"How Could This Bad Email Be Improved? Help!"

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Help Wanted

Episode: “How Could This Bad Email Be Improved? Help!”
Hosts: Jason Feifer (Editor-in-Chief, Entrepreneur Magazine), Nicole Lapin (Money Expert)
Producer: Morgan Lavoy
Date: September 30, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the art—and frequent failure—of cold email pitches, especially those aimed at media professionals and podcasters. The hosts dissect a real-life “bad email pitch” from their own inbox, analyzing its missteps, discussing what makes a pitch effective, and how it might be improved. The conversation is engaging, practical, and filled with relatable anecdotes and actionable advice for anyone trying to network, pitch, or make their work emails stand out.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Opening Banter: Why Bad Emails Matter

Timestamp: 02:28–03:25

• Jason and Nicole introduce their ongoing interest in the topic of “bad emails.”
• Email is framed as “the most consequential communication medium of our time” for business (Jason, 04:04).

2. Breaking Down the “Bad Pitch” Email

Timestamp: 04:57–08:32

• Morgan shares the pitch she received, which started off poorly by:

  • Addressing her as “Nicole” instead of “Morgan.”
  • Opening with: “I'll skip the usual bullshit pitch where I pretend I've listened to every episode of your show. We both know those emails are garbage. Lol.”
  • Offering almost no detail about the proposed guest (no links, no context, not even a name), despite including a helpful bulleted list of possible topics.
  • Attempting to “shock the narrative” awkwardly by being blunt.

• The hosts highlight that while some tactics in the email are technically sound—attempting to stand out, summarizing topics for the host—execution is everything.

  “It's like the right ideas and the totally wrong execution.”
  — Jason Feifer [12:34]

3. What Makes a Good Email Pitch?

Timestamp: 09:13–16:47

• Jason discusses Robert Herjavec’s “shock the narrative” sales advice (from Shark Tank), emphasizing the importance of breaking expectations in a genuine way.

• Nicole emphasizes the value of specific, authentic references to the show, not generic flattery.

  “You don't need to say, like, I've listened to everything you've ever done in the whole wide world... But just something.”
  — Morgan Lavoy [15:53]

• Both hosts agree:

  • Personalization and real research matter.
  • Throwing others under the bus is bad form.
  • Providing clear, specific value is essential—don’t make the recipient do your work.

4. Other Common Bad Pitch Mistakes

Timestamp: 16:48–18:08

• Morgan notes the absence of the show’s name and the lack of any indication the sender knew which podcast (Nicole hosts multiple).
• Not providing hard numbers or concrete audience details when promising guest promotion.
• The effort required to even learn about the proposed guest is not respected.

5. Critiquing the Follow-Up Email

Timestamp: 18:28–22:52

• The sender follows up again, with little real improvement:

  • Still addresses Morgan as “Nicole.”
  • Claims to have “stumbled upon” the podcast recently.
  • Asks where to leave a five-star review, instead of just leaving one.
  • Leaves the recipient to dig up the original email.

  “If you already found me on Spotify, it doesn’t take much work to just give me the five star review and then tell me you did it.”
  — Jason Feifer [21:19]

• The “I just stumbled upon” phrasing is called out as a generic, overused, and unconvincing bit of egoboosting.

6. “Stumbled Upon” Bingo – The Worst Cliché in Cold Email

Timestamp: 22:54–25:51

• The team checks their inboxes and jokes about just how many pitches contain “I just stumbled upon your podcast/website.”

  • They point out it’s lazy, inauthentic, and has become industry spam.

  “PSA: All the publicists pitching something out there—please take that phrase out of your email vocabulary.”
  — Nicole Lapin [23:15]

7. Advice & “Messing With” Bad Pitchers

Timestamp: 25:59–27:25

• The team jokes about how to reply to such emails, and Nicole suggests:
  “An honest review on Apple Podcasts would be great. Thanks.”
• Morgan agrees to send the reply, expecting even more persistent emails in response.

