#203 – The Warm Client Method: How to Book Consistent Web Design Clients Through Cold Email with Laura Lopuch

Shannon Mattern (00:01.806)

Hello everyone and welcome back to the profitable web designer podcast. And today I'm joined by Laura Lopich, the founder of the warm client method and Cambium, a client and partner acquisition system used by online service providers, consultants and agencies to book consistent 2k to 42k clients without content ads or referrals, which is exactly why I am so excited to have you on the profitable web designer. So welcome to the show, Laura.

Laura Lopuch (00:32.176)

Thanks, Shannon. I'm so excited to be here. I know we kind of talked before, and I know you're very much into cold emails, which is super cool. And I know people out there really just need to get in touch with their right clients. And I'm really excited to talk about all of that stuff with you today.

Shannon Mattern (00:52.662)

Yeah, I'm, I'm thrilled that you're here. And interestingly enough, I first came across you, I don't know, two or three years ago, you spoke at a summit that I was either speaking at or some way adjacently like knew the person running it or something. And I heard I remember that I was like walking, I listened to all of my content while hiking with my dog. And I remember I was like walking up the hill.

And I heard your session and I'm like, yes, this is exactly like I was, I felt so aligned with everything that you talk about because, you know, for web designers, especially the ones that listened to the show, their biggest challenge is like, how do I market myself? How do I put myself out there? How do I get in front of my ideal clients? How do I get clients? And the only strategy we have ever taught around here is relationship building and outreach, mostly warm outreach.

some cold outreach. And then, so I like joined your email list, however long ago, and then one day I get an email from you in my, in my like business inbox, like I was on your email list with my personal email that I signed up for all the things. And you reached out like asking, like pitching me a collab and I was like, funny enough, like one, your pitch was super thoughtful.

I get a ton of pitches. Most of them are terrible. They're starting to get a little bit better with AI, but they're still kind of like, AI doesn't always get it right.

Laura Lopuch (02:32.112)

No, it doesn't. And it totally depends on what you're putting into the AI that determines the results you get out the other side. It's trash in, trash out for sure, but it's also good thing in, good thing out as well. I think it's super interesting.

Shannon Mattern (02:47.028)

Yeah. And, and I'm, yeah, for sure. And I'm like, I don't care if a pitch was like written by AI or supported with AI, but like your pitch was like really personal and really good and like thoughtful. And I was like, and I think I know her so, or know of her. So it was an immediate yes. And as I always do, I'm like, do you want to be a guest on the podcast too? Because

Laura Lopuch (03:05.702)

You

Shannon Mattern (03:13.492)

Now I selfishly get to spend an hour with you getting to know you and asking you all the things. So that's kind of the backstory as to why this episode is even happening because you cold pitched me, which is awesome. So can you tell people just a little bit about your background and what you do and like why you even do this? How did you get here? Small questions.

Laura Lopuch (03:37.826)

Yeah. Well, do you want to talk the whole hour about this? Yeah, we can go really deep here. The TLDR surface version of it all is basically I started a copywriting business. It was 11 years ago and then a year into my business. First of all, I signed my first client using cold emails because I didn't have a budget for ads. Didn't really want to learn ads. I just needed

a client. needed money in the door now, preferably today. And cold emails seem like the fastest way to get it without having to pick up the phone and cold call people like the horrors. I would die of embarrassment if I had to do that. I still like put off like calling my doctor for an appointment. yeah, phone, not a good option for me. So honestly, like cold emails was the way. And so it took me about four months and I signed my first client.

started getting responses from these cold emails and I realized it worked really well. And so then I signed this client and worked with them for about a year. And that first client was actually Selena Sue, if you're familiar with her, she's the creator of Impacting Millions. She's gone on to do amazing things. I loved working with her, got such a good experience in the world of like launching an online business and getting this like backstage pass to how to run a business because I didn't have any experience. I was...

coming from working in a law firm for like eight years and had no idea what I was doing. So I got this really cool backstage pass and I got her from a cold email. And then about a year later, I have my first baby. And that was about the time that I realized I couldn't juggle these two huge energy sucks. Like growing an online business can take all of your time and energy from you.

Growing a family can also take all your time and energy from you, but I wanted a both and world. And so I had to really figure out what that looked like, how I could juggle both of these things, what kind of boundaries I had to have in place. And I realized I could have both of these things, growing a business, growing a family, but I had to put really strict boundaries on the business. Otherwise it would like seep into all the personal parts of my life.

Laura Lopuch (06:00.376)

I always joke that I couldn't be like a detective because they're workaholics and like everything infringes on, like takes over their whole life. But I think being an entrepreneur is kind of the same thing. Like you have to be aware of this obsessive compulsion to work because work is so interesting and it can fuel you and satisfy you. So I put in place like I can only work, you know, 11 to 13 hours a week.

