Cultivating a Professional Network with Craig Lewis

INTRODUCTION: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. Each day we welcome transformational executives to share their real world experiences and practical advice about scaling yourself, your team, and your business.

Matt Blumberg: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. I'm Matt Blumberg, co- founder and CEO of Bolster, and I'm here today with Craig Lewis. Craig is the founder and CEO of Gig Wage, which is a company that Bolster partners with. Gig Wage, is a VC- backed, SaaS company, in the future of workspace that builds modern payment tools for future of work. So Craig, welcome to The Daily Bolster.

Craig Lewis: Thanks for having me, Matt. I appreciate it.

Matt Blumberg: Yeah. So the thing I wanted to talk to you about today, one of the things that I've come to really appreciate about you as I've gotten to know you the last few years, is that you are really good at networking. And that doesn't necessarily mean you're out there selling, selling, selling, all the time, but you're just really good at cultivating your professional network as a CEO. So my question to you is, what are the top few things that you do to stay on top of that and make that a priority?

Craig Lewis: Yeah, no, that's a great question, and I think even before you get to those top three things that I do, I think the importance is why I do it. So I truly believe that your network is your net worth, and I think you can create a lot of value through people. I always talk about, instead of a to- do list, I curate a to who list. Who do I need to engage with to get things done and to move things forward and to improve myself. So I put a lot of importance behind the people part of business, and for me, one of the first things that I fell in love with over the last 10 years is social media. So that would be my number one thing is, the blast radius that you get from social, whether you get one like or one comment, the impressions and views, you're able to really engage with people and they feel like they know you. People I've never met before, I show up to a conference, " Hey, you're the LinkedIn guy," and so social media is probably the number one tool I use to stay engaged with my network.

Matt Blumberg: I love the concept of the to who list. So all right, pick your list, go out after them on social. What's next?

Craig Lewis: So the second one would be something that I think is underutilized, which is this... our actual phones. I believe in text message. I do a lot of direct text messages. So me and a guy named... an old chief strategy officer of mine, early investor in Gig Wage, and now he has a FinTech fund... guy named Ethan Austin. We always say, " Text is the new deck." I send out direct text messages to investors and employees and people in my network. I think one of the things about text that I love is, you know they get it, it feels more personal, and you can get into an individualized conversation. So I utilize text message multiple times a month to engage my network, and I think that's something that's pretty unique.

Matt Blumberg: All right. I get that. Text is like... there's some pluses and some minuses, but there's certainly a lot less noise there, in terms of that type of activity for sure.

Craig Lewis: Totally.

Matt Blumberg: So, all right... so we've got our to who list, we're on social, we're on text. Final thought?

Craig Lewis: Yeah, my final thought is one that I built my career on, get in the car, get on the plane. I think it's really important to be in front of people. I used to travel 220 days a year, every conference, every customer meeting, every sales meeting, a lot, and then the pandemic slowed down. Zoom has brought a lot of efficiency to how we engage, but in 2023, I've really recommitted to getting in front of people and having face- to- face meetings, and I think you can't undervalue that, or you can't value that enough, and especially in a place where it is so easy to default to Zoom, I think my ability to get in front of people has really served as advantageous to curating the network that I have.

Matt Blumberg: I totally agree. There is no substitute for being in person. I don't think any of us wants to go back to 220 days a year, because I used to do the same thing, but there's a lot of value in face- to- face. When you can or when you're going somewhere, make your to who list for that particular trip.

Craig Lewis: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Matt Blumberg: Great. Craig Lewis from Gig Wage, thanks for being with us.

Craig Lewis: Hey, thanks for having me, Matt. Appreciate it.