Grow Your Network: Nina Badzin Is A Friendship Expert

Here's HOW and WHY to connect with Nina Badzin

Author

Matt Zeigler
June 05, 2025

For years, I've been connecting with interesting people and documenting insights that might help my clients and myself. What was once private is now (mostly) public.

People often ask: "How do you know all these people?" and "How do you connect these (re: random) ideas?" The answer is simple: consistent relationship cultivation and thoughtful note taking. My north star is trusting my instincts, my maps are the constellations in these reflections.

Find my Personal Archive on CultishCreative.com, watch me build a better Personal Network on the Cultish Creative YouTube channel, and follow me on social media (LinkedIn and X).

This approach has helped tons of clients strengthen their networks and unlock new opportunities. You can:

I can't promise you'll learn from me, but you'll definitely learn something with me. Let's go. Count it off: 1-2-3-4…

Do you know Nina Badzin? She's a friendship advice columnist, podcast host of "Dear Nina: Conversations About Friendship," and writer who has spent over a decade studying the complexities of human connection.

If not, allow me to introduce you. Nina transformed herself from an English teacher to a friendship expert through her willingness to pivot when her heart called for something different. I wanted to connect with her because she embodies something I value deeply: the courage to follow your curiosity and build expertise through genuine passion rather than traditional credentials.

Our conversation is LIVE now on the Cultish Creative YouTube channel or search “Just Press Record” wherever you get your podcasts. Listen and you'll hear how friendship dynamics mirror scientific strategies, why boundaries create better relationships, and the surprising truth about expertise versus enthusiasm.

Three Key Lessons from Nina

In the meantime, I wanted to pull THREE KEY LESSONS from my time with Nina to share with you (and drop into my Personal Archive).

Read on and you'll find a quote with a lesson and a reflection you can “Take to work with you, Bring home with you, and Leave behind with your Legacy.”

WORK: Just Start - Strategy Beats Perfect Planning

"My husband was like - ‘so, BE a writer.’ I'm like, ‘oh, like, it's soooo easy. You can just Be a writer.’ And he was actually very supportive... ‘Just start.’ JUST START."

-Nina Badzin, Just Press Record on Cultish Creative YouTube

Key Concept: The most successful people don't wait for perfect conditions or complete knowledge before beginning. Nina's transition from teaching to writing to podcasting happened because she embraced the "just start" mentality. Like any strategy where the results come from concentrating effort to compound out your results, the best approach is often to begin with what you know and adapt as you learn, rather than waiting for certainty that never comes.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: I remember, about 10 years ago, wanting to have a blog, and wanting to be on social media connecting with more interesting people than I had in the small suburban world I was inhabiting at the time, and feeling like I’d never do it. I had a job that said “no” to all things me and online (re: financial services compliance had very strict rules). And, I had a social circle that said “that’s dumb” to all things me and/or wanting to share them anywhere.

There are two layers to putting on new identity, both of which Nina gets at in her quote. The first always reminds me of the old Mitch Hedberg joke about getting a job naming appliances because it’d be so easy, where all you have to do is put an “-er” on the end of what it does. It’s easy to forget what happens if you reverse engineer the naming process he’s making fun of. If you want to be a writer, you have to do what a writer does: you have to write. That won’t make you a GOOD writer, but it will at least put you into the game.

The second layer, and often the harder layer, is you have to find somebody, anybody, outside of the voices in your head to support you. Nina found it in her husband. I would later find it in some friends and confidants who told me, “Hey, this is pretty cool that you’re doing this.”

It’s easy to make a job like “a writer” into an impossible to attain title. Bottom line, if you just start writing, and if you can find one other person to care about you caring about it in support, it will become a part of who you are, and how people talk about you.

Work question for you: What project have you been over-planning instead of starting? What's the smallest step you could take today?

LIFE: Set Boundaries That Protect What Matters Most

"I made a form called Friendship Strategy Sessions. I will only do up to three per person... I charge for it and I charge a lot... That form is for me to say, no thank you. I don't wanna have this exchange."

-Nina Badzin, Just Press Record on Cultish Creative YouTube

Key Concept: Nina discovered that expertise without boundaries leads to exploitation of your time and energy. By creating structured ways to monetize her advice and limiting free consultations, she protects her capacity to serve her audience well while maintaining her own well-being. This mirrors how successful investors set stop-losses and allocation limits to protect their portfolios.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: I’m a perpetual helper outer. It’s a strength, at times, because I dive into all sorts of chaos and make things happen. However, it’s also a weakness, because I - dive into all sorts of chaos.

In that writer-identity story above, I lacked boundaries to keep me out of other people's chaos. This meant I didn't have capacity for new things, and my social circle couldn't evolve either. This is a pattern I know I repeat if I’m not careful. Hearing Nina explain some of her strategies for how to draw lines around where and how you can be helpful - I’m inspired (and I’m also revisiting my Terri Cole notes).

Life Question For You: Where in your life are you giving away your most valuable resources without appropriate boundaries? How could you restructure these interactions?

LEGACY: Embrace the Journey From Expert to Enthusiast

"I struggle with the expert thing. I'll describe myself as a writer who studies friendship. I don't like to call myself a friendship expert - because... I'll say enthusiast, I'll say any number of things, but I almost never say expert."

-Nina Badzin, Just Press Record on Cultish Creative YouTube

Key Concept: True wisdom comes from maintaining intellectual humility even as you build deep expertise. Nina's reluctance to claim expert status after a decade of studying friendship reflects a mature understanding that the most valuable insights come from continuous learning, not from positioning yourself as having all the answers. This approach builds trust and creates space for genuine dialogue.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: If your identity is reinforced by an activity you love, and you're surrounded by people who genuinely support that passion, you don’t need fancy titles or credentials to give others any status boosts. I mean, that’s really what an expert is, right? A status boost?

Look at my title for this post. I called her an expert, partly because I know she resists using it but knows she probably should, and think about what using that word does. A. it makes me look better because “ooo I have access to an expert.” B. it makes her look like THE authority on the topic. And, C. that’s the kind of stuff that pulls people into the conversation.

I’m totally fine with using “expert” to draw people into a conversation who wouldn’t be here if I didn’t offer that status lift. That’s an artistic framing choice as far as I’m concerned. However, from a broader perspective, the real lesson here is in Nina’s mindset, it’s how she views herself, as the artist in control of the work that defines her to herself. The intellectual humility of her process, of being a writer and studier of friendship, is the magic. That’s what keeps her away from being an expert who’s all status signaling and no substance.

Legacy question for you: How can you share your knowledge in ways that invite collaboration rather than positioning you as an ultimate authority? What would change if you led with curiosity instead of credentials?

BEFORE YOU GO: Be sure to…

You have a Personal Network and a Personal Archive just waiting for you to build them up stronger. Look at your work, look at your life, and look at your legacy - and then, start small in each category. Today it's one person and one reflection. Tomorrow? Who knows what connections you'll create.

Last thing: Don't forget to click reply/click here and tell me who you're adding to your network and why! Plus, if you already have your own Personal Archive too, let me know, I'm creating a database.