Jul 14, 2025

Joe Granitto

Issue #016:

Starting Network From Scratch

Hey Reader,

Earlier this year in February I moved to a completely different part of Indiana.

I lived in Indianapolis for 12 years. I went to college, got my first job and current job there. I met my wife and we had our first kid there.

It's also where I grew my photography skills, locations list and my network of other creatives and clients.

Now, I live in Northwest Indiana (a.k.a NWI, The Region, Chicagoland)

I know NO ONE here other than my in laws.

I do not know of any cars and coffee event.

I have no clients up here.

I am starting from scratch.

So, in this weeks issue, I'm going to share you the steps I've taken, again, to building a whole new network of clients and creatives.

I'll be sharing real life use cases that have benefitted me and others to meet famous people and get opportunities no one else gets.

Because the best way to win in this business, or any business for that matter, is to have a strong network.

So let's dive in.

First Step

Have you ever gone to a new place and just sat there doing nothing?

No. You find out what's around the area.

How?

✨The internet✨

Facebook events is my go-to for finding out what's going on in the local area.

The demographic of people who still use Facebook are typically older and organizers who want people to come to their events... Well, they use Facebook.

So this is the ONLY reason why I get on Facebook (not including my business suite).

And within 10 minutes - Boom

This event on the surface doesn't look like much, but with over 100 people interested in going, it was worth a shot.

Luckily it was just one town over so I took the family with and checked it out.

I hit a gold mine at this event.

I came across a group of cars that were not JDM legends, or exotics or a large group of kids car spotting.

But a couple old MGs. One of them was all original. The drivers... Quite literally my grandparents age.

But they were so nice and super helpful for me.

In fact, I recorded a conversation with the husband and I got photos of both their cars, so keep an eye out on my Instagram for those.

The husband was a trucker his entire career and had a lot of passion for the MGs he owned. He was decked out in British flags and MG pins. Dressed like he knew what he was talking about.

He told me about trips they'd take with the MG group, which apparently is a big thing up in this area.

He also told me of other local events. I mentioned how I couldn't find much and that I was new to the area.

He said that about every single day there is what they call "cruise ins".

Not cars and coffee, just cruise ins. And that is what it sounds like.

People show up when they want and leave whenever. Some are super small but most are larger.

He gave me info on multiple around our area and some even up further north near Michigan.

In the 20 minutes I talked to this guy, I had 5-8 leads on other events that happen WEEKLY, not bi-weekly or monthly like in Indy.

Then, I found the organizer herself who turned me onto a Facebook group that has over 50,000 members across the entire NWI / Chicagoland region.

Boom, got my events AND client pool in one go.

Don't sleep on Facebook events. At these events you can learn of other events, and then compound that over time.

The Pitch

Have you ever heard of elevator pitches? Yep, this is it. The moment we all dread. You've got 60 seconds before the elevator gets to the executives floor and you've got to pitch them this revolutionary idea that will make the company millions and you will get an invitation to the board meeting.

Just kidding, fuck that noise.

But really, the next step in building your network is pitching yourself to the potential group of clients.

This comes naturally for me because I use a method I learned from business school.

I don't know the technical name for it, so I'm just going to call it:

"Finding Common Ground"

The best way I've been able to convince people to work with me is by finding common ground to break the tension or ice or whatever you want to call it.

Typically you ask open ended questions. Make the conversation sound more like an interview.

When I was a manager who interviewed and hired employees I followed a 70/30 split. I'd talk 30% of the time and the person I'm interviewing would talk 70% of the time.

This allowed me to observe and get to know them more so I could decide whether or not they were a good fit for the team I was hiring for.

And it got me to be a interviewer for teams I didn't even manage. I was good at it.

A couple open ended questions you could use are:

• Are you from this area?
• How long have you been into ____?
• What's your favorite thing about ___?
• What's the story behind your car?

Humans love attention. We seek it all the time. Tapping into questions that invokes that will give you a better chance at making a connection.

Me: "Are you from this area?"

Them: "Yeah I just live up the street here in Portage"

Me: "Oh that's awesome, my wife and I just moved to Hobart earlier this year."

Them: "Where'd you move from?"

Me: " Indianapolis"

Them: "Oh you should check out the big MG event that happens in Zionsville."

Me: "Oh what? There is an event for just MGs?"

Them: "Oh yeah, all of us MG owners up here go down there every year."

Me: "Are MGs a big deal up here?"

Them: "There is a large group of us up here that get together frequently. There are MG specific events."

I hope you get the picture at this point, because this about where my memory gets fuzzy.

This is one of the conversation I had with the older MG owner.

I went on to learn EVERYTHING I needed to know about him, his wife, his hobbies, his groups, events.

I could literally answer this guys' security question for his logins.

Just kidding, but that'd be funny.

Oh and guess what, your common ground here is cars. Duh.

You can do this in other means, but we're talking about cars here.

How to Make Friends

There is this book my dad owns and I've seen it on his shelf but never read it.

It's called How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie​

And because I never read it I don't know the exact strategies are in it. But I hear it's a great book to read even if you are just working a 9-5 or are in sales.

My dad was not a salesperson when he started in sales, so he read a lot of books, and he said this one really helped him with his career.

BUT, I do implement the making friends part in my networking.

Here's how it goes.

Ready? It's really important so write this down.

I'm serious. Write this down....

Talk to them like a friend.