8. Universal Email Best Practices

Timestamp: 27:25–28:29

• Jason’s foundational cold email advice:
  • Do your research, know whom you’re contacting, and respect their time.
  • Personalize, be authentic, and make a genuine human connection.
• Nicole echoes: Always remember the person on the other end is a real human being with limited time and attention.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On pointing out standard pitch mistakes:

  “I don't know why. It’s always Jeff. It's never...I don't know who Jeff is.”
  — Jason Feifer [05:19]

• On insincere vs. sincere personalization:

  “A lot of publicists say they listen to your show all the time. I really did love this episode. I cried at the end with you.”
  — Nicole Lapin [13:23]

• On overdone clichés:

  “Just stumbled upon your website...What is this, The Purpose?”
  — Nicole Lapin [24:31]

• Email best practice summary:

  “You are reaching out to human beings. I don’t care what it is that you’re pitching...the reaction has to be, ‘Oh, wow, this is something I want to learn more about.’”
  — Jason Feifer [27:25]

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Key Segment Timestamps

• 02:28–03:25: Why bad emails deserve attention
• 04:57–08:32: Morgan reads and unpacks the “bad email”
• 09:13–16:47: Good pitch principles; what’s wrong with “shock” tactics
• 18:28–22:52: Critiquing the follow-up; “stumbled upon” cynicism
• 22:54–25:51: Checking inboxes for cliché pitches
• 25:59–27:25: Joking about replies; crafting “mess with them” responses
• 27:25–28:29: Final best-practice advice

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Episode Takeaways

• Personalize with care: Even small, specific references show authenticity and effort.
• Don’t throw others under the bus: Negative comparisons weaken your pitch.
• Do the recipient’s work: Include necessary context, links, and concrete details.
• Avoid spammy clichés: “I just stumbled upon...” is not only ineffective but actively off-putting.
• Every cold email is a human interaction: Research, sincerity, and respect go much further than shortcuts and boilerplate.

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Tone & Style

The episode is funny, conversational, and a bit irreverent, with the hosts poking fun at bad emailers and industry clichés, but always circling back to practical, empathetic advice for actual professionals.

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For more help or to have your question featured, contact: [e-mail]

Transcript

[Nicole Lapin]

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[Jason Pfeiffer]

This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, editor in chief of.

[Nicole Lapin]

Entrepreneur magazine, and I'm money expert N Laughing. On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Helpline and help callers solve their work problems.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.

[Nicole Laughing]

And it starts now. Jason is excellent at bad emails.

[Nicole Lapin]

But not like.

[Nicole Laughing]

I don't mean it like that. Like you write glorious emails.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Jason. Yes, Jason is very good at bad emails. It's not usually the thing I want on my business card, but.

[Nicole Laughing]

But you're very good at discerning bad emails and knowing what to say to them.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Well, that is what happens. Yeah, it's a little long, but that is the product of receiving an incredible amount of bad emails. And you know, when enough bad things happen, you got to think, how can I make this productive?

[Nicole Lapin]

Am I the asshole?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Am I the asshole? Okay, so today we're going to hear from a bad email, but it's not one that I received. It is one that our wonderful producer Morgan received. Morgan, you have got some dirt from the inbox for us, don't you?

[Morgan Lavoy]

I sure do. And I have the bad email that I'm excited for you guys to pick it apart because it's bad in many ways, but I got a follow up email from him and I actually quite liked the follow up email. So I'm interested to hear you guys on what. Whether or not you feel like he might have saved himself.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Oh, okay, let's hear it. First of all, can I just note, bad emails is the thing we talk about here on the show. And the reason is, well, partially just because we get so many of them and it makes for good content, but also because this is a very important. The email is, I would argue, the most consequential communication medium of our time. There are many other ways to communicate. Obviously, people are bad at all of them. But the email, I think, is where business is conducted most, where meaningful outreach generally takes place. And so we can all be reminded that we can do better at this. And that there are so many bad emails means that there are so many bad emailers. And we are trying to solve that one episode at a time. All right, Morgan, what do you got?

