August 11, 2018

BESTOF Outreach for the introvert

FYI - I’m currently off-grid at a lodge on a lake in a remote corner of Maine. I’ll be back in the saddle on Monday, August 20th. In the meantime, here’s a greatest hits post from the last year:

Outreach for the introvert

A number of people have written in with questions and comments about an outreach campaign that I’m currently undertaking. Folks are expressing thoughts like:

• “Sure this approach makes sense for you because you’re an extrovert.”
• “Sure this approach makes sense for you because you’re famous online.”
• “I don’t have any connections so this wouldn’t work for me.”
• “The only people I’m connected with online are other developers and they aren’t my buyers.”

I hear you. Not everyone is starting from the same place, and not everyone has the same inherent strengths. I’m going to suggest a way to think about this that I think will help, but first I need to set some context.

Some context

If you are a service provider (e.g. freelancer, consultant, agency, firm, dev shop, etc) you’re in the relationship business.

To grow, you need to be willing to build relationships.

You don’t have to be amazing at it, but you have to be willing to work on it.

(NOTE: If you are not willing to work on it, you will fail. Instead, go get a full time job at someone else’s business.)

Pro tip

Here’s a tip for folks who feel like their relationship building skills are kinda weak or maybe just a little rusty:

Focus on helping people who need your expertise.

You have a set of relatively unusual skills and capabilities - your expertise. You know that there are people in the world who would benefit from the application of your expertise.

Find them and help them.

This does not have to be about closing deals, or working for peanuts, or giving away your expertise for free. It’s about doing what you can to help people who are in need.

A few examples:

• If you’re good with d3, answer some n00b questions on stack overflow.
• If you wrote a book on responsive web design, send a copy to the CEO of a non-profit that has a desktop-only website.
• If you’re a UX consultant and encounter a disappointing on-boarding experience, offer some polite constructive criticism to the CEO.

This is the easiest and most effective way I can think of to build relationships, even for an introvert.

Moral of the story

If a sales-y term like “outreach” makes you squeamish, label it more like what it really is:

Being helpful.

You can do that, right?

Yours,

—J

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