Transcript: Thanks, Allan. This is David Brower with your 20-minute podcast. Our special guest from Glendora, California, is Ryan Peck. And Ryan is a cold-email king – and we’ll talk about that – business consultant, entrepreneur, and business owner. He’s probably the only person in the world to partner with Amazon through a cold email. He’s gotten the attention of many executives from many Fortune 500 companies and three of the top Fortune 10 companies in the world, and it’s a real pleasure to have you here, Ryan. How’s life?
Ryan Peck: It’s great, David. First off, thank you for having me on the show. I’m excited, and life is fantastic.
David Brower: Good.
Ryan Peck: Thank you.
David Brower: Good. You bet. So many of us, even though we don’t what we don’t know about the term “cold email,” we certainly heard it. I’m sure a lot us have no clue what that means. Is it similar to the old-school cold call, only you’re doing it via email?
Ryan Peck: Yeah, no, you’re spot on. It’s exactly what it is. So, yeah, cold email is basically you’re reaching out business-to-business through an email instead of a calling. And basically you’re reaching out to somebody you don’t know. They don’t know who you are. They don’t know your message. They don’t know your culture. They don’t know your company, nothing about you. And you’re trying to start a business relationship with them all through an email. Yeah, so that’s basically what it is.
David Brower: Wow. At first blush, that sounds impossible. But obviously it’s not.
Ryan Peck: No, it’s … Yeah, there’s things that … I like to say it’s 50 percent science, 50 percent art, that then will basically make people successful at the cold emailing. But it definitely works.
David Brower: That’s cool.
Ryan Peck: It’s how you play it. It definitely works.
David Brower: You teach businesses how to cold mail to grow startups, right?
Ryan Peck: Yep, absolutely.
David Brower: Because oftentimes startups, they don’t know what they don’t know, and they’re just anxious to get going and they want to make a million dollars next week. Sometimes their dreams get ahead of their common sense, so do you run into that from time to time?
Ryan Peck: Almost every time. Yeah. And most of the time I talk with new business owners, whether you’re a solopreneur, entrepreneur for the whole team. Any startup or any little company, they, like you said, they have big, old lofty goals. And it all comes down to customer acquisition. It’s probably one of the hardest things to figure out in business. By figuring out customer acquisition channeling. If you want to make a million dollars, but aren’t sure what … how to actually bring in new customers or new contracts. And there’s so many things now, whether it’s Facebook advertising, Google advertising, PPC, [inaudible 00:02:58] advertising, FBO. So many things you can do. All of them cost money. And the nice thing about cold emailing is if it’s done right, it can either be free or it can be very, very, very inexpensive. Almost anybody on any budget can do it.
David Brower: I’ll be darned.
Ryan Peck: It makes it nice.
David Brower: Absolutely, because you do, you hear about all the other “pay me now, I’ll make it work later” kind of stuff. The SEO, the Facebooks, the paper click. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. And if you’re a startup, just reading a list of all those opportunities is going to drive you crazy, because again, you don’t know what you don’t know about it.
Ryan Peck: Yeah.
David Brower: And especially when startups are in a very highly competitive market, that’s got to be pretty challenging.
Ryan Peck: Yeah, yeah. No, it is. And like you just said too, I mean, it’s challenging because, for one, they don’t have the knowledge they need. There’s ten different, 20, 30, 50 different channels you can go and find your customer acquisition. They’re not quite sure what to do. And then two, you really have to have deep pockets to compete with these other companies when it comes to traditional advertising. You know, if you’re competing against all the larger companies who are already at the million dollar mark, who are paying top dollar for advertising, to try and compete with them makes it a little hard for startups and for business owners to try and really stand out and get things done. I love cold email, I use it every day in my business and I help teach it, and it works. I think it’s an untold secret of marketing that people just don’t really know about it, and if done right, it can help any business owners, whether large or small. So it’s fantastic.
David Brower: So how did that come into your life? Where was the epiphany that said, “I’m gonna be the cold email king?” I mean, I’m sure you didn’t say those words, but you’re certainly given credit for that.
