You should Do outreachDo outreach
Meeting people is good, and often means you can introduce new friends to old friends, which is one way to Seek win win wins.
See the Long game outreach manifesto.
, but you shouldn't spam strangers trying to sell your services.
Instead, you should formulate a quest, and invite people to join you, or to help you on your way.
Make the quest relevant to your work, and to the people you want to reach. But also make it fun.
If you sell design services to startups, a good quest might be "Talk to 50 founders about how they came up with their startup's logo."
You can Start with friendliesStart with friendlies
In tackling a new project, trying to sell your product or service, or attempting to become the leader of the free world, your reach and influence will extend outward over time, like concentric circ... and share this quest with them. (If your uncle knows a startup founder, he will certainly mention it to her.)
Once you've had a few conversations, you can share this quest with a complete stranger and ask for their story. It's pretty easy, and maybe kind of fun, for them to help you in your quest.
Along the way, they're bound to learn that you are a designer who sells services. But—bonus!—they also learned that you're creative, that you do fun quests, and that because of your quest you've got access to the perspective of dozens of their peers.
If they need design help, there's a good chance they'll think of you.
Compare that outcome with the 0.7% chance that they'll open and read your cold sales email. Stop pitching, stop spamming, go on a quest.
(If you enjoyed this note, you should definitely read Portals and Flags. It's short, you'll love it.)