One Degree Away

I’ve been struggling to get good feedback on a project, so I tried something different. Instead of asking people for their thoughts I asked them to connect me.

My network is country-wide in my industry, but most of my connections did not have the experience I was looking for. I tried cold emails (not fun for me, or the recipient). I tried the open invitations (I love ya LinkedIn, but nope). I talked with a few friends who had approximate expertise (not bad, but too local).

So, it was time to deploy the Friend-of-a-Friend (FOAF) strategy. I looked at my network of contacts and asked them to put me in touch with someone in their world who could help. Leveraging their networks put me in touch with the right people. Suddenly, I had people booking me directly from cities all over the country for rich conversations.

These conversations have greatly improved my project. Here are a few observations so far:

• People want to help. When the right introduction opens the door, people are wonderfully generous with their knowledge and expertise.

• Craft your questions. With the right line of inquiry, you can unlock the gold that only comes through stories and experience (take that AI chatbot!)

• Skip the cold emails. Even when you write a short, concise email with a creative hook (like we all do so naturally), it is too easy to ignore.

• Ask YOUR friend to email THEIR friend and copy you on the email. The simple “cc” acts as an implicit endorsement and puts your email address in their inbox too.  

At the end of the day, if world news has you depressed (me too!), or you’re feeling a little burned out (me too!), or you just want to binge watch a TV show (me too!), stop and remember people want to help.

Find people who are one degree away.

Ask the right questions and you’ll make incredible connections.

Inspiration

The fine people responsible for Health & Safety in libraries.