Ryan Peck: No, no, yeah. Thank you, I appreciate that. But you know, to give you a quick story, two years ago when I was in a typical nine to five thing, going to work, coming home, watching Netflix, going to sleep. Waking up, going to work, coming home, watching Netflix, going to sleep. Doing the nine to five thing day in and day out, like a lot of people.
I ended up getting really sick just out of the blue, I ended up having what’s called bilateral DVT, which is basically blood clots going from my ankles up to my going in both legs, top to bottom, and then I had multiple clots break off and travel to the arteries in my lungs, restricted the blood flow, which is pretty fatal. But I’m here now, you know. I ended up being okay, which is a miracle, I give thanks every day I’m here now. And so that changed things for me, I was no longer able to do the nine to five thing. I was on bed rest for months, I couldn’t do anything. My business took a nosedive. I kinda gave up on it for a few months there.
And then finally, one time, I wanted to get things done and make things happen, and so I took advantage of my time of being at home, in bed or on the couch, alone, with nobody or nothing around, with really no marketing budget. I had that desired and drive to start growing my business again. At that point, it really wasn’t anything. I started research ways of what can an entrepreneur do, or what can I do, being limited by myself with only a laptop on the couch or in my bed, with nothing around, with no budget. So I kind of came across, stumbled across cold email marketing. I wasn’t familiar with it, I didn’t know anything about it.
So that’s really how I got started was, that situation kind of forced me to take that approach. Because I had no money. That forced me to take that approach, and I did. And that’s how I got started, and here I am now. One thing just lead to another, you know. It’s been a roller-coaster journey, but it’s been great. So that illness, the sickness has been a blessing in my life, actually.
David Brower: It always amazes me, when we are dealt some life challenges, be them small, be them large. At the time, they’re all large. And when those are able in some way, shape or form to turn around into an opportunity that just comes out of the blue, right? Well, first of all, there’s no such thing as a coincidence, so, let’s start with that. But it’s just fascinating to me. And you hear those kinds of stories all the time. I’m a man of faith and I get it, you know. I know where all that comes from and I’m filled with gratitude for everything that I have in my life. But when you don’t, when you are bedridden, when you’ve given up the ghost, when some people, frankly, will be thinking about suicide in that environment. To be able to grab on to something, to go “All right, man, I’m gonna get inspired here. I’m gonna figure this out.” That’s fascinating to me, how you were able to do that and then go from ground zero to the sky.
Ryan Peck: Yeah, I know. I appreciate that, and thank you. I am myself a man of faith, and during that time, I had to go through a dark, emotional time in order to get to, I guess, the light emotional time. And you know, it took me a little bit of time, and my wife and kid there, but I’m excited I went through that trial. It definitely was a grueling experience, but that trial definitely shaped me and changed me into now who I am. Changed me as a person and my business as well.
David Brower: And I bet your family is stronger because of it.
Ryan Peck: Absolutely. Yep.
David Brower: Yeah, fascinating.
So tell me, without giving away the store, what are kind of the basics in layman’s term, how this cold email program works?
Ryan Peck: Yeah, so, basically as long as … there’s a lot of intricates that go into it, but looking at the big picture, anybody with an email account and internet access can do it. It’s free to get a Gmail account, I prefer Gmail. It’s free to get a Gmail account, and if they have internet, you can even get free internet if you go into, like, Starbucks or something or a coffee shop. So basically anybody can do it. And obviously when you dive a little deeper, there’s a little more detail to make it more successful, but on a big picture, anybody can do it, and it’s free as long as they have that desire and they just take action.
But yeah, it’s available worldwide for anybody to get started and to just start trying it out like I did a few years ago. I didn’t know what I was doing, I didn’t have any clue what was going on, but I said, hey, I have an internet, I have an email account, I’m just gonna start firing away. And then I learned from my experiences and changed things and adapt and research and re-use and listen, you know, changing it along the way. When I help companies, I help track that or shorten that learning curve that I went through, and kind of give away … or not give away, but teach people, do this, do that. Like I said, it’s 50% science, I say, and 50% art, where the science I guess you would say is, you know you need an email account, that’s set in stone. You know you need an internet, that’s set in stone. I prefer a minimum of five emails in a sequence, that means you’re sending out five consecutive emails to the same person following up, you know, so that’s the science. There’s software that can automate it for you and do do it all for you. There’s software too that can even find and search and find contact information for the people you’re going to be emailing. Those are the sciences behind it.
