How do I ask for an informational chat? - what worked for you?

I want to talk to people in a new field but I hate cold messages. There are 18 people counting on me, so I am trying to be careful. 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 7 months ago, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.