Would you like to know how to get connected strategically to the A-listers on the field? Let me show you the best tips on how to do that.

How To Get Connected | 7 Tips To Win Valuable Partners

In the previous blog posts, I talked about how to build and grow your mailing list and, basically, the steps to lead generation, so today we’ll up the ante by discussing how and why you need to learn how to get connected to the big strategic partners.

Having them in your community helps you take the big leap in the game. Instead of going out to hundreds or tens or even thousands, you can now go out to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people through one or two relationships.

And here’s the interesting thing: you don’t have to learn how to get connected to everyone. More often than not, it takes only one relationship to get you in the game. If I’m playing with B and C players right now and I get connected to one A player, it gets me in the game and connected to multiple A players.

To illustrate that, let me share one funny story.

How I Got Connected With The Big Players

About six years ago, when I was enrolling clients, I realized I wanted to start going out to more people – in fact, millions. But I didn’t mind starting with maybe 10.

I met this woman by the name of Loral Langemeier, who was going for her New York Times best-selling book. It was going to be her fifth New York Times bestseller.

The Agreement

About two weeks prior, I had met this guy named Tom who had 300,000 people on his email list. He was looking for speakers who had content such as Loral to get to his list. I put two and two together and said, “If I can introduce Tom to a great thought leader and speaker and I can help fulfill his needs, and I can be in the middle of it, then an opportunity will present itself for me.”

Since I didn’t know Loral at the time, I got an introduction to her. I got on the phone with her on Christmas Eve and said, “What can we help you with? We have this list of 300,000 people.”

She said, “I’m going for my New York Times best-selling book. This is my fifth bestseller, and we have 30 days to get there. I want to sell 500 of my books at once.” (She wanted to sell them in what she called blocks. One block was 500.)

“No problem. Tom has this list of 300,000 people.”

Tom, on the phone, said to Loral, “Hey, Loral, we’ll sell 10 of these blocks.”

I didn’t know anything about email lists at the time because I didn’t even have one. While I was listening to Tom, I was like, “Okay, great.”

Then, Tom went, “Loral, if we don’t sell 10 of these blocks or even one of these blocks, we’ll buy a block ourselves for $15,000.”

I was brand-new and didn’t have any money. But I was confident that Tom knew what he’s talking about, so we agreed to it.

What? No Sale?

Even in struggle, he CHOSE to rise and succeed. Would you do the same? pic.twitter.com/wyq6phLkgN

— Ted McGrath (@ted_mcgrath) October 31, 2017

Two weeks went by, and we were not able to sell any block of books. Another week rolled in, and it’s still the same thing.

Two days before the deadline of Loral’s New York Times bestseller, I picked up the phone and called Tom, “Tom, where are you, man? Loral’s office is calling me. We haven’t sold any blocks of books. We need to sell these books, dude. Where are you?”

Tom didn’t pick up the phone. Twenty-four hours before the deadline, Loral’s office was on the phone with me. “Ted, it’s our deadline to become New York Times bestseller. We need these 500 books. Where are you, guys? You signed a contract with us. You need to write the check for $15,000. We need these books sold.”

I called Tom again and received no answer.

Here I was, left with one day to meet the deadline. I was on the lawn with my head exploding because I signed an agreement and a contract with Loral, and I had to fulfill it.

I had to empty my bank account and write a $15,000 check. It was all the money I had left in my bank account.

She eventually became the New York Times bestseller.

Special Delivery

Two days later, I was sitting in my condo at the kitchen table, with my face in my hands. “What the hell am I going to do to make back this money?”

Then, all of a sudden, there’s a knock on the door. I opened up this door, and there’s this huge box out there.

I looked around, and there’s a UPS guy. He went, “Sir, I have your block of books I’m delivering to you called Yes Energy. Please sign here.”

I signed the form, and he delivered these books into my condo.

I sat at the kitchen table and looked at these books wrapped in cellophane. These orange books had Loral’s face on them. They’re looking back at me and saying, “Yes Energy.”

I was like, “Screw you. I’m in the state of no energy right now. How am I going to make my money back?”

Taking The Chance

I checked my email and received one from Loral that said, “Yes Energy, Fifth New York Times Bestseller Celebration. Come to this live event. All these A-list speakers. Brian Tracey, Les Brown, John Assaraf.”

I was looking at this when I had an idea. I took out my phone and called Loral and said, “What would it take for me to get on your stage? How many people do I need to put in your room to get on your stage?”

She went, “Ha-ha-ha. You’re funny. Real cute. It’s only for A-list speakers. You’re a B-list speaker, and you’re not going to get on the stage.”

I said, “Loral, you’re Ms. Yes Energy. What’s it going to take for me to get on your stage? How many people do I need to put in your room?”

“Twenty-five people will get you 10 minutes.”

Twenty-four hours later, I had 42 people I enrolled into her live event. I was so lucky because her live event happened to be in San Diego, which is my neck of the woods, where I was doing all my networking. I had a list of people to reach out to and call, and I got 42 people in the room. She gave me 15 minutes.

Up On The Stage

I showed up on her stage for 15 minutes and was like, “Well, what am I going to do with 15 minutes?” Guess what I did?

I took the content from my blueprint, which contained life lessons from my life I can teach to people.

I took one life lesson from the blueprint and taught it to the people on the stage. The 250 people loved it!

