🤯 How I landed a consulting gig via a video with 1 view

Hey all,

A few things in this email:

• How I landed a consulting gig via a video with 1 view 🤯 

• How that consulting gig has been going & lessons you can learn 🧠 

• How to stop feeling weird on camera 📹️ 

• My new favorite software 🐝 

Last email, I mentioned that I landed a consulting gig without going viral. Quite the opposite - the video had 1 view (4 of the views shown below were me making sure it was set up properly).

👇️ Setting the stage

This is Cam (and his cat, Pinky) and he runs Actionworks. He’s an 4x entrepreneur I’ve been following for years.

He does 2 things:

• 📈 Helps entrepreneurs and creators win more customers, clients and opportunities through video with his live course (Minimum Viable Video)

• 💼 Helps corporations and governments launch entrepreneurship/intrapreneurship programs

👉️ Here’s how I landed the gig…

Step 0: Be a human being 😃 

Before I ever had a thought of pitching a consulting project with Cam, I’ve read his newsletter for years and engaged (aka I’d give feedback when he asked for it, or just said thanks when one of his ideas resonated or helped me).

• It’s a really low cost way to stand out from the crowd and start building a relationship.

• Takeaway: Reply to people’s emails by encouraging them if something helped you, or offering valuable feedback.

Step 1: I saw an opportunity. 👀 

Through some other projects I’m working on, I had just learned about a new way to grow your email list that was new (and not widely known).

• Translation: I knew something he didn’t. This is all that’s required - I don’t have to be an expert. I just need to be more of an expert than the person I’m helping.

• I realized: He has a great newsletter. More people need to read it. And if more people read it, chances are it will benefit his business.

Boom. That’s my pitch.

Step 2: Craft the pitch 📝 

The pitch had 2 parts:

1. 📹️ A 4-5 minute video: Of course, I was going to use the very thing he teaches to his students to try to land a consulting gig. The video outlined:

   1. What’s in it for him: Always, always, always think through this lens when pitching anyone anything. I straight up told him I could double his newsletter subscriber base within 2 months. I walked him through the math of what that would mean if the new subscribers convert to buy his course at the same rate as his current subscribers.

   2. I left room for a conversation: I shared enough details so that he knew I wasn’t making this up, but not so much that he didn’t want to talk to me. I knew that if we were able to talk, I’d be able to close the deal.

2. 🌐 Landing page: I knew he would have questions, so I anticipated what they were and answered them on a landing page linked in the email I sent him. He writes with personality, so I matched it. For example, I started off with this GIF:

Step 3: Record 📹️ 

• I recorded a video with my iPhone connected to my laptop.

• I used used my podcast microphone so the audio quality was good (very important)🎙️ 

Step 4: Send the email 🚀 

• I left it short and sweet to drive him to watch the video

• Subject line: I think you should hire me…kind of.

• Body:

As they say, the rest is history.

How’s the project going? 🤔 

In 1 month, I grew his subscriber base by 1000 people and we’re on pace to double it by end of year.

The true end goal is more sales of his course (Minimum Viable Video) which launches a new cohort in January.

A few lessons I’ve learned so far:

• 📊 New growth channels means new opportunities: There are new ways grow an email newsletter that make it cheaper and/or easier than running paid ads (I’ll outline this in a future newsletter).

  • Spoiler: You can set it up so that you decide how much you’re willing to pay (e.g. $2-3 per subscriber), and you only pay if you get a high quality subscriber. It’s like ads but guaranteed ROI.

• 🤓 Building an email list is wisdom: I’ve always known this, but I’m understanding it at a deeper level. Places like Instagram, Twitter and TikTok are borrowed audiences and risky platforms.

  • A simple algorithm change can mean decreased reach and as a result, decreased sales. For example, the average IG user reaches ~10% of your audience with a single post. That’s crazy town.

  • An email list is an “owned” audience where you can reliably get a message to them whenever you want. No middle man.

• 🏀 Shoot your shot: The worst Cam could have said was no. I had fun getting creative with the pitch, and even if he had said no, it would have been memorable and could have eventually led to another opportunity.

Lastly…

Cam is running a free workshop in 1.5 weeks called:

Stop Feeling Weird on Camera so You Can Build an Audience and Get Customers 💰️ 

📹️ Check out the details and sign up here: https://lu.ma/qdx7d6nn

Best,

Kieran 🏀 

p.s. If you want to grow your email list and/or build a newsletter, 2 things:

• 🐝 Beehiiv is by far the best platform to use (I’ve used Mailchimp, Convertkit, Squarespace, Constant Contact, etc.). They’re the new kid on the block and have an incredible product that is only getting better every week. (14-day free trial here)

• 🚀 I’ve been enjoying newsletter growth so much that I’m taking on a few clients who want help growing their email newsletter. If that’s you or someone you know, reply here.

In addition to helping Cam, I’ve been growing Malachi Daily pretty quickly (we’re adding about 100 new subscribers/day) since we moved over to an email newsletter model 🕺