[Morgan Lavoy]

Okay, here's how the email starts. Hey, Nicole. First of all, that's not my name. That's Nicole's name. That's not my name. My email address is Morgan. I'll just say it because anyone can email me. I love it. MorganuddyNewsNetwork.com There is no ambiguity. My name is Morgan. I'm the only person cc'd on this email. Nicole is not on this email.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yes.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Okay.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Although this is. This, by the way, is at least better than what I often get at entrepreneur. And the reason for that is because people often send me emails and address it to Jeff. And I have no idea why. It's always Jeff. It's never. I don't know who Jeff is. It's not me, but it's like, it's never like, oh, sometimes it's Justin and sometimes it's Jared. And so, no, it's just always Jeff. I do not know why. This is a great mystery of the world. At least when people email Morgan and they address it to Nicole like, it's. It's another person who is identifiable. Like, there is a Nicole. It's. She just doesn't. She just doesn't get email at Morgan.

[Morgan Lavoy]

That's true. Okay, next line. I'll skip the usual bullshit pitch where I pretend I've listened to every episode of your show. We both know those emails are garbage. Lol.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I mean, those emails are garbage. Continue.

[Morgan Lavoy]

And then they say, I've got. Insert guy who you've never heard of, founder of company you've never heard of, who I think would be a great guest on your show. Because this person is not comfortable saying someone who has any. This is me, Morgan speaking now. Little analysis in between the lines, because this is someone who, like, you know, is not a household name. It would have been so helpful if they had included one link, a hyperlink. I'm not picky. Like, any kind of link to who this person is or what this company does, right? Nothing. They bolted it.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Nothing. They're just like, hey, you got a show.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Yeah, you got a show.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And I've got Joe Blow and Joe Blow from Schmo Industries. He. He should be on your show.

[Morgan Lavoy]

They're like, listen, Nicole, you'll love this guy. Trust us. So then they do have some interesting parts of the pitch below where they have, like, a nice bulleted list of. Here's what most podcast hosts want to talk to. Blah, blah, blah about. And it has a nice list, which sometimes I do like as someone who gets pitches like. Like when people kind of help me make the outline for me. Yes, I know. That's a good practice. Then after.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

That's a good practice, by the way, for far more than just pitching podcasts. Like do other people's work for them. If you're going to reach out and you want them to pay attention, don't ask them to. Then do a bunch of research and try to figure something out. Just like tell them the things they need to know. So, okay. So. So rough. Rough start. But then it seems to have sort of course corrected.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Yes, a little bit. A little bit of course correction. And then after that, since your audience is full of. I'm not going to use the actual industry because I don't want to give away too many details, but trust me when I say it's irrelevant. So I'm going to say ice cream. Since your audience is full of ambitious ice cream consumers looking to scale beyond one scoop ice cream cones.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

That's right. Go to two scoops.

[Morgan Lavoy]

I figured what's his name? Experience would be helpful to promote the episode. What's his name? We'll share it with his combined social media following period. If you'd like.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I was waiting for some numbers on that.

[Morgan Lavoy]

I'm still waiting for the numbers.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

This guy, he will send it to his mom.

[Morgan Lavoy]

If you'd like. What's his name on the show. Let me know the next steps. Smiley face.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Okay, that's it.

[Morgan Lavoy]

What do you guys think?

[Nicole Laughing]

So you didn't respond.

[Morgan Lavoy]

I didn't respond.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Nicole. Yeah. What are your. What are your thoughts?

[Nicole Laughing]

I would delete this. I would have already deleted those.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Yeah. I'll kind of walk you guys through what struck me and then I'd love to hear how you guys would have rewritten it. First of all, again, we touched on some key things. Got the name wrong. I found the opening sentence. What do you guys think about it? I'll skip the usual bullshit pitch where I pretend I've listened to every episode of your show. We both know those emails are garbage. Lol.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Morgan Lavoy]

What's another way to say that that maybe isn't so terrible, so aggressive?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

