The Follow-Up Nobody Teaches

The hard part of networking isn't the first message. It's message four — the one you send when there's no obvious reason to send anything at all.

Make it about them, not the meeting

"How did the board presentation go?" beats "following up on our chat." The first proves you listened. The second proves you have a CRM.

Bring a new thing

Every follow-up should carry one new piece of information they didn't have before — a stat, a person, a question. Otherwise you're asking them to do the work of restarting the conversation.

Set the cadence on the way out

End with "I'll ping you again in a month with anything I find on X." Now silence isn't awkward. It's the plan.