Do you want to boost your business network profile? If YES, here are 12 sure tips and tricks on how to meet a famous person or celebrity and network with them.
Having famous friends is awesome. They get you access to cool places, parties, you get to meet other high value people who can invest in your business or employ you to work for them and it also makes you look cool. But, the problem is that it is hard to get access to those famous people and celebrities because everyone wants to do exactly the same thing.
You don’t have to butt lick or stalk a famous person in other to get their time and attention because there are other more effective ways to achieve this without trading in your dignity.
What Does It Take to Have Famous Celebrities on your Friend’s List?
A lot of people find it difficult to talk to the famous person or celebrity they admire even when they get the chance of meeting him or her. Your palms sweat, your heart race and you end up losing the courage to introduce yourself or end up blurting out incoherent introductions that end up portraying you in a bad light. The above scenario can be attributed to stress induced by encountering a VIP.
This type of stress is quite different from psychological stress that comes about as a response to danger. VIP motivated stress comes about because you know about the person’s fame, influence, affluence, authority, power or success. To suppress this form of stress, you can try to trick your mind into believing that the person you are talking to or want to approach is not a famous person but just an everyday Joe.
Also if you know beforehand that you will meet a particular celebrity or famous person, try to thoroughly research about him or her. You can use a simple Google search or you can visit the persons LinkedIn profile to find out about common interests that you may share with the person, his current employment or the project that he or she is working on at the moment. Doing your homework properly will give you a lot of ideas about intelligent things to bring up during your discussion and thus will allow the conversation to flow very freely and naturally.
When you are about to meet a celebrity, don’t stick out like a sore thumb by acting like you don’t belong. Celebrities are used to having people place them on a high pedestal by stuttering, fidgeting or being nervous when in their presence. So just try your best to exude an air of confidence and calm. If you don’t fidget and act like you belong, they are most likely to give you their time and interact with you.
12 Tips and Tricks on How to Meet a Famous Person or Celebrity and Network With Them
1. Don’t ask them for anything
VIP’s, musicians, actors and actresses and top politicians always have people who meet them just to ask something from them. Some people are even as tactless as asking for something when they have just met the famous person for the first time right after a brief introduction.
Even asking for something as small as idea about a particular subject should be relegated for later. This is a big no no. Little wonder that a lot of famous people surround themselves with people that are not very demanding. You will have to realize that even though you intend to network with that particular famous person, he or she will not be your big break nor will they be in constant help mode.
A far better reason for getting in touch with a famous person should be that they have led or are living an interesting life. The benefit you can get for being a friend to a celebrity or a famous person can be to benefit from the person behind the accomplishment.
2. Provide value
In a world where everyone wants something from a celebrity or a famous person, the best way to stand out from the crowd is to do the opposite; provide value. Give something to them instead of asking for something to be done for you. Even if you feel that you have not achieved much, think of something that you can assist the person with.
In addition, you should not just give them something and then immediately ask for something. What you can offer can be as simple as a recommendation for good restaurants in your city, workout tips, or vacation tips. Offer the tips like you care and not like you would want to gain something from them in return.
3. Dress well
Dress the way you want to be addressed is a popular cliché and yet it couldn’t be truer in this scenario. Most people will judge you based on your looks without even caring to find out about what type of person you are. You can be the sweetest person with the best heart or a really interesting person yet you won’t get the chance to showcase this because of your less than savory mode of dressing.
If you have a poor dress sense or most of your cloths are drab and don’t look good, you should focus on changing that first before working on meeting a celebrity. Dress to impress and you will get noticed. You don’t have to wear designers from head to toe to achieve this. Just make sure that you look neat and that you combine colors and styles expertly.
4. Buy VIP tickets to events
Buying tickets to a celebrity’s concert, play or any other event that you are sure that the celebrity will make an appearance, will increase your chances of meeting the VIP. You will not need to have to wait outside hoping and praying that chance may smile on you so that you can see the celebrity.
Try your best to get the best seat that you can afford, preferable one that is closest to the front and the stage to increase your chances of seeing him or her. Some celebrities can be quite friendly and chatty so by seating close to them, you can get the chance to interact and chat with them. This could lead to a blossoming relationship in the future.
5. Hang out at VIP spots and other places those celebrities frequent
You may not be able to shop at Dolce & Gabbana, Chloe or Chanel but there are a lot of VIP hangout spots and places that celebrities frequent that are quite affordable. Look out for restaurants, night clubs or hotels that the VIP frequent.
