This week, I talked with Heather Payne, Co-Founder of Ladies Learning Code, a Toronto-based organization with the goal to empower women to learn how to program, and understand tech better. It all started when Heather Payne, fresh off learning how to build her first personal website, wanted to learn a backend language. She couldn't find great resources, and found it hard to get started.

When you're with a start-up and you run into a problem you can't solve, what do you do? The obvious answer is you turn to someone who has built a business before. What if you don't have someone like this in your sphere of influence? Well, that's where cold calling (or emailing) comes in. But people have an irrational fear of cold calling. Here's how to get the most out of a cold call.

In the earliest stages of our start-up, we decided to pull in the opinions and advice of experts. We were eager to hear different perspectives from our own. It became clear early on, however, that we would need to navigate through the advice using our best judgement. Remember: One of the things only you and your team can bring to this business is your unique perspective.