How I Turned a Disaster Into a Dream With One Email

(and what you can learn from it)

"Sorry, they've decided not to bring on any co-op students to their creative team".

That was the unfortunate message our teenage son received about his co-op placement last Wednesday. Five days before he was scheduled to start. He'd been looking forward to this program being offered through his school for over a year.

He was eager to get hands-on experience in a creative industry he's passionate about. 

But after months of applications, interviews, and anticipation... everything fell apart at the last minute. The coordinators at his school did their best to salvage the tough situation. They offered him the remaining co-op options that were still available: roles in completely different industries and an admin job that required working from home.

Our son wasn't just disappointed, he was dejected.

So we got to work. My partner and I began researching companies in the industry he wanted experience in and crafted a message to see if we could salvage his co-op. We sent 12 cold emails out that night. 

The results surprised even me. 

Four people wrote us back within 36 hours. That's a 33% response rate in a day and a half, from total strangers.

This is what they said...

• One had filled all their co-op openings for the season.

• Another wasn't interested in having co-op students as they've had them in the past, but praised our approach (I'll break that down for you shortly).

• A third had a couple student openings but the roles were more admin in nature and not doing the creative work our son desperately wanted experience in.

• The fourth response was from the founder of a company saying they'd had co-op students in the past and he wondered if we’d be open to a call.

I sent him a text to the number listed in his email signature.

The founder, our son, and I were on the phone together shortly after. The founder was warm, friendly, and curious to know why our son was interested in working with them in particular. After a 15 minute conversation, he offered us a site visit.

"Why don't you come by and see if you like it here.”

We met him at his office 45 minutes later. He gave us a tour of their massive studio + all the impressive equipment. As we walked around, meeting the different team members, the founder was introducing our son by saying "this is X, he might be starting with us as a co-op student next week".

My son struggled to contain his excitement.

His eyes lit up as he saw the incredible things they were creating in this studio. And was genuinely speechless when the founder asked him what he thought at the end of the tour. It was potentially a dream placement.

An even better fit than the role he had been sad about losing not even two days earlier.

But we still needed to sort out the formalities with the school. I emailed the teacher overseeing the program to let her know about our successful outreach initiatives when we got home. She replied back saying that since this particular company had done co-op placements with the school board previously, it would be pretty straightforward.

The paperwork was signed the following business day

And our son started his role there this week. He's absolutely LOVING it. He's being treated like a full member of the team. He's learning new skills, using new tools, and actually creating things. 

To say he's grateful would be an understatement.

He's also blown away by how quickly we turned things around. So let me walk you through the email, why it was so freaking effective, and what you can apply from it in your business.

Here's the Exact Email + the Full Breakdown:

1. Making it Hard to Ignore

The email title was personalized, starting with the company's name. The goal of any email title is to get the person to open it. It doesn't matter how awesome whatever you have inside is if the person doesn't open the damn email. How likely are you to ignore an email that starts with your name in the title?

2. Further Personalization with the Founder's Name

This one should be obvious but if your inboxes are like mine, you know that there's no shortage of folks out there blasting unpersonalized messages to strangers. People aren't likely to respond to something that feels like impersonal copy + paste.

3. Acknowledged That it Was an Odd Request

And used this as part of the opening to create intrigue that would increase the chances of them reading further. Humans are curious creatures that don't like having open loops.

4. Answered the Obvious Question

While creating intrigue is powerful, when you receive an unsolicited message from a stranger you're asking yourself "but what do they want?". And you want to go further by giving people the why behind things. So we didn't just say "we're looking for a co-op placement for our son", we included a bit about what unfortunately happened. This also allowed us to connect with their human emotions without making it a pity party.

5. Called Out the Specific Industry

In some ways, this is a continuation of items 1 + 2 (personalization) but this level of specificity is also about creating relevance. Our son wasn't just looking for an opportunity in any company, he was eager for experience in a very specific industry. When you specifically call out who your message is for, it stands out to those exact people among all the noise they have to navigate. Specificity allows people to know "this is for me".

6. Made a Very Small Ask

Asking "Is this something you would consider?" is very different than "would you take my son on as a co-op". This is a mistake I see many coaches make in their business. They're asking people to say yes to big (and potentially scary things) like "book a discovery call with a total stranger", without first having a smaller (and much easier thing to say yes to) thing as a stepping stone before getting on a call.

7. Acknowledged Their Biggest Concern

Overseeing a co-op student is work. And I'm sure sometimes it can be a pain in the ass, especially with the wrong kind of student. You acknowledging that you see your potential clients' concerns creates connection because it lets them know that you see + understand them.

8. Addressed That Concern Head On

We didn't just acknowledge the burden on them to have a co-op student, we countered it by providing specific details about our son: he's a conscientious A+ student, he spent months working evenings + weekends last year doing this exact kind of work as an extra-curricular activity, he's responsible enough to have held a summer job, and he loves this type of creative work so much, he does it as a hobby.

I did screw one thing up...

There's something I'd do differently if I was redoing it: Formatting it better by breaking up the two big paragraphs of text. It's tough to digest huge walls of text like that, especially on a phone. Thankfully, that didn't effect the outcome this time.

See you next Saturday.

-R

P.S. We're down to the last 29 tickets to DO BOLD SH!T.
Are you joining us on October 19th?