Cold outreach that got me to open

Most cold outreach is trash.

Generic. Lazy. A total waste of time.

But one message recently earned my attention, with just 2 cents.

Here’s what happened:

Someone sent me $.02 on PayPal. The note said:

That’s it. Simple. Creative. Different.

It worked because it broke the pattern.

Everyone follows the same LinkedIn DM templates or blasts cold emails with zero effort. But originality wins.

This one:

• Cut through the noise

• Made me want to engage

• Created a story worth sharing

Here’s the lesson:
Creativity > volume.

You don’t need to send 1,000 messages a day.
You need to send one message that doesn’t feel like the other 999.

Want to stand out in someone’s inbox?

Do what nobody else is doing:

• Send a voice note instead of a text wall

• Record a short personalized Loom

• Reference something they’ve posted recently and add a real insight

• Or hey—drop a PayPal cent or two

It costs almost nothing to be thoughtful.
And it buys you the most valuable thing in business:

Attention.

To standing out,
Eric Siu

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