And what that really looked like in terms of client acquisition for me was I had to cut out a lot of things that a lot of marketing gurus tell you to do. Like content marketing, publishing weekly on a blog was the big thing 10 years ago. Creating a podcast. A lot of the other things now that we talk about in terms of content marketing, like YouTube channels and Pinterest, weren't really big back then.

But I had to cut out a lot of those things and just focus on what actually worked for me. And what worked really well was going out and pinpointing, basically hand selecting the people that I wanted to work with and then pitching them directly because I could track the flow. Like I do A, I send this email, I can send the follow ups and B happens. Like I get a new client. And that was super easy and manageable for me to be able to.

take this consistent type of action and know that if I just kept going, I would get what I wanted in the end. And that fit really well within the boundaries of my work and my energy and my life. And then I realized that there's other types of cold emails, not like these cold sales emails. Like probably when I say cold email, you're thinking like, yeah, cool, pitching to get like a new one-on-one client.

But there's other kinds and one of the other kinds is that I use to reach out to you, which is basically pitching some sort of collaboration, some sort of way to borrow your audience because the definition of a cold email is a stranger reaching out to another stranger, asking them to take a specific action. And so when you think about a cold email in terms of that definition, there's so many other ways that you can use a cold email.

Laura Lopuch (08:22.404)

And that's what I realized. And so I started pitching partnerships. started pitching guest blog posts. I started pitching podcast episodes. I started pitching training inside of like paid communities. Basically using these cold emails in this one to many way so that I could essentially get permission from someone to go fish in their audience pool for my right fit clients. And then I grow my client list and my email list at the same time.

And that felt so much more aligned with how I like to work, the time constraints that I had. And also I really like to teach and I can, I'm enough of an introvert that I can turn it on for like an hour or two a week and be really charming and really engaging and then not do that for another week and refuel and then I can do it again. And so that kind of like rhythm worked really well for me. And so

for the past 10 years, I've been using all of those kinds of cold emails. There's actually seven different kinds, but I've been using all of those kinds of emails to grow my business without content marketing and any of the other kind of big time sex that the gurus tell you you have to use to get clients.

Shannon Mattern (09:42.062)

I love this so much. I used to work in a law firm too, Laura, like before. Yeah, I worked in the marketing department at a corporate law firm right out of college, built their website for them, and built a website coordinated with a company. And that's kind of like my start into web design, I had a communications degree.

Laura Lopuch (09:48.528)

Did you really?

How funny.

Laura Lopuch (10:09.382)

Gotcha.

Shannon Mattern (10:10.451)

But yeah, so I'm like, I totally get the like, I get that life. So I love that we can connect on that. Yeah. But I wanted to say like, back, you know, I started this business about 11 years ago as well. And back then, the very first thing I did to market, I wasn't working directly with clients, but I was like, I want to like build an audience. I was teaching people how to build websites. And I was like,

Laura Lopuch (10:16.183)

Yes, that's so funny.

Shannon Mattern (10:39.187)

I'm coming out of nowhere. have no relationships. I want to teach this new budding online entrepreneur, entrepreneur community, like how to DIY their website. Cause like online businesses were like, you know, getting started in that, was all the rage. And I was like, I don't even know how I'm going to get in front of people. And I was like, well, what if I reached out to business coaches who were like teaching people how to run an online business? And I'm like, but what I don't.

I don't even know what I'd reach out about. And I was like, I will reach out and ask them if I can interview them. like I wrote, like I did an interview, I wrote a blog post, I made it look really good. I asked them who their mentors were, like who they looked up to. And then I like made this beautiful blog post. I shared it with them. I was like, you can share this with your audience.

And then I would like go on social media and I like tagged the people that they said inspired them. And I'd be like, Hey, this person said whatever. And I was trying to build an online business with an online audience. And I was trying to like grow my visibility, but I was not trying to like cold pitch people and get clients. And, but I, but I was, and I didn't know I was doing it. And so that's what was working for me.

Laura Lopuch (11:59.482)

Yes.

Shannon Mattern (12:03.351)

But I got sucked in to the gurus and the content marketing and the, you know, all of that. And that's the way to like grow an online business. And so I'm over here taking course after course about like how to explode your Instagram. Like we all know I don't need to talk about that. Meanwhile, ignoring all of the relationships that I had built that turns out...

Laura Lopuch (12:27.419)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (12:32.393)

all of my leads were coming from all of the relationships that I had previously built and was inadvertently building as just like, yeah, I met you, you're cool, let's do this thing. Thinking that like, that's not legit. That's not the real way to do this. If I had a big following on social media, that would be legit. That would be the real way to do this. I'm gonna just like hammer down over here when what was happening was

the relationships that I had built through proactively reaching out to people was completely fueling my business and I was completely ignoring it.

