Big Idea

The argument in one line.

A four-step automated LinkedIn DM sequence — a blank connection request, a voice note, and a permission-gated personalized video — replaces one cold pitch with a series of small yeses that prospects thank you for.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…

A B2B founder, coach, or agency owner doing outbound on LinkedIn who wants prospects to respond warmly instead of ignoring cold pitches.
Someone already running LinkedIn connection automation who wants a proven message sequence to plug into it, not just more connection volume.
A salesperson or marketer comfortable recording short voice notes and screen-recorded videos as part of outreach.

SKIP IF…

You want a fully passive, zero-effort outreach method — this still requires recording a personalized video for every warm lead.
You sell to consumers rather than B2B decision-makers who use LinkedIn as a professional network.

TL;DR

The full version, fast.

Most cold LinkedIn outreach fails because it asks for too much, too soon, from the wrong people. This sequence fixes that with four low-friction steps: send a connection request with the note left blank (it raises acceptance and keeps your real message first in the inbox), follow with a casual 15-second voice note that disrupts the pattern of a text-only inbox, end that voice note by asking permission to send a video, then build a screen-recorded video that opens on the prospect's own LinkedIn profile or website before pivoting into the pitch. Asking permission first filters for hot leads before you spend 10-15 minutes per video. There's no real bad outcome: worst case is goodwill and a warm lead for later, best case is a booked call.

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Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:00 – 01:19

01 · Cold open — the four-step promise

States the core claim (prospects will thank you for a cold DM) and previews the four steps: connect, voice note, personalized video, sales process.

01:19 – 02:21

02 · Why most cold outreach fails

Cold outreach fails when it asks for too much too soon from the wrong people; this system is built around how casual human interaction actually works, stacked as a series of small yeses.

02:21 – 03:57

03 · Step 1: Connect with a blank note

Leaving the LinkedIn connection request note blank raises acceptance rates and keeps the first real message as the freshest thing in the prospect's inbox.

03:57 – 05:21

04 · Step 2: Send a voice note

A voice note disrupts the pattern of a prospect's inbox because almost nobody sends them on LinkedIn; a scripted, casual 15-second note builds rapport a text message can't.

05:21 – 08:15

05 · Step 3: Ask permission for the video

The voice note ends by asking permission to send a personalized video — a micro-commitment that filters for hot leads before the time-intensive video gets made; includes a mid-roll pitch for a free week of content.

08:15 – 11:11

06 · Step 4: The personalized video and outcomes

The video opens on the prospect's own LinkedIn profile or website to force a click and prove it's personal, then pivots into the pitch; best case is a booked call, worst case is goodwill that pays off later.

11:11 – 11:47

07 · Recap + next steps

Recaps the four steps and closes with a subscribe ask and the free-content-week CTA.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

Leaving your LinkedIn connection request note blank raises acceptance rates because it reads as curiosity-inducing rather than a sales pitch.
A blank connection request also keeps your first real message as the freshest thing in a prospect's inbox, instead of stacking on top of an unanswered note.
Most cold outreach fails because it asks for too much, too soon, in the wrong place, to the wrong people.
Voice notes are almost never sent on LinkedIn, so sending one disrupts the pattern of a prospect's inbox and gets it opened.
A fifteen-second voice note builds more rapport than a written message ever could, because it lets a prospect hear a real human voice.
Ending a voice note by asking permission to send a video turns the next step into a micro-commitment the prospect already said yes to.
Asking permission before recording a personalized video filters cold leads out, so the 10-15 minutes it takes only goes to prospects who already opted in.
Opening a personalized outreach video on the prospect's own LinkedIn profile or website forces a click, because they have to see what's being said about them.
In this sequence there is no real bad outcome: the worst case is a prospect thanking you for the effort and remembering you when their needs change.
A four-step sequence — blank connection, voice note, permission ask, personalized video — replaces one cold pitch with four small, low-friction yeses.

Takeaway

Four small yeses beat one cold pitch

WHAT TO LEARN

Cold outreach fails when it asks for too much too soon; this sequence earns four small commitments in a row instead of forcing one big one.

02Why most cold outreach fails

Cold outreach fails when it asks for too much, too soon, in the wrong place, from the wrong people — the fix is modeling how casual human interaction actually works.
Stack small yeses instead of asking for a sale straight away; each step earns permission for the next one.

03Step 1: Connect with a blank note

Leaving a LinkedIn connection request note blank raises acceptance rates by reading as curiosity rather than a pitch.
A blank note also keeps your first real message as the freshest thing in the prospect's inbox, instead of one unanswered note stacked under another.

