The most useful networking tips for introverts tend to center upon replacing small talk with shared work, so that a shy founder is meeting people while making something alongside them and has a reason for the conversation beyond the introduction. Ben Albert, owner of Balbert Marketing and host of the Real Business Connections podcast, built his business that way after being furloughed in 2020, and his approach relies upon a short LinkedIn message and a podcast microphone, along with a habit of following up when most people let a new contact go quiet.
Albert joined DissedMedia: A Startup Story to talk with host Ben Olmos, who first met him at VidFest in Atlanta and still keeps the emoji stress ball that Albert threw into the audience during his talk there. With two Bens in the conversation this article uses surnames throughout. Their discussion moves from the furlough through the outreach that filled his calendar, and it closes with a candid account of shutting down a community he loved; for a founder who finds conventional mixers draining, it may be a useful picture of how a quiet person can build a wide circle of business relationships.
From a Furlough in Rochester to a Full Interview Calendar
Albert describes the months before the pandemic as a period in which he was trying very hard to be someone he later realized he was not. He was a sales executive at one of the larger marketing firms in Rochester, New York, working in a suit and tie from the thirteenth floor of a downtown tower that appears in most photographs of the city, and by his own account he felt disconnected in the role and was not taking good care of himself. When video production and travel stopped in 2020 the firm furloughed him, which he is careful to say was no fault of the company, and the small music podcast and promotion business he had run on the side since 2016 offered little relief because live music had shut down as well. He recalls spending a good deal of that time staring at the wall and hiking before he did anything productive, and he started his own business that August with what he admits was very little idea of how to run one.
The LinkedIn Message That Opened the Door
The turn came from a LinkedIn profile he had already rebuilt while looking for jobs that never materialized. Albert began writing to alumni of his college, SUNY Brockport, with a short note that acknowledged the shared school and congratulated the person on their years in business, and he estimates that roughly 100 of those messages produced about 60 connections. To the people who connected he sent a second note explaining that he was shifting his Rochester music show into a business podcast that would highlight local leaders, and asking whether he could feature them; the business podcast did not exist yet, however something like three out of four said yes, and within days he had a packed calendar of interviews. He did not track the numbers closely and says he wishes he had, so the figures are best read as his recollection.
At the end of each conversation he asked for what he now calls nominations, on the theory that people enjoy nominating others and that nearly everyone likes to be nominated. One guest would introduce him to five more, and in one case a single guest produced 17 introductions, so that by November a man who had been unemployed that spring was seemingly known around Rochester as the local business podcaster. He was learning from those owners and making no pitch to them, although his marketing background meant he could help when a guest turned out to need it. Readers interested in the platform side of this may want to pair his account with Daniel Alfon’s advice on how to network on LinkedIn without cold pitching, which arrives at a similar conclusion from a different direction.
Albert noted that he did all of this as a one-person operation, and he believes an established firm could run the same play with far more reach, since a local interview show named for its city gives executives a reason to sit down with people they would otherwise have to cold call. That may be among the more practical networking tips for introverts in his account, because the show does the introducing and the host only has to be curious.
Networking Tips for Introverts Who Would Rather Create Than Mingle
Albert calls his method CAN, shorthand for pairing creation with networking, and he says he developed it by accident because conventional mixers never suited him. He describes himself as shy and somewhat introverted, a person who struggles with small talk and would much prefer a long conversation that goes somewhere, and so his networking tips for introverts all begin with giving the interaction a purpose beyond the introduction itself. A podcast is the clearest example, since recording an episode means talking with one person at length about work they care about, and the relationship forms as a byproduct of making the episode. The same logic may apply to hosting a virtual event with a guest speaker or volunteering time to a charity, and for someone who dreads walking into a mixer cold he suggests arriving as the event photographer or the person handling its social media, which supplies a reason to speak with nearly everyone in the room.
There is some support for this outside his own experience. An often cited Harvard Business Review article, Learn to Love Networking, observes that many professionals find networking uncomfortable and recommends approaching it through learning and common interests, which is close to what Albert stumbled into when he sat down as a student of the business owners he interviewed. One listener told him she had learned more about her boss of nearly thirty years from a single hour of his show than she had in all her time at the company, feedback he found flattering and a little alarming.
