[00:00:03]
Hey, Isabella Masucci, welcome to The Know, Like & Trust Show. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you. I'm pretty excited about this topic.

[00:00:09]
It's something I will confess that I know nothing about doing it on my own. And in addition to that, I have been the recipient of many awful of Cold email pitches. So for everyone outside of this as well as I met just a few weeks ago, we were referred by colleagues that we both know like interest, so really good networking partnerships, right? But when she told me about her Cold email outreach, I was like, can we talk about that? Because I do feel like it's something that can work really well for people when done well.

[00:00:41]
And that right there is a key when done well. So that's what kind of hoping that we can dive into. Yeah. So let me just introduce myself first. My name is Isabella Masucci.

[00:00:51]
I'm the founder of the Masucci Method, which is an online ghostwriting agency that specializes in transforming podcasts into books. I've written four books in the last year and a half. And so I type a lot of words. And some of the words that I type are Cold emails to find new clients. And because I'm a really high touch service, I only work with four clients a year, I spend a lot of time thinking about what kind of clients that I want to bring on to my business.

[00:01:19]
And some of the ways, the most effective ways I found to do that is actually by just doing the nitty gritty research, finding the people that would be really good fits for me and then asking them if they want to book. And one of the ways that I've been contacting these people is honestly through Cold emails. And I once a quarter do a really deep dive into the best podcasts out right now. I work a lot with mental health professionals. I work a lot with executive coaches.

[00:01:50]
And guess what guys? Like everybody's information is on the internet. And you can find them if you look for them. And basically you find the people you want to fit your demographic. You go online, you find their email, you have a little database with all the emails that you're trying to contact, and then you write a really good email and you send it off.

[00:02:13]
So I think one of the things that you mentioned in there and you just kind of breezed right on past it. But I think it's probably key is that you were doing some nitty gritty research because one, you have a really good idea of who you work best with. And since you are only working with four clients a year, it's not like, oh hey, I'll just take the person on, no big deal because that's a lot of time you're going to spend with them. But also you're not emailing people who are unlikely to need your services. They might not be considering it currently.

[00:02:41]
They might not feel like it's the right time for them. But you're not emailing people that are just not even possibly a good match. No, that's a really important thing that I've learned is a lot of the people that I am working with have something that they're trying to sell, right? So they either have a really strong social media presence because they're trying to grow their own audience for something that they can monetize, like a brick and mortar practice, or something that they're trying to sell, like an online course. So everyone already has something that they make money off of because my services are expensive, and so they need to have a way to be able to pay for it, basically.

[00:03:20]
So you're already looking for people who are making $400,000 plus a year. All right, so you've got some, like, pretty good, like, litmus test areas, right? So they're putting information out there, you said obviously a podcast or a course, something like that, and they're making a good amount of money with it so that they actually can afford your services, right? Yeah. Once you have a good idea of who you're contacting.

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I know you said that you do, like, a quarterly kind of deep dive on the best podcasts out there. For example. How else are you finding these people? I mean, there's what was it the Forbes article said? That the online learning expansion of the last couple of years has been pushed even forward by the pandemic way more than their original projections.

[00:04:01]
And their original projections were a multi billion dollar thing, I think, right? Yeah. I mean, a lot of it is just like staying in the know, right? Like, what courses are being offered, like reading the Forbes articles, like checking out itunes podcasts, checking out blogs, where this is a really great podcast to listen to if you're trying to solve XYZ problem in your life. And then when you get down to the nitty gritty of, like, how do you write a really good cold email?

[00:04:31]
So my last deep dive, I sent out 60 emails and I got eight responses, which I was really excited about. And the heading was, let's transform your podcast into a number one best selling book on Amazon. And right then you like, you're offering them an incredible opportunity, right? Like, let's do something really remarkable here. And it's something that I've already done.

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My first book went number one on Amazon, which I was really excited about. So it's not an empty promise. Then you introduce yourself, right? Like, I say, hey, I'm Isabella Masucci. I transform podcast into books.

