Hola amigos,

Today’s topic is a skill that will change your life.

Last week’s newsletter was about my experience reaching out to Ali Abdaal, and how this led to me working as his social media strategist back in 2019.

Since then, I’ve had a ton of DMs from people asking how to get noticed by their favourite creators and even how to land a dream job.

So, here’s my playbook on how to get your foot in the door.

💭 Thought of the week

You are just one message away from a whole new chapter.

Visual credit: @QuotedVisually

Window-openers vs. Door-knockers

I first heard this concept in 2019 on the My First Million podcast. Window-openers vs. door-knockers describes two options for how we choose to live our lives.

We can take the passive approach of waiting for “open windows”, the clear-cut opportunities that are obvious and in plain sight.

Or, we can take the “door-knockers” approach. This is scarier to do, as we don’t know what’s on the other side, but we knock on different doors because we feel optimistic about reaching a positive outcome.

I’ve unexpectedly become somebody who leans towards door-knocking, but it wasn’t always that way.

When you door-knock and try your luck it’s frightening. But, after multiple failed attempts, by the law of averages you’ll eventually get a win.

When you do, the positive reinforcement will make it easier the next time, and the next time, until soon the discomfort you feel is small enough to overcome.

Let’s walk through an example: you’re reaching out to your list of dream companies who you’d love to work for, to come up with a plan to contact them directly.

We can break down the process of contacting people into 3 stages:

1. Upfront research

2. Perfecting the message

3. Crafting your irresistible offer

Take the time to research 🔎

How many of us have contacted an influencer or a celebrity in our lifetimes? I know I have.

You have to do the research upfront for your message to be worth a response.

I’m not putting anybody on a pedestal here.

It’s just that I can share from working with large creators that your “Hey, I love your work!” doesn’t stand out. In fact, they receive that exact message 50+ times per day.

Is it better to spend 30 minutes writing an email for a chance of a reply, or to spend 5 minutes writing an email that has no chance at all?

Most of the time, the reason you’re reaching out to somebody is because YOU want something from them.

Let’s say you are a graphic design student looking for work experience and there’s a firm in London that you would love to work for. Well, an example of research here would be to find out the structure of the company.

Who’s the Head of Design? Are they the hiring manager? How many people work in their team? (This information is all available on LinkedIn by searching for the company name and then clicking on ‘People’)

Why not connect with a graphic designer already working there? Ask them about their role and what they enjoy most about it. Once a relationship is established, you can mention their name when you contact the Head of Design. Your chance of a reply will double.

Can’t find an email address? Just find the general format of their company email. Most email formats are firstname@company.com and free tools like Hunter can help with this.

Write the perfect message ✍️

Your message should be all of the below:

• Personalised
• Interesting
• Concise
• About them, not you
• Sent at the right time
• Clear in purpose

Consider the messages you receive that you don’t reply to. A great way to check personalisation is to hide the person’s name with your hand. Is it clear who the message is for, or could it be sent to anyone?

Don’t send the first message you write either. I believe that the average cold message should take around 20 minutes to create. If it’s an email, the subject line is important, too.