And then the art comes in, it’s just like painting. The art comes in, well, what do you say, how do you say it? What words should you use? What should you use in a subject line? What if I tweaked this, maybe it’ll have better open rates. What if I add this, maybe I can get better responses. So that part, there’s really no set in stone of what you have to do, it’s just the art behind it, You try things, you build on things, you experience that, you adapt and your keep trying and investing and progressing.
David Brower: So that part of it is very fluid. You just, you’re taking what you teach people, and they absorb it can have some confidence with it, start to jump in with it. And then it becomes very fluid because they’re kind of learning on their own what’s gonna work best for them, right? Cause it’s not the same for everybody, it’s not a black and white, turn-key operation that you’re teaching.
Ryan Peck: No, you’re absolutely right. The example I like to use with that is, would you rather have, like, Tiger Woods, would you rather have his golf clubs, which is the science, or would you rather have his swing, which is kind of the art?
David Brower: Oh, yeah, I like that.
Ryan Peck: I can show you both, but obviously Tiger Woods’ swing is gonna vary a little different for each person, because of the the body size, the body composition, their muscle mass, you know, their weight. So it’s gonna vary a little bit by person, and their industry and their niche. So it’s gonna change a little bit. But if I can teach the science and teach the art and everyone will at least have a solid base and know what they’re doing to kind of start going, and learning how to do it on their own, and learning how to tweak things and learn how to add things and learn how to experiment with things. But yeah, that’s kind of how it works. I love it, I enjoy it. I enjoy helping people, I enjoy teaching people. It’s a passion, and I enjoy this industry and this niche and it’s great. I think everyone should be doing it.
David Brower: And it obviously comes across exactly as you just stated, which adds some immediate credibly when you’re reaching out to a potential student and they’re curious and they don’t know what they don’t know. But you can certainly sense your knowledge, your passion, your experience, your joy in doing this, and that has to help those new clients, if you will, I’ll call them students, but. It has to help those new clients, if you will, just kinda got, okay, I can trust this guy.
Ryan Peck: Yeah, no, I appreciate that. Yeah. I enjoy it and I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback from people I’ve been able to help, and testimonials. And I really do enjoy it, knowing I’m good at it, but I actually, to be honest, I enjoy teaching others more than actually I probably enjoy doing it. And that’s just a passion of mine. You know, I’ve taught different things, but this specifically. I just enjoy being around people, I enjoy teaching them, I enjoy helping them. So I agree with what you said.
David Brower: I remember that from another life time, I was in radio for a very long time and I used to teach salespeople. And I hate to sell, I mean I hate to sell. But I could teach sales people all day long because it was so much fun. They’re like a sponge, and you see the payoff, and you see them light up and you see their success. That was a lot more fun than trying to sell something.
Ryan Peck: No, absolutely. There’s just this thing where you can actually help another human being or help another entrepreneur, business owner, and help them and teach them and see the change in them, Its just, it’s something you can only experience if you actually do it. And then if you’ve done it, like you said, when you were teaching sales people. Just having that, just seeing that, is just a joy that comes to you. It really is just a joy. I enjoy it.
David Brower: Yeah. In your business, I would think, and obviously you know this better than I, but I would think that word-of-mouth referrals would help you grow your business.
Ryan Peck: Yeah. No, absolutely. I’ve gotten quite a few referrals from people who have come and who I’ve been able, fortunate enough, to help and elevate and teach them with these strategies. No, absolutely, a lot of them, probably to the majority, have definitely been fantastic in referring me to some colleagues of theirs and coworkers of theirs. I felt people who worked additional nine to five jobs for an actual company that they’re not the owner, they work nine to five, but they’re taking these strategies and they’re applying them for their marketing position or their position at the job they work for. And I’ve also been able to teach the same strategies to entrepreneurs, you know, our business owners, who are basically a one- or five-man show trying to get things done. So it can really work for anybody and I’ve gotten referrals from both segments, from entrepreneurs referring colleagues and even the typical employee referring some of their colleagues as well. So, you know, it’s great.
