How to grow a list of CEOs, execs, and other hard-to-reach types

This one goes out to anyone here who is starting their list from scratch—i.e., you have zero people on your list still, or at least zero right people.

A tiny half-case study about an approach you can take to get a list of good people.

I say half-case study because I chose to eject from this particular experiment early on, for reasons I will share.

But I think the principle holds.

Here’s what I did:

1. I talked to a friend who happens to be a corporate coach and consultant here in BCN. Every month she gives trainings in front of dozens/hundreds of people in startups or corporations around Europe.

2. I had been telling her for years she should start a newsletter so she could stay in touch with the people who took her trainings and the people who hired her for it (currently, she gets her work through a kind of agency).

3. She always said, "Yeah, yeah, good idea," and of course, never did it.

4. A couple of weeks ago, I said, "Why don't I do it for her?" I pitched her the idea. I'd write a weekly newsletter for her. She could supply specific ideas if she wanted, or I could dig them up based on sources of info she recommends (e.g., websites, journals, etc.). And I'd do it all for free. My only ask was for her to allow me to put an ad at the bottom of her newsletter promoting something that would be interesting and relevant to her audience. I even offered her 10% from whatever I might make from an ad if I were promoting, say, a $5K course or something like that. (I wanted her to feel both good about the ad and invested in having the ad run.)

5. To grow the list, I suggested we promote it to her LinkedIn contacts (about 3K—lots of other coaches, CEOs, heads of HR, etc.) and tease relevant lead magnets to the people who attend her trainings in exchange for signing up.

6. She said, "Let's try it," and sent me a bunch of articles that could form the basis of topics for her newsletter.

7. I got Claude to take one of her articles and spin it into a 150-word newsletter segment. Then I took some stuff from her LinkedIn for personal context/self-promotion... a picture of her cat from our WhatsApp chat as a close... some links from the internet as general interest... and I squeezed in my ad. The ad was promoting? My own newsletter services, which are currently free.

8. My friend loved it and was ready to proceed.

9. Then I shut the whole thing down.

I shut it down because, while having an audience of corporate types definitely sounds good (those people spend money), it's just too far from what I'm currently doing, and frankly, it's another shiny object distraction.

But maybe it could be relevant to you.

This isn't just a means of getting clients. Frankly, I don't want clients. I looked at this as a means of building a valuable list—or rather, distribution network—which I could use to do whatever: grow the distribution network bigger (by getting more such free newsletter clients), cross-promote offers from various coaches in the stable, or promote other services or products (again, corporate types will spend tends of thousands of dollars readily to solve a problem).

This is also not just about having a friend who is a corporate coach consultant. There are bunches of people out there — among your friends, contacts, on your credit card statement, even in your browsing history — who don't have an email newsletter, but who could benefit from one. If you have the drive, you can tap into their expanding network or existing audience to grow your own, by offering to do their newsletter for free, like I did with my friend.

I'm not sure if anybody has the ambition and drive to do anything similar... but if you have no list, and in particular, if you are struggling to get the right kinds of people onto your list (i.e., CEOs, founders, etc.), it might be worth considering.

And if you do it, please let me know, so I can feel bad about the missed opportunity.

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