Jul 26, 2020

Loonshot (1/5)

By Mustafa Sultan • Issue #22 • View online

Hello friends,

When I started my podcast, I made a list of the 5 most interesting people I could interview. With only friends and family listening, I had no business speaking to these people — they were total loonshots

This week I spoke to loonshot #1: Dr Eric Topol. Here’s everything I learnt about contacting people above your station.

Mid jam with Eric Topol

Here’s the email I sent to Eric Topol and my opinion on why it worked.

Disclaimer: I have no idea if anything I did actually works. Maybe Eric Topol woke up on the right side of the bed this particular morning. Take away whatever you think sounds sensible — ignore the rest.

Hi Dr Topol,

Do you believe in loonshots?

I recently interviewed one of my heroes — Dr Pearse Keane on my medical student-run podcast: Big Picture Medicine. He said that you were his hero, so now I’m emailing the hero of my hero.

I’ve been a great fan of your work for a long time: the Topol Review, The Patient Will See You Now, Doctor Penguin, Medicine and the Machine and more.

When I started this podcast, I made a list of the five most interesting guests I could interview. The problem? All five are loonshots — people ridiculously out of reach.

So I’m writing to you to ask if you’d speak to medical students in the UK? 30 minutes whenever you have the time.

I know that you’re currently involved in a lot of important work, and completely understand if it’s a no.

Thank you and all the best,

Mustafa

Analysis

The Hook 🎣

Do you believe in loonshots?

Why should someone carry on reading? Cause some intrigue.

Establish Credibility 👨‍⚕️

I recently interviewed one of my heroes — Dr Pearse Keane on my medical student-run podcast: Big Picture Medicine. He said that you were his hero, so now I’m emailing the hero of my hero.

Name drop, name drop, name drop.

Story 📚

When I started this podcast, I made a list of the five most interesting guests I could interview. The problem? All five are loonshots — people ridiculously out of reach.

I have no idea if this works — but I know people like stories. The most basic form of a story is a problem -> solution. In this story, Eric Topol would be the hero by agreeing to the interview.

Be Specific 🎯

So I’m writing to you to ask if you’d speak to medical students in the UK? 30 minutes whenever you have the time.

I try and be very specific with my request so they know what they’re signing up for. This applies when I’m emailing to pick someone’s brain as well:

❌ “Can I ask you some questions over coffee?”

✅ “Could we have a short phone call when suits you? I’d love to ask for your advice about X, Y and Z.”

Give Them an Out 🙏

I know that you’re currently involved in a lot of important work, and completely understand if it’s a no.

Not sure if this helps, but seems polite.

General Strategies

The First Email is Just Foreplay 😩

I never expect (and rarely get) a reply from my first email. The Eric Topol email was ignored until I followed up.

In other words: follow up, then follow up and then follow up again. Show that you’re serious.

If I could only send 50 emails for my podcast, I wouldn’t email 50 different people. I would email 10 people and follow up 4 times.

Be Concise 📏

This email is a bad example — but it’s (usually) worth not telling your whole life story. As long as you’re clear with 1) what you want 2) and why they should give it to you — everything else can be cleared up in follow up.

Quantity is King 👑

Even with all of these (amazing!!) tips — I get something like a 10% response rate. Maybe 20% if I spend a lot of time on the email. It goes up to about 30% if I follow up. It can go as high as 50% if I keep on following up.

It Doesn’t Always Work 😭

I’ve been emailing Babylon CEO: Ali Parsa (also on my loonshot list) since 2018. Initially to shadow him — and now for an interview. Me and Ali’s secretary (Michelle) have a love/hate relationship: I love emailing her — she just… hates hearing from me.

A small flavour of our emails

Once I tried to bypass Michelle and messaged Ali directly on LinkedIn…

But Michelle caught me 😩

Make Your Goals Public 📸

I think broadcasting what you want feels really weird but is ridiculously beneficial. This is something Dr Umang Patel told me on a recent podcast:

Make an easily consumable story… even if you don’t know what that story is (e.g. I’m Umang and I want to be the chief executive of an NHS Trust)

Once you have this — everyone you meet immediately knows what box to put you in and how they can help you.

People want to help you. Make it easy for them.

This is why I tell everyone about my loonshot list and potential guests I want to connect with. Sometimes it helps in really unexpected ways:

Dr Mo Sattar

@BeingMo

Lost me connect you both @MustafaSultan & @ShafiAhmed5 #greatminds #AI #google #glasssurgeon

11:08 AM - 27 Jun 2020

Prof Shafi Ahmed PhD FRCS

@ShafiAhmed5

@MustafaSultan @BeingMo Happy to help

12:12 PM - 27 Jun 2020

That’s it. I hope you didn’t throw up in your mouth a little bit from me giving unsolicited advice. Hope this helped Ranga.

Ranga Sampath

@youplusai

@MustafaSultan @EricTopol This is huge..he is an absolute hero for me too in Healthcare+AI.

Please give me the tip on how you made this happen :) -> I have a podcast too :).

6:13 PM - 22 Jul 2020

Podcast Episodes

#020 Deep Medicine — Dr Eric Topol

‎What would you be working on if you were a medical student today?

Dr Eric Topol is in the top 10 most cited doctors in the history of Medicine. He is a cardiologist, geneticist and digital medicine expert — and was commissioned by the UK’s Health Secretary to write a report to prepare the NHS for t…

podcasts.apple.com • Share

#019 James Somauroo on Forging Your Own Career Path and Personal Branding — Dr James Somauroo somX

‎How do you forge your own career path as a doctor?

Dr James Somauroo is a former anaesthetics/ICU doctor and the founder of the healthtech agency: somX. He writes for Forbes and is also the host of the Health-tech podcast — the biggest podcast in this space with listeners in over 100 countries.

Fi…

podcasts.apple.com • Share

All the best

Musty