It is. I mean, the funny part about it is that it's doing a couple things that are smart and correct. It's just doing them incorrectly. So I just interviewed Robert Herjavec from Shark Tank and the most memorable thing that he said to me was that the. The greatest sales technique is to. And this was his language shock, the narrative. The idea being that when you go into any kind of pitch, you have to know that the person who you're Pitching has a narrative in their head. And that narrative is basically going to be, this is going to be really boring. I'm going to just sit around and wait for this to end and this person isn't going to have anything interesting to offer me. And so if you go in and then you just do your sales pitch, it will be boring and you will not land it. And so what you need to do is shock that narrative, get them outside of the narrative they already have in their head, so they're willing to pay more attention to you. And there are millions of ways to do that. The story he told me was that a young guy at his cybersecurity company, that's what Robert Herjavec actually does for a living. Outside of being on Shark Tank. As he built the cybersecurity company, there's this young guy who was really studied, knew the products, could not land a sale, just could not do it. So Robert tags along with him and watches him. And basically the guy, like, he's perfectly competent, but he's not making any connection to the person that he's pitching. And so Robert says, next time I want you to try this, I want you to go in there and I want you to sit down and then not say anything for a few seconds and then look the client in the eye and say, before we begin, I. I just have to tell you, I really appreciate you taking this pitch. I am extremely nervous right now because this is my first ever sales pitch. And the reason Robert wanted this young guy to do this is because this guy is mostly pitching to middle aged IT guys. And the middle aged IT guys are going to see this young kid sitting in front of them and they're going to think, that's my son. Like, that's that guy's just like my son. And I want to, I feel bad for him, I want to help him. And that shocks the narrative. It gets people to pay attention, and then you move on and you do the pitch. And this kid started closing and. And I love the idea of shock the narrative. And I now see it in all sorts of different ways. So that is what this person who has emailed you is attempting to do is to shock the narrative. Right? You get, he's basically, he's thinking, you get a million pitches. Let me acknowledge that I am not like those million pitches. So that's a good instinct. The problem is that the way he did it was not just super aggressive, but also just to really reinforce that he has spent absolutely no time getting to know you or the show or whether or not his client is relevant to you. And that, again, negates the next thing that he does where he is trying to do your work for you. If you're pitching, you absolutely should try to do the work for the other person. Never force them to spend the energy in their brain, like doing work to figure out if what you have to offer is actually right for them. You need to make that as clear as possible. But he's telling you, I have no idea if this is relevant to you or not. And like, as a result, it is forcing you to do that work, and that is a big turn off. So it was like, again, it was like the right ideas and the totally wrong execution.

[Nicole Laughing]

Yeah, but it also does matter. Like, he couldn't have gone. That young kid couldn't have gone into the pitch and said, you know what? I don't know anything about your company.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

That's right.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Yes.

[Nicole Laughing]

Want to be honest. Like, that is shocking, but also it makes me not want to work with you, and that's what this makes me want to do. And so, yes, maybe I do get a lot of BS pitches from publicists who say they love the show, and they really don't. But I can tell the ones who actually have listened to some shows, and I love those pitches. Really, really love those pitches. And maybe instead it's something like, hey, I know a lot of publicists say that they listen to your show all the time. I really did love this episode. I cried at the end with you, which is actually a pitch that we did get where this woman talked. You know, how the interviewee, you know.

[Nicole Lapin]

Was really emotional toward the end.

[Nicole Laughing]

It was like, very specific. She got to the end and she was like, I was there crying with you or whatever. And I was so, so touched by that. And so I don't generally like throwing other people under the bus. If you have to do that to make your business successful, it's not a success. It's not a business that should be successful.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Nicole Laughing]

So I.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Can I. Before you keep going, can I just. I just read you, like, in contrast to that. And the person who cried, like, that's wonderful. In contrast to that is. Here's an email that I just recently got. The subject line is business Lessons from a Media Entrepreneur and CEO story idea. All right, so I start reading it, and it says, hi, Jason, I know you often cover entrepreneurial success stories and business ideas, and I wanted to see if you'd be interested in speaking with. Okay. Doesn't take a lot of research to know that I write about business ideas and entrepreneurs. So, like, that is the contrast to what you're just describing. Very obviously, you don't. This. I know that you. You don't know anything. You didn't spend a single second researching me. So that, like, it's very.

[Nicole Lapin]

Well, he did know your name.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

That's true.

[Nicole Lapin]

Yeah.

