TBC: How Anxiety Ruins Warm Intros

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Hey there. Welcome to another episode of the back channel. In today's episode, I want to talk about something that might be eating at you. It might be effecting the way you raise capital and that my friend is anxiety. Uh, anxiety can maybe be described as that voice in the back of your head.

That inserts doubt into everything you do. And I know it rears its ugly head and a lot of parts of many people's lives. But especially in fundraising, this is a place where anxiety can really wreak havoc.

but especially in fundraising, this is a place where anxiety can really wreak havoc. I want to focus in particular on your efforts to get warm introductions to investors. Now, if [00:01:00] you've covered or read any of the content that I've read over the past few years, You know, that I'll often refer to warm introductions as the lifeblood of great fundraising. So, if you want to get great at fundraising, if you want to do this over and over again throughout your career, you've got to be great at setting up warm introductions. Three different times that anxiety can rear its ugly head.

As you're trying to figure out warm introductions. Those are the following. So the first is when deciding who you reach out to for help. I just finished a call with a really established really credible founder who went to the best schools work. The best places has some of the most amazing connections. And he had this question for me of like, ah, What is it going to feel like when I reach out to these people who haven't heard from me in a while, right. That's anxiety rearing its ugly head that's anxiety telling you a story. That is not true that these people don't want to hear from you. You [00:02:00] would be shocked to see how many founders I work with pushing them to make large asks from a variety of different people that go into their past and how excited they are to hear the raw responses that come back. Of these people that respond extremely positive.

Great to hear from you after all these years. Of course, I'd like to help, right. So when anxiety rears its ugly head, when choosing who to reach out to you. Make sure you stamp that down and make sure you go for it. Okay. Section two of when anxiety comes up in getting your warm introductions is when you actually start writing the message to these people to ask for introductions. The highly anxious outreach email is overly long, adds too much detail. Drips of this feeling of like, oh my God, I'm bothering you.

I'm so sorry. Uh, if you're okay with this, could you please, as opposed to what I'd rather it be like, which is, Hey, I'm giving you the [00:03:00] opportunity. To show this amazing deal, my deal to an investor.

would you mind connecting me? Now, obviously those aren't the exact words you use, but that is the feeling you want. Not the anxious feeling of like, oh my God. Can't believe I'm bothering you. I'm so sorry. Uh, would you mind, are you okay with this? And if not, don't worry about it. Uh, you want to show, Hey, I've looked you up.

I saw that you were connected. I'm doing something awesome. I think they would be too. Could you make that introduction? Okay. So instead of anxiety, you want to lead with confidence when writing the emails.

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[00:04:00] And the last place. That anxiety pops up. And hurts your ability to get warm introduction set up. Is actually when following up when people don't make the [00:05:00] introduction after the first email.

Okay. This is called followup in sales or nudging in sales. A lot of people understand this idea that I might email the person and they don't get back to me. Maybe I should not just them, but ah, that means that they don't want to hear from me. No. You don't know how many times I get emails that I quickly read, but just don't get back to because my email inbox is getting flooded and I accidentally miss it.

This is something that I'd want to support, but I just forgot about the email. If that person would only respond and follow up and nudge me, I'd be happy to do the thing they asked me to do. This happens over and over and over again. So when you go and check in four days after reaching out and realize that some people hadn't responded either way yes or no. Your responsibility is to follow up. And when anxiety starts telling you the story of like, ah, it's going to feel bad and this person is going to be really annoyed that [00:06:00] I'm following up.

You're going to stamp that down and realize that the people who want to hear from you want you to follow up. The people that don't want to hear from you, who cares? Okay. So try to identify when those three situations shows up where anxiety messes with your ability to get warm introductions. And instead of.allowing that to take over, stand up straight, move forward.

And remember what Jason told you to do. Okay. So I hope this advice will help you get warm introductions during your fundraise. And I'll see you on the next episode of the back channel.

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