At the beginning of sixth grade, my family moved back to the United States from our missionary adventures in Guatemala. We moved to a tiny town in the Texas hill country and I began attending a public school there.
My first day, I ran into a group of guys at orientation. They took one look at me and said, “Hey man. What’s your name? … Cool. Just so you know, we’re kind of the big men on campus. You probably want to hang out with us.” Boldness, much?
Their boldness worked though. I became their friend (until we got into a fist fight and I realized they were losers). And though they seriously lacked a valuable thing called humility, they did something very right.
They introduced themselves in a way that mattered to me. They knew I was the new kid and that I was trying to figure out what group to join. Most kids want to be popular, so they knew I’d be interested. Flawed example, here. But follow me.
Let’s translate that to real life (not small town middle school life). I frequently have folks dropping me emails introducing themselves. They want to write for Sunday| Mag, help with ChurchStageDesignIdeas.com, or they want to speak at Echo Conference—not realizing I don’t work there anymore.
Unfortunately, the emails usually look like this:
Hi, my name’s _______. I’d love to help you with _________. Here’s my blog. Let me know if you need me.
That leaves me to scour their blog—sifting through quotes and pics of their kids—seeing if they have thoughts and skills that would match what I’m looking for. That’s not the best way.
Instead, they’d do much better to introduce themselves from my perspective. “What does Jonathan Malm want to see from me to know if he wants to work with me?” What if they tried something like this.
Hi, my name’s ______. I’d love to help you with _________. Here’s a blog or two I wrote that would fit perfectly in ________. I really love writing and speaking about ________. Do you think I could help you? I’d love to serve however I can.
I spend a couple minutes checking out the links, then immediately want to work with them. They aren’t bashful and they make it easy for me to say yes.
So how do you approach those people in your life you want to work with? Don’t be bashful. Learn from the popular kids in my sixth grade class. (Just don’t be jerks later.)