This query resulted in a feature assignment from Fortune Small Business magazine. A friend told me that the magazine was looking for entrepreneurs with interesting hobbies, so I put out a request on Help a Reporter Out looking for entrepreneurs who were also martial artists. Laura Smith was the first person I heard from, and she was perfect: A petite young woman who participated in a macho martial art, and who ran a business that was the opposite of macho.

I went to Boston for a few days (yes, all expenses were paid) to participate in a couple of mixed martial arts classes with Smith, follow Smith around as she went on client meetings, and interview Smith’s business partners and other mixed martial artists. This was my first narrative-style profile, and my friend Elaine Grant, who teaches our Magazine Writing Basics class, met with me to teach me about setting scenes, creating workable transitions, and more. I was so proud of the result, and the editor loved it — and then, the magazine folded the month before my article was slated to run. So I’m actually still looking for a home for this one.

Notice that I started out by mentioning that a mutual friend suggested I contact the editor. We don’t always have the good fortune to get a referral from one of the editor’s colleagues, but if you do, be sure to use it right up front — and even in the subject line of the e-mail.

I also included a photo of Smith with my query. The fact that she was very attractive helped sell this idea because photos of Smith practicing MMA were to be a big part of the story.

*****

Dear [editor]:

Hello! [Friend] suggested I contact you…she mentioned that you have an editorial meeting tomorrow, so I hope I’m getting this to you on time!

For your Off Hours section, I’d like to propose an article on entrepreneur Laura Smith, a bridal industry entrepreneur who practices cage fighting.

By day, Laura Smith, 29, runs Bridal Ventures, a Boston-based business she co-founded with four other entrepreneurs that rents jewelry to brides. By night, the petite Smith heads to the local mixed martial arts gym, pops in her mouth guard, and practices striking, takedowns, and sparring with men twice her size.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is also known as cage fighting, because fighters battle it out inside a ring surrounded by a five-foot-fall vinyl covered chain-link fence known as a cage. The sport incorporates kickboxing, boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and other fighting arts into one contest. Cage fighting started out as a no-holds-barred style of martial art, but after it was bashed as a “human cockfight,” most famously by John McCain, the league instituted rules in the early 2000s that make the competitions less brutal. Today, MMA is close to becoming the fourth most popular major American sport, overtaking hockey. People practice MMA all over the U.S., and they do it to improve their fitness and learn to defend themselves. Women are welcome, and mixed martial arts practitioners are not required to compete.

For Smith, the gap between renting sparkly things to brides and wrestling with macho men isn’t as wide as you might think: Smith says her martial arts hobby is not only the perfect sport for risk-taking entrepreneurs — it also helps her navigate the male-dominated world of raising venture capital. “I’m a member of an angel investor group in Chicago, and I’ll never forget the first day I walked in there,” Smith says. “They were all men…if you could have put a cartoon thought bubble over their heads, it would have read, ‘Sorry, sweetheart, the Mary Kay convention’s down the hall.’ Mixed martial arts has allowed me to be more in touch with my aggressive side and comfortable dealing with men.”

Bridal Ventures, which started in the summer of 2005, now has five full-time and two part-time employees. “We spent two years raising angel money and running the beta website and getting everything figured out,” Smith says. “We saw the opportunity was bigger than what we’d be able to raise from angel investors, so we approached venture capital firm and closed last October.”

Smith has invited me to watch and even participate in a mixed martial arts class at her gym in Boston. For this profile, I’d not only highlight a female entrepreneur in a male-dominated sport, but I’d also illustrate the parallels between martial arts and entrepreneurship. I would also supply photos of Smith in action (see photo of Smith below).

I’ve written for such publications as Entrepreneur’s Business Start-Ups, Business.com, Deliver (the direct marketing magazine of the US Postal Service), USA Weekend, Writer’s Digest, Woman’s Day, and Wired News. I also have five years’ experience in the martial arts, so I know how to illustrate mixed martial arts in a clear and fun way for your readers (and hopefully to make it through one of Smith’s classes!). May I write about Laura Smith for you?

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