How To Leverage The Flywheel Framework To Land Your Dream Role

Over the last month, I’ve been focusing a lot of effort on internal operating systems for Early.

One of the systems I’m starting to put in place is a content flywheel.

What is that?

• One newsletter post turns into multiple LinkedIn posts

• Those LinkedIn posts turn into more newsletter subscribers

• More newsletter subscribers give me more information about what you want me to share in the newsletter

• Those ideas from you become more newsletter posts

• And on and on and on

Each turn of the wheel becomes easier and produces better results.

But that got me thinking…

One critical part (arguably the most critical part) of the job search is networking.

Networking is very similar to audience building.

So, how could you apply the same flywheel methodology to networking to have more high-quality conversations with less effort and land a great startup job faster?

That’s what we’re diving into this week.

A Quick Request.

Speaking of flywheels, I want to hear from you.

I’d love for you to reply to this email and tell me one thing.

If I were to dedicate the next issue of my newsletter to you and the challenge you’re currently facing… what would that issue be?

I want to meet and learn more about YOU. Just reply directly to this email.

WHAT’S A FLYWHEEL?

In engineering, a flywheel is a mechanical device designed to efficiently store rotational energy.

That means there’s a heavy rotating disc or wheel that is hard to get started, but once started, stores the energy efficiently allowing it to maintain a constant speed with little additional energy needed to keep it running.

For example, you can use a traditional hand pump to pump water out of the ground. It takes a lot of energy and the pumping stops as soon as you stop exerting energy on the pump.

Or, you can use a flywheel pump that is similarly hard to get going, but once started will pump water continuously until the wheel stops turning.

In business and in your job search, a flywheel operates the same way.

It’s a self-reinforcing loop where each action taken strengthens and accelerates the next action in the cycle, leading to continuous growth and improvement.

3 LAWS OF FLYWHEELS.

There are three laws of flywheels.

1. Activities flow smoothly from one to the next.

2. Each rotation is easier than the previous one.

3. Each rotation produces more than the previous rotation.

   And a bonus law…

4. The flywheel has one single goal.

In this case, your goal is to land your next startup role.

WHY NETWORKING IS CRITICAL.

In your job search, referrals provide you with the highest likelihood of landing a job.

The statistics are staggering showing that something in the area of 70%+ of interviews come from referrals even though they make up typically 10% or less of the applicant pool.

This is even more pronounced in startup companies.

In a big company, if you make a hiring mistake it’s annoying but not that big of a deal.

Either A) You’ll just keep that person and suck it up because you have 10 other people doing the same job and hope you can train them to do the job to be done or B) Let the person go and lean on the large recruiting team and hiring infrastructure to bring on another candidate quickly.

Startups don’t have that luxury.

Every day, week, and month is critical to company survival so any time wasted re-executing a hiring process is time that could be better used growing the company.

The operators are typically the recruiters, so they will need to do their day job AND act as a recruiter.

They want to hire the right person so they don’t need to divert any mental energy to recruiting after the hire is made.

Also, the teams are small and a high level of trust is necessary because of the level of autonomy and the amount of critical business functions everyone is expected to own.

In this tight hiring market, it’s even more important due to the challenging fundraising environment, companies pushing to show a path to profitability earlier, and therefore providing an extra level of scrutiny to whether they need to hire and to who they hire.

So the founders or hiring team set out to recruit the people they know, like, and trust to join the team.

If they can’t get those people, they’ll ask them who they know, like, and trust and try to recruit those people.

CREATING YOUR NETWORKING FLYWHEEL.

Here’s how you can create a networking flywheel that will produce the most conversations with the most relevant people with the least amount of effort to get going.

Networking Flywheel 101

1. Download your LinkedIn connections (if you don’t know how, here’s a video)

2. Export your email contacts

3. Combine those two lists into one networking tracker document

4. Go through the list to find the most relevant people to what you want to do next (ex: in the industry, function, connected industry, etc.)

5. Send emails to a handful of them each day catching them up on where you are today and asking if they would be willing to get on a 30-minute call so you could ask them a specific set of questions (share the questions in the email). If you are specific and have targeted the people well, many of them will respond and set up time with you.

