Everyone knows the caricature: that one acquaintance who brings up her business at every birthday, whose messages you no longer dare to open. Nobody wants to become that person, and it is exactly why so many people never start. The good news: it doesn't have to go that way. Better still, that way doesn't even work.
Because bothering people doesn't come from talking about your craft. It comes from wanting to convince. Whoever sees every neighbour as a prospect starts broadcasting: telling, pushing, one more message. People sense infallibly whether you want something from them or something for them, often within a single conversation. So the problem is rarely your network; it is the direction of the conversation.
Turn it around, in three steps.
Start with a living list. Not a hunting list, a relationship list: the roughly twenty-five people you truly know. The list is called living because it grows; every conversation, every workshop and every new acquaintance adds names. Your network is not a stock that runs out, it is something you maintain.
Become findable instead of pushy. Share what you know and do in one fixed place: what you blend, what you are learning, what your morning looks like. Not to score, but so that people who are already looking can find you. Then a conversation doesn't start with your offer, but with their question, and that is a completely different conversation.
And listen, truly. Not until it is your turn, but until you understand what someone is looking for. Those who are genuinely looking will then walk towards you by themselves. And those who are only nodding politely, you leave in peace; exactly that keeps the relationship warm for later. That way you bother no one: you only offer what someone was already looking for.
This is the heart of the craft chapter in Grōw: inviting, the living list, listening as the most important skill, and following up without pushing. With something to do this very week at almost every step. You can find the book here.
This page is explanation and experience, not a promise about results; what someone builds differs from person to person.