For example, billionaire entrepreneur Warren Buffet’s favorite steak house is Gorat’s Steak House in Omaha. If you live in Omaha, you can frequent the steak house for a chance to meet him. You should try your best to get into those places to increase the chances of a one on one talk with the celebrity. You also try to attend VIP parties too. There are some people who sell invitations to such events.
You should look out for and buy such tickets from them so that you can come to those parties and meet them. Alternatively, you can get a job in a place that a celebrity frequents. That is, you can be a waiter at their favorite restaurant, a barman at their bar of choice or even a personal trainer at the gym. The jobs may not be particularly exciting but they will provide opportunities for you to meet with the celebrity. They key here is to be professional. Don’t badger or harass the celebrity.
6. Become friends with their family and friends
Nothing gives you a good access to a popular person like being familiar with his or her friends, family members or even their personal assistant. They will help to pave the road for you and may even introduce you to them thereby increasing your chances of networking with them.
Look to your contacts and see if there is anyone you know who can introduce you to them. An introduction from a friend is always better than an email right out of the blues. With LinkedIn, you can ask your connections to introduce you to their connections who could be a popular person.
7. Follow them on social media
Many celebrities and popular people make use of social media like twitter, Facebook and Instagram throughout the day. Following their feed will give you an idea of places they usually frequent, be it a bar, hotel, club or a restaurant. Visiting these places will get you a chance to meet them.
You can also drop a comment on their social media page to get their attention. Yes, they may not read it due to many other messages that are begging their attention. Yet, some also read it. The abusive replies that some celebrities give their fans when they feel insulted by their comment are proof that they do go through comments a times.
8. Buy their time
As unusual as this may sound, it is possible to buy the time of a celebrity. A service like Clarity.fm actually allows you to buy the time of a VIP by the minute to speak with them. For example, you can speak to the co-founder of Udemy, Gagan Biyani for just 1.67 per minute, owner and shark tank star Dallas Mavericks for $166.67 per minute and a whole lot of others. Who knows, if you impress them, they may want to meet you face to face to get to know you better.
9. Send them a heartfelt email or letter
If you have the verified email address of a popular person or a celebrity, you should send them an email. There is nothing wrong in sending a short complimentary letter to them asking for a meeting or a response. Make sure that the email you send in is heartfelt and interesting. Don’t be rude or offensive and it goes without saying, do not do anything inappropriate like sending them your nude pictures.
Take for example, in the early 1990’s Christine Comaford, a young entrepreneur wanted to meet with Steve Jobs, so she wrote him a heartfelt letter requesting for a 5 minute in-person meeting. She however did not get a reply so she persisted and continued to send letters constantly. At last she was granted a 5 minute meeting with Steve jobs which ended up lasting for about 45 minutes.
10. Be interesting
Celebrities and popular people meet a lot of individuals on a monthly basis. Some have a lot of fans who even go to the extent of stalking them. This makes some celebrities averse to meeting people personally because they do not know the kind of person you are. When you finally get the chance to meet with the famous person you admire, make sure that you are more than just another faceless fan that has nothing else to offer than admiration.
Ask yourself, why would he or she be interested in meeting you? Find out what is interesting about you that you have to offer so that when you get the chance, you will succeed in making a mark. If you do not consider yourself to be interesting enough, now is the time to change and build yourself up. Start building up your profile to that effect.
11. Ask to interview them
Asking them for an interview is a simple way that you can also use to meet and network with a famous person. Approach the person and offer to interview him or her online via Skype or a phone call or in person. You can interview them for a newsletter, a guest blog post, a podcast or for a post of your own.
For this particular strategy, the larger the medium (be it online or in print) you want to publish it in the better. Find a relevant and timely topic that the VIP will be interested in and try to approach them for an interview. Try to keep the interview short and succinct.
12. Meet and follow up
If you’ve finally secured a first meeting with a famous person maybe a coffee, offer to foot the bills. If you are meeting him or her online via video call or phone call, you should engage in a little small talk. Just try to be friendly and yet engaging.
Don’t just make the session about them alone, talk about yourself too. After the coffee, you can offer to take them out maybe a bar or some other place to keep the meeting going. Since you would want to be friends and get to network with the person in future, you should also try to think of things that you would do with a friend.
After you have met with them, endeavor to follow up the person a day after to say thank you. Also you should offer to talk to or meet them again. From there you can build a friendship with them and thus network freely with the person in question in future.