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ChangingMinds Blog! > Blog Archive > 20-May-11

Friday 20-May-11

Connecting with celebs

How do you hook up with celebrities, or at least someone who is more famous than you? And how can you get them to promote your products and services? Here's an approach I took recently to persuade a well-known author and blogger to promote Changing Minds.

He was doing a 'lecture tour of the book' so I bought the book beforehand and sat in the front row where he could see I had it. I then jumped up to catch him after the talk where I asked him if he would like a copy of my book. Of course, as I had bought his book he could hardly say no.

The next step was to ask for his business card, so I could send him a book. He countered this by saying he didn't have one with him, so I just asked for his email address, which he had little choice but to give me. I later followed up with a carefully-crafted email. It's basic reciprocity: you give them something and they have some obligation to do something in return. Start small and perhaps you will gain ground.

Do such approaches guarantee success? No, but they certainly give it a chance. In this case there was no response. I'm not naming and shaming here but I was not too surprised as his character seemed fairly self-centred. I'm deliberately not pushy on these things, nudging but not pressing hard. Respecting the other person is always important.

The bottom line: nothing ventured, nothing gained.