This is one of my favourite things to do. I love connecting with strangers to pick their brains - and sometimes it becomes a friendship or mentorship. I've learned and experienced a lot as a result of this habit, so I want to outline how insanely simple this approach is.
For Mentorship:
1. Figure out what you want to do.
2. Find people who have achieved this.
3. Contact them (rules in a moment).
4. Create a good back and forth dynamic.
For Interest:
1. Identify something interesting about the person you want to learn more about
2. Contact them to ask a simple, non-overwhelming question
3. Keep the conversation going if relevant, or let it die naturally. Don't force shit.
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CONTACTING PEOPLE WHO ARE AWESOME: A PRIMER
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The following is a hierarchy for contacting people with respect to effectiveness and long term benefit.
1. WITH AN INTRODUCTION
- Face to face by third party
- Face to face with third party introduction prior
- Phone by third party
- Phone with third party introduction prior
- Email by third party
- Email with third party introduction prior
2. WITHOUT AN INTRODUCTION
- Non face to face, with an easy (and, hopefully unexpected yet interesting) question. This is actually how I contacted Derek the first time. Email is good if you can write well (do a copywriting course), and a phone is good if you can wrestle past gatekeepers (not that hard).
- Face to face
That's it. This stuff is not hard - in fact, it's easy. Don't stalk, be cool, pay it forward wherever you can.
- R
P.S. Can't get people to respond? They're busy, or you aren't interesting enough. Adjust your tact.
P.P.S. Contact details are easily found with Google - old blogs, personal blogs, deep enough on the website, whatever.
For Mentorship:
1. Figure out what you want to do. 2. Find people who have achieved this. 3. Contact them (rules in a moment). 4. Create a good back and forth dynamic.
For Interest: 1. Identify something interesting about the person you want to learn more about 2. Contact them to ask a simple, non-overwhelming question 3. Keep the conversation going if relevant, or let it die naturally. Don't force shit.
======= CONTACTING PEOPLE WHO ARE AWESOME: A PRIMER -------
The following is a hierarchy for contacting people with respect to effectiveness and long term benefit.
1. WITH AN INTRODUCTION - Face to face by third party - Face to face with third party introduction prior - Phone by third party - Phone with third party introduction prior - Email by third party - Email with third party introduction prior
2. WITHOUT AN INTRODUCTION - Non face to face, with an easy (and, hopefully unexpected yet interesting) question. This is actually how I contacted Derek the first time. Email is good if you can write well (do a copywriting course), and a phone is good if you can wrestle past gatekeepers (not that hard). - Face to face
That's it. This stuff is not hard - in fact, it's easy. Don't stalk, be cool, pay it forward wherever you can.
- R
P.S. Can't get people to respond? They're busy, or you aren't interesting enough. Adjust your tact. P.P.S. Contact details are easily found with Google - old blogs, personal blogs, deep enough on the website, whatever.