Beyond the Digital Bazaar
A Case for Deeper Conversation
LinkedIn has turned into a digital bazaar, one of those chaotic markets where vendors hawk everything from knockoff watches to miracle cures, all while tugging at your sleeve.
Case in point: I recently got this message from a "connection":
"Hi Alex, they recommended that I call you."
"Who?" I replied.
Five weeks of silence.
Then suddenly: "Hey! So long! LinkedIn recommended your profile, and I remembered you. Can I bother you for 2 seconds?"
"No, this isn't a good time for me."
Four hours later: "Understood. When will it be a good time?"
The audacity is breathtaking.
Five weeks to remember who "they" were, then the immediate pivot to pestering for my time. This is what professional networking has become: a numbers game where genuine connection gets trampled by spray-and-pray outreach.
The Death of Professional Connection
I've been in business for over two decades.
I spent 17 years in the Corporate World, where relationships mattered.
Where you built trust before you asked for anything.
Where "networking" meant actual conversations, not copy-paste templates sent to hundreds of strangers.
Today's digital landscape has inverted that completely.
LinkedIn has become a performance theater where everyone's a thought leader, every mundane observation is a "key insight," and authentic connection gets drowned in a sea of automated outreach and humble brags.
Twitter has devolved into political shouting matches and hot takes designed for viral moments rather than meaningful discourse.
Meanwhile, Instagram pushes us toward endless scrolling and superficial engagement, while email inboxes overflow with newsletters that promise everything and deliver nothing of substance.
We're drowning in noise.
The Cost of Constant Pitching
Here's what this digital bazaar mentality costs us:
Trust erodes faster than it builds.
When every interaction feels transactional, people's default mode becomes skepticism.
That LinkedIn message I received?
My first thought wasn't curiosity about a potential connection; it was annoyance at another sales pitch.
Quality relationships become impossible.
Real business relationships require time, attention, and genuine interest in the other person.
You can't scale that with automation or templates.
The companies I've built, the partnerships that have lasted, and the clients who became friends—none of those started with a spray-and-pray LinkedIn message.
We forget how to have real conversations.
When everything becomes a pitch, we lose the art of simply being interested in each other. Business becomes transactional rather than relational.
Why I'm Choosing Different
At 59, having built and sold companies and having worked with luxury travel clients who value quality over quantity, I've learned the value of choosing the right platform for the right conversation.
That's why I'm expanding to Substack.
Not to abandon other platforms, but to create space for the deeper conversations that deserve more than a LinkedIn post can offer.
This isn't about rejecting other platforms or being anti-technology.
It's about choosing the right tool for meaningful conversations, ones that reward depth over volume, thoughtfulness over reactivity, and genuine connection over performative networking.
What You Can Expect Here
I'm calling this newsletter "Diamonds in the Rough" because I believe every person, every business, and every experience has the potential to “become a diamond”, but that's often overlooked in our rush toward the obvious and trendy.
You'll get three types of content from me:
Second Act Entrepreneurship: What I've learned about building businesses after corporate life, starting fresh at different life stages, and why some of the best opportunities come when you stop trying to be everything to everyone.
Thoughtful Travel: Not where to get the best Instagram shot, but how travel changes us, what luxury really means, and why the best experiences often happen when we slow down enough to notice them.
Anti-Noise Business: How to build real relationships, market without being salesy, and create value in a world that's forgotten the difference between attention and respect.
I'll write to you once a week, every Thursday morning.
No clickbait subject lines, no artificial urgency, no pitches disguised as insights.
Just honest thoughts from someone who's been around long enough to know that the best business opportunities come from genuine relationships, and the best relationships come from actually caring about people rather than what they can do for you.
Creating Space for Real Conversations
If you're looking for something more thoughtful than the latest growth hack or productivity tip, if you're building something meaningful rather than just chasing metrics, if you value depth over digital noise, then I'd love to have you join me here.
This is where we can dive deeper into the ideas that deserve more than a LinkedIn post.
The inbox hawkers and LinkedIn pitchers will keep doing their thing. We'll be over here, building something more substantial.
What's your take on the state of professional networking? Hit reply and let me know. I read and respond to every email.
Alex Mustaros is a luxury travel entrepreneur, former Fortune 500 executive, and the founder of multiple companies, including dos:deux and The Expert's Guild. He believes the best business happens when you stop trying to sell and start trying to help.