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And then I write a little sentence about where I learned about. And then I honestly say, I've been following you. Your content is really incredible, and I'm reaching out because I think you should write a book. I think it could be a super cool opportunity for you to level up your business. And expand your influence if the thought of writing a book both excites you and overwhelms you, that's where I come in.

[00:05:28]
I like that last line there, because I'll be honest, right? I've read a fair number of places or heard on podcasts a fair number of places that writing a book is kind of like the ultimate authority, Dangler, for lack of better terms. Right. I just heard on Jupitersi's Content podcast last week, I think that on the speaking circuit, especially for some of the larger conferences, if you don't have a book under your belt, you're not even considered for a speaker role. No, it's really one of the main qualifiers to get six figure speaking engagements, to become a thought leader in your space, to create even, like, on a baseline level, like, great SEO, right?

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Like, even to start there. And so my books really carry my clients through many, many years and level the amount of influence they have in their sphere to a degree that is phenomenal. And I'm really excited about that. I love that that line that you had, right? If writing a book both excites you and overwhelms you, I think that I don't know if you've given yourself credit for that line, but I think that line right there is probably what is really making these cold emails work for you, because you're closing with something that's literally running through their brain.

[00:06:47]
They're probably reading the email and they're like, yeah, yeah, but it's on my to do list. Yeah, I know I need to do that. Yes, that's probably the next step. But it's one of those really easy to put off things, in my opinion, at least, right? Like I said, I know that that's something I'll have to do in the future, but it's in my maybe later plan.

[00:07:07]
One thing I can tell you about writing books for a living is that books don't write themselves, right? Like, you have to sit there and you have to do the typing of the words and the editing and all of it. And then what I do in my job is I am very much like a to and through ghostwriter. So basically, I take you from the little faint whisper in your mind, hey, I think I should write a book, right? To figuring out, okay, you want to write a book.

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What themes do you want your book to touch on? What kind of arc do you want your book to have? What kind of narrative are we going after? Right? What demographic are we speaking to?

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And so I take them on this journey of the narrative art to pull out all of the themes and all of the stories from their journey and really create, like, a really strong narrative experience for the reader. Like, I'm a creative writer. Like, that's really my bread and butter. And then let's make it dazzle. Like, let's tell your life story.

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Let's make it great then I do all of the formatting and I do all the work to get it up on Amazon Kindle and just available on Amazon Marketplace, which is really exciting for them. And it takes about 30 weeks and it takes less than 40 hours of my clients time. That's a huge seller, actually. Okay, so I want to step back for a second because you just told me a bunch of things that you do for your clients. All of those are really good features of the work that you do.

[00:08:35]
Right. But from a benefit and feature point of view, that's what you do. I go to the outline, I pulled the narrative outlook out, and you actually made a point of not including any of that in your email to people. What you really did is just include to them that really big sell, which is if you know a book is in your future and that's exciting, but it's also really overwhelming. Like, I don't remember how you closed it, but basically we should talk, right?

[00:09:03]
And you didn't include all the stuff you did. You included the big overarching benefit to their lives. Hey, I can cut through that overwhelm and what you just kind of finished with. I am surprised you actually did not put that in the email because it only takes you 40 hours. That's like a huge win.

[00:09:24]
So as well, that's a big thing, right? Yeah, I think that was the next line, actually. Okay. And there we go. Yeah, my next line is, I help online entrepreneurs transform their podcast online courses into a book in 30 weeks, less than 40 hours of their time.

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And it's been going pretty well. My first project launched number one on Amazon, and you can learn more about my process at my website, the Msuchimata.com. That's like the next bit. I love it. So if we were to look at the whole email as a whole, right?

[00:09:54]
So you start with a killer hook. You know, your email subject line, it's factual, it's real, and it's curiosity invoking. It's like, hey, number one, I was on best seller, I wonder if I can do that. And then you introduce yourself, and then you launch straight into the benefits, right. No overwhelm, only 40 hours.

