invite them to be quoted, not to a webinar

on a call monday a client asked us to turn his outreach into webinar invites.

he's built his whole business on a youtube channel with tens of thousands of subscribers. people mention it in nearly every intro email. the ad money is a bonus. the channel is how his clients find him.

he didn't want more podcast guests. he wanted his program full. so the instinct was simple... invite the people he wants as clients to a webinar, show them what he knows, and let them raise their hands.

we told him the honest read. cold webinar invites to high net worth people are weak.

think about it from the inbox of the person you're inviting. they run a company or a portfolio. they get invited to something every day. a webinar invite asks them to block an hour, sit in a grid of muted faces, and listen to someone they've never met explain something they probably already know.

you're asking them for attention and offering them a seat in the audience.

wealthy, busy people don't want a seat in the audience. they want to be on the stage.

so emiliano flipped it. don't invite them to watch. invite them to contribute.

frame the outreach as research for upcoming youtube videos. you're making something on a topic they know cold, and you'd value their perspective. a quote. a take. a story from their side of the table.

same person, same inbox, completely different ask. the first email says come listen to me. the second says i want to hear from you.

we'd seen a version of this work before. another client ran it as research for a book, and it worked.

and the beauty of it for the client is the control.

he doesn't have to publish anything. there's no promise of an episode, no obligation to air a weak conversation. he keeps the pre-interview, so he can be as selective as he wants, one in a hundred if that's his bar. if a conversation doesn't land, the worst case is the video stays unlisted.

but every one of those people got the spotlight. they were asked for their view. they prepped for it. they spent half an hour with him as a peer, not a prospect.

and when the conversation is over, who do you think they call when they need what he sells?

this is the same thing i've been doing with the show for years. nobody wants to talk to sunny ray. everybody wants to talk to the show. a podcast invite never gets flagged as spam, because it's a gift, not an ask.

if you're writing a webinar invitation email right now, try one exercise before you send it. read it and count how many sentences are about you. your topic, your expertise, your time slot, your link.

then rewrite it so every sentence is about them. their experience. their opinion. the thing only they can add.

you'll notice something. the webinar goes away and you didn't miss it.

one more thing about the pre-interview, because people skip it. it's not a formality. it's where he finds out who is worth an hour of his time and who isn't, without either side losing face. the contributor who doesn't fit still got asked for their view. nobody got rejected. some conversations just stayed quiet.

the long game here is bigger than one campaign. a webinar is a one hour transaction. a quote, a contribution, a credit in something you made... that's the start of a relationship that can run for years.

the whole playbook for this, invites, prep, the follow up, is in the spotlight, and it's free.

so look at the last invite you sent... were you asking them to listen, or asking them to speak?