It’s my pleasure Dan!

Thank you kindly for the comment, well wishes, and positive reception of my piece.

You make a good point regarding the significant time and effort that tDFW method requires. I interpret the kind of cold emails techniques for which I advocate in my article as something of a stepping stone in terms of bridging the gap between my skills, passions, and desires to work with top-tier clients on the one hand and my relative obscurity/lack of popularity on the other. Although I’ve been writing, editing, and teaching for many years now, I only recently began applying my knowledge and talents to the worlds of business, marketing, content creation, and so on. Cold email, thus, is one way that I’m trying to “break through”, i.e., by establishing contact with influential leaders in these industries so as to demonstrate my professionalism and expertise without having to spend years and years organically developing relationships. (I have nothing against cultivating genuine relationships with others — indeed, business is fundamentally about establishing and maintaining solid relationships — but in many cases and for many obvious reasons it’s simply not possible to “get to know somebody” naturally over time).

My goal — and I suspect it’s also the goal of virtually all other consultants and freelancers — is to utilize cold email only up to the point where my inbound marketing efforts take centre-stage such that potential clients start seeking out my services rather than the other way around. In fact, this change seems to be occurring in realtime as I’m receiving more and more correspondence from people who have read my content and/or received referrals from others with whom I’ve worked who would also like to discuss the possibility of hiring me.

All of this to say, then, that front-end-heavy marketing (like the tDFW strategy I discuss in my post) is, I suspect, often most useful for new(er) companies and independent contractors rather than for established and highly successful businesses and persons who literally don’t have the time or need to offer free work in the hopes of landing new clients.

I wish you the best of luck with your marketing efforts! I’d be happy to hear from you later this year if you’d be interested in providing me with an update.

Cheers :)