How to Get a Cold Intro

How do you meet cool people in your industry? How do you introduce yourself to someone that you don’t share any mutuals with?

There’s no doubt that knowing people and having an expansive network will do more for your career than almost anything else (given that you’re good at what you do). People get cold introductions when they’re just trying to grow their network, find clients, find a job, and/or get advice. Here are a few ways to go about it! See an example cold outreach message at the end.

See if it can be a less-cold intro

• Check out their LinkedIn (and possibly social profiles, since some people use those professionally). Do you have anything in common? I’ve stumbled upon cool people in industry and we randomly shared commonalities in hometown, school, or previous employers.
• People generally open up and become friendlier if they see that you share something.

Go to gatherings

• If you go to the places where these people in your industry congregate, you’ll be sure to strike up a conversation and find some new friends.
• In big cities, there are plenty of meet-ups and panels hosted by tech companies and venture capitalists.
• Get a friend to invite you to their company events or panels.
• See if your college has any alumni events in the area.
• Join professional education workshops or classes. I’ve attended some beginner workshops by General Assembly in Santa Monica and Downtown LA (they have locations all over the globe, especially North America) and met a lot of cool, like-minded people through that. It was also great because just having taken the class was a great icebreaker.

Hop on LinkedIn

• Let’s say you’re applying to an Influencer Marketing Analyst job at a skincare company, but this is a newer role to you and you want advice on breaking in. You could do a LinkedIn search for other Influencer Marketers near you that have a similar job. After identifying a few that you think would be willing to chat, send a short, genuine, and personalized message asking for 20 minutes of their time over the phone or at coffee.

• Sending cold emails and messages is scary!
• A bit of a weird analogy, but navigating professional relationships is like the early stages of dating because:
  • You don’t want to scare them off by going full-force with a life story or your deepest hopes for the future
  • You don’t want to pester them
  • You can’t ask for too much of their time, right off the bat
  • You have to keep an open mind and cast a wide net
  • It’s a numbers game – your success rate shouldn’t mean too much about you as a person
• When writing your message, figure out:
  • Your “ask” (your request – what you want them to do)
  • Why you think they are interesting
  • What you need from them
• Don’t send copy-pasted outreach messages to a bunch of people. It just won’t resonate and even if you get a response, neither of you will get much value from a relationship.
• Here’s an example message for the above situation (you’re applying for an Influencer Marketing position and need advice)
  • “Hi Jen, hope this finds you well! I’m currently a Social Media Analyst at a beauty brand, hoping to move into the Influencer Marketing space because I love interfacing with real people and creating meaningful partnerships. Your Influencer Marketing role at Neutrogena sounds incredible and I really admire the influencers that your company works with. Are you open to sharing more about your career path with me? Would love to buy you a coffee or hop on the phone.”