How to Write a Cold Email That Gets a Response

you need credibility up front. And one way to think about this, and I always if I'm thinking about reaching out to someone who is above my pay grade, and trust me, there's I mean there are plenty of people who are way above my pay grade. The first thing in the subject line, I'll give a tip that I sometimes use. So, let's just say that who knows. All right, somebody knows, you know, Mr. Beast or Tom Cruise or whoever it might be. Now, practically speaking, everything's going to have to get routed through someone else for Tom Cruise. And if you do get their personal information, they're going to be very annoyed. Um so, but where I'll start with the subject line is one of two places or both. So, you mentioned like the credibility indicator in the subject, right? — Yes. I'll use that. But if we actually have someone in common who actually recommended I connect, Yes. — but they haven't made the intro, I will say for instance, it would be again, just use the Tom Cruise example, who I think would make an amazing interview, but Like for Tom Cruise via mutual connection. Ooh. Tim Ferriss, {comma} whatever the credibility indicator is, right? So, I will mention the mutual connection first because subject lines often get truncated on mobile or elsewhere. Mhm. So, if they just see for Tom Cruise from Tim Ferriss, he's going to be like, "Who the [ __ ] is Tim Ferriss? Archive. " They see the name they know. — If it's for Tom or for Tom Cruise via person who actually made the suggestion, and then my name, you have a huge advantage because chances are it's going to get truncated. I love the via. I've done referral from X. Yeah. And then my stuff after, but I like the via because it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to have to vet and call that person up, you know? — Yeah, exactly. Well, that brings up another point, which is if you're going to mention mutual connections, and I'm shocked by how many people violate this, you better actually know, assume the person you're emailing is going to immediately text those people. And they will. And I certainly will. And I would say nine times out of 10 that person's like, "Either I've no idea who that person is, or I met that person once and we shook hands at a party. I don't know them at all. " And I'm like, "You're gone. You just misrepresented implicitly or explicitly. " But when I'm writing an email, right, I'll have that subject line. If there is a via, I'll include that name. And in the subject line, I'll keep it short as possible. Then the always default to Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. something. Like something that I really appreciate about you cuz it doesn't cost anything is you are very default polite. And even though it makes me feel like an old bastard, you said you were like, "Yes, sir. " And you used "sir" with me a couple times when we came in. And it's No, but you're always better off being on the safe side. And I'm consistently surprised, and maybe this just makes me a salty, crotchety old bastard, but when people are like, "Hey Hey, Tim. " "Yo, bro. Yo, Ferriss. " or whatever. I'm just like, "Did we go to P school? " — Someone says, "Yo, Ferriss? " — I've got so many guys, it's always guys, who think that could be anything, but they think that like shoulder slapping, immediate camaraderie is helpful. I will say that's a very risky gambit. Maybe it works one out of 10 times. In my case, I'm just like, "This is a liability, right? " Because here's how I think about it is I'm like, "Well, even if it doesn't bother me, that shows a general lack of awareness. And if they're going to ask me to connect them with someone, or they're going to work with anyone who I care about, and they pull that, — Mhm. it's a reputational risk. And so, most of the time that's going to be an auto archive. It's going to be like, "You know what? Like the people you're reaching out to, if they're really busy, and if they're well known enough that you think to email them, have more opportunities than they can even look at. So, your job number one is don't do anything stupid. Right. — don't do anything that's going to disqualify your email. And the "Yo, Ferriss" of it all, emotionally, feels as if a stranger is coming up to you at the airport and giving you a hug. Whoa, wait, who are you? What? Like that's what it feels like. Just another pro tip this cuz we're in Austin, and this is like kind of man bun, baggy pants {slash} like Bitcoin, ayahuasca, CrossFit central is like don't just walk up to someone you don't know and say, after they offer a hand, "Oh, I'm a hugger. " and just go for the hug. Don't do that. Like Just really don't do that. — Right. — Like Right. — Assume you're in Japan and they're going to strike you down with a sword if you do that. Like the person who wants the most distance wins that conversation. It's kind of like skiing in the backcountry with avalanche risk or something. Whoever's the most concerned gets to veto. But let's come back to the cold email. So, we've got the subject line, different subject lines for different purposes. In the first line, it's going to be credibility indicator. All right, couple of points on this, right? So, you've got like your

