Write the full five-message sequence for the practice job, then put it through the checklist. The checking is the part that changes how you write.
What to do
- Take five real profiles from the list you built in Module 3.
- For each, find the four things from Lesson 2: what they work on, which direction they are going, one concrete detail, and the honest reason this job is a step up.
- Write message 1 for all five — individually, not as a template with gaps.
- Write messages 2 to 5 as a sequence for one of them.
- Run the checklist on all five first messages and on the full sequence.
Step 2 is where most of the value is. If you cannot fill in the fourth item for one of your five, that is a finding. Note which profile and why.
What to hand in
Five first messages, one complete five-message sequence, the table of facts behind them, and a short note on any profile where you could not build an honest reason for contact.
How to know you have done it right
| Check | Good looks like |
|---|---|
| Specific | Each message has a detail that could apply to nobody else |
| Short | Message 1 under 90 words; message 4 under 40 |
| Accurate | Every fact checked against a live profile, not a search result |
| It progresses | Each message adds something the last one did not |
| Small ask | Message 1 asks a question, not for a meeting |
| Clean ending | Message 5 stops properly and asks about future jobs |
The swap test
Take your five first messages, swap the names between two of them, and read both. If they still make sense, they are not personal — they are a template with a variable in it.
This catches what the checklist misses, and it takes about ten seconds.
Check yourself before Module 7
- Which of the five was hardest to write? That is usually the person you should not have been contacting.
- Did your second message have a genuinely new fact, or did you write "following up on my message"?
- If someone replied "where did you get my details?", could you answer in one sentence? Module 3, Lesson 7 covers why you may need to.
- Would you reply to your own first message?
How long to spend
Forty-five minutes. Finding the facts should take longer than writing. If it does not, the messages are being generated rather than thought about — and the swap test will show it.