Episode Details

[Authors note: This article on writing cold emails is Part 1 of my “Writing Great Outreach Emails” series. If you’d like to download all 3 parts and begin mastering the art of email outreach (including a BONUS checklist to help you craft your next message), Click here to download ‘The Insider’s Guide to Writing Great Outreach Emails’.]

Imagine where your career could be just one year from now if you consistently sent just one thoughtful, personal, and authentic message per week to people in your area of the industry who could provide you with priceless career advice, mentor you, introduce you to the right people, open the right doors, or even hire you for your dream job.

Given the tremendous upside and potential ROI from a minimal investment of your time and effort each week (with zero cost), why isn’t cold outreach a habit we all practice regularly as natural as brushing our teeth?

Because writing a cold email to strangers is TERRIFYING...especially if they’re people you admire or look up to. When this is your “one shot,” the last thing you want to do is sell yourself too hard, or ask the wrong questions, or sound stupid.

You don’t want to bother them.

They’re probably too busy anyways.

It feels weird asking strangers for help.

You definitely sound desperate (and clueless).

And they probably won’t respond anyways...so why even try?

There’s no question that if done wrong, sending cold emails that no one responds to can be a surefire path to rejection, isolation, complete lack of confidence, and feeling like you have no way to connect to the right people that can potentially become your mentors, colleagues, or collaborators. But when done correctly:

One well-written cold email can change your entire career.

Want to see how improving his outreach skills earned Scott not one but two jobs on union features?

Click here for my interview with Scott Davis

“It’s All About Who You Know”

Too often this phrase is used as an excuse for why people don't achieve their professional goals.

“Nobody in this business cares about skills or qualifications or education, all that matters is who you know. And I don’t know anyone. It’s just not fair.”

If you don’t know anyone yet, that’s no excuse. It simply means that it’s time to start reaching out to people. And if you’re introverted and hate networking as much as I do, guess what...that’s not an excuse either.

Yeah that’s right...you’re about to learn how to use cold outreach to build your network from a hopeless introvert who hates going to events, panels, meetups, and parties. (Don’t even get me started on ‘small talk.’)

You too may have been born an introvert like me, but you were not born bad at networking. Saying “I’m bad at networking” is simply a limiting belief, a script you continue to replay in your head over and over that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy which leads to you hiding inside your comfort zone. Jimmi Hendrix was not born as the best guitar player of all time, he became that way because he practiced fanatically. If you are bad at networking right now, it’s only because you don’t practice it consistently enough. Which is good news because it means you can get better.

If you’re intrigued about the possibility of actually getting better at networking and cold outreach but you’re still not sure if it’s worth yo