"Hey what's up, have time for a quick chat"

From years of cold calling and business development here are my five simple tips to level up your ability to make authentic connections, which will lead you to make friends, build a network, and secure partnerships. 

1. Make it personal: Give them clear understanding about why you chose to reach out to them. If the message can be copied and pasted to anyone, then it's not going to resonate.

2. Give purpose: Reach out to someone with a clear reason. 

3. Keep it short: It's okay to leave out details, that's what future conversation is for.

4. Clear ask: At the end of your message if you don't have a clear ask, it doesn't matter how good your message is, they don't know they should respond. Be explicit. Do the work for them. Don't say "Would you be open to a call", say instead "I'd love to hop on a call, would Wed. at 10am work for you?" 

5. Don't be the "Hey, what's up" or "Got time for a quick chat" guy... Slap yourself if you do this and never do it again.