It all started with a simple commitment: send 2 outreach emails per week.

It could be to anyone, preferably someone who'd hire us to do work for them, but that wasn't required.

Former clients, current active clients, college friends, people we met at conferences, neighbors, old prospects who didn't choose us, former employees, other agency leaders, authors of books we read, founders of brands whose products we recently bought, CEOs and CMOs at dream client brands, etc.

Many of our messages would go unanswered, but every now and then, these emails would turn into meetings and some would turn into referrals or deals. Others would turn into intros to potential new hires or speaking engagements or invitations to join new communities.

Over time, we increased the number of outreach messages from 4 to 6 to 8. At one point, we sent 12 handcrafted messages a week before we settled on 10. Sometimes we'd only be able to do 4 and not quite hit 10. But that didn't really matter. All that mattered was that every week, we sent out some number of outreach emails. It was the streak, the consistency that counted.

Looking back, it's clear that this one habit saved us so many times. It's what got us the much needed new business during tough times. It's what led to key hires for key roles at the right moments. It's what opened the door for new learnings and experiences that changed the trajectory of our businesses and careers.

And these messages were so simple and straightforward. It was also clear that they weren't automated and coming from some mass campaign.

"Hi Peter, how's it going? Was curious how things are going at Barrel Holdings. Want to catch up in the coming weeks?"

"Hi Peter, I came across your writing and found your article on email outreach really helpful. Was wondering if you'd be open to a video call, would love to ask you some questions about a challenge we're having with our agency."

Sure, you can get to a degree of personalization with AI-powered tools these days and get a campaign like this going. Maybe that's fine, you can focus on following up to responses then and perhaps still get the benefit. The key here is to establish a repeatable action that can compound over time. The weekly outreach habit is simple and repeatable. But that's also why it's hard – simple things are easy to do, simple things are also easy not to do.

When I've shared this with various agency leaders, most people instantly recognize the power and value. However, very few fully commit and do it consistently. They do it for a few weeks before getting too busy with inbound leads or client work. "Oh, I didn't have time for it," is a refrain I've heard countless times. And only when they're starving for leads and not busy at all do they start picking it up again.

Well, if that happens, you're really not getting the benefit. The true impact of this habit comes from the consistency, the cumulative effects, and the compounding over time. Just because you start doing it right now doesn't mean you'll get a deal next week. It takes time – weeks, months, years – and it often takes multiple touches.

Let's say you commit to doing 5 outreach emails a week. That's 250+ contacts per year. Even with a 30% response rate and a 15% meeting rate, you're talking about almost 40 meetings per year. That's around 3 a month. And out of that, perhaps you get 1 potential opportunity every 2 months. That's 6 deals.

Doesn't sound that impressive?

True story: we had a year when things started out really bad. We didn't win enough deals going into a new year. We were really behind on revenue. But in the background, we kept our outreach habit going. In a span of 2 weeks, a few of the outreach targets from the previous months came back to us with new opportunities. Two of these ended up totaling over $1 million the next 2 years. It gave us the lifeline we needed to turn things around.

We have dozens of other such stories. The opportunities come at unpredictable times, but they come.

And it doesn't have to be just 1 person at an agency. It could be 2, 3, 4 or 5 people. Make it a team effort. Broaden the reach. More chances for serendipity.

The barrier to entry is none. The upfront initial investment is zero. All it takes is getting started and having the discipline to keep it going. Good luck.