When you start a Business, you begin to get all sorts of Messages.
You always Hope that they are Requests from Potential Clients.
Usually they are Not.
When I go through my emails, about 95% of them are Marketing Messages.
Now, "Some" of those I actually want.
Specific Organizations whose work I Follow to Improve my own.
But there are a Significant Number of Messages from Other Businesses.
Usually they want to do "Some" form of work for me.
SEO.
Leads.
Web Design.
Virtual Assistants.
Lately, "Many" about AI.
There are a "Lot" that I get.
What do I do with them?
99.99% of the Time, I send "Directly" to Spam.
I used to try to answer people back.
Be polite and say, "Hey, I appreciate the offer, but I am not interested at this time."
But over time, the Number of Messages have simply become too many to answer.
So, I've had to resort to Spam.
"Especially" since many of these Individuals/Companies send Repeated Messages.
So, if a message makes it past my Spam Filter, I will decide if the email is worth finishing.
I will give it 2 Seconds to Impress Me.
That is all I have Time for.
It's not Personal.
At least, the message I get is not Personal, so I treat the message in kind.
The 99.99% of the Messages I get sound "Exactly" the same.
It's part of "Why" it is so easy for me to send to Spam.
I can tell from the Wording that it is a Template Message where there has been Minimal to No Effort to Understand my Work or Business.
These types of Messages have 2 Main Structures.
Those Structures "Indicate" to me that it is Spam.
What are they?
The First is a Message that "Tries" to sound like they have looked at my Business.
"Hey Cody, I saw that you're the Chief Regenerative Design Officer at..."
"...I am Inspired by your work to Create Legendary Leaders..."
"Like you, I want to Help Unlock Heroic Potential in Others..."
Then they Immediately go into their Pitch.
I can tell from the Pitch that it has "No" Relation to any of my work.
It has Nothing to do with Legendary Leadership, Heroic Potential, or Regenerative Legacy Design.
Frequently, from the offer, I can "also" tell they have No Clue what any of these terms mean.
These are all words they have read off my LinkedIn Page, but which they have not Understood.
Not even a Little.
This is the First type of Message I'll Immediately send to Spam.
Look, if you "Fake" Understanding my Work, I have No Interest in working with you.
If you're Not Honest with me in your Introductory Email, I can't Trust you to be Honest with any Aspect of the Business.
It's a Bad First Impression, and I am Unable to give you a Second Impression.
If you want to work with me, "Actually" Understand my Work and the Goals I'm working Toward.
"Seek first to Understand before being Understood".
These types of Messages indicate to me that All You Care About is being Understood.
That is Not How I Operate.
The Second type of Message that I will Immediately Send to Spam?
"I have Recently worked with "Name" who has a Similar Business..."
I Do Not Care what comes after that.
You could have helped them make $1 Trillion, and I would still send it to Spam.
Why?
You've Failed to Understand Category Design.
All of my work is based on Category Design.
Legendary Leadership.
Leadership Cultivation.
Leadership Psychophysiology.
Regenerative Legacy Design.
All of these are "Separators", to Purposely state I "Refuse" to do what others are doing.
Legendary Leadership is a "Very" Specific Category of Leadership.
Leadership Cultivation is "Very" Different from Leadership Development.
Leadership Psychophysiology is "Very" Different than Leadership Skills.
Regenerative Legacy Design is "Very" Different from the Traditional Outdated Business Models.
I Separate Myself because these "Other" things Do Not Work, and I Refuse to do Work that Does Not Benefit my Clients in the Long Term.
By doing this, I have created a Business that is Unlike "Anyone" Else in Today's Market.
I've done this on Purpose.
As soon as a Marketing Message says, "Similar Business" or anything similar to that, I know they Fundamentally have No Clue what My Work is.
"Report Spam".
Game Over.
So, if this is how you do Business, Please Stop Sending Me Your Offers.
I Know You Won't.
I get it.
Just Know, Your Message(s) just got sent to Spam.