Leaks and Faucets Outreach
Exhaust your warm network before cold, and treat every contact as a lead or a conduit
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 86%
Cole splits every potential contact into two types: a 'leak' is someone with the problem you solve, and a 'faucet' is someone whose own faucet runs fine but who can route you to others. The biggest missed opportunity is pitching cold leads first; instead you should exhaust your warm network, because your niche is your network at the start. The volume rule is concrete: begin with a list of 50 warm people who might need help or know someone who does; only after that go cold with a minimum of 100 quality prospects, each researched and run through the full problem-solution script, never spammed. To faucets, ask the softer question 'do you know anyone who needs this?' which almost never gets a flat no. If a genuine 100-person cold effort yields zero, the problem is a fixable bottleneck, not the niche.
Origin
Cole teaches the 50-warm / 100-cold volume rule and the leaks-vs-faucets model in his Premium Ghostwriting Academy. Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal.
Core principles
- 01Your niche is your network in the beginning
- 02Everyone either has your problem or knows someone who does
- 03Insufficient volume, not a bad niche, is why outreach fails
- 04A gentle referral ask converts better than a direct pitch
How to run it
- 1
Classify contacts as leaks or faucets
A leak has the problem you solve; a faucet doesn't but knows others who do and becomes a conduit.
Pro tip Faucets are often more valuable than leaks because one can introduce many clients.
- 2
Build a 50-person warm list
Before any cold outreach, list 50 people you know who might need help or know someone who does.
Pro tip Warm contacts are far likelier to answer your text, email, or call.
Watch out Five contacts is not a test; it's taking one step into the starting zone.
- 3
Ask faucets for referrals gently
Rather than pitching, ask 'do you know anyone who needs help with this?' It feels like a favor, not a sale.
Pro tip The reply is often 'actually, I could use that myself.'
- 4
Go cold with 100 quality leads
Only after warm is exhausted, identify 100 quality prospects, research each, and run the full personalized script.
Pro tip Zero yeses from 100 genuine attempts means a bottleneck to fix, not proof it doesn't work.
Watch out Do not scrape emails and spam 100 copy-pasted messages.
In the wild
Someone decides to offer a service, pitches one person, gets a no, and concludes their niche is too saturated. Cole's rule reframes this: they haven't deployed enough volume to know anything. Starting warm with 50 known contacts and asking each whether they or someone they know needs content help typically surfaces a client long before cold outreach is even necessary.
→ A warm list of 50 usually produces a first client without cold prospecting.
Common mistakes
Starting cold before warm
Pitching strangers while ignoring your own network wastes your highest-probability leads.
Calling five attempts a test
Quitting after four or five rejections mistakes low volume for a dead niche.
Is it for you?
Best for
New service providers building a client pipeline from scratch.
Not ideal for
Established operators with inbound demand who don't need outbound prospecting.
From the transcript
“a leak is someone who has the problem that you can help a faucet is someone who goes my faucet's running fine I don't need…”
“in the beginning your Niche is your network”
“starting warm you should make a list of 50 people... if you're going cold minimum you need to reach out to 100 people”
From the episode
How to Make $10k/Month as a Writer - Nicolas Cole
Nicolas Cole