Building a side project alone can be daunting at times. You’re alone and need to morally support yourself to sustain.
It can be challenging to solve some problems alone. I highly recommend taking assistance from experts who have been on your path.
But guess what?
Most people ask for assistance in the wrong way.
Here are some actionable tips.
(1) Not giving a clear context right in the first message
I recently got a message – “Hey”
Then I replied after 1 hour.
“Actually I wanted to ask ___”
I replied with my answer after 1 hour.
Had that person asked the same question in the first message, 1 hour would have been saved easily.
👇
✅ Hey Pritesh, I wanted to ask if your team is currently hiring content writers.
(2) Indulging in small talks before coming on point
Another worst approach that I see most people following. If it’s a known contact/friend, they keep having small talks before really coming to the point.
It’s a good practice to ask for a convenient time to discuss something.
But if you keep discussing your pet dog’s cuteness without any context after years of disconnect, it is a problem.
This not only wastes time but also adds the impression that you are just buttering at that moment to get your work done.
👇
❌ Hey Pritesh, how are you? I love your LinkedIn posts. How do you find time to write those? Posting constantly helps? Can you tell me how to post on LinkedIn? In fact, can you help me write a LinkedIn post?
✅ Hey Pritesh, I have written a LinkedIn post after a long time. Can you help me understand what I can improve there?
(3) Asking questions that can be easily Googled (or simply asked to ChatGPT now).
❌ Hey, can you tell me how I can do cold email outreach for my side project?
Such questions are too broad. I am trying to figure out what can be the real actionable answers to such broad questions when the internet is full of blog posts.
While asking for assistance, it’s always good to tell what things you tried/researched and ask for some specific help that is actionable.
👇
✅ Hey Pritesh, I am thinking to send cold outreach emails for my side project. But I see all tutorials recommend using a business email ID. But what if I use my personal Gmail ID?
(4) Expecting an immediate response
This is most annoying – someone will ask you for something over a text message and expect an immediate response.
Typically happens in office environments.
Quick call? What is even that? 🙄
Many people lack empathy. We don’t know the mental state of that person. Maybe that person just saw your message while being in a meeting. Or maybe it requires decision-making and time. Or simply anything.
It’s fine to follow up or simply ask for an estimated time. But it’s not fine to expect an immediate solution.
(5 – BONUS) – Ghosting after work is done
Avoid disappearing after you get assistance. Try to implement it and do share your feedback telling how that person’s advice helped you. That can make their day.
👇
✅ Hey Pritesh. Remember we talked about increasing the bounce rate on my website traffic?
I slightly changed the structure of my web page design and it dropped down from 80% to 40%! Thanks, man!
TODAY’S ACTION ITEM FOR YOU
I have provided some examples above. Try to use those while asking for assistance.
Have you ever outreached for your side project?
1) If yes, reply to this email telling your successes and experiences with outreaching for assistance.
2) If no, reply to this email telling what you want people to do for you and I might help you with a template that you can use. We can brainstorm.
WHAT I DID THIS WEEK
Kept my weekend really free with the least number of tasks.
Just went shopping with my family and ended up with a nice dinner. Read a book and watched 2 movies. Plain and simple weekend.
The office was stormy and hectic due to multiple ongoing projects and then suddenly got calm as I took 2 days off for visiting my hometown. Yes, I am currently in my hometown to wrap up some work.
My favorite part – those train journeys 🙂
BOOK I AM CURRENTLY READING
I read “Be Present in This Moment” which is all about mindfulness, meditation, and the art of living in the moment.
We often think about practicing mindfulness and consuming inspirational content while going through mental trauma.
But here’s what I believe –
You don’t go to the gym after getting sick. We have hospitals for that.
You don’t practice mindfulness after getting into mental trauma. We have psychologists for that.
AROUND THE WEB
If you use Twitter and want to convert any tweet into beautiful images, explore Poet So. Taking screenshots of tweets and posting on Instagram is old-school and boring.
This tool will help you to customize colors, sizes, responses, and many other things. I love this tool for its simplicity.