[Morgan Lavoy]

I. I love what you both said, because I was going to say that this. This is one side of the spectrum where he's brutally honest about not listening to the show at all. There's this other side of the spectrum for pitches that I get where people are like, I'm Help Wanted biggest fan. I listened to every episode, and I'm so excited to pitch this ice cream guy. Like, and it's so clear that they haven't. But to Nicole's point, I've gotten some great emails where people don't promise that they've listened to everything. They don't pretend that they know the show backwards and forward. They're just really honest about the amount that they. Of work that they've put in, which is. And it's meaningful. Like, people saying, like, hey, Morgan, I love Help Wanted. This recent episode really resonated with me. You know, hearing Nicole and Jason talk about putting photos of your kids online, which is what we talked about in the last episode. It was a conversation I had with my spouse, and I really loved hearing your perspective. And I thought it was so funny when Nicole said that thing, like, that's. That's so nice. And you don't need to say, like, I've listened to everything you've ever done in the whole wide world. And, like, here's a quote from 2003 that you said. But just something.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Something, right?

[Nicole Laughing]

Yeah. I mean, pitching for PR is a tough job, and a lot of people think that it's a numbers game and you want to get out as many pitches as humanly possible, but it's not if you put a little bit of work into less pitches. So coming across and saying, like, I've never listened to it. Like, I'm so hilarious.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Like, you're.

[Nicole Laughing]

You're still pitching business. Like, your business is to get PR somebody paid you for. So this is how you are doing your job.

[Nicole Lapin]

And if we went into any pitch.

[Nicole Laughing]

With an advertiser with a partner being like, I have no idea what your company does. Like, what. What that. That.

[Morgan Lavoy]

This is.

[Nicole Laughing]

That's a terrible idea.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Yeah.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And even if you.

[Nicole Laughing]

And like, making fun of anybody else or throwing other people under the bus is. Is so weak and such a big Pet peeve of mine.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Morgan Lavoy]

So the two last things on this email that I wanted to bring up were the fact that this person pitching never mentioned the name of the podcast.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I missed that.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Also, you know, they were clearly pitching. They meant to pitch Nicole. Nicole hosts three different podcasts. Like, what one are you pitching for? That's not the case with everyone. But like throw the show title in there somewhere for the love of God. And then the last thing is just saying to promote the episode, which again, good instinct. Normally the kind of exchange, value exchange for someone coming on the show is that they'll, you know, share it with their audience in some way. It's very helpful. But he says to promote the episode, blah, blah, blah, we'll share it with his combined social media following period. Normally people say like, how many followers or where he has a following or. And again, like there he's. This person that they're pitching is not hyperlinked anywhere. So I don't know, I can't just like go to their Instagram and see how many followers there there are. I'm gonna have to like hire an investigator to figure out who the heck this person is and how many followers they have.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

So anyway, yeah, right. Yeah, no, it's, it's gonna go out on his family's WhatsApp chat. I mean, like, it's ridiculous what they're offering there. So no fail all around. But you said that this person then sent a follow up.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Yes. Let me know what you think about this. This was the follow up email.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Stick around, Help Wanted. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Help Wanted. Let's get to it.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Let me know what you think about this. This was the follow up email. Nicole.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Dear Nicole, oh God. I don't know if you responded to my most recent email because I don't give a shit and I haven't looked. But.

[Morgan Lavoy]

You'Re right about the beginning, Nicole. Okay, yes, we actually stumbled on and have been tuning into your podcast over on Spotify. Is that the best place to drop a five star review? Just tell us if there's another platform that's better. By the way, we fired off an email the other day about a guest we represent that matches your audience. Unsure if it delivered. Let us know. You guys hate it.

