The School of Greatness - 434 How to Make Powerful Relationships with Influencers

Episode Date: January 18, 2017

If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/434

This is episode number 434 on how to make powerful relationships with influencers. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to the solo round, episode 434.

I've been getting a lot of requests lately about specific things in business, life, relationships, and how to do it all. So this episode, we thought we'd start off with really developing a format and a formula and a process on how to connect, build, and make powerful relationships with influencers, celebrities, high net worth individuals. And this is something I've been doing for a long time over a decade now of really reaching out to people who could impact your business or your life in a powerful way and people you're just inspired to be around and connect with. So we've got the entire format

and formula for you today. So sit back, stay tuned and enjoy this episode. Hey guys, welcome back to the School of Greatness podcast. This is episode number 434, all about how to build powerful relationships with influencers. Now, I have been asked and requested many, many times to do more specific solo rounds where I'm coming on and we're talking about and breaking down the specific strategies about building relationships, building your business, your brand, and other areas of online marketing, health, relationships, life, you name it. So we're going to come on here right now and give you my strategies for how to make and build powerful relationships with influencers.

You know, just from personal experience, I get a lot of emails every single day and every single week from people that are trying to connect with influencers. Just from personal experience, I get a lot of emails every single day and every single week from people that are trying to connect with me. And now I'm at a certain level in my business and in my space, so I'm getting these inbound requests. It didn't always happen that way from the beginning. I didn't get that, but now I am. And there's a way to approach someone in order to get them to respond, in order to open up the email and be interested in what you have to offer. And there's a way that 99% of people do it that does not work for me and for other people that have businesses or influencers or that people are reaching out to.

So we're going to talk about the ways to reach out, to build, to develop relationships with influencers and the ways not to. And also at the end, I'll give you an email template on how to connect with influencers as well. Now, first things first, a lot of people reach out to influencers because they want something from them. And these influencers are extremely busy. They have a ton of things going on themselves. And if they don't know you and they have no reason why they would support you, then why would they want to respond and give you something in the first place when they have no relationship with you and you maybe don't have any credibility? So the first thing you need to understand, if you want to reach out to an influencer or anyone who has something that

you want access to, you've got to understand this principle of giving, giving, giving. You actually can't think about the thing you want first. You have to think about what is it that the influencer wants? What is in their mind right now? What's their biggest desire, their biggest dream, their biggest need in their personal life, their business, or whatever it may be? A lot of times with influencers, when I'm reaching out, I look at the thing that means the most to them. Usually it's a foundation, a charity they're a part of, something meaningful in their personal life, not necessarily the thing they do,

whether they're an actor or an athlete or a musician, but more the thing that really lights them up personally beyond that. So I'm finding ways to reach out and connect to the heart, to connect to the heart of what matters most. If you send a message or you connect with an influencer and say, hey, I've got this thing. Can you promote it? Can you be ambassador? Can you invest? You're connecting in the wrong way. You almost want to eliminate the thing you have in your mind or that's at the forefront, which is the hardest thing to do for people is to eliminate wanting something and only focus on giving, giving, giving.

That's the principle you need to have when you are reaching out. It can't be, oh, I'm reaching out to this influencer because I want something. It's not going to work. The only way this is going to give you a chance of working is by reaching out in terms of I want to support this person, give to them, connect them with the right person, whatever you can do. And maybe some of you are thinking, well, I don't have that much to give. Well, I'm telling you, an influencer is not going to give you anything up front unless it's the most unbelievable idea and you're going to be giving them a huge portion of the proceeds or a lot of money or something else that's in it for them. So you've got to be thinking what is in it for them at the foundation. If you're not thinking how you can give and what's in it for them,

I'm telling you, you may as well not even reach out to connect. So there's a four-part method for building these relationships and approaching these relationships. And the first part, the most important part to start with is research. So what I mean by that is really finding out what this person wants, who they are, not just blindly messaging someone and saying, hey, Lewis, I see you have a podcast, so I wanted to reach out to you. No, approach it and saying, hey, I've read your book. I loved it. Here's a part that I really liked. I've listened to a ton of your podcast. I've watched your videos. I've been following you for years. Something where you know something about the person that is intimate, that's personal, that adds value to them, showing you've done the work already, that you've researched them and you

understand at least a little bit about who they are. Do research about all their social media. Find their information in the news. See what's been happening in their life. Don't just blindly reach out and connect. Do the research first and really have an understanding about who they are. Point number two, find out what's missing for this influencer. Find out what they're up to in their life.

Maybe they're launching a book and you know that they need a support staff of people to help write reviews or they need to find a launch team of evangelists. Maybe they've got a show coming out. Maybe you know that they have a foundation that they're super inspired by and you can either make a donation or you can find other people

to help promote this foundation. Whatever it is, figure out what's missing. Think in their mind, step into their shoes and approach it as a place of, okay, if I was this person, what would I really need right now? What would really make my life easier? What would support me to achieve my goals? And approach this relationship and this connection from a place of I'm going to be of service, I'm going to figure out what's missing, and then I'm

going to deliver it next. And that leads me to point number three, and that's to be the connector. You know, one of the things I did early on when I was on LinkedIn every single day for about a year and a half is I was the champion of every person's network. So I would reach out to people and I would ask them, what's the biggest need you have in your life right now? And they would say, I need a graphic designer, I need a new sales rep, I need a manager, I need a project manager.

Whatever it may be, I'd say, awesome, I've got the person for you. Whether I had him or not, I found the person if I didn't have him. But I usually had such a great network of all these other talented individuals from various sectors and various industries that I was just making connections right away.

