How do I ask for an informational chat? - first time posting

I want to talk to people in a new field but I hate cold messages. I have read a lot of threads here and could not find my exact situation. I want advice, not a job directly. How do you phrase the request?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 2 months ago, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.