2 builders who never spoke to each other

Open with a question that costs nothing to answer

A narrow, sincere request for advice costs almost nothing to answer and feels good to send back, so replies arrive where a pitch draws silence. Asking a stranger for a call inverts that: it is a large imposition, and treating the exchange as step one of a sales sequence poisons the relationship you were trying to start.

The method

1. 01

   Open with a sincere, narrow request for advice - it costs the recipient almost nothing and feels good to answer, which is why it gets replies.

2. 02

   Keep the message short and the question easy to understand on one read, because effort to parse it translates directly into no reply.

3. 03

   Make the goal of a cold email or DM a connection, not a transaction; any sale should be a later consequence, never the intent of the first message.

4. 04

   Never make the ask a video call with a stranger; that is an enormous imposition compared with answering one question.

5. 05

   Don't use the advice request as step one of a pitch sequence - if you plan to follow up with a sales ask, the whole approach is dishonest.

What it returned

• 500

  At roughly 500 followers he was already reaching people he describes as amazing purely through cold direct messages.

• Justin used this on a CEO he had failed to meet at social events, with the offer as the subject line; the CEO accepted and refused to let him pay.

Sources

• What I learned from Sahil Bloom about building a creator flywheel – Jakob GreenfeldSahil Bloom · jakobgreenfeld.com · Engineered Serendipity · 2022-08-07
• Advice for Sending Cold Emails and DMsJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Advice for Sending Cold Emails and DMs · undated
• Meet peopleJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · 1. Buy someone lunch · undated