Acquaintances Will Never Disappoint You, But Friends - They'll Save You: Nina Badzin And Lara Crigger On JUST PRESS RECORD

I’ve spent the bulk of my professional life meeting strangers for a living. Call it networking, call it audience building, call it whatever you want - meeting strangers is a lot. And, it’s evolved my life in incredible ways.

In the past year alone, I’ve been obsessed with introducing strangers to each other (that’s the whole idea behind Just Press Record), allowing both me as host and you at home to witness genuine first meetings.

But all these conversations left me fumbling with an uncomfortable truth: the more people I met professionally, the blurrier the line became between networking contacts and actual relationships.

When you're naturally helpful and publicly visible, the requests for free advice, introductions, and “quick coffee chats,” or “let me pick your brain” sessions multiply exponentially. While I explored ways to understand what was going on in my head, I stumbled across a quote from Nina Badzin.

Nina’s quote (she gives the credit away, but I learned it from her) goes, “There are people who never disappoint us, and they are called acquaintances.”

For someone who creates acquaintanceships for a living, this quote was as terrifying as it was liberating. I had to explore it further - I had to get her on Just Press Record. I needed to see her make an acquaintance, maybe even a friend, and explain that quote. But, who should I introduce her to?

You’ll have to watch to find out, but the clue was right under my nose.

I opted to pair Nina with Lara Crigger, because Lara had solved a parallel problem. As Editor in Chief of an investment magazine, everyone wanted free financial advice from her. When you work anywhere near finance, people inevitably ask for financial advice, regardless of whether you're qualified to give it. Lara, as a former physics major turned freelance journalist, knew she wasn’t that person. She had to figure out how to handle this professionally without burning bridges - and she found a brilliant solution.

The more I researched them both, the more I realized I'd accidentally created the perfect case study for my own dilemma. You can imagine how relieved I was when they said yes. You can imagine how excited I was when the introduction went as well as it did!

From a tactical perspective, you’ll hear about how Nina created her “Friendship Strategy Sessions” - paid consultations limited to three per person, and how Lara developed clear boundaries about what advice she could and couldn't give.

From a more philosophical perspective, here are a few quotes to sample before you dive in to being a fly on the wall for this one:

On relationship depth: "You're gonna have to have conflict with your actual friends...the people you don't get upset at and the people who don't get upset at you are acquaintances."

On professional evolution: "I stepped away from a very successful job...giving myself the permission to step away and find something new...was one of the most terrifying things I've ever done."

On authenticity: "Most people are creating problems that actually don't need to exist. It's a lot of misunderstandings out there."

If you've ever struggled with where professional networking ends and real friendship begins, this conversation will give you both permission and practical tools. Watch how two strangers navigate these exact boundaries in real time: