Do you hate talking about yourself?
Yea…me too.
I really don’t like re-introducing myself and seemingly proving my worth every time I’m on a call or Zoom with someone new, and so I’ve developed a workaround.
Before meeting with someone for the first time, I send them an email with the subject line: “In Advance of Our Call…”
This email saves me 5-10 minutes with every initial interaction, and if I average between 3 and 5 calls per day with someone “new” to my network, then I’m saving about 30 minutes by sending these emails in advance of meetings.
Not only that, but it gives the other party the option to do additional research on me and my work. They can decide (well before we speak) how they’d like to work with me, how I might be able to help them, and/or what they find most interesting about my background which could spark more genuine and excited connection.
Here’s a version of the template I’m using right now, as of June 25, 2020…
Subject: in advance of our call...
Hi FIRST NAME
I look forward to connecting with you soon. 😁
In advance of our meeting, I wanted to share some more info on me and my work so we can spend more time talking about YOU!
I've been an entrepreneur since 15, but really got my "start" as one of the first 10 employees for 15Five, leaders in the employee engagement, culture management, and remote workforce empowerment space. I worked under the co-founders for two years and left when I was 18 y/o. Today, they are valued at $100M+ with clients like Hubspot, Amazon, Credit Karma, Citrix, and Capital One.
From 2013 until late 2017, I spent a lot of time studying and sharing insights from top-performing Millennials, publishing 2 Billion Under 20 (named the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015" and endorsed by Tony Hsieh, Malala Fund co-founder Shiza Shahid, and others) as well as 3 Billion Under 30 (featuring founders of companies like WordPress and Duolingo, social media influencers, champion athletes, celebrities, etc).
As I earned opportunities to appear in major media outlets, inked a book deal in my teens with one of New York's top publishing companies, and booked speaking gigs upwards of $15K per keynote, others took notice, so I began Kleinert Ventures as an "entrepreneurial" marketing consulting firm. Clients included #1 NYT bestselling authors, Fortune 1000 global marketing teams, VC-backed startups, record-setting crowdfunding campaigns, and various 7+ figure small businesses.
In late 2017, I started Meeting of the Minds which is my #1 focus today because it's far more valuable to curate the same type of high-integrity entrepreneurs who are world-class at their craft (like my book contributors and former marketing consulting clients) and allow them to connect so they can leverage the collective intelligence of our diverse network to solve pressing problems in their businesses and scale. Hundreds of entrepreneurs have joined us at quarterly in-person, invite-only summits as well as interactive "deep dives" each month via Zoom.
I'm engaged-to-be-married (had to postpone the wedding due to the pandemic), run one or two ultramarathons per year, organize group volunteer outings here in Atlanta through a program called "Volunteer with Entrepreneurs" that I hope to soon take nationwide, and have been recently binge-watching Billions and House of Lies, both on Showtime.
Hopefully that saves us about 5-10 minutes during our call, so I can spend more time learning about what you're working on these days and how I might be helpful.
Thanks again, and chat soon!
- Jared
P.S. - I keep a weekly email newsletter, so feel free to check it out ahead of our call. Typically once or twice per week, I'll share something I find valuable to you from cold email templates to "what NOT to do's" in sales & marketing, tips for scoring great press coverage (like an interview I got with Larry King!), and experiments you can run to generate more predictable revenue, etc.
A few things to consider with your own version of this “in advance of our call” email template, should you choose to leverage this idea for your own daily benefit.
Tastefully showcase your “social proof” - if I were to say everything in this message above, I might sound like an asshole. This is part of why I don’t like talking about myself, especially in an initial interaction with someone, so instead I’ve typed out various aspects of my background that establish trust, authority, and experience, from working with 15Five to highlighting the success of my book series or hyping up my awesome clients.
Share a “sneak peak” into your personal life - while people care about what I bring to the table professionally, they also see me more as a fellow human when I divulge what shows I’m binge-watching, tell them about my philanthropic work, and mention I’m about to be married. Adding a photo into your email also gives someone an opportunity to see that there’s a kind-hearted person behind the keyboard, which is a refreshing sight in a sea of Twitter rants and crazy news headlines on the internet.
Provide “calls to action” via carefully-placed links - there’s a few links in my email template, and they send someone to either a YouTube video that serves as a “speaker overview” and shows me in action at TED, with the press, etc…or it links them to our Meeting of the Minds website and/or my LinkedIn profile. Finally, there’s a quick mention of this newsletter in the “P.S.”, which helps me passively grow my following here and offer value to my new friend well before we connect.
Go ahead and swipe this template for yourself!
Feel free to message me back with your own “In Advance Of Our Call” email and I’d be happy to provide you with feedback.
(And if you found this valuable, go ahead and forward this write-up to a business-owning buddy of yours!)
Thanks as always,
-Jared
Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".
Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.
Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.
Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20.
As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.
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