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By PASCAL FINETTE

The Heretic is a free dispatch delivering insights into what it takes to lead into & in the unknown. For entrepreneurs, corporate irritants and change makers. Raw, unfiltered and opinionated.

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Jun 21st, 2014 Share: Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Hacking Intros

The other day someone asked me if I could give them the email address of another person I am connected to. Not an intro — just the email address.

I don’t think this is a great request — first of all: I am not an address book. ;) Secondly: It’s weird for my contact to receive an email a la “Hey — You don’t know me but Pascal gave me your email address”. And lastly: If you want to cold contact someone (which is totally fine), hustle!

Here’s how: First of all — you will be surprised how easy it is to simply google the email address of another person (especially when they live a somewhat public life). In the case above my contact’s email address is right on his homepage (which makes it even worse that the person asked me for the email — it just shows that he’s lazy).

And if you can’t find it — chances are that the email address is in one of the typical formats, such as first [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], etc. Simply try them out.

And then send the person a nice, short email — tell them why you contact them (make it about them — they need to understand why you reached out them) and make a small, easy ask (don’t ask for an hour-long consultation but a 10 min phone call or the answer to one, well-formulated and precise question).

A while ago I wrote this little how-to guide for better interactions with me — take it as a guideline for all your interactions and you’re on your way.

And if you ask yourself: Have you ever done this yourself Pascal? Yes. I do. Constantly. And trust me — the people I met, the advice I got, the insights I gained by doing so are priceless.


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