04Step 2: Send a voice note

Voice notes are rare on LinkedIn, so sending one disrupts a prospect's inbox pattern and gets opened out of curiosity alone.
Keep a voice note casual and short — under a minute — and let a small joke about sending it make you sound like a person, not a script.

05Step 3: Ask permission for the video

End the voice note by asking permission to send a video; the yes is a micro-commitment that makes the prospect more receptive later.
Asking permission first filters cold leads out before you spend the time, so effort only goes toward prospects who already opted in.

06Step 4: The personalized video and outcomes

Open a personalized video on the prospect's own LinkedIn profile or website so they have to watch to see what's being said about them.
State plainly why the prospect is a good fit at the start of the video — that line is the segue into the pitch.
There is no real bad outcome: worst case is a prospect thanking you for the effort, which pays off if their needs change later.

Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

ICP: Ideal Customer Profile — the specific type of prospect a sequence is built to target, used here to mean the list of people the automated connection requests go out to.
Loom: A screen-recording tool used to capture a webcam-plus-screen video quickly, referenced here as the tool for recording the personalized outreach video.

Resources

Things they pointed at.

07:19productleadR free content week ↗

08:25toolLoom

Quotables

Lines you could clip.

00:09

“It reaches out to hundreds of your ICP prospects automatically on autopilot.”

tight, specific hook claim→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

02:25

“Leave your connection request note blank.”

counterintuitive one-liner, easy to caption→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote

11:17

“You're then gonna send through that Trojan horse, the piece de resistance, which is your personalized video made exactly for them.”

vivid metaphor that names the whole strategy→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote

The Script

Word for word.

Read-along

Don't just watch it. Burn it in.

See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.

metaphorstory

This is a LinkedIn DM system that has gone absolutely nuts. It reaches out to hundreds of your ICP prospects automatically on autopilot.

But that's not even the mad part because let's be honest, automation at scale at this point is pretty easy. I'm sure you've tried it before. We certainly have.

The mad part is not in the automation. It's in the steps of this automated sequence, but I guarantee you no one in the game is doing. Because in this video, I'm gonna show you an automated sequence that, spoiler, includes voice notes, includes videos, includes things so disruptive and personal that actually prospects will be thanking you for sending them this sequence.

Thank you for a cold outreach message. When does that ever happen? And by the way, them thanking you for that message is actually the worst case scenario in this sequence.

The best case, well, that's that they become a client of yours paying you money on a monthly basis. There is genuinely no real bad outcome. In this video, I'm gonna give you all four steps.

Step one, connecting with ICP prospects. Step two, sending them a voice note. Step three, a personalized video.

And step four, moving that process into a sales process. Stick with me to the end of this video because I guarantee you that by the end, you will have the exact blueprint you can implement today to start filling up your inbox tomorrow. Let's get into it.

I quickly want to explain why this system works so well before I get into exactly how you build it. Because almost all cold outreach fails for the same reason. It fails because people ask too much, too soon, in the wrong place, to the wrong people.

If someone connects with you and immediately you hit them with a pitch or even worse, a link to a booking page or a demo, They don't care about you. They're not gonna be interested. In fact, they're just gonna have bad blood to you and your company for hitting them with that cold message.

Whereas this system is completely different. It's designed and crafted around how human interactions genuinely work outside of the workplace, and then that's applied to a workplace setting to help you win clients.

It's low friction at the start. It's very casual and personal. And instead of asking for a sale straight up, it's getting lots of small yeses.

So now I'm gonna walk you through each of the four steps to this incredible outreach sequence, showing you why it's installed into the sequence, how you can install it, and showing you an example that I've used to get clients.

So step one is the connection request note on LinkedIn. Now I'm gonna give you a strange tip here that I'm sure you've never been told, and that's actually to leave your connection request note blank. I know that probably goes against everything you think you know.

Actually, in this case, curiosity wins. And there's two reasons I want you to leave it blank.

The first is your connection request exception rates will actually go up. People don't disqualify you as someone trying to sell them something too early on before you've had a chance to actually explain your idea. Just a connection request without a note spots their curiosity to think, maybe it's a job offer, maybe it's someone I should know or I've met in the industry before.

There's a 100 of reasons why they might then go and accept the connection request note. And the second one is it gives you a fresh inbox when you then go and send that personalized message. You send a connection request note, that's actually gonna appear in the inbox before your message, which gives the impression that you're almost berating them with message on message before they've had a chance to reply.

