Truth be told, I'm not a fan of celebrities. Too often our culture puts them on a pedestal, only to find that they are more actually more insecure than the rest of us. Their flaws are there for all to see.
Still, there are some famous people who are absolutely great persons. These are the ones you want to meet. The catch is that it's increasingly hard to find decent famous people.
The key is this: how do you go about meeting someone who is both honorable and famous?
About a year ago, I drove my teenage daughter to see a famous YouTuber who was making a public appearance at a nearby mall. It was a circus and the lines extended for hundreds of yards. In the end, we could not get in and had to return home. It was not a happy car to say the least.
I tried to tell my daughter that I was famous but she just laughed. It was worth a shot! No appreciation whatsoever...
The good news is that there are better ways to meet someone famous.
In the past year, I've been able to interview the following people for my Emergent Leader Podcast:
David Allen: Founder of Getting Things Done
Terry Hershey: Author & Speaker
Lisa Hendey: Founder of CatholicMom.com
Laura Stack: The Productivity Pro
Tony Morgan: Founder of the Unstuck Group
Mike Vardy: Author & Productivityist
Fraser Speirs: The First iPad School Leader in the World
Erik Fisher: Podcaster, Beyond the ToDo List
Jackie Bledsoe: Author & Winner of Michael Hyatt's Platform Makeover
Now that's a list! No I don't have a single Kardashian on the list but the people I have interviewed are more important to me. These folks are famous and just as influential as a reality tv star. The key isn't so much who's on my list but rather, who is on YOUR list?
How did I do it?
The answer is really simple- I asked them.
I created an old fashioned list and began to reach out via email. Sure, a few never got back to me and some are apparently too cool for school but I'm pretty happy with those that I have "met" online. The whole process took a few months. Once I got some lined up, I then used the interviews interchangeably with my own solo shows.
If you'd like to hear my David Allen chat, click here. (Trust me: It's worth the click.)
Now, you might be thinking , "Easy for Mike to say because he has a podcast and knows fancy pants lingo about technology..." True and true but I still had to form a list and then execute my plan to schedule guests, etc.
You could do that too!
You could:
1. Start a blog.
2. Start a podcast.
3. Attend a conference.
The platform makes the meeting easier for sure but I'm a small fish in a big pond- and I still manage to get great guests for my podcast. Whenever I finish an interview, I marvel at two things:
a) how easy it is to connect with people via technology
b) how much we can learn from one another
Your Homework
- Who is on your list of famous people to meet?
- Are you willing to meet them?
- What can you do this week to make it happen?