Sticky Notes - You're fake AF.

The TL;DR...

In my latest and greatest guide to date, How to become the Don Draper of cold email, I share how the above subject line landed me a call with the CEO of one of the fastest-growing startups in the plant-based food space. If you'd like to pick up a copy, in all its splendid digital glory, you can do so here or on the other side of the black button down below. 

The full story... 

When I was just starting out as a writer, I'd wake up when the sun was low and the world was still cool and I'd drive over to the west side of town in my old cherry-red pick-up truck and I'd clock into my day job, which consisted of me tearing out carpet in old houses and apartment buildings. 

Carpet, like anything, goes in and out of style with the decades and so the carpet I was hired to do away with was often an ancient artifact of a past decade. 

This was dirty, rotten, awful work that at the end of each shift would leave the tips of my fingers screaming as if they had each been stung by yellow jackets. 

I remember after I'd get home and shower the dirt and the dust and the muck from my skin and sit down to clock into my second shift, my night shift, my dream shift... for the first hour or so striking the keys, my fingers would ache and bitch and moan.

Like a runner's shins who punish him in revenge for their constant punishment against the pavement, eventually after enough typing, the pain in my fingers would dull and then dissipate entirely. 

Writing early on was less writing and mostly cold-emailing, pitching (and at times begging) brands to let me sling ink for them.

After enough cold-emailing, I did the math and I realized that 100 attempts would receive 25 responses; and 25 responses would turn into 5-10 phone calls; and 5-10 phone calls would land me 1 brand willing to write me 1 check in exchange for a whole lot of words. 

So, 100 cold emails = 1 gig. 

It was a numbers game; a beautiful numbers game. 

Today, I rarely send cold emails, as my work has begun speaking for itself and I'm lucky to have brands reach out to me versus the other way around. 

But, every once in a great while, a brand will catch my eye and I'll reach far down into my burlap bag and pull out my proverbial book of cold email magic. 

Recently, a brand that caught my eye was a startup selling chicken made out of plants. So, I cold emailed their CEO the following subject line... 

"You're fake AF."

Abrassive?

Sure.

Rude?

Maybe.

Effective?

We're doing an intro call in a couple of days to talk shop. 

In my latest and greatest guide, How to become the Don Draper of cold email, I share countless stories (and emails) that both myself and others have used to get in touch with celebrities, best-selling authors, CEOs and ambitious startup founders. 

It's my hope that it'll help you learn how to wield cold email to get anything you want and to recognize that the distance between you and your dreams is one cold email finding the right person at the right time. 

But, I digress. 

Cheers, 

Cole Schafer.

P.S. Yesterday the guide was $77. Today it's $87. Tomorrow it'll be $97. From now until Friday, it will be going up $10 per day. You've been warned. 

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