We want that first powerful message that we're gonna send it through in step two to be the first thing that lands in their inbox. So that is step one. Set your automated outreach machine to connect with ICP prospects with no note.

Very simple easy to install, but I guarantee you it's better than the more complicated alternative. Now before I get into step two, which really is the game changer, is where we go into voice notes and how to use them in your LinkedIn DM strategy. Just wanna quickly call out that if you're enjoying this video, please do like and subscribe.

This is just one long form I'm doing on a massive series on LinkedIn across the board. So how to create good LinkedIn content, how to win clients on LinkedIn, how to grow LinkedIn, how to become a key person of influence on LinkedIn.

It's all there, so please do subscribe to not miss out. Let's get back to the video. So step two, as I mentioned, is a voice note.

Now let me ask you something, and I want you to think about your personal experience on LinkedIn here. When was the last time you received a voice note? Was it today?

Was it this week? Was it this month? Or was it, which is actually gonna be my guess, never.

Personally, I do a lot on LinkedIn, and I very rarely, if ever, actually receive a voice note. So what does that mean for you?

That means if you go and send voice notes to prospects, you are disrupting the pattern of their inbox. They receive 10 messages of people trying to sell them something boring every day, whereas a voice note pops up in their inbox that's gonna spark curiosity.

And I challenge anyone to have be receives a voice note and not click play. It's human psychology to click play there. But it's not just the facts that it gets them to actually hear you out, why voice notes are so good here.

Voice notes are casual. They're personal. They actually give them a chance to hear your voice and hear a bit more about you so they can understand your personality, and they feel a bit of connection to to you as a person.

You're already building rapport with them in a fifteen second voice note the way that a message never could. I really could talk for an hour on how voice notes are so good and well received. But like I mentioned in the intro, people want to do business how they live the rest of their life and how they communicate normally as a human in family and friend dynamics.

Voice notes are a part of that, and it should be no different on LinkedIn. So what do you say in your voice note? Well, the answer is very easy.

You follow the pattern of a normal voice note. So keep it casual, keep it light, keep it easy. Don't expect them to listen to a five minute voice note because my mom could send me a five minute voice note, and I wouldn't listen to that.

So a cold prospect definitely wouldn't. It could even work for you to make a little joke in the voice note about why you're sending it. That casualness is deliberate.

It's not a mistake. It makes you a real person rather than a salesperson reading a script. So it could go something like this.

Hi. Sorry for the voice note that I know is a bit out of the blue. I'm just on the move right now.

I really wanted to get this message over. I've had a look at your LinkedIn profile, and it's very interesting.

You've actually spent the last ten years in marketing. I actually saw you're also hiring for a marketer at the moment. I've actually got an idea that I think will be a much better angle for you guys than hiring a marketer.

Is it okay if I send a quick video explaining what I mean? So there's a few parts that voice note. There's the casual intro.

There's the introduction to myself, and then there's the next step. It is going to be sending them a video. And why are you asking permission to send them a video?

Well, the answer is actually quite a selfish one. It's gonna take you at least ten minutes to put together a personalized video for them, And, it should be personalized. You don't want to be doing that to every single prospect if they show no interest.

So in the voice note, ask permission. That means you'll probably be making 4 to five a day as opposed to 20 a day when you're making them for prospects that wouldn't even reply. It means you're focusing on hot leads, people that are interested in hearing you out, as opposed to cold leads, people that might just tell you to f off after you spent the last twenty minutes making a video for them.

The other reason is them opting in is actually a good sales indicator in their own head. It's a micro commitment. It's a yes that they've said to you.

That means that further down the line, they're gonna be more receptive to actually watching the video and hearing your argument out. Now quick pause here while we are on the topic of how to get in front of your ICP prospects. Because if you're wanting them to come to you inbound rather than you go out to them outbound, the answer is actually in content.

What do I mean by content? I mean content across the board, a long form video like this, short form videos, LinkedIn posts, and posts across all other social channels. Content is the key in 2026.

Now I'm actually running a special offer for anyone watching this video right now, which is a free week of content. All you have to do is fill out a quick form on yourself, your business, and the people that you're trying to target and win as clients, And our team of expert video editors, designers, and strategists will put together a free week of content for you consisting of two long form videos, 10 short form videos, and posts to go out on LinkedIn.

This is absolutely the thing you should be doing to complement this LinkedIn DM strategy that you're rolling out. You need to have outbound and inbound machines running at the same time. Follow this video for the outbound parts and sign up to our free week of contents to get the inbound machine moving.

If you're interested, we have 10 slots. It's linked in the description. Let's get back to the video.

