In a world drowning in AI-generated content and algorithmic optimization, what actually moves the needle? Carly Valancy and Spencer Kier arrived at the same answer from completely different directions, and neither of them were looking for it.
Carly came to her insight through practice. As the pandemic threatened her theater career, she started a 100-day challenge of reaching out to one stranger a day, and ended up keeping the habit going for over 500 days. The challenge taught her that the rules we've internalized about networking (remove apologetic language, use templates, keep it transactional) are actually what make you forgettable. The moment she stopped performing and started showing up as herself. For a trained theater actor, that statement carries full weight. The doors opened differently. Five years into the work, she realized the real advantage isn't climbing a ladder, but building an ecosystem where everything connects to what you actually care about. Relationships are allowed to unfold from there.
Spencer arrived at the same place from strategy. As a product leader, investor, and podcaster, he noticed how most people shift toward the norm when they should lean into what he calls their "spikiness." The weird, eclectic, distinctly-them parts that nobody else can compete with. He sees personality quirks as sources of actual edge, and it only compounds if you stay curious, keep experimenting, and treat yourself as always in beta mode rather than waiting for one grand unified theory.
What makes this conversation work is that Carly and Spencer don't offer networking hacks or ten-step systems. What they do is explore how knowing yourself and retaining an honest sense of gratitude is the actual engine. As Spencer puts it: "Gratitude is such an underrated initial approach to this because everyone always thinks from a transactional place... Just a simple expression of gratitude can open so many doors."
If that's not what Just Press Record is built on, I don't know what is. Watch/listen now.