Laura Lopuch (13:10.634)

Yes, yes. Isn't that funny? We get like blindsided like by these bright, shiny objects and this idea that like more is better. But it's a lie. Like better is better. Where are your best leads coming from? Why don't you focus on that? And yeah, I've, I've gotten sucked into that whole like trap that you just detailed so many times and I have to keep fighting to like pull myself out of it. Like

It's just a vanity metric. Like these numbers, like I've tried to grow my email list and I've grown my email list and it's still like, still haven't actually solved the underlying problem because it's still just inflating the actual problem. I still, you know, get sucked into that idea of like, it's basically the, the Sahil Bloom and Justin Welsh, not to like, not blaming them, but it's that idea of like,

More is better and it's a total lie. Like what you actually need, especially as a solopreneur or someone running a small team is like, you just need more conversations with your right fit leads. You don't actually want like a calendar filled up with like hundreds of sales calls with poor fit leads that waste your time. And then you're like hating yourself for getting on this silly phone call. But that's that we get sucked into that like.

that idea of bigger is better and it's really not. It's not.

Shannon Mattern (14:43.263)

Yeah, and you're like, you don't need to create an audience to get clients. Absolutely no. So what are some of the reasons why people avoid outreach warm or cold?

Laura Lopuch (14:46.8)

Mm-mm. No. No.

Laura Lopuch (14:57.456)

That's a good question. I would say it comes down to this fear of standing out. For an example, my oldest kid is 10 and he's getting deep in the weeds of I can't stand out. I can't be different. I have to look like everybody else. And I realized watching him work through this is that this imprinting comes early, comes hard.

And sometimes we never fully escape that imprinting, but to do effective outreach, you actually have to stand out. Otherwise your email doesn't get opened. Otherwise it doesn't get read. It doesn't get replied to. It doesn't do the job that you're like hiring it to do. And so that feels very scary because essentially you're standing out from the crowd. It feels like you're making a target of yourself. but it's not as scary as our brains tend to like make it.

Our brains make up this whole story of like, my gosh, you're gonna be excommunicado, they're gonna stone you. Like all of these old stories that are legit and have happened in the past for people who have dared to stand out, but they all come up and we don't ever realize that these stories are coming out and then that they're suddenly driving the car and preventing us from doing the one thing.

that actually makes a big difference. And I think the market is finally headed in this direction of relationship building because of like these different things that have happened over the last five years of COVID and like a more drive toward community and connection. And then AI coming on the heels of COVID where suddenly we're in this economy and this market of flooded with

almost human sounding content, but it doesn't, it lacks the soul because humans put a little piece of their soul into their writing. And so we're flooded by this, this wave of content that all kind of tastes the same and people are desperate for this connection. And then with the U S presidential election happening, I've noticed a definite shift in lack of trust.

Laura Lopuch (17:18.288)

where it feels like we're being lied to often. I think all of those things combine to everyone wants to return to something that feels real, that feels good, that feels satisfying. And that means that the market is actually headed in the direction of like this relationship based, this collaborative marketing. Because essentially when you reach out to borrow a partner's audience, you're actually

borrowing the trust that that partner has with that audience and then you like shower yourself in this magic fairy dust and Because your partner trusts you and they say hey listen to this person this person knows what she's talking about and if that voucher gets you in the door and it bypasses a lot of the other parts, but I do see like the market shifting in this direction, so I would say if you've been

doing partnership pitching. If you have been doing this relationship first, collaborative marketing in your business, lean more into it. Like this is the way it's headed. And by leaning more into it now, you're gonna be kind of ahead of the first wave because those bigger businesses are like huge yacht ships. It's so hard to shift and pivot, but you're like a little nimble sailboat. Like you can shift with the wind with one little

scoot your, you know, your sail and off you go and you're sprinting ahead. So I would say it's okay that you feel scared. It's okay. That's totally normal. I've sent hundreds of thousands of cold emails and I'm actually like in the middle of a heavy like cold emailing sprint now and I still feel scared. So I would say use to send like the schedule send button because it is your best friend.

because then you can schedule it and it still gets sent and you don't have to like face that fear of like, I'm sending this email. It just goes away and the thing still happens for you.

