Networking the Go-Giver Way: Tim Voit on Life After Corporate

If you spend any time in the East Metro business community, you have probably run into Tim Voit. He runs networking groups, he shows up everywhere, and he is the first to tell you he does things a little differently. "You're never going to meet anybody like me," he says on East Side Enterprise, "and that's probably not a bad thing."

Tim grew up in a very Minnesota family and realized early that he did not quite fit the mold. The Scandinavian, German, and Irish households he knew all shared one instinct: do it yourself, and do not ask for help. As a teenager he decided that was a bad idea, and started reaching out to new people instead. That instinct became a career.

Built on trust, not cold calls

Tim's main work is with LegalShield, where he has spent nine years, never missed a bonus, and ranked in the top ten in the country. But ask him how he actually built it and he does not talk about the product. He talks about people. He never wanted a cold call or a cold introduction. He wanted a warm one, because in his experience nobody does business with someone they do not trust. So instead of telling people to go network, he built events they would actually enjoy, then let happy attendees tell others.

The Go-Giver

His favorite book, the one that sits on his desk because it comes up every day, is The Go-Giver. The whole philosophy, givers gain, runs through how he works. When Sam asked for his one piece of advice, Tim did not hesitate.

"This is not about you. This is about going out and helping other people and meeting other people."

He points to the book's fifth law, be open to receive, and names the very Minnesota problem with it: we are terrible at receiving, because we think we have to reciprocate. He had to learn that saying no to someone who genuinely wants to help you is depriving them of the joy of giving. "So now I usually say yes."

Life after corporate

Tim left corporate ten years ago, and he is candid that he had to relearn who he was on the way out. He is a creative, dot-connecting thinker, and that never had much room to breathe inside a large organization. Now he helps other people make the same jump, and he watches them wrestle with the same fear he did: fear of change, and sometimes fear of success. His answer is to get through the fear to the clarity, usually by talking to people rather than sitting alone with the questions.

He sees the fractional movement, experienced leaders working part time across several small companies, as the big shift of the moment, accelerated by the pandemic and the exit of the baby boomer generation. And he has a consistent finding from everyone who has made the leap. When he asks their one regret, the answer never changes.

"I wish I would have done it sooner."

Change, and what comes next

Tim is not sentimental about disruption, including AI. His framing is simple: "You either get to change, or change will change you." His antidote to a lonelier, more automated world is the same thing he has always sold, human to human connection, which is why he keeps building rooms for people to actually meet. He is also a contributing author, and the only man among twenty, in the bestseller What the Frak.

Listen to the full conversation

This is a small piece of a genuinely energizing conversation that gets into the broken state of corporate hiring, why community is harder to find as an adult, and how to think about AI without panic.

Listen to the full episode of East Side Enterprise with Tim Voit at mckinneycv.com/podcast, or on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.