I should have known I was going to be compelled by the work of Adam Grant. He was born one town over from me growing up (although he is WAY younger), he did his masters and PHD at my alma mater, The University of Michigan, and he just launched a new podcast with the always phenomenal Brené Brown. Between that and my obsession with networking in this industry, I was all in.
So after listening to a few episodes of The Curiosity Shop, I had to know more.
That need for more took me to my public library, to his first book, Give and Take.
I want to try to connect some dots for you specifically around the topic of networking. Please chime in in the comments if anything here resonates for you.
Networking Styles That Shape Your Results
If you’ve been in this industry for more than five minutes, you already know that relationships are everything. Print is, and always will be, a people business. But the real question is how you show up in those relationships.
In Give and Take, Adam Grant breaks networking into three types: takers, matchers, and givers.
• Takers focus on what they can get, and while that may work in the short term, it rarely holds up in a reputation-driven industry like print.
• Matchers aim for balance, helping others with the expectation of something in return.
• Givers lead with value, making introductions, sharing insights, and opening doors without immediately calculating ROI.
The difference comes down to how they give. The most successful professionals are not selfless givers who burn out, but “otherish givers” who are both generous and strategic. They set boundaries, invest their time intentionally, and build networks rooted in trust. Instead of asking what they can get, they focus on how they can help, and that shift turns connections into real relationships. These are the people who become the center of gravity in their networks, where opportunities don’t just come to them, they flow through them.
This is especially relevant for anyone building a career or business in print.
The default advice to promote harder and sell faster misses the point. Sustainable success comes from giving smarter, showing up with value, sharing credit, and lifting others up, while also recognizing when to set limits. Not every relationship deserves equal access to your time and energy, and that is not selfish, it is strategic.
When you lead this way, you are not just building a contact list, you are building a network that supports you, advocates for you, and grows with you over time.
