AI Summary
5 min read3 Non-Obvious Networking Strategies That Work
Phil Toronto, a venture partner at Vener Fund, opens the conversation by explaining why his LinkedIn title reads "Insert Very Important Title Here at Vener Fund." It's a litmus test: if someone scoffs at the joke, they probably won't work well together. That refusal to take himself too seriously is intentional. A minor health scare last year — a "medical mystery" the doctor never resolved — reframed everything for him. "For a brief moment in time, I genuinely was convinced I was gonna die," he says. "And that reframed so much for me, where it's like, oh how could you not want to just optimize for being happy every single day of your life?"
That shift empowered him to say no more confidently. The clearest example: he stopped going to networking events.
The case against attending without intention
Networking events, Toronto argues, are usually done "with a lack of intention that I think is detrimental to your mental health." You show up with no real goal, people stare at name tags, and the whole exercise feels crushing. His rule is not "never attend events" — it's "never attend without intention." If you're going to show up somewhere, know why.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Opening Banter & Drinks** - The hosts pour drinks and joke about their LinkedIn titles, setting a casual, irreverent tone.
- 2 (02:43) **Intentional Happiness & Saying No** - Phil describes how a minor health scare reframed his life to optimize for happiness, leading to a more intentional approach to saying no.
- 3 (05:29) **Why Networking Events Are a Trap** - Phil argues that attending broad networking events is often detrimental to mental health and a waste of time.
- 4 (08:57) **Be the Host, Not the Attendee** - The hosts argue that hosting small, curated events is far more effective and memorable than attending large ones.
- 5 (11:18) **Saying Yes to the Unconventional** - Phil shares a story of saying yes to a 15-minute acquaintance's invitation to a three-day curated trip to Tulsa, which led to lasting friendships.
- 6 (13:04) **Inside a Tony Robbins Event: Sales Masterclass** - Greg describes attending Tony Robbins' Business Mastery event, analyzing it as a sales and multipreneurship case study.
- 7 (18:43) **The Alex Hormozi Connection** - Greg notes that Alex Hormozi, a modern business influencer, modeled his stage and event style directly after Tony Robbins.
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Show Notes
Today Greg is joined by Phil Toronto, a Partner at Vayner/RSE. In this episode, Greg and Phil share their biggest cheat codes for saying 'yes' to the right kind of events and why being the person who brings others together is the biggest value add of all.
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LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Production Team:
https://www.bigoceanpodcasting.com
Phil Toronto
https://twitter.com/philtoronto
SHOW NOTES:
0:00 - Intro
5:16 - Say 'no' to networking events
11:06 - Greg says 'yes' to a Tony Robbins event
23:06 - The power of proximity to a big cultural events
27:00 - Be the host
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