🏆 Turn your inbox into a goldmine

Your pipeline looks empty, but your Sent folder is stuffed with “circle back later,” half-finished threads, and maybes. Cold outreach feels like shouting into a canyon; you’d rather ping the people who already liked your work.

This week’s focus: pan your inbox for client gold with simple, human nudges. We’ve handpicked A.I. tools, tips, and a little humor to help lighten your load. (3-minute read)

🔦 Week’s highlights:

• Tool Spotlight: Mine your inbox with Folk for new work: Tella turns those warm leads into 60-second charm offensives.

• Sherpa’s Shortcuts: Pitch less and reconnect more—two hacks to revive clients in minutes.

• Sherpa’s Pack: Set up Google Alerts to deftly spy on client wins.

• The Ridgeline news: AI opens coffee shops, and ChatGPT helps freelancers pen pricier pitches.

• 😎 Tools Gone Wild (Success Edition): ReviewTrackers doubled replies by sending video hellos instead of cold emails.

AI tool spotlight:

Tool Sherpa explores the flood of new AI apps and carefully selects only proven tools.

🧭 Folk: your lightweight client tracker

Why it matters:
Your next gig isn’t hiding on LinkedIn—it’s hanging out in your Sent folder. Folk pulls your Gmail and LinkedIn contacts into one clean, human dashboard so reveal who drifted, is due for a check-in, or still owes you coffee.

Who’s it for

• Freelancers allergic to spreadsheets but addicted to repeat work

• Solopreneurs who’d rather rekindle than cold-pitch

• Anyone who’s ever muttered “I should reach out again” into the void

Best use case:
Work the Champions / Sleepers / Almosts system:
• Champions = dream clients who paid on time and smiled about it.
• Sleepers = good fits who went quiet (life happened, not a breakup).
• Almosts = deals that ghosted before the “yes.”

Tag them, add one real note (“loves deadlines,” “hates Mondays”), and start your Five Names Friday ritual: every Friday morning, open Folk, pick five names, and send five quick check-ins. Congratulations, you now have a “sales pipeline” that doesn’t make you gag.

Pros:
Fast setup, friendly design, and reminders that surface old leads before they fossilize. Makes follow-ups feel like conversations, not campaigns.

Cons:
Won’t write the email (which is why people actually reply).

Pricing:
Free plan available. Paid from $25/month.

👉 Try Folk for free

🎥 Tella: your 60-second warm-up act

Why it matters:
Your inbox has history, but text alone can’t revive it. Tella helps you turn quiet threads into quick reconnections with short, personal videos that look intentional. Perfect for reawakening Sleepers and Almosts (clients who liked your work but drifted).

Who’s it for
• Freelancers who’d rather re-engage than cold-pitch
• Solopreneurs who know a face sells faster than a follow-up
• Anyone who wants to sound thoughtful without overthinking

Best use case:
Pair with Folk’s Five Names Friday ritual (see above). Record one friendly 60-second video you can reuse for five warm leads. In under 10 minutes a week, you’ll sound more personal than every “quick check-in” email ever written. Try this:
 “Hey [Name], saw your new launch! Gave me a quick idea to boost it. Want me to send the one-pager?”
It’s charm without choreography.

Pros:
Effortless recording in your browser. Auto-polished with clean framing, captions, and your logo baked in. Generates a shareable link that autoplay-previews right inside email, so your message gets seen, not buried.

Cons:
You still need to bring the warmth, but you’ll look good doing it.

Pricing:
Free plan available. Paid from $12/month.

👉 See Tella in action

_{Disclaimer: Some links may earn us a small commission, but they never affect what we recommend.}

Sherpa’s shortcuts 🪓

Sherpa-approved hacks to streamline your workflow in today’s most popular AI apps.
 

⚡ Hack #1: The 7-minute revive loop

Problem: You’re sitting on a goldmine of past clients, but reviving them feels like a time suck.

Solution: Run this 7-minute revive loop with Folk + Tella once a week.