Shannon Mattern (19:24.043)

my gosh, so good. And so I love the schedule send feature also because I work at like weird times and I don't need someone getting an email from me at like 530 in the morning when I'm on cup of coffee number one and like all ready to go. But I, know, what you said about borrowing people's audiences and you know, we talk here about like the transfer of trust, like

Laura Lopuch (19:39.856)

Yes. Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (19:52.89)

I get so many emails for people asking to be on this podcast to collaborate, to get in front of our audience. And I'm very protective of the people that have come into my world in terms of like, don't want to put the unaligned, that's the right word, unaligned.

people, vibes, whatever in front of them. And I don't want to spend my time collaborating with that either. And so you very artfully, the way I've always done outreach is the way that you did it. And it was just so human to human, human to human. You connected with me, you added value.

you weren't like, I'm a this, this, this, and this, and I'm so amazing. And here's why you should grace your audience with my presence, which is most of the pitches that I get is someone's trying to prove that they're an expert and that they should, therefore I should be so honored to put that in front of my audience. And I'm like, I

I get that. I get where that's coming from. I understand that people are like, I need to present myself as an expert if someone's going to take me seriously and, and say yes to something like that. But I kind of, personally think that like works against people and I'm curious what you think about that.

Laura Lopuch (21:38.724)

Yeah, I agree with you. think it, I personally, I think that probably comes from a place of feeling, what's the opposite of like confident, like, you know, they're feeling insecure. Yeah, exactly. And so they feel like they have to prove themselves. But I would say nobody, nobody ever cares about you until you make it worth their while to care about you. And so,

Shannon Mattern (21:51.147)

A fraud.

Laura Lopuch (22:08.322)

there, what is that one book like how to make friends like that that one yes yes thank you so he talks about the easiest way to make friends is to ask someone questions about themselves which basically boils down to nobody cares about you until you create that connection and the fastest way to keep someone's attention is to ask them questions about themselves

Shannon Mattern (22:13.836)

how to make friends and influence people. Yeah.

Laura Lopuch (22:35.622)

because we're all filtering the world and every request we get through this question of like, what's in it for me? Or like, why should I care? The world is super noisy, but why should I listen to you? Why should I care? And so the fastest way to cut through that noise is to talk about the person that you're emailing and talk about like, be specific about why you're reaching out because there is so many just mass cold emails. So be specific. Like if you pick this person for a reason,

Tell them that reason because there's an inherent compliment inside of you reaching out. You think that their work is worthy and amazing and you actually want to be a part of it. So it's more like about shifting into that mindset versus like that proving yourself mindset comes from more fear. Like what if she doesn't like me? What if I'm not worthy? What if I'm, which all of those vibes go into the email.

We can get like super woo woo about it, but I do think that there's like the vibes that you write the email in go into the words and get coded in and the other person picks up on them because it is like you said, a human to human connection like this email. And so if you're picking this person for a reason, tell them that and then tell them why their audience would love to hear from you. And then then you can like name drop.

so that you, if you have the experience, but don't like make it up if you don't. But definitely, I think it does help to reference past things that you've done so that the podcast host or whoever you're pitching knows that you've maybe done this once or twice, you've done it for this person. I like to name drop big names if I have them.

If I like I did a day-long workshop for copy hackers, so of course I love to like drop that because it gives me instant credibility But it's it's like a three-word mention, you know, I did a day-long workshop for copy hackers That's it. But that gives you security knowing I've done this before I'm experienced. This isn't gonna be a rocky show. It kind of sets your expectations So,

Laura Lopuch (24:52.878)

I would say like the biggest thing is like shift from this idea of scarcity into this idea of like, this is actually me reaching out to see how I can help this other person because I see that there are people like when I was writing email to you, I figured that web designers probably have the same problem that a lot of freelancers have, right? I am really good at what I do, but I can't seem to find the clients that I want.

Or maybe I have found the client that I want to work with, but how do I reach out in a non-weird, non-awkward way that makes them actually say yes and then book a call with me? And so if I come in with that kind of framing, that idea of like, hey, I can help your people, that's a way stronger reason to say yes because at the end of the day, you wanna help your people too. So we're naturally aligned on that.

Shannon Mattern (25:48.573)

Yeah, it's such a win-win because that is the million dollar question that our web designers have is how do I get like, like you said, like I said at beginning, how do I get clients without paid ads, SEO or content marketing? And you swooped into my inbox with the solution, with the answer. And I want my clients to succeed. They joined the web designer academy.

Laura Lopuch (25:51.034)

Yes.

Laura Lopuch (26:01.04)

you

Shannon Mattern (26:15.434)

because they need to shift their mindset around packages, pricing, their value, what they can charge, they need help with boundaries, they need help with all of these things. learning the skill of getting clients is the most valuable skill, because you don't have a business if you don't have that. And it's also the number one thing preventing people from joining our Web Designer Academy program.

is they are afraid that if I invest in this, what if I can't get clients or what if my clients dry up or and I've made this commitment and I can't afford to keep going or whatever. So you very astutely found the alignment between you and me and reached out.

