Week 8: Warm-Intro Requests
Why a cold ask and an intro request are different genres.
12 April 2027
Last week’s risk sat with the reader. This week’s sits with someone else entirely, a connector, and the failure is writing the request as if that risk didn’t exist.
Before the lecture
This is just to get a quick understanding before the lecture. The examples and the rest are in the lecture, so it’s advisable you attend.
In brief#
This week’s failure is genre confusion between a cold ask and a warm-intro request. Asking a stranger for ten minutes risks the stranger’s time. Asking a connector to introduce you risks the connector’s relationship with the person on the other end, a cost most writers never mention. It matters because writing both requests the same way treats the connector’s risk as if it weren’t there, when the fix is just naming it and giving them an easy way to say no.
Outline#
- the connector’s risk, and why most intro requests never mention it
- what a warm-intro request needs that a cold ask doesn’t
- giving the connector a clean way to decline