How:

1. In Folk, filter “Last contacted > 90 days” and star five names.

2. Record one short Tella video (about 60 seconds)—something warm and general you can reuse for all five:
   “Hey there—just wanted to say hi! I’ve been revisiting a few past projects and had some quick ideas that could make your next piece even stronger. I’ll drop one thought below.”

3. Paste the Tella link + one short note into each email:
   “Your LinkedIn post is killing it; easy to spin into a newsletter.”

4. CC [email protected] so a gentle reminder auto-triggers next week.

That’s it—one video, five messages, seven minutes.
Time saved: One hour weekly compared to one-off follow-ups.

💡 Sherpa Tip: A single reusable video paired with short, specific notes, like “boost click-throughs,” or “turn this into a case study,” feels thoughtful without the rewrite fatigue.

⚡ Hack #2: The congrats-to-cash method

Problem: You don’t know when to reach out, so you don’t. Meanwhile, old clients keep launching new things without you.

Solution: Turn their wins into your openings. Spend 10 minutes on Fridays scanning updates, then send a two-line “nice work + small idea” email.

How:

1. In Folk, check your Champions and Sleepers for anyone with a recent promotion, launch, or post. (LinkedIn sync makes this easy.)

2. Drop a note that sounds human, not hungry:
   “Hey [Name]—saw the new launch, congrats! I had a quick idea to [repurpose it for content / punch up the email copy / turn it into a short case study]. Want me to sketch it out?”

3. If you’ve got it, add your Tella link:a 60-second “cheers + tiny idea” video.

That’s it. One quick scroll, one congrats, one low-lift offer.
Time spent: about 10 minutes per week. Result: a steady trickle of revived clients who already trust you.

💡 Sherpa Tip: Lead with celebration, not solicitation. You’re not chasing work, you’re showing up as the pro who never stopped rooting for them.

🏔 Sherpa’s Pack

Free stuff to help freelancers get an edge.

Congrats radar (Google Alerts)
Let wins come to you. Set alerts for client names, brands, and product launches—then reply with a quick “nice work + tiny idea” while the champagne’s still cold.

👉 Set up Google Alerts

The Ridgeline news🏔️

The latest on how AI is rewriting the rules for solopreneurs and small teams.

Let’s trek:

☕ AI opens coffee shops: Apparently code isn’t the only thing brewing. AI startups are launching cafés to lure humans off Slack and into small talk.
🔗 Grab a latte

🤖 Copilot goes rogue: A brave soul gave Microsoft Copilot full access to both Google and Microsoft accounts. The results? Equal parts magic and mild chaos.
🔗 See what broke

📊 Chrome turns tattletale: New productivity dashboards expose your “research” rabbit holes. Now your browser knows just how long you stared at Airbnb.
🔗 Face the stats

💬 LinkedIn mind games: Posts that book clients don’t just “resonate” — they quietly trigger curiosity, proof, and envy. Science, not luck.
🔗 Decode the formula

💸 Prompts that sell you: Three ChatGPT prompts help freelancers sound pricier and pitch smarter, no corporate ladder required.
🔗 Steal the prompts

☕ Final sip: AI’s next trick? Latte art that writes your resume headline.

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Tools gone wild! 😜 Success edition

Let’s end with a laugh — when AI tools take a detour off the happy path.

Smile, you just doubled replies

ReviewTrackers—a customer feedback platform that usually lives in data dashboards—decided to get human. The company swapped its cold outreach emails for 60-second Vidyard videos (similar to Tella, Loom). Within two months, open rates jumped 22%, replies soared 92%, and meetings doubled.

📌 Lesson learned: People reply to people. A 60-second “hey there” video can potentially beat a 600-word pitch or email.

🧭 What’s Next?

Found gold in your inbox too? Don’t keep it buried. Share this climb!
👉 Send Tool Sherpa AI to a friend and help another freelancer strike gold without cold pitches.—Your Sherpa team 🏔️