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And then you close out with a really good thing. It's been going pretty well so far. This happened for this client. Learn more here. Yeah, and then I do like my little pitch, right?

[00:10:23]
Like, my clients have seen a sincere transformation. When they work for me, they get a book which allows them to become a confident, thought leader in their field. Their exposure drives more sales, their online offerings, and they start to get highly paid speaking opportunities. Right? That's the next line.

[00:10:37]
If a collaboration is something you're interested in, please feel free to schedule a chat here. If nothing else, I'll share some insights into the self publishing process, as I'm sure writing a book is one of your eventual goals. Looking forward to hearing from you this week. Warmly, Isabella Masucci. Perfect.

[00:10:53]
And you gave him a nice little clinch of a deadline there. Yeah, snack him in. But yeah, I mean, I got eight responses and to be honest, I made about $25,000. So how long would you estimate it took you? So you said 60 emails.

[00:11:08]
Obviously you were doing some research on each of these people. I don't know how long each of those research bits took you, but the whole process that you had to like estimate, what were you investing about? Not two solid weeks of work, but like two weeks, like 3 hours a day and then just firing them out. And then I sent follow up emails to every single person, which I think is actually a really critical point. If you're interested in doing cold emails for your marketing, send a follow up email.

[00:11:36]
It's very important. So how many of those eight responses came from the original email versus follow up? I got eight responses overall and my closing deal I got from a follow up. Alright, so money is in the follow up. This is not a one and done thing.

[00:11:52]
No. And then we had a few meetings. I did some writing for her, I wrote some sample. She's a woman I never met before. She's never met me, she's never heard of me.

[00:12:02]
And so there was like a few weeks of just like building trust, which is really important. But I'm really excited about her. I think she's going to be a great, perfect, amazing fit. Like she's like my dream client. I'm so excited.

[00:12:15]
So it can work. That's the thing. Like cold emails can work and you can make money off of them. Yeah, cold emails can work, but probably not if you're emailing someone and being like, hi, I make guest posts for you. Email me.

[00:12:28]
Yeah, no, I mean I think if you're a writer, right, like you're trying to sell writing services, like, guess what? You probably need to write a really good email, one would hope. It's interesting because you're a writer and you're using email to write, but there are a lot of other very high dollar services, high touch, like what you're offering where it's not writing, it's going to be something entirely differently. So this is obviously going to be outside of your wheelhouse. But if someone were in a different niche that does not involve writing, how could they maybe demonstrate in an email their excellence since writing is not what they're actually telling.

[00:13:06]
I think the subject line is actually really important. I think you need a really strong catchy, like vaguely provocative subject line. Tell them what is your highest achievement, put it in the subject line. Make sure that you are targeting people who want your highest achievement. And bottom line, flatter them a little bit.

[00:13:28]
Tell them who you are. Tell them how you can provide value in their life and then let it go. And on the more woo woo side, I will definitely tell you that I sent a little thought out with every email being like, this person is going to connect with me and I will find them and they need me, these people need me. They don't know me yet, but they want to buy what I'm selling. Yeah.

[00:13:55]
And realistically, if it's meant to be, they'll open that email at the right time when they're not distracted, when they're not, you know, in the middle of a deadline or launch or crisis of their own business, and they'll give the email the attention that it needs because they were meant to see it. Right? Yeah. And then that's why I think the follow up email is so important because people are so inundated with stuff and time and families and children that even if you caught their eye, they might not answer. And so you need to follow them up again.

[00:14:34]
Even with the one that I closed, she was like, I'm so grateful you emailed me back again. I've been thinking about you, I just kind of lost track of time. We'd love to talk to you. Yeah, well, and realistically, right, so yesterday, actually, just yesterday, I got fed up with my email inbox. I've always been someone who uses my inbox is like a task and todo list and it's a bad habit of mine and all that stuff should be on click up, but sometimes it just doesn't make it there and it just kind of sits in my inbox.