And I did it rapid speed. I did it with such urgency and attention to detail of making sure that I prepped and primed the person I was connecting the influencer to, and I got the person who was influential, the influencer, the right person they need. So I found the information from what they needed, and I became the ultimate connector. When you become the champion of someone's network, they will always remember you and reach out to you in the future for other needs.

So you want to give, give, give, be the connector that makes you the champion of them. And they want to give you in return. So the third thing is be the connector. And point number four, you've got to be patient and be willing to receive. So I come from the mindset of I'm building relationships with these influencers, people who I admire first off and I just wanna be friends with, but also that they're in a similar space or an industry that maybe could one day be beneficial for me.

Who knows? The goal is to be patient. I don't think about, okay, I'm gonna build this relationship and then in two months, I'm gonna get something from this person. I may spend a year reaching out and trying to connect to someone, finally get them on my podcast, finally be able to have the opportunity to connect with them, and then add value to them. And then I won't ask for anything. It may be another year, two or three years until I actually ask for something. And I think when we

build that foundation first with someone and we show them, hey, we're not just doing this to get something out of it because people can really feel when you're doing it and then you ask for something right away. It feels inauthentic. It doesn't feel like you care. There's an agenda attached to it. So don't come with an agenda. Be patient. But sometimes you may connect with an influencer and they may be so grateful for what you just did. It may be in the first couple of days you connected them with someone,

you gave them value, you set them up to win in their life in some way. And they say to you, how can I support you? Or what can I do to help you out? This has been so helpful. How can I give back to you? So when they offer, be willing to receive. Now, me personally, I'm not always looking to receive right away. For me, it's something that I do to give and connect

and just learn and have insights from influencers. But when I have a book launch or when I have something really meaningful that I'm coming out with in the future, I may ping them or text them or email and say, hey, I've got my book coming out. Would you be open to doing a post on Instagram or is there anything else you could do to support me around this book launch? It's really meaningful to me. of me just reaching out and giving value and constantly supporting them and setting them up to win in their life, I feel very confident that I'm allowed to ask of something once in a while.

So usually I don't receive right away. I just say, thank you so much. I appreciate it. I'm good right now. But when I have my book or this thing coming out in the future or down the line, I would love to reach out and get support. And usually people are like, absolutely, I've got your back, whatever you need, because this has been so helpful for me,

what you've done for me so far has been so helpful and so profound. You've saved me a lot of time, you saved me money, you connected me to the right person. That is really profound. So the fourth principle and point is to be patient, be patient, be patient, but also be ready to receive. You know, I've got many examples of this where I've given and then down the line received, but I'll just give one that happened today, actually, where I was on the phone with a friend who's a very high level influencer, who I had on my podcast probably eight months ago, or so. And I've been reaching out to, you know,

every couple of months, texting him, saying, you know, how can I support you? What are you working on right now? Is there anything I can do for you? And just being of value, being a presence, top of mind awareness, and offering my support if needed. Or just saying, hey, I love what you did recently. I saw your post on Instagram. Hope the family's well, you know, staying in touch and adding value over time. Now today, we got on a

phone call because he reached out to me and said, hey, I see your ads everywhere on Facebook about webinars. And I'm really curious about potentially launching a course and kind of getting into this space. And I'd love your feedback. I said, absolutely. Let's get on a call. Anything you need, I'm here for you. Free of charge. Absolutely. And I went on this call earlier today and he was blown away. I gave value, set him up to win for everything he wanted to do. It was a great conversation. And at the end, he said, hey, anything you need from me, this is super helpful. Anything you need from me, let me know. And if I can connect you with some of the big influencers that I'm connected with for your podcast, I'd love to make introductions for you. I said, absolutely. I would love that.

Who do you have in mind? And he introduced me already to this incredible influencer that for me is very exciting to connect with. And it's going to be on the podcast here in the near future. So I'm very excited about that. But I was patient over about an eight-month period. I continue to give over this time. And now when he offers, I'm willing to receive because he knows the need that I have for having great guests on my podcast. So that's just one of many examples on how to build relationships with influencers, how

to create powerful experiences for them, add tons of value, become the champion of their network by being patient, giving, giving, giving, and receiving when the time is ready. So I just gave you guys a lot and I gave you the foundation for how to build powerful relationships. But what I created and what I'm giving you today is a template for how to email influencers, celebrities, millionaires, or anyone of high influence. So we've created a template, an email. I've sent many emails out to influencers to book guests on my podcast, to connect with influencers for my book launch, to find affiliates for my course launches, all these other things.

But there is a way to reach out to someone and to email someone, and there is a way not to do it. So we put together a free template. It's a download. All you need to do is go to the show notes of this podcast if you're listening. And if you're watching the YouTube video, you can click right above here somewhere,

and there will be a pop up to click and get the download right now. And it'll also be in the description of this video below as well. So click on the link or go to the show notes at lewishouse.com slash 434 to get this free email template of how to reach out and connect with high-level influencers. And in next week's episode, we're covering part two of this on how to maintain these relationships with individuals, high-level influencers, and your network in general. So I've got a full spreadsheet and formula for how I connect with hundreds of high-level influencers and thousands of other people in my network. We're going to break it down and give you the process of how to do this for yourself

so you don't miss out on great opportunities, you don't let people fall between the cracks, and you're always on top of mind for these high-level influencers. That's coming up in the next solo round. And if you enjoyed this one, make sure to leave a comment below or leave a comment at the show notes at lewishouse.com slash 434. Share this with your friends. Let them know what you think about this

if you know other people who are trying to connect with high-level influencers as well. As always, we appreciate you guys. Make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel if this is your first time here and leave us a review over on iTunes as well. Thanks so much for being here, and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music