When Joey Gonzalez walked into a Barry’s Bootcamp class at 26, he thought he was just signing up for a good workout. He loved it so much that he became an instructor. By 2015, a decade later, he was running the company as CEO. His advice for Gen Z and young millennials who want to scale their careers at a similar speed? Start sending cold emails.
He would know. Last year, the self-made millionaire transitioned to the role of executive chairman of the upscale boutique fitness brand. But despite his busy schedule, Gonzalez still makes time to read the unsolicited messages ambitious young people send him—and he even found his successor that way.
“I used to dedicate, and I still do, most of my day on Friday, to anybody who wants to have a conversation around careers, even random people on LinkedIn, who reach out to me,” Gonzalez exclusively tells Fortune.
“I would set aside the day to help meet with an MBA student who has questions about my career and how I got here. Or a trainer who’s working somewhere who wants to open up their own place.”
Even if you aren’t planning to leave your current company, Gonzalez argues that reaching out and building relationships is invaluable for landing that promotion.
“Take a look around and notice, what are the qualities of the people around you who are growing with the company? What do you see? Ask them: Can I have a coffee?”
Instead of finding your cold outreach annoying, Gonzalez insists that most bosses want to help the next generation of workers learn the ropes and climb the ladder. If anything, he says that confidently raising your arm for help is a green flag.
“People are generally really good, and want to help, and you have so much to learn, especially from other individuals who are in your same company, and they’ll appreciate you having that kind of ambition and dialogue.”
Job seekers: Here’s how to make your cold email (or LinkedIn DM) stand out
Gonzalez isn’t just paying lip service when he says leaders want to help—he literally put someone into a senior role off the back of a cold email.
“It’s funny because my current CEO cold emailed me. And that’s how I hired him to be first CFO, then president, and now CEO,” the 47-year-old chairman and father of 2 recalls. “You just never know. You should always take that risk.”
What makes a cold email stand out? Passion.
“What really resonated with me was his passion for the brand,” Gonzalez says, adding that young people should take note of the brands they’re already wearing and consuming, the hobbies that they’re into, and try to align their careers with those.
“If you’re going to cold email someone, and you can’t be passionate about the service of the product or whatever it might be, it’s not going to be a compelling email,” he explains. “But if you send someone an email that’s like, ‘Hey, I just want to let you know I’ve been doing Barry’s for a year, and it’s changed my life. This is my resume, and maybe one day you’ll have something for me’—it just goes a long way.”
Take JJ Gantt, the boutique gym’s CFO-turned-CEO, for example. That’s exactly how he caught Gonzalez’s attention: “He was ready for change, and was a huge brand evangelist. Most of the executive team were clients and fans first.”
And it’s a win-win hack for young people. The worst that can happen is you remain in the same position you’re already in, so there’s nothing to lose.
“Just be genuine,” Gonzalez advises. “I really believe honesty can get you everywhere.”
“And it’s a no-fail system, because if you email and you are honest about how you feel, and the recipient thinks it’s corny, that job wasn’t meant for you. And that’s just not the right person that you should go work for.”
Figma’s billionaire CEO Dylan Field, self-made Skims entrepreneur Emma Grede, and Nespresso boss say cold emails are the secret to success
Gonzalez’s story isn’t a one‑off quirk. Many high-profile execs, across various industries, have admitted that their big break came off the back of a cold email—or cold letter, or cold call, for that matter.
For example, you’ve probably heard of the British Entrepreneur Emma Grede because of Skims, the $4 billion shapewear company she runs with Kim Kardashian. She’s also invested in other brands with the family, such as the cleaning products company Safely and Kylie Jenner’s clothing line, Khy.
But what you may not know is that the growing empire can be traced back to one phone call she made to Kris Jenner in 2015, which changed everything.
“I had an idea, and I formed the partnership in my mind,” the self-made millionaire told Fortune in an exclusive interview. “The difference between me and someone else is that I made the phone call, I took the meeting, and I made it happen.”
Grede hadn’t run a fashion business before, nor had she ever worked with the Kardashian-Jenners, but she didn’t wait for the stars to align. She picked up the phone, pitched Good American Denim to the “momager,” and the rest is history.
Likewise, when Figma’s billionaire CEO Dylan Field was 19 and looking to get his design tool off the ground, the millennial cofounder cold-emailed his tech “heroes” to invite them out for coffee. He also hit up the inbox of former fellow interns and peers from LinkedIn, Flipboard, and O’Reilly Media—and it worked.
And then there’s Nespresso U.K. CEO Anna Lundstrom, who got her foot through the door of the notoriously hard-to-break-into luxury industry thanks to a cold email to an LVMH boss. He instantly offered her an internship, which snowballed into a 5-year career at the likes of Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Gucci.
Read more: Barry’s ‘cofounder’ unwinds at his own gym—but even he admits balance is elusive: ‘Many days I have to wake up and choose who I’m going to disappoint’
