Value-First Relationship Leverage
Earn access by offering useful help before asking for opportunity
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 94%
When established contacts declined to give him a business opportunity, Milad stopped waiting for one and used his existing relationships differently. He opened his phone, reviewed his contacts, identified successful people he knew, and approached them with offers to help. His examples included driving, recording, or managing social media—specific work that could make another person’s life easier while letting him learn. The mechanism reverses conventional networking: instead of asking a successful person to create value for the newcomer, the newcomer contributes first. That service creates proximity, practical learning, and trust. Milad extends the same rule to his company: if one person cannot solve a problem, use contacts inside the company and then the wider network until the needed resource is found.
Origin
Milad Shamoun said he created his own opportunity by reviewing his contacts and offering practical help to successful people. Extracted from Coffeez for Closers.
Core principles
- 01Offer value before requesting help
- 02Treat every relationship as a possible resource
- 03Make service concrete and immediately useful
- 04Let repeated contribution earn trust
How to run it
- 1
Inventory your relationships
Review your existing contacts rather than assuming you have no network. Mark the people who have relevant experience, knowledge, or access.
Pro tip Start with people who already know enough about you to evaluate a concrete offer.
- 2
Find a useful contribution
Identify work you can perform that saves the other person time or helps their business. Make the offer specific enough to accept immediately.
Pro tip Milad offered driving, recording, and social-media support.
Watch out Do not offer vague help that shifts the burden of defining the task to the recipient.
- 3
Lead with service
Ask how you can help instead of asking the person to create an opportunity for you. Demonstrate that the relationship is not built around immediate extraction.
Watch out Do not treat service as a hidden demand for repayment.
- 4
Deliver and learn
Complete the work well and observe how the experienced person operates. Use the proximity to gain practical understanding rather than merely collecting advice.
Pro tip Useful execution can teach more than a cold request for general mentorship.
- 5
Extend the resource chain
When a new problem appears, check your own knowledge, the company community, and then outside contacts. Continue until you locate someone who can help produce a solution.
Pro tip Think of relationships as distributed expertise, not just prospective customers.
Watch out Respect other people’s time and relationships when asking for assistance.
In the wild
After friends declined to involve him in their businesses, Milad reviewed his phone contacts and sat down with successful people he knew. Rather than asking them to help him, he offered practical support such as driving, recording, or managing social media so he could contribute while getting his feet wet.
→ The value-first approach helped him create opportunities instead of waiting for someone to hand him one.
Common mistakes
Opening with what you want
Asking a successful person how they can help you gives them no reason to invest their time.
Overlooking existing contacts
Milad found his starting opportunities by reviewing the people already in his phone rather than searching only for strangers.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for ambitious newcomers who can contribute time, practical help, or execution to experienced people.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for transactional outreach that disguises an immediate ask as generosity.
From the transcript
“I opened up my iPhone and I'm going through my contacts who do I know that can help me right and who do I know…”
“I didn't say hey how can you help me it's how can I help you”
“if you have nothing to offer someone that's successful then why would they help you”
From the episode
LOAN GOAT CEO Milad Shamoun