Start with warm connections

If you're trying to meet potential government clients or prime program managers, it's very hard to make connections if you're just e-mailing them out of the blue (i.e. "cold outreach). They will be naturally very suspicious of you, so the barrier to getting a phone call set up is high.

But if a mutual acquaintance introduces you, the chances of you being able to chat with them goes way up. This is a warm connection.

This is why I recommend when networking, you start with the people you already know. You already have goodwill built with them (hopefully) and then they can introduce you to people in their network.

If you start with cold outreach, you'll probably give up because you're not getting results fast enough.

Start with warm connections, they'll be more helpful in getting your first 1099 gig.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.