Your first 5

1. 01List the people you already know: Fifteen names of people who might agree, or who know someone who would. Family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, people from church, people from the gym, old classmates. Don't overthink it.
2. 02The opener: Memorize one line: "Do you think the people of this state should decide our own future?" Open-ended. No pitch.
3. 03The follow-up, if they say yes: "So do I. I'm getting a few people together who feel the same way. Can I keep you in the loop?" Get a name and a way to reach them, and write it down before you leave the conversation.
4. 04The goal: Five people who said yes and gave you contact info. You don't need a hundred conversations. You need five yeses.

Your first 50

• Mine the circles you already have: Your five people each have their own fifteen names. Ask each of them to do the first-5 step. Five times fifteen is seventy-five conversations you didn't have to start cold.
• Go where people already gather: Local civic meetups. County fairs and farmers markets. Community events with a public table. You are not crashing anything. You are showing up, being visible, and being easy to talk to.
• Be findable: One public email, one public social account under the project name, a simple way for someone who hears about you to raise their hand. Most of your fifty will come from people who found you, not people you found.
• Make every new person a connector: The moment someone says yes, ask the same question you were asked: "Who else do you know who'd agree?"
• Capture everything: Every name, every contact, into Operations' private list. A name you don't write down is a name you lose.