4 easy networking steps you can take right now

LinkedIn and sweaty handshakes not required.

A few quick notes before we get into it!

First, if you’re a Creativity Under Capitalism subscriber, I want to extend a sincere thank you for supporting this newsletter. CUC hit 500 subscribers last weekend, and I’m absolutely tickled to know that what I publish here every other week is reaching so many people. Publishing your own writing can feel a bit like shouting into the void at times, so it’s been incredibly validating and encouraging to see that so many other people are interested in having conversations about preserving and finding joy in creativity as capitalism milks us dry.

I made this adorable little cake to celebrate! …and then got food poisoning the next day and couldn’t eat it

Second, I had the privilege of being featured in my very own episode of Dirtbag Rich, a podcast by Blake Boles about eschewing conventional career paths and traditional wealth in favor of time wealth, independence, creative freedom, and other values. If you’ve ever gotten the nagging feeling that spending most of our waking hours working for someone else isn’t how life is supposed to go, I highly encourage you to take a listen—both to my episode and to the rest of the podcast!

Finally, today’s post is a repurposed issue of the Freelance Series, my now-retired, paywalled newsletter section about freelancing in a happy, healthy, and sustainable way. While most issues of the Freelance Series didn’t make sense to share with a wider audience, a couple did, so I’ll be reworking those and using them sporadically to give myself a little breathing room to focus on other personal writing projects. I hope you enjoy!

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I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I hate networking. I hate the word itself, and the way it connotes LinkedIn friend requests and shaking hands at cocktail parties. I hate it because I have social anxiety and would rather spend my emotional energy with close friends, and I hate that it carves into the time I’d otherwise use for my actual work.

But building one’s network comes with a lot of benefits, even for those who create purely on a hobby basis. While networking obviously helps to bring money to those who run creative businesses, connecting with other creatives (and those in adjacent fields) can bring new friendships, opportunities to learn, and inspiration to just about anyone who makes stuff. Better yet, this exchange is often mutual—the very definition of a win-win!

Thankfully, I’m here to offer proof that we can despise the idea of networking and find ways to do it that resonate with us. In fact, many of my preferred networking techniques are ones that I’ve stumbled into accidentally, because they’re comfortable for my “extroverted introvert” personality and because they bring auxiliary benefits. Here are my favorite ways to meet folks—no LinkedIn profile required.

Introduce yourself to people based on what you create.

When I still worked a full-time corporate job, I struggled to introduce myself to people as a writer. It wasn’t what I spent the majority of my time doing, so I felt that I didn’t deserve to “trick” people into thinking that was the first thing I wanted them to know about me. I’d think: What if they find out I only do freelance journalism part-time, and write fiction on the side? or Shouldn’t what I do for a living take precedent?

The answer to both of these questions is: no. If you write at all, you’re a writer; the same goes for other creative pursuits, like painting and sewing and baking and developing games and what have you. You’re not lying to strangers when you introduce your creative self first, because your creative outlet is a big part of your personal identity, regardless of whether you do it full-time or for fun on the weekends.

The more comfortable you get with sharing your creative self, the more people will begin to connect you with your work. So next time a barista or a friend-of-a-friend asks you what you do for a living, say it loud and proud: “I’m a writer.” (Or say what you do, rather; don’t make it weird by using my line.)

Carry business cards.

Stick with me here. I, too, thought we left business cards back in the early 2000s, before smartphones were in everyone’s pockets and social media became the de facto networking tool. But apparently this isn’t the case. Not only are people who are well into adulthood using business cards to share their contact information with people they meet IRL, but so are college students—AKA the folks who made me feel late to the business card party. I imagine this will only become more common as people continue to ditch Meta and Musk-owned social media platforms in favor of analog resources.

Go on Canva or visit your local print shop to get a few dozen cards made, then keep them in your wallet, book bag, or glovebox. Make sure they’re easily accessible, too: When your hairdresser or someone you meet in an elevator expresses interest in what you do, you don’t want to miss the moment by fumbling for a wrinkled card at the bottom of your bag.

Build a super-simple website.

When someone Googles your name, what pops up first? If you have a website, it’s probably that; if you don’t, your social media profiles (or some random article about the track meet you won in high school) might dominate the search results. Neither of these latter options are necessarily bad, but they don’t convey a sense of seriousness around your craft that a website can convey, and they allow a person’s first impression of you to skirt the topic of creativity entirely.

Creating and maintaining a website doesn’t have to be hard. While Squarespace offers gorgeous templates, it can get a bit pricey, and it’s easy to get lost in your site’s aesthetic instead of the actual content it displays. I find Clippings.me to be a fantastic free option for writers with published work, but if you’re a visual artist, you might want to use something like Canva, Taplink, or Milkshake to create a quick landing page. You don’t need anything complicated: a few samples of your work and a blurb about yourself is enough to show you care about your craft.

Go to fun events in your area.

Networking doesn’t have to be boring, and it doesn’t have to be intentional, either. By attending local events you actually enjoy—like book signings, arts and crafts gatherings, open mics, activist panels, and so on—you’re not only building upon your community presence, but you’re likely to rub elbows with people whose values and interests match yours.

I never really tried to make myself a part of the Phoenix writing community. It just happened, because I was going to panels and workshops and mixers and starting my own strictly-for-fun writing group. At each one of these events, I’ve had the opportunity to make my face and name a familiar one, plus strike up conversations with people who might (or might not, who knows!) need my work now or in the future. And it’s been a whole lot more interesting than friending people online.

Struggling to find fun events in your area? Check out your favorite coffee shop’s bulletin board, your favorite bookstore’s website, or your favorite author’s book tour dates. You might also find some success with the Geneva app, as I have. Start with the stuff you like, and the right connections will follow.

What’s been inspiring me lately:

✰ This Bluesky thread by fantasy author and terminal cancer patient Mishell Baker about leaning into feel-good moments during extremely difficult times.

✰ Truffle Hound, a book by Rowan Jacobsen about truffle hunting, truffle cuisine, truffle ecology, truffle economy…you get the gist. Jacobsen is a truffle newb and isn’t afraid to show it, making this incredibly well-written volume about a typically highbrow topic very approachable and fun to read.

✰ Lily Hammer’s “incomplete list of what is and what isn't resistance.” A helpful primer for those feeling overwhelmed right now.

✰ Jane Alison’s Meander, Spiral, Explode, a craft book about looking outside of the conventional story arc for other patterns found in nature (and therefore in real life). I feel that this gave me the permission I need to model my next novel’s plot after mini waves or a spiral - thank you Sydney Watt for the recommendation!