Curating who gets to be your friend 👯‍♀️ Nick Gray, The 2-Hour Cocktail Party
10/04/22 • 37 min
“When you host a lightweight cocktail party, you now have a way to go through life, collecting these new and interesting people and bringing them into your world...You use these parties as an audition to see who you would like to become better friends with.” — Nick Gray, creator of “The 2-Hour Cocktail Party”
Whether you’re new to a place or getting on in your years, it can feel increasingly hard to make friends. But Nick Gray has devised a blueprint to change that, outlined step-by-step in his book, “The 2-Hour Cocktail Party.”
Nick’s essentially created a system that’s like an audition for who gets to be your friend. It’s a way to turn even introverts into super connectors. And it's proof that when you stop being too cool to care, you’ll start connecting with people for real.
At the heart of Nick’s formula is the art of curating who gets to be invited to these highly structured IRL events. In this episode, Nick deconstructs his approach to curating people for parties with solid results. It’s a great one for anyone who wants to go from being a party pooper to a party planner.
Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:
- Nick’s 2-hour cocktail party formula (N.I.C.K.) in a nutshell
- Curating people for chemistry
- The importance of name tags and icebreakers
- Curating conversations, especially in “the awkward zone”
- Effectively maintaining the ties you’ve cultivated
đź‘‹ Say "hi" to Nick.
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Nick’s curated culture picks and more about his newsletter and book.
âž• This podcast was created by Flipboard, the popular social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more.
“When you host a lightweight cocktail party, you now have a way to go through life, collecting these new and interesting people and bringing them into your world...You use these parties as an audition to see who you would like to become better friends with.” — Nick Gray, creator of “The 2-Hour Cocktail Party”
Whether you’re new to a place or getting on in your years, it can feel increasingly hard to make friends. But Nick Gray has devised a blueprint to change that, outlined step-by-step in his book, “The 2-Hour Cocktail Party.”
Nick’s essentially created a system that’s like an audition for who gets to be your friend. It’s a way to turn even introverts into super connectors. And it's proof that when you stop being too cool to care, you’ll start connecting with people for real.
At the heart of Nick’s formula is the art of curating who gets to be invited to these highly structured IRL events. In this episode, Nick deconstructs his approach to curating people for parties with solid results. It’s a great one for anyone who wants to go from being a party pooper to a party planner.
Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:
- Nick’s 2-hour cocktail party formula (N.I.C.K.) in a nutshell
- Curating people for chemistry
- The importance of name tags and icebreakers
- Curating conversations, especially in “the awkward zone”
- Effectively maintaining the ties you’ve cultivated
đź‘‹ Say "hi" to Nick.
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Nick’s curated culture picks and more about his newsletter and book.
âž• This podcast was created by Flipboard, the popular social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more.
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“The beauty of NFTs and Web 3 is that now it's global, where you have a whole gallery in your phone or laptop. You can be your own curator without having all the background and connections that are typically in the traditional art space...Anyone can curate if they have that passion and that love for creativity and art.” — Lex Marcano, NFT Girl
With all the Web3 hype and grim headlines about the “crypto winter” we’re still in, it’s impossible to escape conversations about NFTs. The market feels chaotic because it is.
Curation is one way to impose order in a volatile landscape, and anyone can play the game. In fact, there’s never been more of a need for guides to hold our hands.
Lex Marcano, aka NFT Girl, is one of those people. She’s an early mover into NFT curation and has emerged as one of the premier voices in the space.
An adept community builder, Lex is doing her bit to make Web3 a saner place and seems like she’s having a lot of fun while she’s at it — naysayers be damned!
Highlights, inspiration and key learnings in this episode:
- Curating gems in a crowded space
- Navigating the bear market
- Curating NFTs for physical locations
- Creating bridges to the LatinX community
- Community building in Web3
đź‘‹ Say "hi" to Lex.
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Lex’s curated culture picks.
âž• This podcast was created by Flipboard, the popular social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more.
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