Networking is Just Meeting People

Business Is Just People

I’ve talked before about the fact that business is just people.

My good friend Thomas Sullivan, who owns an online store, he's been running it on eBay for around eight years, told me something when I mentioned that I was moving into the consulting space. I had told him I’d been taking courses on business development, marketing, and all that. And he said something that stuck with me:

People often overcomplicate the whole process of business.

And I’ll say it again: business is just people. It’s providing goods or services to other people. That’s it.

Especially in a space like consulting, it’s about relationships. Not ad funnels or optimized landing pages or some formula someone’s trying to sell you. It’s about people. Trust. Value. Communication.

I’ve read a number of books by a well-known consultant named Alan Weiss. His most famous work, Million Dollar Consulting, is on its sixth or seventh edition now, and I’m currently listening to it on Spotify.

One of his key points? Say it again. Reiterate your message.

So that’s what I’m doing here. I’m reflecting again on the fact that business is human relationships.

That point came back into focus for me this morning during a meeting with another freelance consultant, someone based in Vienna, Austria. We were comparing notes on how we approach our work, where we find traction, and what actually builds momentum in a solo practice. And underneath all of it? It’s not tactics or gimmicks. It’s relationships. Trust. Being useful.

At some point during the conversation, he asked me pretty directly—what was I hoping to get out of the meeting? Why did I reach out?

And I realized, my answer was basically: because it seemed like the thing you’re supposed to do. Following the steps. Networking.

But then I thought to myself, what is networking, really? Networking is just meeting people.

So what did I get out of that meeting? I met another guy who’s operating in some of the same space as me, coming from similar approaches and backgrounds, trying to solve some of the same problems. That’s it. And that’s enough.

It’s not like we booked a bunch of projects together or agreed on some future collaboration. But we talked. And he shared how he defines his methodology. That one insight alone gave me a clearer way to articulate my own.

And it occurred to me that I’ve seen a lot of consultants do this—define and productize their services. And of course, productizing is really just bundling a service as a product. Giving it a shape. A name. A scope.

It’s still just you helping someone else, but you’re packaging it in a way that’s easier to understand, easier to sell, and easier for the client to say yes to.

That conversation helped remind me that a lot of the business-building process isn’t about chasing tricks or obsessing over systems. It’s about learning how other people do it, finding what feels honest and useful, and trying it for yourself.

In the process of creating my business plan and building my website, I’ve gone through two or three iterations of how I offer services. The services themselves haven’t really changed. At their core, I’m applying social science methodologies, design thinking, and UX research principles to a range of situations—things like marketing, messaging, business analysis, and more.

What has evolved is how I present those services. Right now, I have them broken down by potential area of application, like understanding your audience, or refining your marketing. But lately, I’ve been thinking that a better way to present all this might be to define and productize a methodology.

Not because I want to lock myself into one rigid process, but because it helps other people understand what I actually do.

A methodology isn’t handcuffs. It’s a framework. It’s a way to give shape to something that’s otherwise nebulous, like consulting, like business services. When people can see where they are in a process, when they know what’s coming next, it builds trust. It builds clarity. It helps them communicate what I offer to others inside their org or team.

And that’s what I keep coming back to: business is just people. And people understand stories. They understand structure. If your work can be explained clearly, it’s a lot easier for someone to say yes to it.

To wrap it up, what I’m saying today is, again, business is just people and human relationships.

And what I learned today is—let people teach you things, even when you didn’t expect to be learning something. I didn’t walk into that meeting this morning thinking I’d be making yet another iteration of how I productize services. But that’s exactly what happened.

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