6. In those meetings, ask what was helpful for them when navigating their job search and advancing in their career, what was useful to them, and if they know one or two people who they could introduce you to that would be relevant to your job search (ex: in the same function or industry). BONUS POINTS: Instead of asking them if they might have people in mind they could introduce you to, do the research yourself and suggest people they’re connected to on LinkedIn that you would love an intro to.

7. Continue working your way through your initial list while you add additional conversations set up from connections provided by those you’ve spoken with.

You can see how this would become easier and produce better results as time goes on.

You reach out to one person, and they tell two friends, and they tell their friends…

Networking Flywheel 201

To take things one step further you could do the following.

1. Execute every part of networking flywheel 101.

2. At the end of each conversation, ask the person if you could keep them updated on your job search as it progresses.

3. Add their email to a bcc email list.

4. Every three to four weeks send an email update that includes

   1. Interesting companies/roles you’re targeting

   2. Who you’ve recently spoken to in networking conversations

   3. Who from the list you would like to connect and why

   4. Your gameplan for the next 3-4 weeks

   5. A request for additional relevant connections

5. To make these email sends easy, record your networking calls using a tool like Fathom and use the transcripts, summaries, and takeaways.

This does a few things.

1. It keeps you top of mind for everyone you have spoken to during your job search journey and reminds them what you’re looking for.

2. It provides you with a platform to show those you have spoken to that you took their advice, implemented it, and are able to share the results. (People are more willing to help those who take action vs those who receive advice and do nothing)

3. It allows you to create value for all the people in the group you have spoken to. If you’re looking to them for help, it means you likely respect them. If you respect them it probably means they do good work. People who do good work like to connect with other people who do good work. You can act as the connector. Those who compete on generosity in every interaction end up with tremendous opportunity.

Networking Flywheel 301

To take this even further you could…

1. Execute every step in flywheels 101 and 201.

2. Use what you’ve learned about careers in your function and industry in your networking conversations and share them in LinkedIn posts and possibly a newsletter.

3. At the end of the post, include a CTA for connections to the specific type of people you’re hoping to speak to.

4. Use the LinkedIn content and newsletter as rationale to reach out to leaders in your function and industry. Tell them you respect what they’ve done and would love to ask them some questions that would be useful to other people looking to recreate the same success.

5. In those conversations they’ll ask you about yourself, you’ll share where you are in your career and job search journey, and you just won another advocate who’s at the top of their game in the industry where you want to work.

6. Use their insights to create even more content, more connections, and better updates in your job search catch up emails.

WHERE TO START.

All of the steps above may sound overwhelming and leave you questioning where you should start.

My simple advice would be to start with whatever you can do consistently.

What I see most often is someone who has an idea of a role they want to get into next, then tries for a little while to network with people who can help them get there, then stalls out because they bite off too much to start.

If that means sending out one email per day - great!

As you get more comfortable with sending those messages, one email per day can turn into five, and five emails can turn into your job search catch-up emails, content creation, and more.

DANGER IN SUCCESS.

There is one major danger to look out for as you start to see success with this process.

The flywheel takes a lot of effort to get going at the start but once it’s going you’ll have dozens of calls set up with people you’re excited to talk to.

When that happens, many people tend to stop attending to the networking outreach and focus on other things.

That’s a trap.

While getting a flywheel going means it will require less effort to produce more results, you still need to exert some effort every day/week to keep it running.

If you stop altogether the meetings will slow, then stop, and you’ll need to exert a lot of effort to get everything started again.

Networking is a critical piece of the job search but it can feel overwhelming.

The thing to remember is that the more high-quality conversations you have, the more people will know about the types of opportunities you’re looking for.

The more people who know the types of opportunities you’re looking for, the higher the likelihood they are to think of you when something or someone relevant arises.

And if you get a warm introduction to one of those opportunities your likelihood of landing the job due to the recommendation/referral are significantly higher than if you were sending a cold application and cold outreach.

So network smart by starting your networking flywheel…

And let’s go get you that job 🏆

Kyle