credibility indicator in the subject line potentially also, which I will also do. You know, be like for interview {parentheses} 1 billion plus downloads, right, in the case of the podcast, right? Something like that. Right. And I'll note for if you don't have a billion downloads or millions of followers, in the beginning for me, it was examples of the work Yeah. that would at least show I've done my homework. No one's watched this, but it looks really, really good, and it's beautifully edited. — Yeah. So, I am going to come back and ask you about, just to plant the seed, the mentors in the very early days when you didn't really have — Mhm. much, right? Like what that email looked like. We're going to come back to that. — I'll give my example. When I first got to Silicon Valley, I volunteered for organizations that had name cachet. So, I volunteered for instance, TiE, The Indus Entrepreneur. Last time I'm sure people checked, I'm not Indian, but TiE super well known at the time, maybe still, entrepreneurial organization. Like the per capita density in the kind of Indian diaspora in Silicon Valley with talent is [ __ ] bananas. Shout out. That's my people. — And so, I volunteered there, and then I could say I'm emailing someone in tech, and it would be for so-and-so via TiE or The Indus Entrepreneur, and I wouldn't even put my name cuz who the hell am I? And that gets the email opened. — Mhm. So, I would volunteer and then do things on behalf of the nonprofit as a way of establishing some kind of relationship, ideally inviting them to speak or something like that. All for free, by the way, all right? Like some of the highest paying jobs you'll ever get, you don't get paid for in the beginning, in my opinion. — I love that. It does pay in dividends in ways you don't expect. — I did that and ultimately had, for instance, Jack Canfield, who co-created Chicken Soup for the Soul, which has sold hundreds and hundreds of millions of copies, and then they ultimately they sold as a franchise, but I met him through an email like that from the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs, and we are still friends to this day, 25 years later or whatever it is, and he's the one who introduced me to the agent who ultimately sold The 4-Hour Workweek after like 26 rejections. So, long-term greedy, not short-term greedy, right? Like you don't need to be paid up front for something that will ultimately be very, very important to your life. Right, to the email. For the credibility indicator, and guys, we'll give some templates just so you don't have to piece this together in like a Memento fashion, but I like to and I suggest include some text that establishes who you are. If someone says, "Hey, here I am. " link, and like a sketchy attachment, I'm like, "I don't have time to go on some scavenger hunt to figure out who you are. " right? So, include a line or two on who the hell you are. Do you know what I mean? Yes. Don't require them to like click through and find this, and this, and this, and this. A hyperlinked here. Uh-uh. — It's not enough. — I mean? When it's like, "Click here. " No. It should be "And I've done this thing. " Hyper- hyperlink the — Yeah. Exactly. I mean — I want to learn more. — Yeah, and just to give people some intel on that, one reason for that is that it just takes more time for someone and any you need to remove the reasons for them to say no. And you might think to yourself like, "Who the hell doesn't have 30 seconds or a minute to click through? " And I'm like, "Somebody who gets a thousand email a day. " That's answer number one. Number two, anyone who is reasonably well known has a lot of fishing attacks. Like they have people from different vectors who are trying to get them to click on links that are very dangerous Mhm. and intended to steal information or set the team up for social engineering. So, I have been a recipient of a false "You're invited to the Tim Ferriss podcast" email. — Oh, yeah, those. That's a very clever scam. Do you know how that works? No. — Okay, so how that works, this is because these are still going around. I think the jig is up because people have realized most of these are fake, but so I'm guessing the email was like, "We place people or we're inviting you on the show. " Either, if they're not very sophisticated, they'll be like, "It costs this much to go on the show. " And then anyone who knows me should be like, "That doesn't sound right. " But there's kind of like this pay-for-play thing, which most people will sniff out. The other one is, "Let's get on a Zoom call and discuss. " And what happens is you get on Zoom call, and they somehow figure out a way to get you to provide basically screen access, not just sharing screen, but screen access. And they'll take you to your Facebook page or something like that, and they will hijack your Facebook page, then use it to promote like a crypto scam on a large page and then hold that for ransom also to

get money from you. So, this is just a way of saying, guys include some [ __ ] text. And then to your point again, like be very clear about the ask. The number of emails I get that is like, even if they establish, "Hey, I'm like credible, but I'm not like, you know, a president or the CEO of Fortune 50 company. " It's like if they're like, "Okay, this might be kind of interesting. " Right? If it's like Rick Rubin who's, you know, I did his first interview on a podcast ever in a sauna, but it's like if you're like, "Oh, it's [ __ ] Rick Rubin. " And he's like, "Hey, let's jump on the phone. " You're like, "Yeah, [ __ ] it. Okay, fine. " As long as I can confirm that's who the person is. Right. — But otherwise, assuming that you who's cold emailing is not Rick Rubin, which is likely, then be clear about your ask. Right? If it's like, "Would love to discuss something vague. Let's hop on the phone to discuss. How's next Tuesday at 2:00 p. m.? " I'm never going to respond to that. Right? Because if you can't write a professional first cold email, I'm skeptical of everything that's going to follow. Right? You're not placing a value on the recipient's time that you've thought through. Does that make sense? So, it's like be really clear in the ask. And then when I close, again to your point, right? Make your cell phone. And by the way, you can use a burner or you can use Google Voice. You can spin up a Google Voice number very easily from any But have a number, right? Where somebody can reach you. Do not just bury it in your signature. Make it explicitly clear. Feel free to text me anytime. Right? We can schedule or just feel free to hop on the phone. I promise it will not take more than 10 minutes. By the way, if you say that, do not go over 10 minutes. Yeah. And then I almost always say, "If you've read this far, I really appreciate it. And if you're too busy to get back to me, I totally understand. " Okay. That's a great learning. I'm going to add that. Love that. — And by displaying as little or zero entitlement as possible, you get a much higher response rate. Why? Because your cold email is an audition for everything else to come. So, if you're like, "Here's this vague email. How about next Tuesday or Thursday at 2:00 p. m.? " It's like, "Bro, slow down. Like you're humping my leg already? We haven't even established who you are or what you want. " And that reflects a certain lack of awareness and kind of business savvy that is going to be a problem later. Right? That's kind of how the train of thought goes. And that's it. Here's another pro tip. If you send that email, do not follow up two days later with "Bumping this up. " And then do that two days later, "Bumping this up. " You get to do that once. I think it's got to be at least a week. — Yeah. You got to wait and you're allowed to do it once. And then just assume they're not interested. And that's okay. Move on. World is full of great people. And if people are not responding to your email, it's probably common denominator a problem with the email. You know what I mean?