The Tumbleweed
my favorite email conversation-saving trick
A few months ago, I came up with a tactic that solves one of my biggest cold email problems — when conversations go, you know, silent — perfectly. It’s called the Tumbleweed, and you basically drop a Tumbleweed gif, with no supporting text, at the end of a dead conversation.
Example #1: The Long Pause
Me:
Heyyo John!
We might hire a BD person for this new thing we’re working on. You interested — i know you mentioned you were bored and wanted to come work with us a few months ago.
John Wayne: Yeah Totally!
Me: Sweet! Want to jump on a call after the weekend?
….PAUSE…
Me: [TUMBLEWEED]
John Wayne: LOL! Yeah let’s do a call this tuesday.
For those of you unfamiliar with the visual symbol, Tumbleweeds have come to represent locations that are desolate, dry, and often humorless, with few or no occupants. They can also be used to show a bad joke or a character otherwise making an absurd declaration, with the plant rolling past in the background and the wind effect emphasizing the awkward silence, similar to the sound of crickets (according to Wikipedia!).
Example #2: The Forgotten Thread
Me:
Hey Ben!
Loving the beta version of Context! Think we can tell the Openbeta Community about it this Thursday?
Ben: SILENT, 2-4 days
Me: [TUMBLEWEED]
Ben: Oh so sorry, read this on my phone and thought I responded! Totally, let’s do it.
Here’s why the Tumbleweed works so well:
It’s light
While “just checking in” is a nice gesture, it’s a little desperate. The Tumbleweed depicts the same message, but without being so awkward.
It makes people laugh
There’s no better cold email icebreaker than something you both find funny. Sometimes it backfires, but other times it gives me the chance to laugh with a stranger about the ridiculousness of the whole scenario.
It re-sparks the conversation on their terms
The tumbleweed is like a no pressure reminder. This makes the response on the candidates terms, which is significantly more “chill” than a desperate attempt for a phone call, IMHO.
Try the Tumbleweed yourself (using the Giphy Chrome Extension, of course) by dropping one into conversation within a month of your stale conversation, or as a conversation restarter at the 6 month mark-since-you-last-spoke mark. Also, please try other Gifs — crickets, question marks, awkard turtles — and let me know if you have any success!
And as always, email me if you have any specific questions/need advice about these tactics.