Follow-Up Habits That Make a Quiet Person Hard to Forget
Olmos told Albert during the interview that his follow-up is the thing he most admires, since a message to him tends to get a reply within a day even when the reply is only an acknowledgment. Albert was quick to say he does not always meet that standard, and he could not fully explain where the habit comes from beyond caring about people; he does treat it as strategy, however, reasoning that he cannot win every category in business and can still do his best at creating experiences people remember. His phrase for this is that he would rather be different than better. On stage that has meant launching a drone and walking out to custom music before tossing emoji stress balls into the crowd, with prizes for whoever catches certain ones, and Olmos still has the one he caught at VidFest in Atlanta, an event he has written about in how to market a startup.
The quieter version is a system he built because he was shy. In place of a business card he keeps a code on his phone that opens a text message to his number already addressed to him, so that a new contact only has to add a name and press send, and when he can he takes a photo with the person so that neither of them forgets the meeting. When others let a new contact drift he sends the next message, and he believes that being the one who responds may matter more than being the most polished person at the event.
Finding Your People Before Working the Room
Olmos asked whether the public-facing work is a constant battle against the urge to retreat, and Albert’s answer may be the most reassuring part of the episode for anyone looking for networking tips for introverts. He does not enjoy approaching strangers and says he is bad at it; part of what he loved about the music industry was that he could go to a show and dance without having to make conversation. What changes his behavior is being among people who share his interests, which is why he comes alive at a podcasting or video conference and can feel overwhelmed in rooms where he does not fit. He offers that as permission, in his word, to skip being the life of every party, since the reputation he has for being outgoing was earned almost entirely in rooms he chose carefully. Olmos added his own observation that working from home for several years can be lonelier than people expect, and that a recorded conversation is often the first real one he has had all day.
What Closing a Community Taught Him About Focus
The week of the recording, Albert had announced that he was closing the larger Grow Getters Only community, a decision he compared to going through a breakup. The group had started free, later carried a nine dollar fee that worked mostly as a vetting step, and regularly produced members telling him they had met someone valuable through it; it also consumed a great deal of his time without reaching the scale he had hoped for, and he says plainly that he does not have the social media reach to add a thousand members with a single post. The weekly inner circle continues, as does the free monthly virtual networking event he has hosted for about five years. He is running a marketing agency alongside the community and a podcast and speaking practice, and he concluded that the agency is what currently pays the bills and deserves most of his attention.
Olmos, whose background is in business operations, suggested a subscription model in which recorded sessions become toolkits for paying members, and Albert agreed the idea is sound while explaining that it had become a distraction from what was already working. His question for other founders is whether some attractive side project is drawing time away from the part of the business that pays, a tension Olmos recognized from his own experience of bootstrapping a podcast through 100 episodes. A related view of the revenue side comes from Lady Jen Du Plessis, another guest Olmos met through Albert’s community, on how to monetize a podcast.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can introverts network without small talk?
Introverts can often network more comfortably by attaching a purpose to the interaction, such as interviewing someone for a podcast or taking a working role at an event. Ben Albert’s networking tips for introverts center upon creating something with another person so that the relationship forms through the shared work.
What is the CAN approach to networking?
CAN is Ben Albert’s shorthand for combining creation with networking. He suggests making content or hosting events with the people you want to know, so that the connection grows out of a project and the conversation has somewhere to go.
How did Ben Albert use LinkedIn to launch a business podcast?
He messaged alumni of his college on LinkedIn, and by his estimate about 60 of every 100 accepted the connection. He then invited those who connected to be featured on a local business podcast, roughly three out of four agreed, and he asked each guest to nominate others at the end of the interview.
How can I connect with Ben Albert?
Ben Albert’s podcast and speaking information are at realbusinessconnections.com, and he is on Instagram at @realbenalbert. The Grow Getters Only inner circle is at weallgrowtogether.com, where he has offered listeners of the show a free pass.
The full conversation covers more ground than a single article can hold, including the ikigai-style test Albert applies to work he will take on and the branding tangles both hosts have created for themselves across several ventures. The full episode with Ben Albert on networking tips for introverts is below, and you can find his show at realbusinessconnections.com.
More at dissedmedia.com, rostr.studio, and benolmos.com.
