Cold messages to people in my field, do they work? - 20 weeks in

I want to talk to people in a new field but I hate cold messages. It has been weighing on me all week. I want advice, not a job directly.

Follow up with a thank-you and a short update. One of my chats led to a referral a month later.

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 13 months ago, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.