I used to think it was only me, but then I discovered that most freelancers dreaded it just as much. I began to think it’s a freelance thing. We’re working out of our homes, our lonely offices, so it makes sense that we’d hate cold-calling not just our editors, but our sources, I thought. But then I met 9-5 journalists who, surprisingly, couldn’t think of anything they hated more than picking up the phone, despite the fact that they did it fifteen times a day.

Over the years, I’ve found that while the time spent dreading the call has decreased, I still don’t really enjoy the process of making that call. Fortunately, though, I’ve learned to get over myself and do it. Many writers I know, however, don’t. They worry to a point where it debilitates them and they give up. That makes it even harder the next time, and almost impossible the time after that.

Many of us do the cold-calling only to fail at it– the source isn’t interested in speaking with us, the editor doesn’t have the time to be on the phone, the person we got stuck with gives only one-word answers. Next time, we’re even less motivated to dial the darn number.

I’m going through a phase where I’m practically spending half my time on the phone, and I was thinking back yesterday to the time I was handed an important assignment (one of my first major ones), and I was supposed to locate this woman on the other side of the country with no idea where to even begin. The Internet hadn’t helped, and I knew the only way to do it was to make dozens of phone calls. Eventually, I found an AFP story about the woman, called the bureau, got the number for the journalist. Called the journalist, got the number for the fixer. Called the fixer, got the number for the local journalist. Called the journalist, and was finally able to get the number for my woman. Got the woman, and she refused to be interviewed. (She’d been getting death threats and requested the story be published without her involvement.) Before each phone call, I paced for who knows how long.

When I was in Berkeley, a friend of mine who had never reported in English (or in the US) before, decided to give it a try. He was doing a story on how the recession had affected local businesses, and so he basically walked around low-income neighborhoods in San Francisco, walking into stores, striking up conversations, asking store owners if they would like to speak with him. The problem was that not only was his English not too good, but he was very uncomfortable doing the whole walk-in-and-interview thing. Here’s a lesson in persistence: he approached, not a couple, not a dozen, but almost a hundred store owners and finally got the interviews he was after and produced the most in-depth story (with photography) on the topic I’ve seen yet. As his reporting (and language) skills became better, he was able to feel more comfortable in his skin, find an opening line that worked, and just do it.

I’ve dreaded the cold-calling (sometimes still do), but it’s easier for me now to pick up the phone and ask to speak with someone who has no idea who I am and still get a usable interview on the spot. I still find it hard to approach people on the street and ask for quotes. But that’s an important part of being a journalist, and I dislike skimping on quotes, and so I have to do it.

How do you deal with the stress of making that cold call or approaching a stranger for an interview? Has practice made perfect or do you still hesitate each time?