And, and, I can tell that that's, responded so quickly because it wasn't a, like, I don't mean to be like judgy, but like a lazy pitch, you know, it was like very well thought out. And so I just appreciate that. And I think one of the things that I hear people, they're afraid of like, what if the person, it feels like, um, like I intruded on their inbox or like, um,

Laura Lopuch (27:23.513)

Mm-hmm.

Laura Lopuch (27:38.755)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (27:41.45)

you know, put off or whatever. And I'm just kind of like, let them feel how they're going to feel about it. Be an integrity with yourself. And if they react poorly, you dodged a bullet. Like, what are your thoughts?

Laura Lopuch (27:52.61)

Yes, yes, I agree completely. I am always, it's judging is not the right word. I'm evaluating how someone else responds when I pitch in the conversations, if they engage, if they don't engage, how they're responding to my...

taking initiative, essentially, because that's what you're doing as a, like when you're sending any type of cold email, you're taking initiative. You see this problem, you have the solution. And so I think it's your responsibility to reach out and say, I have the solution to this problem you have, would you like it? And that's essentially what a cold email does. And so I am constantly evaluating how people are interacting.

And if someone responds rudely, I'm like, cool, awesome. So glad I did not work with you. Putting you on a blacklist here and good to know. But I do want to say like, it is very rare to get the nasty replies. It's far more rare than you would think. And I think that a lot of people, because we filter, we get a lot of requests inside our inbox that this intrusion idea.

is actually a myth that like a lie that we're telling ourselves to keep us from taking the action that we need to take. Because often I don't get any sort of reply like, how dare you come into my inbox and pitch me something. And if I do, I'm like, woo, not working with you, dodged a bullet on that one. But often I'm getting replies a lot like yours of like, thank you, I would love to do this, or I'm so glad you reached out. Or a reply like,

I've been trying to figure out how to do this, but basically what's not written is I didn't know where to start and I didn't know what to start looking for. And the idea of Googling and asking like Claude or chat GPT, all of these things and starting this long arduous research process to figure out this solution was daunting and I was procrastinating. And so I'm so glad you reached out.

Laura Lopuch (30:09.198)

and proactively pitched me on this solution because yes, yes, I would love to, right? And so I think that that's a lot of things that are holding people back from like actually pitching is that this idea that they're gonna get yelled at. And honestly, I can count on like two hands the amount of times I've gotten yelled at and sending so many emails over 11 plus years. And maybe you've seen that too, like where you actually don't get that many.

bad replies, people just will not reply. And then you are faced with the decision of like, is this person someone worth pursuing or do I drop it and come back maybe later?

Shannon Mattern (30:52.488)

So good. mean, I think of your son who's like, you know, I don't want to stand out. I don't want to be made fun of. I don't want to get in trouble. But we're adults and hopefully we still feel that way. But also our adult brains know like we can handle it. We can handle it. And we don't have to make it mean that we did something wrong. We can make it mean whatever we want because we can.

Laura Lopuch (30:57.968)

Yes. Yes.

Laura Lopuch (31:04.646)

Yeah.

Laura Lopuch (31:18.148)

Yeah, exactly. You can choose the story that you've put around an incident. And just because your brain is drawing toward this story versus another story doesn't mean that that first story is the right one for you. can reshift and think about it in different layers. And it doesn't have to mean what you have decided it means. You can decide that, for example, I heard

Shannon Mattern (31:20.94)

Mm-hmm.

Laura Lopuch (31:45.926)

Who is the woman who does the life coach school? Do you know who I'm thinking? Yes, thank you. I obviously have not had enough coffee this morning. My brain is like, yes, Brooke Castillo. She would say there's like a layer of no's that you have to get through before you get to the yeses. And so whenever I'm in like a sticky hard time of like sending emails that look like they're landing,

Shannon Mattern (31:50.829)

Brook Castillo. I've always had enough coffee.

Laura Lopuch (32:15.374)

Like I have tracking turned on, I have that kind of confidence knowing, okay, the person got it, which helps ease some of that anxiety of like, I'm waiting, I hate the waiting, you know, on a reply. But knowing that they got it, knowing that they probably maybe opened it, take tracking with a grain of salt, but knowing that I'm just in the phase of getting through the no's before I can reach the yeses. And that usually helps me just kind of keep going.

and know that this too shall pass and it's okay to stand out and I have a solution that this person is needing otherwise I would never have reached out and that usually helps kind of with a lot of the feels that happen when you're sending cold emails.

Shannon Mattern (33:03.404)

I love that. And we've been talking about like collaborating and partnerships and things. But at the beginning, you said you started outreaching like people who you wanted to do copywriting for or you wanted them to become your client. And I think that's

Laura Lopuch (33:18.95)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (33:22.666)

the place most of our listeners are. Some of our listeners are like more advanced in terms of like, they would go to an organization and pitch like a workshop or something. But most of them listening are like, I want to cold pitch clients. So should they cold pitch clients? What does that look like? What do you recommend for somebody who's like, you know, just looking for for their next client?

