Cold email success equals probability times opportunity. Most of my writing focuses on improving the probability that your email gets answered. But finding more opportunities for high-quality cold outreach is just as important.
I've played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons. In the game, characters have a number of abilities, including Passive Perception and Investigation.
The two abilities draw from the character’s Wisdom score, so improving underlying skills improves both abilities.
Most importantly, increasing your Passive Perception means that you have to make Investigation checks less often, as information simply presents itself to you. This saves time and effort and reduces the chance of failing an investigation.
So, Passive Perception is noticing situations where sending a cold email would be useful. Investigation is looking for an opportunity to send a cold email. Leveling up your passive perception will help you continuously maintain your email practice.
The best way to find a consistent source of people worth reaching out to is to join communities. I've reached out to people from:
This is a starting point, not a definitive list of places to find prospective connections. Find groups of people online who share your interests, join the general conversation, and message people individually as merited.
With experience, sending a cold email becomes a natural process:
To identify opportunities for cold email, don’t set a goal of writing more messages. Instead, tune your Passive Perception for finding more cool people and interesting things to talk about. And then when it’s time to use cold email as a tool, your Investigation check will be that much smoother.
Best,
Philip
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