I spent years thinking networking was hunting.

Turns out I was just showing up to a farm with a bow.

At 22, networking seemed straightforward. Meet as many people as possible, collect the business cards, make the pitch, find the opportunity. Work the room, leave with a stack of leads, start dialing. I thought a good event was measured by how many cards were in my pocket at the end of the night.

And look, sometimes you do need to hunt. You need business, so you go find business. That's sales, and there's nothing wrong with it. Hunting is immediate. You track something down, you close it, you eat today. Every salesperson has to know how.

But this week I went to a networking event hosted by Columbus Business First, and I caught myself doing something completely different.

I wasn't scanning the room for who might need a mortgage. I wasn't sizing anyone up for the pitch. I actually wanted to know what everyone else was selling.

What are you building?

What problem are you really good at solving?

Who are you trying to meet?

Who do I know that you should know?

That's farming. You're planting relationships without knowing which ones will grow into anything, or when, or even who they'll end up feeding. You put the seed in the ground because it's good soil, not because you can see the harvest. Most won't grow. Some will grow for someone else entirely. You plant anyway, because that's how the field works.

And people can feel the difference immediately. The hunter needs something from you right now, and you can sense it the second the handshake lands. It makes you want to leave. The farmer isn't after anything today, and that's exactly what makes them worth talking to.

But There's a Trap on This Side Too

Farming has its own failure mode, and it's quieter, so it's easier to miss.

You can spend a year “building relationships,” having great conversations, helping everyone, feeling productive, and never once ask anybody for business. You can farm so patiently that you forget the whole point was to eat. Relationships that never convert to anything aren't a network. They're a hobby.

At some point, somebody has to eat.

So yes, farm. Build relationships. Make introductions. Help people before there's anything in it for you. Become someone genuinely worth knowing.

But keep the bow nearby. Prospect. Ask for the business. Notice the opportunity in front of you and act on it before it's gone. The farmer's patience and the hunter's hunger aren't opposites. They're the two halves of the same job, and one without the other leaves you either starving or busy.

Farm Relentlessly, Hunt Opportunistically

The best salespeople I've met aren't hunters or farmers. They're both. They plant constantly and stay ready to move the instant an opportunity shows itself. They know a networking event is a field, not a hunting ground, and they know the cold follow-up call the next week is where the bow comes back out.

At 22, my problem was never that I was a hunter.

It's that hunting was the only tool I had. I walked into every situation with the same move and wondered why it kept missing.

The question: which tool have you been overusing? If you're pushing for the close on every interaction and nothing's compounding, you're hunting a field. And if you've been “networking” for months with nothing to show for it, you might've left the bow at home.

Pick the one that fits the field you're standing in.

— Ricky