Laura Lopuch (33:53.254)

Yes, I think 100 % you should co-pitch those people, especially if you have done a little bit of research on them. And I think it's easier for a web designer because you can go to someone's website and be like, oh, honey, your website's from like 2015. Like we need to change that, right? So you have like this external signal of whether or not someone needs your help.

and you can scout around and snoop around on their website and be like, we need, like, this would be really cool. We could change this and get a good feeling for whether or not someone actually needs your help. And I think that's the first step in their research and figuring out if someone needs your help. The other step is I think that you need to have an idea of who is your best client. And sometimes that happens from...

taking lots of different projects and being like, oh, I really don't like working with this type or I really like working with founders or I really like working with, you know, a small team and then going out and looking for more of those people. But yes, I definitely think you should be pitching because the more sales conversations, the more conversations you have in general, the more clients you'll get out the other side. And those cold emails are your conversation starter emails.

Those are the things that are getting you in conversation with the exact people that you can help. you, I don't recommend always like pitching, know, can I send a proposal over? I don't recommend that path at all. I like to go with the more like, are you interested? Here's my idea, or here's how I can help you. Are you interested? Because you're putting in less work upfront.

on someone that you don't know is worth the work or not worth the work at this point, because you just need to know if they're interested or not, and then you can move forward or you can be like, okay, that's awesome. Can you share why you're not interested? And that's another conversation, which is really valuable to have in figuring out like, they heard web designer and thought XYZ, and I actually meant ABC. So I need to clear that point up.

Laura Lopuch (36:10.062)

so that I can get more of these conversations with the people I need.

Shannon Mattern (36:15.404)

I think the thing I hear most from web designers when they're thinking about cold pitching is they're thinking that I need to go and look at the website and I'm like, oh, honey, no, this is from 2015. And then I need to reach out and be like, honey, your website sucks. It's from 2015. And then they're like, that feels bad. I don't want to do that. And so they're just like, that feels out of alignment for me to reach out. so then they just stop.

because they think that the cold outreach to someone means I need to criticize you and then tell you that I'm the solution.

Laura Lopuch (36:52.646)

No, not at all. Like I think the main thing is like going back to that conversation we had about like what's in it for me. We just need to answer that question for our reader, our recipients of like, why should they prioritize? They've got a hundred million things on their to-do list just like you, but why should they prioritize updating their website? Because, and then you tie it to their goal. Like their end goal likely as a business is to make more money.

Sometimes it's to save money, which inherently is make more money as well. But if your design helps them make more money and their website becomes basically that 24 seven salesman for their company without them having to hire, without them having to have someone come in and do sales for them, how much is that worth to them? How much is like one new client?

And you don't have to get like the actual figures for that person you're pitching. You can kind of talk in ballparks, but doing the math for them inside that email really helps them understand why this is a priority and B, that you are someone who can help them prioritize this and solve this problem because you're basically speaking their language, which also helps their brain make a decision because it makes sense in their head.

that's how they're thinking. They're thinking like, well, okay, great, but I could go start, I could go do this, or I could go do this marketing strategy. And depending on who you're pitching, those marketing strategies look different. But the website is where everybody goes first to scope out that company. And so if your website looks outdated, that's losing you how much money. And that is really what you need to put in your cold email. You don't have to say,

honey, your website looks horrible. You can just say, Hey, I checked out your website. It looks like it's been a couple of years since you updated it, which is the truth. We're just not going to name how many years and then say, you know, did you know, I would probably phrase it more like research shows that an updated, mobile friendly website, depending on what you found in your research. Maybe it's not, maybe it is, but a mobile friendly website, you know,

Laura Lopuch (39:17.09)

makes you $20,000 more a year, whatever research it is that you found, right? But you need to give them a number. And you need to put it in financial terms too, because that's how they're making the decisions of, this makes me more money because it's getting me to my end goal of making me more money. So when you put it in concrete financial terms, suddenly it all kind of is way more easier for them to make a decision on.

Shannon Mattern (39:44.332)

I love it. So you've put all of this, you said that there are like seven types of cold emails and we mentioned the warm client method at the beginning. Can you share more about like, what is the warm client method and what do you teach to the people that work with you on learning this process?

Laura Lopuch (39:54.043)

Yes.

Laura Lopuch (40:04.922)

Yes, so the warm client method is my system for sending effective feel good outreach emails one-on-one to get more private clients basically. And inside of it is like a training library and then you get an execution software and it sounds really like, what is that? But it's it's software that's trained on my lead generation tactics. A lot of like the psychology element of what I'm talking about.

that basically helps you do the heavier parts of cold emailing. So the research, I actually use parts of the software to cold email you because I realized AI is a really fantastic pattern spotter and recognizer.

