August 2023 retrospective: connections and opportunities found through networking

Let's go hunting for content ideas

Last month I poured a lot of time into improving internal processes, lead routing among them, and ended up with results I was fairly happy with.

So in August I shifted my focus back to speeding up content production while keeping an eye on SEO and external channels at the same time.
First, using TAYA (They Ask, You Answer) as the foundation, I organized a content roadmap centered on what most customers are curious about and the insights they expect from VREVIEW.

On the redesigned VREVIEW website, I started building up content that customers would actually want under the 'Resources' and 'Insights' menus.

Beyond review-marketing tips, the plan is to gradually expand into UGC and e-commerce marketing in general!

The goal is to land at least one featured snippet before the year is out.

So how do I put all this content I'm working so hard on to use?

As The Sales Acceleration Formula puts it, I decided to share insights in the communities where our target customers hang out.

That's right. I dove straight into the networks where our customers gather.

First dive: Leaders Social Club "Marketer Lounge"

I started by joining a big group chat where lots of marketers gather. It was run by Inssa Damdangja (a Korean marketing newsletter) and had around 1,500 people in it.

But, oh no. The average seniority there was so low that the concerns weren't about marketing at all. They were about job hunting, starting salaries, building a career, and finding an apartment..

It was a great fit for one of my long-standing goals, "creating content that helps aspiring marketers," but it wasn't going to help my day job. Still, since I was already in, I tried to be an active participant.
I even applied TAYA here and made some content out of it.

Then someone who seemed really passionate invited me to an offline meetup. They said they'd noticed how active I was.
Apparently I do come across as a passionate person to other people.

The gathering was a networking group called Leaders Social Club. They said about 30 marketers would be there, so I figured it was worth checking out. It turned out to be far, far more useful than I expected.

This is where I met Choin, marketing director at GFFG (a Korean F&B company), whose posts I'd been reading as a first-degree LinkedIn connection. Because I kept raising my hand, asking questions, and participating, I was the only one who got a 30-minute coffee chat with him. At the time I had no idea what that would lead to later.

Oh, and I won a 50,000-won Starbucks gift card as a door prize, so I bought coffee for the office. A productive gathering in every sense.

I was lucky to meet senior marketers with so much insight, but I was also glad to get to know some wonderful people whose futures look very promising.

Second dive: B2B Marketing Hustle "Communities and events"

The following Wednesday I went to a Hustle meetup for the first time in a while. At the Channel Talk office, no less!

The topic happened to be the know-how of running communities and meetup events.

Meeting people with sharper insights than mine is something I look forward to, but sometimes it also feels overwhelming.
Probably because it's a time when I come face to face with the fact that I'm still a frog in a well.

But feeling this way is a good signal in the long run. It means there's that much room for me to learn and grow.

Thanks to Yeji, who always runs the community in an exemplary way, I also got a big push toward the new challenge I'll talk about at the end. Thank you :)

Third dive: MAX Summit 2023 networking party

Good grief, this month I had no fewer than three offline gatherings.

Choin, whom I'd met at the first gathering, said he'd be coming to MAX Summit 2023 (a Korean marketing conference), so we agreed to have dinner together if time allowed. We happened to have a booth there too, so it was a great opportunity.

That day I also had short but meaningful conversations with Hyojeong Yang, sales lead at Channel Talk, and a marketer I'd only ever seen on YouTube.
It's not like me at all, but I even reached out first to ask a sales manager at Appier, whom I'd met through LinkedIn, for a coffee chat. This month I did a lot of things that weren't very "me."

Add in Director Yang Su-seok of LF (a Korean fashion company), whom I met on the spot and who turned out to be a legend in the industry..!, and Eun-seo Cho of CJ ENM, who was overflowing with energy and insight, and we talked until we lost track of time.

There really are so many masters out there. Meeting so many people made me feel it all over again.

Final dive: Joining Choin's community as a co-manager

On the day of MAX Summit, I shared with Choin, who was already very interested in running a community, what I'd personally noticed while observing various communities.

Talking it through reminded me just how many things there are to consider.
Running a community is something I'll have to experience someday, and that was especially true for me since I'd never found a starting point.

Then two days later, as luck would have it, Choin offered me the role of co-manager of his community, Worthpick. This all happened within just two weeks of our first conversation.

A connection that started on LinkedIn turned into a collaboration. Wasn't that only supposed to happen in American movies?

Self-feedback: Let's head out into the wider world

Looking back, I think I'd been so focused on work inside the office lately that I wasn't getting any energy from outside.
Meeting new people, especially people with experiences I don't have, is definitely a huge motivator.

And I learned that to gain insights from them, I first have to put what I have on the table, or, conversely, take the time to listen fully.

This was a journey that started as a hunt for blog content ideas, and I'm grateful it yielded a much bigger harvest than I expected.

People I'm grateful for this month

1. Worthpick, which will bring me endless insights from here on
2. The B2B Hustle meetup, which never fails to inspire me
3. Myself, for running hard again this month, and everyone who supported me along the way

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+ Song of the month: 'Sora no Aosa o Shiru Hito yo' (Those Who Know the Blue of the Sky) - Aimyon