Last week, I tweeted a challenge:

Make $5k online in 48 hours without using an existing email list.

Spoiler Alert: Yes, somebody actually pulled this off.

But before I show you how he did it, stop for a second and think about your initial gut reaction to the challenge.

Out of the 50 responses to the tweet, there were generally 3 ways people reacted. Which type is most similar to yours?

Reaction Type #1: You can't pull that off without doing something sleazy / gimmicky / illegal

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

This next one was at least funny:

I'll give him credit. That plan did work for Walter White. :)

Reaction Type #2: Give me a ton of money to spend on ads and I'll make it happen

I probably should have added "no massive ad buys" to go along with the "no existing email list" rule:

Love the hustle.

But not so sure requesting $50k from someone you just cold pitched is going to go over well.

Reaction Type #3: Find people with problems and offer a clear plan to solve them

When Jacob McMillen responded with this idea, I thought it was solid...

...but I didn't expect for him to turn around and freaking DO IT:

Notice that out of the 10 people Jacob pitched, NINE said no or didn't respond.

When you pitch people, you're going to hear "no" a lot. That's what scares most people.

But all it took was that ONE business to say yes for all those no's to be worth it.

How Jacob's Pitch Worked

To respect the spirit of the challenge, Jacob set a couple of ground rules for himself before pitching:

  • He wouldn't pitch anyone who had hired him before
  • He wouldn't tweet the offer out to his 13k+ Twitter followers

He tweaked the wording and details of the pitch for each prospect, but all of them were a variation of the following:

3 reasons why this is a good pitch:

  • It's short. When you're reaching out to someone directly, it's not the time to write a long-form sales letter.
     
  • The offer is super clear: 4 long-form blog posts for $5k. If your ask is vague, you will not get a response. Your goal with any pitch should be to get a response (whether it's yes or no). A response allows you to move on.
     
  • It gives a compelling reason to hire him: he has a proven ability to create content that ranks for hyper-competitive keywords.

Also, notice that the pitch in the above screenshot is a direct message on social media. Jacob said, "Given that I needed payment to be upfront in a short time window, I ended up doing half the pitches via social in-network."

This is key—when cold pitching, always start with people/companies that are, well...the least cold.

Look for people you have ANY connection to whatsoever, even if it's just that you've used their product before.

In Jacob's case, one of those existing connections happened to be with Aaron Orendorff, VP of Marketing at Common Thread Collective. Here's what he had to say after agreeing to Jacob's pitch:

I know what you're probably thinking right now...

Great, Bryan...lemme just slide into the DMs of a VP of Marketing I've known for four years. OH WAIT I DON'T HAVE ANY CONNECTIONS LIKE THAT!

Stop making excuses.

Six years ago, I did almost the exact same thing as Jacob (except I was pitching people on making videos for their blog instead of writing articles).

I didn't have any slam-dunk connections and I'd only made a handful of videos for clients at that point.

I landed a $3k monthly contract and then multiple clients after that one. There's an entire blog post about the whole thing, down to the exact scripts I used to pitch people.

Did I have to pitch more than 10 people? Yes.

Did I have to invest the time to make short, custom videos for lots of the pitches? Yup.

Did I have to sell my soul or offer anything sleazy in order to pull it off? Absolutely not.

There is nothing stopping you from doing this. Except possibly yourself.

So, I'll ask you again…

What was your first reaction when you saw the challenge that kicked off this email?

Did you immediately grasp for reasons why NOBODY could possibly pull it off?

Or did you start coming up with ways to solve problems for people?

If you'd like to revise your initial reaction, I'll allow it. :)

- Bryan

P.S. Some full disclosure for you...

Jacob is one of our coaching clients, and he's been kicking butt since day one.

So I wasn't exactly surprised when he not only took on this challenge but pulled it off in 48 hours.

He's the type of person we love to work with—someone who sees the possibility of why something COULD work instead of making excuses about why it won't.

Does that sound like you?

Do you want to know what it would be like to have us by your side, brainstorming ideas like this for your business, and then holding you accountable?

If so, book a free Strategy Call with us here.

We still have a few spots open this week and we'd love to devote one of them to learning about your business, showing you what's working for our clients, and coming up with ideas to increase your revenue.

Grab a spot here while they're available.