So you've connected with your ICP prospect. You sent them a voice note. They've listened to it.

They already like you a little bit. They've given you that thumbs up for the next step. So now you are putting that video together for them.

You've deemed them as a hot lead worthy of, you know, ten, fifteen minutes of your time to put that video together. So what do we put in that video? What makes a good video, and how do you send it on LinkedIn?

Now the video itself is very simple. You don't need to go to a production level like this. Simply download a Loom or a similar tool and do a screen recording with yourself in the bottom right hand corner.

Now here's the clever part. You're always gonna start on one of these two things in your video. You're gonna either start on their LinkedIn profile or their website.

The reason for this is threefold. One, like the voice notes, it forces them to click. They're gonna see a video thumbnail pop up in their LinkedIn DM box.

And if it's their face or their LinkedIn profile looking right back at them, you have to see what they're saying because you know they're talking about you. It's the same for the website. Now the second reason is it proves it's personal.

It proves you haven't just lumped out the same video to a thousand other people on LinkedIn because there's a personalized start to it, be it their website or their LinkedIn. And this is the crazy part.

It sets up the pitch. So you're gonna start that video on their LinkedIn profile talking about what makes them a good fit. Why have you made this video?

That is the question I like to ask myself. Why have I made the video for this person? So you might start it like, hi.

I was looking through your LinkedIn profile, and I saw x y zed. So I thought you might be a very good fit for now that line, I think you might be very good fit for.

Dun dun dun. That is actually a segue into a sales pitch. And before they know it's a prospect, they're hearing you out on a sales pitch, even perhaps going through your sales deck without realizing.

When in any other marketing channel can you get an ICP prospect hearing your sales process out and willingly doing it without being forced to from cold. So at that point, there are really two outcomes. Best case, they'll hear your video out.

They'll be appreciative of at the time to make it. They'll see what you're selling, what you're offering as a service or product, and they'll then go and book in a call with you. That's the best case scenario.

I guarantee you will see a few of them throughout the week. Now the worst case scenario is so brilliant because it's not really a worst case. The worst case scenario is they're gonna thank you for taking the time to put that video together, sending the voice note earlier, and they're gonna it's not a good fit right now, but thanks for taking the time to make the video.

Now that is good, one, because it's goodwill. There's no bad blood like normal cold email where they're disliking your brand for reaching out to them. But, also, it means that if their needs change further down the line, let's say in six months, they do need a marketing agency, guess who they're gonna come to?

You. You have now turned cold outreach into a machine that generates warm qualified leads watching your sales pitch for two minutes and then if they're booking a call with you.

Unheard of for cold outreach. So that is the system in just four steps. The first is to send a connection request at scale.

Make sure you don't include a note. Two, your first direct point of contact to that prospect is gonna be a voice note to disrupt their inbox, engage them, and show them you are a real normal person. Three, you're gonna use that voice note to ask permission to send through your main idea for them, which is in the video.

Four, you're then gonna send through that Trojan horse, the piece de resistance, which is your personalized video made exactly for them. Using this system, best case, you're gonna get a client.

Worst case, you're gonna get a hot lead that might do business with you in the future. Like I say, that is the outbound machine. Go and get it working today.

If you are trying to work on building out a 10 out of 10 inbound machine, the first step you need to take is signing up to our free week of content linked in description, and that will get the ball rolling for you on content. If this video was useful, please do like and subscribe. See you on the next one.

I've got a lot of good titles cooking, so stay tuned.

The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

The video opens with a promise: an automated LinkedIn DM sequence disruptive enough that cold prospects end up thanking you for reaching out. What follows is a four-step build — a blank connection request, a voice note, a permission ask, and a personalized video — engineered around how people actually respond to each other outside of work.

Frameworks

Named ideas worth stealing.

00:34list

The 4-Step LinkedIn DM Sequence

Connect with a blank note
Send a voice note
Ask permission to send a video
Send the personalized video

An outbound sequence that replaces one cold pitch with four low-friction touches, each designed to earn a small yes before asking for anything bigger.

Steal forany B2B cold outreach channel (LinkedIn, email, or DM-based)

CTA Breakdown

How they asked for the click.

VERBAL ASK

07:19product

“Get your free week of content — fill out a quick form on yourself, your business, and the people that you're trying to target and win as clients.”

Mid-roll pivot from the outbound how-to into leadR's own inbound offer (free week of content), framed as the complementary inbound half of the outbound system just taught, with '10 slots' scarcity and a link in the description.

MENTIONED ON CAMERA

07:19productleadR free content week ↗

FROM THE DESCRIPTION

PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.