# InPHLuencers: 4 Stops on Rob Lawless’s Journey to Making 10,000 Friends

- Link: https://chatterblast.com/blog/inphluencers-4-stops-on-rob-lawlesss-journey-to-making-10000-friends/
- Published: 2016-12-15T14:08:10-05:00
- Author: Kyle Krajewski

Meet **Rob Lawless**.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNuXvMehHhz/

_That’s him on the left._

Actually, chances are you already have. [Rob is on a mission](http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Robs-10k-Friends-396186321.html)
to make 10,000 friends and [he’s documenting the whole thing](http://technical.ly/philly/2016/06/21/rob-lawless-robs10kfriends/)
on his Instagram account: [_@robs10kfriends_](https://www.instagram.com/robs10kfriends/)_.
_He’s also doing it all right here in Philadelphia.

Here are four stops he’s made along the way so far.

### **Penn State University**

https://www.instagram.com/p/BA-OTsGGUk7/

_Rob’s first meet-up._

First off, what would inspire someone to actually want to meet 10,000 people? For
Rob, it’s the community aspect of the whole thing.

Rob graduated from Penn State a few years ago and made a move to Philly, during 
which he remembers feeling like he lost some sense of community. Frequenting various
clubs and activities on campus, he would rarely walk to and from class without stopping
and talking to several people he considered friends along the way. It’s a sense 
of community he wanted to recreate in his post-college life.

The number 10,000 specifically? Inspired by** Malcolm Gladwell**’s famous rule: 
_If you do anything for 10,000 hours, you’re considered an expert at that thing._
10,000 is the magic number.

“Also I always say that’s a number that allows this to become something bigger than
a side project,” Rob told me. “It’s something that I hopefully will turn into my
life’s work. It should take me about 10 years to complete it.”

### **A full-time gig**

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHkW8cchoSh/

_Hey, we know her._

Today, Rob is doing his project full-time, but it didn’t really begin that way. 
After graduating, Rob had spent time working at both **Deloitte** and** RJMetrics**.

“My sales experience from RJMetrics was a big help for this,” Lawless says. “I would
just be cold emailing people and then I would direct message people on Instagram.”

A lot of the initial outreached focused on people in the creative community who 
are typically more likely to support this type of creative endeavor. Today, worrying
about outreach isn’t so much a problem as being able to respond to everybody reaching
out to him.

### **Slippin’ and slidin’ in the DMs**

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLKBSSVhnSx/

_Wow. _

Rob is now at nearly 600 friends and, as you might imagine, once this thing reached
a certain point, Rob’s source of friends kind of started generating itself. Over
a couple of weeks alone, Rob can expect around one hundred people to slide in his
Instagram DMs (the best place to reach him if you’d like to link up).

“If I reach 5,000 people and have 5,000 message requests that could be like the 
rest of the people right there,” he says. “I think I’ll become less accessible at
some point.”

You might be wise to try it sooner than later.

### **Sponsorships and the future**

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHkoU36hZzd/

_Rob sure is._

As you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking the same thing I was: _How in the
world is this guy to make a living wage by essentially making friends full time?_

Rob’s hopeful about the potential the project holds. Ideally, When Rob’s 10K Friends
reaches a certain point, a company whose values matches that of the project would
approach him for sponsorship. Then you’d have “Rob’s 10K Friends presented by X.”
Then, post-project, there may be speaking engagements and potentially a book in 
the works.

Some solutions, Rob says, he probably hasn’t even thought of yet. And that’s exciting.

“It’s cool because not only am I thinking about it, but over 400 people have asked
me, so obviously I’m not the only one thinking about it. Someone else might have
an answer eventually.”

If you’ve got a big idea for Rob or even would just like to meet him for an hour
or so to say hello and hear more about his story, hit him up on Instagram.