And if you use it with that, that translates very cleanly to cold email because you're usually looking for a person that fits this criteria, ABC, you know, this many years in business. They look like this. Their website looks like this. They've been in business this many years. They have this many employees. But the cool thing is that the software can also help you identify the gaps that are

specific to your business. So a gap would look like they, so in my business, it's easiest to explain with like an actual example, but in my business, someone who needs my help is usually reliant on referrals. So they're not posting a lot on LinkedIn. So that's a gap. So I can look at someone's LinkedIn and say, you don't post a lot. You have like 500 followers. You haven't been active. You're getting your clients from someplace else. You're getting them probably

from inconsistent, uncontrollable referrals. I can help you stabilize your revenue by adding in a way to get clients that you actually control. So you're not in that feast or famine roller coaster. So for web designers, it would look a little bit different. And these are usually the questions that you're asking in your sales conversation of like trying to figure out where they are and where they want to be. And that gap, like how you can help them fill that gap.

Laura Lopuch (42:14.854)

And so the cool thing is the software will go out and see if it can find people that are in those gaps, depending on what your business is and how you help them and what kind of companies you're looking for. So basically you get like the training to understand the strategy, a lot of the psychological stuff, but then you get the software to help you execute. And it also handles the followups, which are like a huge energy suck.

But that's where the winning happens is like sending the follow-ups because by sending a follow-up email you're helping your recipient prioritize your email because you're inherently saying I think this email is valuable enough for me to follow up on therefore I think you should also value it and people don't like to leave other people hanging as well, so

The software handles all of those heavier parts of cold emailing for you so that you can legitimately send out like 10 to 15 emails in three hours of work a week and actually get into those conversations with the people that you can help.

Shannon Mattern (43:22.683)

I love that you used it to pitch me because it's a perfect example of something that was like really well done that I was like, I connected with and I said yes to. Like what a perfect example of it working because you're doing a training inside of our web designer academy for our students.

Laura Lopuch (43:25.753)

You

Laura Lopuch (43:35.856)

Yeah. Yeah.

Laura Lopuch (43:41.476)

Yes.

Laura Lopuch (43:44.953)

I am.

Shannon Mattern (43:48.036)

on this and that was, you know, a cold pitch that the tool using AI helped you create and helped you, you know, with your, with your methodology in there and lo and behold, like check it worked.

Laura Lopuch (44:03.13)

Yes, it does work. so Cambium is like the sister system to the warm client method. So the warm client method is just focusing on those one-to-one emails. And then Cambium is actually focusing on those one-to-many emails where you're wanting to borrow someone else's audience. And so I'm developing it now as we record this. so it's still got like my IP baked into it and my...

Shannon Mattern (44:11.327)

Okay.

Laura Lopuch (44:31.458)

my philosophy baked into it and that's actually the tool that I use to pitch you because I'm pitching a partnership. So it feels different. You're pitching a slightly different thing. You're more pitching a little bit more of the guest's credibility and authority and the focus is more on how I can help your audience versus

with the warm method and pitching like a cold sales email, it's more how I can help your business, right? So a little bit of like a framing, differentiating shift, which means you're researching different things in order to put those different things inside your email. But yeah, I use that to pitch you because like I said, once you train AI,

and then build the scaffolding around it so that it can do the thing consistently and go out and look for what you need it to do. It's amazing because there's nothing like this out there for partnerships where it's basically a training software. It's a software to help you pitch and then the second half of it is the CRM. So you handle all the details of like you know when the

when the partnership date is happening, what collateral and assets I need to get over to my partner, by what date. And for me, those things live inside of spreadsheets and post-it notes and my to-do list. And if I miss one, there's nothing, tap, tap, tap, Laura, you forgot this.

Shannon Mattern (46:02.547)

Yeah. So good. I'm excited that you're coming into the web designer academy to talk more about this because we're almost out of time on this episode. And I have so many more questions. But one of the things that you shared is like, just the problem that comes, like we teach outreach in the web designer academy. I have scripts, I have a process, I have all of those things, but

Laura Lopuch (46:11.642)

We are, yeah.

Shannon Mattern (46:30.921)

The biggest challenge is who do I reach out to? What do I say? Even you taking my scripts and adapting them to, like, it's a cognitive load that people, like, it feels burdensome to...

Laura Lopuch (46:45.434)

Yes.

Shannon Mattern (46:53.483)

put all of that into it, plus their mind trash that they've got going on about it plus. And so it becomes a barrier. And then they're like, I think an SEO strategy would be easier, even though that's going to take three, six, nine months or whatever. Then they're like, oh, let me go to the strategy that doesn't feel like I can create some content really quick, but there's no one there to consume it. you're not getting any closer. And so I love that your method has really

Laura Lopuch (47:19.664)

Yes.