Yep, that's it.

Let me explain.

People just want to make friends, make connections. If you approach the conversation like it's a transaction, you're going to turn a lot of people off.

Think of it like that meme when someone says, "Answer a few questions for me." and they spin around the iPad with the tip screen on it.

It's not genuine and it's not the right way to make connections.

Now, I'm not great at making friends. I have 2 long time friends from childhood and that's it.

I got bullied a lot too because I was quiet.

But my past trauma is not the topic here.

When you talk to someone like a friend, it's more genuine and more relaxed of a conversation. You showing interest in what your friends have to say is going to make them more likely to want to be around you, or in this case, work with you or give you referrals.

And you might be thinking, "Joe this doesn't seem like sound advice".

Okay, well, sure you may think that, but do you know who my brother is?

My brother, Tony, is a EDM producer and DJ and he's been making music longer than I've been a photographer.

We lived together for 5 years post college and he was having a hard time getting opportunities for shows and working with other producers / DJs.

Tony is WAY better at making friends than I've ever been. He literally knows someone wherever we go. So you'd think he'd be good at making connections.

Nope, he was struggling.

He'd try having conversations with artists he looks up to but he always felt awkward or it'd never turn into anything.

He'd bring his thumb drive to shows all the time just so he could have the chance to share his music. But most of the time nothing ever came of it.

He'd hand out his thumb drives and would hope and pray people would listen to his work and reach back out to him.

From what I could tell, not a lot happened from that.

One day he sat down on the couch next to my desk. I was editing photos (this is before content creation when I had 300 followers).

He was bummed and felt stuck. He felt like people didn't want to work with him or connect.

So I just turned to him and told him what I told you...

"Tony, just talk to these people you meet like they are your friend."

The look on his face made me believe a literal light bulb materialized above his head.

And he said that he never thought of that.

Within the next month, he made a connection with a big name artist, Wooli. At Lost Lands festival that year (2018) he got a picture with Wooli and even got to go back stage with him and other producers.

He then went on to make a connection with Nightenjin (because of Wooli) who then curated the music for Gridlife in 2022.

And guess what, my brother played his music that year at Gridlife.

Indvstry is my brothers old name (I designed his logo by the way).

He got to play at Gridlife and was on the poster with Kaskade, one of his inspirations.

I literally bought him a poster of Kaskade one year for Christmas where he was on stage overlooking thousands of people and I told Tony, "One day this will be you."

And he still to this day uses the same idea I am telling you right now. He's been flown out to shows FOR free to play with other big artists and his music has been discovered by some of the largest producers in EDM music.

All of this started when he flipped the switch on how he talked to people.

My Hot Take

I never knew what it was like to have a following until this past year. When I started photography over 7 years ago, I never thought I'd have a following, ever.

When I hit a certain point of an audience I gained something I never thought I'd get...

Attention.

And as an introvert, it scared the shit out of me. Still kind of does.

I like to be low key and I can't anymore if I'm at car events.

I love meeting people, so don't stop coming to say hi.

One thing I have noticed is how people treated me when they knew who I was, or found out as I talked to them.

Because I don't strut around saying I have a following. I literally just tell people I love taking photos of cars and am a car enthusiast.

And 99% of the time they are asking where I post my work, so of course I tell them.

And 90% of the time when they SEE that follower count, I can sense a change in their demeanor.

Not in a bad way, just... You know. Star struck.

And this will be people I've just met and have talked to them for 10+ minutes. So I've already broken that ice and gotten to know them.

Now I've been on both sides of this conversation.

I've met Vaughn Gitten Jr. TJ Hunt and I've been in a personal Discord and played games with Evan Shanks. All people I admire.

I've been nervous and star struck, too.

But when I just talk to them like a friend, a NORMAL person. They appreciate it.

And I appreciate it, too.

I'm not special. I'm a normal person.

And so is everyone else.

So if you are making connections with people, just treat them like a friend.

If the person you're talking to just so happens to have thousands or hundreds of thousands of fans, be their friend.

People want friends more than they want fans.

I want friends.

Building the Network

I only had to obtain 10 or less initial clients in order to get referrals.

It's like the '6 degrees of separation' although now with the internet, it's much less.

If you don't know what that means, it means that you can connect with someone from across the world through as little as 6 connections.

I know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows another guy, who's dating this girl who's related to this guy, and that guy knows Jeff Bezos.

You build a solid foundation with your initial clients, you're going to be referred to their friends, who are then going to refer you to their friends, and one of those friends may own a collection of cars and goes by the name Jay Leno.

All you do is rinse and repeat. That's it. The rest will take care of itself.

Final Thoughts

I threw A LOT at you this time around. And to be honest I'm sitting in bed the night before writing this.

I didn't have this thought out at all and I just threw it together.

But it's an experience I've had and it's something I have to do all over again.

Because I'm in a new area and I've already lost ground with a lot of this year already here and gone.

So keep an eye out on my socials and YouTube, for I will be filming a mini series of how I go about building my network where I'll likely go more in detail and share more stories like what you just read.

And if this newsletter sounded frantic and crazy, sorry. My brain is going 100 MPH and I just wanted to get these thoughts out.

I hope you found this helpful, if so, please feel free to reply back to me. I promise I read the emails. I don't have anyone helping me.

So it's all me.

I'll see you next time.

Chat Soon,

Joe Granitto

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