anyone else know how to convert a private key to WIF format?
How are you getting the private key(s) from your cold storage wallet exactly? Are you using the dumpprivkey <litecoinaddress> command? If it's in hex format, you need to base58 encode but it's strange if you're using Litecoin core, the dump should yield a WIF private key.
edit: You better make sure you understand the Exodus wallet. It's a one way trip for your coins if you don't! You're not actually importing a private key, you're moving the coins to an address within the Exodus wallet.