David Brower: And I would think, too, there’s an opportunity, it might be a small percentage, but I think there’s an opportunity for those who you teach that are working nine to five jobs for companies to get into that, develop it, study it, become successful and go, “What in the world am I doing here? I’m gonna go start my own thing and I’m gonna bring these skill sets with me and I’m gonna be my own boss.” Do you run into that?
Ryan Peck: Yeah, absolutely. There’s a few people who actually say, “Man, I’m trying to hone this and have a few more things to do before I can actually go on my own and get things done. This is an eye-opener. If I have this, like what you just said, if I have strategy that I’m doing it for somebody else and it’s working, I’m getting paid to do it, I can do it on my own at ten times my income. So absolutely, you’re spot on when you said that there’s been a few cases.
David Brower: How cool. So people want to reach out to you, I know you have a Facebook page that a lot of people follow you on, you’ve been featured on ePodcast Network, Entrepreneur.com, Ink.com, and many other places. And of course associating yourself with some of the top companies in the world. But also, just some mom and pop startup stuff, right?
Ryan Peck: Yeah, yep.
David Brower: So if somebody wants to reach out to you, what’s the best way for them to get ahold of you and see if you’re a fit?
Ryan Peck: Oh, I would say the best way I would recommend is just joining, I have a free Facebook group I started not long ago, so anyone can just join it, and there I give free training, I give free advice, I answer questions and anybody can join this group whether they’re self-employed or they are employed or they just want to learn these strategies. It is called, you can just search “cold email marketing for entrepreneurs.” Anyone can join that group, get free advice. It’s just a free Facebook group, there’s no commitment. You can ask me questions in there, I do trainings in there. It’s something that I recently started a few months back as a request that people were saying, hey, you should get a group and start teaching people on a broader basis. So I recently started it and I’m glad I did, because that is just people from all over the world in the group and so it’s pretty exciting. So, yeah, “Cold Email Marketing for Entrepreneurs.” Join the group, join the movement, enjoy the teaching and trainings that are in there.
David Brower: And somewhere along the line, they’ll become a true client of yours, and then you’ll help them really to take off, right?
Ryan Peck: Yeah, no, absolutely, yeah. And for those who actually are in a group and see the trainings and take action, they’re the ones who see the value in it, and they can reach out, you know, shoot me a message, and we can discuss from there how to become an actual one-on-one client. And that’s when things can really start happening on a bigger basis But yeah, I would just say step one is join the free group, get free trainings, you know, and go from there. And if it’s great, then great, let’s go forward from there.
David Brower: What a great way to put your toe in the water, folks. It’s a win-win because you have no investment, you’re just able to absorb and learn and get a sense for Ryan’s approach to everything, and then when that light goes off, you just go, “All right, let’s do this.” So they do a search, again, for “Cold Email”?
Ryan Peck: Yep. “Cold Email Marketing for Entrepreneurs.”
David Brower: Okay, cool. Very cool. Ryan, anything else you want to plug while we got you here, man? You do amazing stuff and this is like the fastest 20 minutes on the planet, so …
Ryan Peck: Yeah, I just looked at the clock and was like, oh my god! It’s been 20 minutes! Wow!
No, I just appreciate you having me on the show, Dave. I appreciate it. And I hope I’ll be able to provide some good insight to your audience and I love it. So thank you.
David Brower: Absolutely, you bet. Most enjoyable and just a great guy. I love talking to you, man. Continued success and enjoy those family trips.
Ryan Peck: Thank you, I appreciate it.
David Brower: All right. Ryan Peck from Glendora, California. And again, search on Facebook for “Cold Email Marketing Entrepreneur” and he’ll hook you up for free. Have a great day, man! Take care.
Ryan Peck: You too. Bye-bye.
Allan Blackwell: Your 20-Minute Podcast with David Brower has been brought to you by Audible. You can listen to any of David’s podcasts anywhere podcasts can be found, including iHeartRadio, the Spotify mobile app, and at DavidBrowerVO.com/your20minutepodcast. Until next time, thanks for listening.