid might become the next billionaire

This links again to the 1st point

People are not in boxes so don’t put them there in your mind either

Understand that people are evolving

Have time for people

And leave everyone a little bit happier having met you

In the future when you realise that two people may have common personal interests, business interests, romantic…

Connect them

That is how network goes from static to intentionally evolving

3 YOUR WORD IS YOUR BOND

When you say you are going to do something

Do it

Meet at 5pm

Get there 4:55pm (or 20 minutes before that!)

You are going to help someone with their homework, study for a quiz

Prepare for an interview

Do it

We have all let people down, have missed meetings and been late for things

The important thing is 1) that you are honest about it 2) that you learn from the interaction and improve next time

Being honest is one of the most important things you can do in the business world

Speaking to Law firm partners, IB partners and Biopharma Partners all this week the common point of importantance is honesty

Why?

Because at the end of the day

A deal is not only about the numbers but whether two parties

Can uphold their end of the deal

And trust / honesty are the underpinnings of that

The other factor - learning & improving

We all go though hardship and have tough days

It would be unrealistic to pretend that we wouldn’t

But when you are sick, going through hardship or simply made a mistake

Don’t leave someone waiting in the rain (metaphorically)

Tell them, apologise, and make it up to them

As much as I absolutely love sharing my thoughts on this newsletter. I am aware that 10 learnings from the week are a bit too much!! I am going to continually work on the length of the newsletters and any other learnings I have I will post separately on LinkedIn during the week

https://www.linkedin.com/in/harveybracken-smith/

NEW EPISODES OF PERSONABLE

Monday

A Markets podcast in which I aim to speak to a hedgefund manager, VC or Investment Banker every week on real world market events - Luke Sloman.

Wednesday

Dr Markus Nauheim - Partner at Gibson Dunn

Friday

James Frost - Founder of Buzz (Reached 18th in the Lifestyle Global App Store Charts as of July 2025)

Watch on YouTube, Spotify or Apple podcasts

(I moved back to x3 a week for now so 2 last week are now this week)

TAKEAWAY FOR THE WEEK

Network is not fixed. Set your goal and work back from it. Put love into the world and the right people will join the journey. If someone rejects you they were not supposed to be on the journey with you. Don’t be timid and don’t hold back. The only thing between you and your goals: Initiative (e.g. building network) + Hard work = Success

I hope you enjoyed this week's newsletter

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