[00:15:02]
And I was looking for an actual client email from like a month and a half ago and realized almost every email surrounding it in my inbox was something that was no longer relevant. It was like the copy for a summit that I was in. It was like all these things that had already passed. So I just went through, I took a half hour and I deleted about 500 emails that were just time wise, no longer relevant. And there is a good chance that I accidentally deleted a pitch email in there.

[00:15:28]
Sometimes people don't pitch my podcast properly, they don't use the form on my website, and it just comes to an email and it just sits there because that's not how I deal with podcast pitches. Right. And I'm not saying, please, everybody can respond and follow up. I'm saying do it the right way in the first place and you won't get lost in my inbox. But without a followup email, anything that was in there that I'm mistakenly deleted, it's done.

[00:15:51]
And it doesn't mean that I hated it, it doesn't mean I wasn't considering it. It just means that it probably came in while I was traveling or during the first week of home school when I was very busy doing other things or all of these other things, and it got kind of pushed down. Right. So the follow up email. How are you crafting those?

[00:16:07]
Are you doing like, a simple one liner like, hey, have you had a chance to see my original email? Because I get a lot of follow ups like that. Then they also get other follow ups that are more like, hey, I emailed you a couple weeks ago about this. Here's a refresh. This is what it was about.

[00:16:24]
Would you like to schedule a time to chat? And those kind of bug me, like, to schedule a time to chat when I might not even know what they're talking about. So I'm kind of curious what kind of theories and ways you use for that. I think I said, okay. So, hi, I wanted to reach out to see if you were still interested in creating a book.

[00:16:43]
I sent the same email again, I didn't say anything else. I love that because the follow ups, like I said earlier, the follow ups that are just like, hey, you should have read my previous email book, a Call Now. I've always a little annoyed at Mike. First of all, I don't owe you my time. Yeah, who are you?

[00:17:00]
I don't owe you my time. I value my time very highly. So if I'm going to hop on a chat with someone, usually it's because someone has given me a really great intro, like Melissa Harston did with us, right? She was like, oh, I think you guys should know each other. And we hopped on a chat and sure enough, we had it off, right?

[00:17:16]
But if it's not someone I have a personal intro from, I like to be the one that makes that decision. Yeah, I think it's a little presumptuous to be like, you owe me your time and your information, and you owe a book to me from you. That's not my energy. The energy is like, you have really interesting content and you probably do actually really need a book, but you don't really have time to do it and you really know how to do it. And maybe you're not a writer, right?

[00:17:49]
I work with a lot of podcasters, and podcasters are talkers like they are speakers and they are not writers. And that's just a different skillset. Yes, I know this well from trying to edit my podcasts and blog posts. Yeah, it doesn't really translate. And so you have something that you can do really well?

[00:18:10]
I have something I can do really well. Like, how can we come together as partners and create something really valuable? So, in closing, we have, first of all, researching the right people to email. In the first place, we're not hiring a LinkedIn lead farm to message every LinkedIn connection out there. We're actually spending some time making sure that these people, one, would be a good fit.

[00:18:32]
We like them, we like what they're talking about. Right. Two, they're probably making enough money to actually afford our services, and then we're doing a little bit of actual diving into their content and making sure that the content is good. Right. Then from there, how do you craft the email?

[00:18:48]
Like, what kind of email ln are you following? And you covered that really well. And then finally, how and when to write that email follow up, including how it's actually worked for you, which is really lovely. Yeah. And I just want to say it might feel impossible and it might feel like a crazy thing to try to do, to try to email someone to make money like that, but it can work.

[00:19:10]
I did it. I did it. Like, I'm really excited about it and like, the people that you're trying to reach, like, are waiting for you, they just don't know it yet. Well, everyone obviously, Isabel, if you're talking about cold emails, how to craft the email, how to write it well so that people actually pay attention to it. But if you are looking for a book, if you actually fall into the demographics that she was talking about earlier, you can find her at the Isabella Masucci Masucci method.com, check it out and she'll be happy to kind of chat with you and figure out whether you guys are truly a good fit.

[00:19:43]
Thanks, Isabella Masucci. Thank you.