[Nicole Laughing]

Yeah, it's still so generic. It's just like part of an email drip campaign.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah, I agree. I, I have a number of problems with it. So first of all, it is still asking you to do work. In this case, it's asking you to track down the previous Email, right? Like, people forget that if, if I missed your first email and then your second email is, hey, did you see my first email? Then I have to go like, try to find your first email that is not useful. That is that I'm not going to go do that. Sometimes people will do this where they'll, they'll, they'll DM me on LinkedIn and they'll be like, hey, did you see that pitch that I emailed you five days ago? And I was like, I, I didn't, but. Or maybe I did and I deleted it. I don't know. But either way, I'm not going to go like, then go back to my email and go searching for it. What is the point? So he's asking, asking to do work. Don't love that. Also, this thing about, I don't know if this translates into other industries, but this shows up so much in media pitches, which is the idea of the stumble upon. I just stumbled upon your podcast. I just happened to find your podcast. Oh, I just glimpsed your pod. Does anybody say that? Like, if I am going and I'm pitching, I've got like a brand new kind of ice cream cone and I'm going into the ice cream shops, is the first thing that I say is like, oh, hey, I just stumbled upon your stupid ice cream shop. And I wondered like, it doesn't, this is not. Doesn't show intention. It doesn't show intention and you need it. Like you are when you are pitching something. I don't care what it is. When you're pitching something, you are a solution provider. You are trying to identify someone with a problem and then provide them a solution. And so even if that's pitching pr so that if you're, if, if this guy is pitching Nicole slash Morgan, then what he is really trying to do here is identify the problem that you guys have, which is, hey, we're producing podcasts. We need to deliver great value for our listeners. Delivering great value for our listeners grows our audience and therefore the business. And you know, that is resource intensive. And so if you have a solution for that in the form of a great guest that has been vetted and you know is going to be then like, that's solving a problem. But that does not come across at all. If it's like, hey, I just stumbled upon your crap, right? Like that, that says that you haven't spent any time understanding my problems. So I don't like that at all. The one thing that's like sort of okay, is the offer of the Five star review. But I would say, you know what, if you already found me on Spotify, it doesn't take much work to just give me the five star review and then tell me that you did it. Instead you've stumbled on me on Spotify and now you're going to send me an email to be like, hey, is this the best place to like, yeah, more work? How about. Yeah, more work. How about you just tap the button and then tell me you did it? That's kind of nice.

[Nicole Laughing]

And like take a screenshot or something. Yeah. Or because then the cognitive load of like, no, actually Apple podcast is better. No, actually cast box is better actually. Whatever. It's like, no, thank you for doing. Yeah, it just brings more load and burden and generic phrases that clearly don't show that you're invested at all.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Nicole Laughing]

What the show is. If you even know what the show is. Or this is just part of like a quasi generic drip campaign.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah, totally. If used if Morgan, if you replied and you said, yes, Spotify is the best place for the five star review, then that would be the first time that this person goes and finds the show on Spotify.

[Morgan Lavoy]

That would be the first time they'll ask me what the title of the show is.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yes, they will. That's true.

[Nicole Laughing]

I would mess with them. Can we mess with them?

[Morgan Lavoy]

Yeah, absolutely. As a side, I have not written back, but I did just go into my inbox to see because as soon as Jason said the StumbleUpon thing, I realized that that does sound very familiar. And over the last three years, I've gotten 159 emails that say I've stumbled on W.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

That's crazy.

[Nicole Laughing]

PSA, all the publicists are all the people pitching something out there. Please take that phrase out of your email vocabulary.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Get rid of it. Yeah, it is crazy.

[Nicole Laughing]

I think there's a, it's just being misconstrued or bastardized. Like this casual sense is like getting, is getting too casual. It's getting too cool. Like, don't be too cool. This is still business.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yes, totally. Totally great. By the way. I, I, I didn't think to do that, but now I have. I Google, I, I searched, stumbled upon in my own inbox and indeed full of it. So here's just like another random example. I just stumbled upon your site. Your site being entrepreneur.com I just, I just stumbled upon your site and its quality caught my attention. Oh, it caught your attention. That's cool. Thanks. I'd be happy to contribute a guest post to such a great resource as entrepreneur.com. here are a couple interesting ideas I consider will be of great use to your readers. I mean, come.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Dear Ted Sarandos, I just studied on stumbled upon your little company and I thought that maybe I could contribute a show idea. That's crazy. Okay, Nicole, how do you want me to mess with this guy?

[Nicole Laughing]

Wait, hold on. I just am looking through mine too. Oh, my God. Just stumbled upon your website. Just stumbled upon the purpose. What?

