Hey Reader,

If I were to ask you: “Who are you glad to have met in your career?”

Is there a person who comes to mind?

Of the countless people you’ve met over the years, a few probably stand out. You had an immediate connection, you understood each other, communication felt effortless, and you kept looking for ways to work together.

These kinds of connections don’t happen often. You remember exactly when and where you met and, if someone made the introduction, you’re forever grateful for the connection.

Relationships like these can be super valuable. Two or three can completely change your life.

After experiencing it, you might feel inspired to become a connector yourself.

After all, who wouldn’t want to introduce the next dynamic duo to each other? They’ll credit you for the connection, and that feels great.

But there’s a danger here. Introducing two people sounds so simple and innocent, but there’s a significant risk to doing it wrong.

And I see a lot of people do it wrong.

If you forget to do this one small thing, you can come across rude, or worse—harm your credibility.

That one thing?

The double opt-in.

Let’s say Sarah has a friend named Jane who is the COO of a software company. Sarah meets someone named John at an event who wants her to introduce him to Jane. We’ll give Sarah the benefit of the doubt and say she vetted John and thinks he’d be great to connect with Jane.

Sarah does what a lot of people do next which is a single opt-in. Here’s what it looks like (this is an example of what not to do):

This is called a single opt-in introduction because John was the only one who got a chance to opt in. Jane never got a say as to whether she wanted to connect with John.

What’s wrong with this? Well, a number of things:

• ❌ Jane is pressured to make a tough decision - The burden is on Jane to decide between not responding to an unsolicited email (which might position her as uncaring), or responding out of pressure to save face with both Sarah and John.
• ❌ Jane wasn’t given an opportunity to opt-in - Jane may not have the bandwidth for new connections right now. Or she might not see a benefit to meeting John for reasons Sarah was unaware of. But it’s too late now.
• ❌ Jane has more work now - Sarah just put extra work on Jane’s plate. Jane now has to navigate an awkward situation. If Jane doesn’t handle this right, she risks looking bad to John.

Not only did Sarah put Jane in an uncomfortable position, but Sarah tarnished her own reputation. Now whenever Jane thinks of Sarah, she remembers the awkward situation and how Sarah created a burden for her.

All of this could have been avoided by changing one sentence and using a double opt-in.

Here’s what a double opt-in introduction looks like (this is what you should do):

That one sentence at the end changes everything. Instead of presuming, Sarah gives Jane an opportunity to opt in to the introduction beforehand, ensuring a positive experience for all parties involved.

• ✅ Jane can politely decline without worrying about how it looks to John because John is not CC’d on the email. If she does opt in, she now sees this as a positive connection and credits Sarah for the opportunity.​
• ✅ John doesn’t end up thinking less of Jane if she declines because it was done in private. If Jane agrees to the introduction, John only ever has a positive association with her.
• ✅ Sarah comes out looking better than before by showing good intent and making an effort to save everyone time and avoid uncomfortable situations. Her relationships with Sarah and John are stronger as a result.

The next time you want to connect two people, ask each party separately before making an introduction.

Double opt-in introductions make sure everyone thinks highly of you and has a great experience.

​

PODCAST

3 Steps to Double Revenue on Your Next Product Launch

In this episode of Billion Dollar Creator, I coached Frannie Wilson, co-founder of Ampersand studios, on her recent digital product launch.

We cover:

• The top 3 launch mistakes creators make (and how to avoid them)
• The types of scarcity you need to boost momentum
• How to get more people on your list to buy
• The biggest launch mistake I see
• Pricing tiers to maximize sales

Tune in to learn promotional tactics that’ll have your audience ready to buy, the power of tiered pricing, and the secret to timing your launch for maximum impact.

​Watch or listen to episode »​

CONVERTKIT FEATURE

Creator Profile: Advanced CSS customization

No website? No problem. ConvertKit’s Creator Profile makes it easy to set up your public newsletter feed to drive more readers to your content.

And now, we’ve added CSS capabilities on the Creator Profile with over 60 classes to make designing your site much easier.

You can update your whole site or just a specific page, customize your sign up forms, redesign the layout of certain blocks, and more.

Click below for a list of CSS classes you can use on your Creator Profile:

​Learn more »​

​

VIDEO

Learn great copywriting in 76 minutes

David Perell interviews the “best copywriter he knows”, Harry Dry, to talk about some of the principles that helped him build a 130,000-person newsletter.

I was completely enthralled.

David lists some fantastic takeaways from the interview. Here are the first five:

1. A great sentence is a good sentence made shorter.
2. Writing great copy begins with having something to say in the first place.
3. Copy is like food. How it looks matters.
4. Since the look of copy matters so much, don't write copy in Google Docs. Write it in Figma (so you can write and design at the same time).
5. Kaplan's Law of Words: Any word that isn't working for you is working against you.

There are 13 more fantastic takeaways in David's pinned comment on YouTube, so even if you don’t watch the whole interview, those alone are worth clicking through.

​Watch video »​

Have a great week!

—Nathan