The Ultimate Guide To Networking With VIP's

I’ve always wanted to be where the rich kids were.

When I first read about the CEO’s of big companies, I wanted to get an MBA so I could be like them

When I heard rich people liked to play golf and chess, I wanted to learn those two games like the back of my hands so I could interact with them.

When I learnt that the super-rich were into startups, guess who wanted to build the next Facebook. Forgive me for having an itch that needed to be scratched, but networking with people higher than me has always been interesting to me. 

Most people however are the complete opposite. 

They wish to network but don’t know how to, so they come up with excuses.

“They won’t listen to me”. “I’d rather spend time on things that will increase my ROI”. “Shouldn’t I be watching Game of Thrones instead?’ 

There’s good news and bad news. The good news is you can connect with the top leaders and professionals in your industry if you believe it and willing to accept that as a fact. The bad news is not everyone can do it, or better still, not everyone does it right. That’s the reason they keep on getting shitty results. It’s not because of your hair or your poor sense of dressing (although I do recommend you take care of those if you’re still messing up). 

You just need a proven system in place to help you overcome your initial fears, work up courage and connect with people who could change your life forever. You’ll learn how to network with fantastic influential people and have fun at the same time.

Define Yourself

“Sorry, who are you?” Over the years I’ve developed a thick skin through being asked this question more times than I can remember so I basically have a way of coming up with an introduction once I meet a new person. This should be the first step for you. Sit down today and write out a 4-5 sentence long summary of who you are and what you do. This should be your opening line to any new person you meet. This summary should contain your name (of course) and some other vital info that anyone who meets you should point out at first glance. Don’t fill it up with unnecessary info like “I’m 6’2”, I like tacos, blah, blah, blah”. Don’t do that – that’s a rookie move.

Read about them

The next thing you want to do at this point, if you haven’t started already, is carrying out your research on these influencers. Dig up interesting facts about them and unique perspectives. What this helps you do is go into their minds to be able to understand how they think and what makes them tick. The benefits of these are enormous but I’ll just name two. One, it enables you to have something interesting to talk about when you meet them (oh yeah, we’re getting to that in a bit) and two, it helps you shape out your own point of views on those topics. If what they did worked so well for them, surely there must be little nuggets of treasure in there that will prove useful to you.

Learn a few skills

Here is where a little bit of actual learning could help you (do people even learn in school these days?). Become good at a few things. If you’re good already, getting better won’t be such a bad idea (If you’re at better, then there’s still room for improvement) Learn how to play the piano, how to play chess etc. Just basically learn some new skills or brush up on the old ones. Creatives like these kind of things. That way, you’ll never run out of things to talk about. Even your failures will still make a good story for others to learn from (nah I’m just messing with you)

Go where they are

What’s the easiest way to find someone? By going where they are, silly.

If you’ve done your research well up to this point, you should have already jumped this hurdle. I don’t advice you go to their physical offices yet, this just screams creepy or stalker or any of those other nasty words. We don’t want that. You’ll likely end up getting shoved out or made to wait on a line that stretches to the next state. We’re not here to talk to their PA either – we came for the golden goose.

And what better ways to reach them than the same place you are right now? That’s right boys and girls, the Internet. By constantly engaging with your influencers on social media, you will already have a good feel of their interests - topics that make them come out of their shell. Use this to your advantage when reaching out to them on social platforms

Find a way to contribute to them

If you’ve ever met me in person, you’ll know that one of the hardest things I can ever admit is being in need of help. I reckon this is true for most people out there. Your goal at this point would be to dig deep and find out an area of help that you could offer that will be of immense value to them. Some will open up to you; others, not so much. The key is to try different approaches and see what works for you.

Get rich yourself

What do all rich people and their circle of friends have in common? Apart from being dry joke tellers, they are all rich. The fastest way to meet with fellow rich people (like you) is to be a rich person too! It’s not rocket science. Being rich can open a lot of doors for you and the door to new connections is one of them. I guess this explains the dual nature of being rich – if you want to get rich, you build relationships. If you want to stay rich, you maintain those relationships.

Hopefully, these tips will help you fast track your way into the elite club (whatever that means for you). Just let me know how it worked out for you in the comments below. 

So yeah, go out today and meet someone new. Your life is about to change (for the better…there I said it)