The fly in list

I write weekly about the strategies, habits, and tactics around cultivating the connections that matter to you.

Hello from 37,016 feet, as I write this on my way back from Mexico City.

When I travel, I have two modes:

1. Sneak in and out of a city, without telling anyone there I’m there.

2. Spend weeks in advance coordinating every breakfast/lunch/dinner/coffee slot.

This past week was the former. A packed sightseeing itinerary while juggling our kids constant demands for pool, playgrounds, and ice cream eliminated any windows for a matcha or taco meetup.

If you find yourself seeking the latter, there’s the concept of a Fly In List.

I used to focus on collecting as much insights as possible on the people you seek to deepen a connection - interests, kids names, whether they have the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap. Nowadays I’m much more realistic - the more work you give yourself, the less likely you are to do anything at all. So for most of your relationships, it’s just limited to “how much do I care about maintaining this relationship” (you can read more here).

But in the spirit of the “job to be done” concept, if connecting with people when visiting different cities is of interest, then the Fly In List is for you.

Step 1: Write down the list of places you often or plan to visit. For each, write down the first five people you’d reach out to that you’d be in town.

Step 2: Take your top relationships (I refer to them as As and Bs) and spend a few minutes a day logging their current location in your CRM.

The goal is to make it as easy as possible to seed your social calendar between wheels down and up, without leaving it to the last minute or spending too long fumbling through LinkedIn, hoping you didn’t miss someone.

What do you do to cultivate connections when you’re on the ground?

If you found this valuable, have you snagged my course on cultivating your network?

I’ve spent the past 12 years helping people like you grow their businesses and careers by cultivating the relationships that matter. I took everything I’ve learned and practiced, and put it in a professionally produced online course.

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