Shannon Mattern (47:23.819)

taken a lot of that, like burden of the, the challenges of outreach. It's super powerful, but it's also like, can be, there's, there's a lot of things that can prevent that I have seen over the years, prevent people from doing it and you're solving those things. And that's why I was like, yes, we need to talk because the pain points I see people have around even implementing, like I'm like handing it to them on a platter, but there's pain points there that I am not solving.

Laura Lopuch (47:45.618)

you

Laura Lopuch (47:53.722)

Yes, that's exactly what I was bumping up against so often. Because this started as a course eight years ago. And if I gave it to the right person, they could implement it and get amazing wins. One of my clients, Raven, she got $32,000 in new clients from using this method. I didn't know that she did it, because she just took it and implemented it. And then she kind of like, by the way, like.

Shannon Mattern (47:54.068)

So.

Shannon Mattern (48:02.826)

Mm-hmm.

Laura Lopuch (48:20.494)

I booked 32,000. was like, excuse me, we need to talk. But that is the rare person who kind of just takes it and does it and is a self-starter. And for a lot of other people, they want to do it, like what you were saying. And then there's all these other little mind things that come up. So throughout the years, I've taken this in lots of different directions, like even toward a mentorship and coaching. Like, how do I help you get out of your own way, basically? And

Even then, I'd be like, so did you send your cold emails? And they'd be like, yeah, I had to clean behind my refrigerator this week. And I was like, you're such a, come on. And finally, with AI, I saw this opportunity of like, what if AI, it doesn't complain, it doesn't care if I give it the heavy parts to hold. It's really good at like this pattern spotting. What if I built a software to help with all of those hard parts?

like finding the research. What if it could do it for you in like 20 seconds? And so you get that like instant feedback loop of like, because that's why we do all the other things, because we get that instant burst of satisfaction. And so then it becomes this like, we're looking for that next little hit of dopamine. But what if the cold email could have that hit of dopamine and suddenly you have a list of like 10 people who legitimately have the problem that you could solve?

And that's usually where I start to get excited. It's like, look at this person and look at this person. And I could, my goodness, like I could totally help this person. And then that can like bump you. That motivation can fuel you through the whole process. Yeah, exactly.

Shannon Mattern (50:03.403)

Oh my gosh, so good. I could talk to you for another hour. So I have two more questions that I asked. And I asked these to everyone that comes on the podcast. And the first one is what belief about yourself did you have to change to get to where you are today?

Laura Lopuch (50:06.406)

Likewise.

Laura Lopuch (50:11.824)

Yes.

Laura Lopuch (50:22.608)

Ooh, that's a really good one. I would say it's one that I'm still working on, like a little asterisk before I answer. It's still one that like pops up. It's this idea that because I have less hours, I cannot accomplish the goals that I have. Like I have big ambitious goals, know, create generational wealth and all those, you know, amazing big things. But because I'm working within

tiny little itty bitty living space, right? I cannot accomplish those things and instead I have to consciously work at reframing that of because of these boundaries, I have to get more creative. I have to get more, not productive, I just have to use this in a way that fuels me. So a lot of times I'm using timers to get stuff done.

Like, can I write all the emails for the week in seven minutes? It doesn't matter how bad the first draft is. Or can I send out 10 outreach emails in 30 minutes? Like, go. Like, how can I get more creative? Because that's really what's gonna get me to the place I wanna get, not sucking more hours out of my day. Because that is not the reason why I started this business in the first place, yeah.

Shannon Mattern (51:50.187)

So good. Where can everyone go to connect with you, learn more about the warm client method, learn more about how they can get their hands on what you do and start implementing this in their business.

Laura Lopuch (52:02.018)

Yes, go to my website, lauralopich.com, sign up for my emails. I am not on social, so don't look for me there. But my emails are the best way to kind of get all of the goodies, because that is definitely where I, like you said, foster the best relationships. It's inside my emails. And so sign up to get my emails and you'll get all the information you need. Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (52:26.965)

Amazing. So I'm going to spell that out for you podcast listeners. It's L-A-U-R-A-L-O-P-U-C-H, laurapitch.com. So you can go there. link that up in the show notes. So Laura, thank you so much for pitching me and being on the podcast today.

Laura Lopuch (52:43.526)

Thank you for saying yes. I was so glad to see that yes come into my inbox. love that's also the fun thing about outreach emails is like, that hit like, ooh, she said yes. This is awesome. Let's do this.

Shannon Mattern (52:57.938)

Amazing. So that's all we have for you this week, everyone. And we'll see you back here next week. Bye.