[Morgan Lavoy]

What is this the purpose?

[Nicole Laughing]

I have no idea.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Why is. Why is this phrase so popular in bad pitches?

[Nicole Laughing]

What is that on your website? And found critical issues on your website and they're talking about like a performance thing they can do.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I mean, how are you even stumbling about. How does one stumble upon a website? Exactly.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Just trip and hit the keyboard and stumble.

[Nicole Laughing]

Stumbled upon our antics on men's humor. What?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah. Oh, here. Yeah.

[Nicole Laughing]

Stumbled upon three under the radar stocks.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Really? You stumbled upon three of them? Like, were they in a row on the floor? I saw. I stumbled upon. Here's one from to me. I stumbled upon an interesting piece you wrote related to blockchain. I stumbled upon an interesting piece you wrote related to blockchain technology. And I want to. I. I didn't write anything about blockchain. I've never written about blockchain technology.

[Morgan Lavoy]

So you didn't use someone say blockchain?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

No, I can't. I couldn't even get out of my mouth. Yeah. Oh, here. This is a fun one. I stumbled upon your blog through Google search. Oh, yeah, you found entrepreneur.com through a Google search.

[Morgan Lavoy]

That's really funny.

[Nicole Laughing]

Who's the big winner?

[Morgan Lavoy]

Wow. Okay. Nicole, can you stumble upon some wording for me to send over to this guy?

[Nicole Laughing]

Yes. So I'd say Apple podcasts would be best.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

What's going to. What. What is going to happen here? Yeah, a review on Apple podcasts sounds.

[Nicole Laughing]

An honest review because also you can never solicit five star reviews. We know this. Solicit honest reviews. An honest review on Apple podcasts would be great. Thanks. Let's just mess with him. I'm in a big mode of messing with people.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Okay, I will do this for you. However, I'm gonna get 1500 more emails from this guy.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Oh, yeah, you definitely are after.

[Morgan Lavoy]

But.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And you could forward them all to.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Nicole and he won't leave.

[Nicole Laughing]

No, but let's say thanks, Morgan.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Okay.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Morgan Lavoy]

I'll bold my name.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Right. All caps. Honest review on Apple podcasts would be great. Morgan.

[Nicole Laughing]

All caps.

[Morgan Lavoy]

Okay, I'll send it. Okay. Parting piece of advice for anyone who is sending out a cold email. We've been talking about podcast pitching, but to your point, Jason, a lot of this is universal to. If you're in sales and you're cold emailing someone, if you're reaching out to someone for networking purposes, there's a lot of kind of universal best practices.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yes, there indeed are. The. My. My piece of advice is do your research. Like, just. Just do your research. That's not going to sound like shocking advice, and that's because it's just the most obvious thing that everyone should be doing. Do your research. What Nicole said about. To me, the most important thing that came out of this, this episode was that, like, little bit about the woman who cried. Having listened to the episode and how touched you were about it. Like, like the. You are reaching out to human beings. I don't care what it is that you're pitching or what it is that you're selling, it could be the most boring thing in the world that you're trying to pitch, but another human being has to have a emotional reaction to. It doesn't have to be a big emotional reaction, but the reaction at least has to be, oh, wow, this is something that I want to learn more about. And the only way to do that is to realize you're pitching a real human being. And real human beings have the same 24 hours in a day that you do, and you are asking for a little bit of their time and attention. And you should honor that by doing a little work. Every pitch that we're going to get from now on is going to include a note about how they cried listening to an episode.

[Nicole Laughing]

That's right, Jeff.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason.

[Nicole Lapin]

Pfeiffer, and me, Nicole Lapis.

[Nicole Laughing]

Our executive producer is Morgan Lavoy. Do you want some help?

[Nicole Lapin]

Email our [e-mail] for the chance to have some of your questions answered on the show. And follow us on Instagramoneynews and TikTok MoneyNews Network for exclusive content and to.

[Morgan Lavoy]

See our beautiful faces. Maybe a little dance.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Oh, I didn't sign up for that.

[Nicole Laughing]

All right, well, talk to you soon.