The DM I Sent With Zero Credentials
And why you'll talk yourself out of sending yours
I had no portfolio.
No proof.
No reason anyone should take me seriously.
Just a DM I'd rewritten 11 times, hovering over the send button like it might explode.
The guy on the other end?
Jay Campbell.
Entrepreneur.
Author.
Someone who gets hundreds of messages from people way more qualified than I was.
I sent it anyway.
That single message changed my entire trajectory.
Led to a business partnership.
Built multiple companies.
Taught 200+ students.
Generated over $500K in in 21 days.
All from a DM I almost didn't send.
The Credential Trap
You're waiting.
Waiting to finish the portfolio.
Waiting to have something impressive to show.
Waiting until you've got proof you belong in someone's inbox.
This is how most people think about cold outreach.
Build credibility first, reach out second.
Backwards.
Here's what actually happens when you wait.
Someone else who's less qualified but more willing sends the message instead.
They get the conversation.
They get the opportunity.
They get the thing you were planning to earn the right to ask for.
Credentials are a safety blanket.
A way to protect your ego from the possibility of rejection.
If you have an impressive background and someone ignores you, at least you can tell yourself they're busy or missing out.
But if you reach out with nothing and get ignored, you have to face the possibility that you're not good enough.
So you wait.
You build.
You refine.
You add one more project to your portfolio.
Meanwhile, the opportunity costs pile up in silence.
Every person you didn't message is a door that stayed closed.
Every conversation you delayed is a relationship that doesn't exist.
Every month you spend "getting ready" is a month someone else spent building the thing you're preparing for.
People don't respond to credentials.
They respond to clarity and energy.
Did Jay Campbell give a shit about my resume?
No.
He responded because the message was clear, direct, and showed I'd actually thought about what I could do for him.
No fluff.
No ego.
Just a specific idea and the willingness to prove it.
Most people never get that far because they're too busy polishing a portfolio nobody asked for.
The Math Equation
Cold outreach has stupid-simple math.
Send 100 messages.
Get 5 to 10 responses.
Need 1 to change everything.
Recent data shows cold email response rates sit around 5%, with LinkedIn DMs performing better at 10–17%.
That means if you send 100 thoughtful messages, you'll hear back from at least 5 people.
Maybe 10 if you're not terrible at this.
You only need one of those to matter.
One conversation that turns into a partnership.
One introduction that opens three more doors.
One person who sees potential and gives you a shot.
But here's where most people fuck this up.
They think the goal is a 100% response rate.
They agonize over every word, trying to craft the perfect message that nobody can ignore.
Then they send five messages, get no responses, and decide cold outreach doesn't work.
It's a volume game with a quality threshold.
You need to send enough messages that the math works in your favor.
But each message needs to be specific enough that it doesn't look like spam.
That's the balance.
Most people never hit volume because they're stuck in analysis paralysis.
Or they hit volume with garbage, copy-paste messages that scream "I sent this to 500 people."
Both approaches fail.
The people who win send a lot of messages that each feel like they were written for one person.
They accept that most won't respond.
They move on fast.
You're not competing with people who have better credentials.
You're competing with the 95% of people who won't send the message at all.
What Actually Stops You
It's not lack of skill.
You know how to write a message.
You know how to be clear and respectful.
You know how to Google someone's work and find an angle.
What stops you is ego protection disguised as "waiting until I'm ready."
"Who am I to message this person?"
"They get hundreds of messages from people way more qualified."
"I should wait until I have something impressive to show them."
"What if they think I'm wasting their time?"
"What if they don't respond and I have to accept that I'm not good enough?"
That last one is the real one.
Imposter syndrome isn't about lacking credentials.
It's about being terrified that someone will confirm what you secretly believe about yourself.
That you don't belong.
So you wait.
You build armor in the form of accomplishments.
You delay until you have enough proof that rejection won't sting as much.
But waiting doesn't make you more qualified.
It just makes you older.
I felt all of this before sending that message to Jay.
Rewrote it 11 times because I kept second-guessing every word.
Hovered over send because part of me wanted a reason not to.
Then I realized something.
The discomfort I was feeling had nothing to do with the message.
It was about what I'd have to accept if I sent it and nothing happened.
That I took a real shot and it didn't work.
That fear is the entire game.
Cold outreach is uncomfortable because it forces you to act without proof.
Without safety nets.
Without the ability to hide behind credentials or circumstances.
You're just you, sending a message, hoping someone sees potential.
Most people can't handle that level of vulnerability.
So they do nothing.
Because the theoretical rejection they might have received is more important in their mind than any actual real response.
The Compounding Nobody Sees
The first DM is the hardest.
The second one is still hard, but you've already survived sending one.
By the tenth, it's routine.
By the fiftieth, you've stopped attaching your self-worth to response rates.
Cold outreach is a skill that compounds.
Not because you get better at writing messages, though you do, but because you stop treating each message like a referendum on your value as a person.
You start seeing it for what it is.
A low-stakes way to start high-leverage conversations.
Most messages won't get responses.
Some will.
A few will change your trajectory.
Once you internalize that, everything shifts.
You're no longer sending messages hoping someone validates you.
You're starting conversations to see where they go.
The emotional weight disappears.
I've sent hundreds of cold messages since that first one to Jay.
Most went nowhere.
A handful turned into clients.
A few became friends.
One led to a business that changed my life.
None of that happens if I'm still sitting on message number one, rewriting it for the twelfth time.
The people who win at this are just the ones who kept going after everyone else stopped.
They accepted the rejection.
They moved past the silence.
They sent the next message.
It's not a personality trait.
It's a decision you make over and over until it stops feeling like a decision.
Your Move
You already know who you should message.
There's someone in your industry, your field, your orbit who's a few steps ahead of where you want to be.
Someone whose work you respect.
Someone who could change your trajectory if they gave you 15 minutes.
You've thought about reaching out.
Maybe even drafted a message.
But you haven't sent it because you're waiting for the right time.
The right credentials.
The right reason.
There is no right time.
Write the message.
Keep it under five sentences.
Make it about them, not you.
Be specific about why you're reaching out and what you're thinking.
Then send it before you're ready.
Before you've polished it to death.
Before you've convinced yourself you need one more thing in your portfolio.
Before you talk yourself out of it.
The worst thing that happens?
Silence.
Which is exactly what you have right now.
The best thing that happens?
Everything changes.
The DM that changed my life took three minutes to send and 11 rewrites to get there.
Yours won't be perfect either.
Send it anyway.
You're not competing with everyone.
You're competing with nobody.
Because most people never hit send.