At the end of my content, I made an offer. I showed these people how I was going to deliver value to them if they decided to work with me and have a conversation about my program.

The Big Lessons

The story of how I met Loral opened up a lot of opportunities for me even if I spent $15,000.

I learned how to get connected with the other A-list players in the room. When I was at her seminar, I was sitting at the table with the A-list speakers. John Assaraf was there. Les Brown was there, and now he and I have a 52-week partnership where I have speakers traveling around the world.

Something else magical also happened. I got invited to a mastermind Loral put on with the top sellers of her books. Because I was a top seller and we moved over 500 books, I got invited to a mastermind with her.

At that mastermind, I happened to meet some people.

Meeting More Bigwigs

I didn’t realize how good my gift was until I got around better people. This was a major breakthrough for me.

When I was at the mastermind and learning how to get connected, I met Marcia Wieder, who had been on Oprah two times. She’s built a really successful brand.

Glen from Mind Movies was also there, and he got a really big personal development network. Glen and I started talking about webinars. Marcia and I discussed messaging because I have a gift with messaging.

These Steps Will Teach You How To Get Connected

Your destiny is within you – you already know what it is. Be brave enough to follow it. pic.twitter.com/k2K3502F6Z

— Ted McGrath (@ted_mcgrath) October 24, 2017

Learning the ways on how to get connected can be frightening. That’s why a lot of people don’t take the leap.

Having experienced it myself, I am here to give you the strategic tips to get over your fear and start doing it.

1. Get Introduced

If you don’t have a direct communication line to that big partner, you have to find somebody who does. Look for someone with a direct communication line to them. Build a relationship with that person.

Usually, all it needs is to search through your network. If you’re in the same industry, chances are, you can find the person with the communication line.

Now, I mentioned about relationships. When it comes to networking, you need to build and nurture two kinds of relationships: one with your direct line and the other with the big partner.

2. Give Something Valuable To The Partnership

The second tip on how to get connected is to identify what is valuable to your partner.

Remember my story with Lora? She also didn’t give me a chance initially because she felt I could not give something significant for her event.

These big stars should have an incentive to not only reach out but to build a relationship with you. So ask yourself when networking: what do they need that I have?

3. Show Up

And this is not just saying you should be there during appointments or events.

You need to be totally present. Be ready to be in your game and show them how you’re going to add awesome value.

Not only are you risking your neck when you get on the phone with a big partner, but the person who introduced you is also doing the same. Make sense?

4. Find Common Things

One of the best tips on how to get connected is to always find something in common between you and the big strategic partner.

Your relationship, after all, should be based on a common reality. It helps you build rapport and creates a great communication cycle to develop the relationship with other people.

Going back to my story about meeting Glen and Marcia, I gained two important things.

Number one, I developed a relationship with Glen, and somehow Glen promoted me and my webinar. He got me 1,400 opt-ins on that promotion alone.

But I hit a snag. I didn’t have my webinar really dialed in. Glen’s audience wasn’t exactly in alignment with my audience, so I made a few mistakes in doing that promotional relationship.

I got myself into a bit of trouble, which eventually totally worked out.

The way I see it, I could have given him something of value including promoting some of his products.

Either way, even if you trip in the beginning and make mistakes, you can still get wins from it.

5. Always Be Prepared

This is why every little deed matters. https://t.co/pFvDK8Db4r #QuoteOfTheDay #TedMcGrath pic.twitter.com/mlD6AOx0Vj

— Ted McGrath (@ted_mcgrath) December 1, 2017

It’s different to know you have something of value and eventually giving it. When it comes to the latter, you have to be prepared because you can lose opportunities fast.

Let me share my story with Marcia.

On the way back from the mastermind with Loral, Marcia and I were on the plane together. We were on Southwest. We decided to sit next to each other.

I started talking to her about her brand, helping her with some messaging. I said, “Hey, I’d love to come out to LA. I’m in San Diego. I’d love to help you with some messaging on this new brand you’re going to launch.”

“Oh, you would do that?”

“Yeah. Absolutely.”

I went to Marcia’s place in LA and started helping her with her brand, sitting down there during the day and working with her on some messaging.

All of a sudden, she took me to her computer and started to show me the new brand and the event she had coming up. She too was going to have a lot of speakers on her stage.

I saw 15 slots but only 12 had been taken. I said, “Hmm, there are three blank slots. By the way, who’s speaking in the other three slots?”

“Oh, they’re not filled yet.”

“Well, would you consider having me as one of the slots, and what could I do to add additional value to you to make it worth it so you would have me in your seminar?”

“Hmm, let me think about it.”

“Okay.”

“What topic would you speak on?”

“This topic.” I pointed it to my topic.

“Nah, somebody’s on that.”

I chose another one.

“Nah, somebody’s on that.”

It went on for some time before we agreed on a subject.

What’s the lesson here? Be prepared.

6. When Not Sure About Value, Ask

Two of the important principles on how to get connected are commonality and value.

The problem is you cannot be sure if you are giving something valuable to your partner – unless you ask.

Going back to the Marcia story, as we walked out the door, I asked, “What would make it worth it? How many people would I need to put in your seminar room for it to be worth it for you? What if I put 10 of my VIP clients in your seminar room?”

“Ten?”

“Yeah.”

“In fact, I’ll get 10 of them in the next 24 hours.”

All I had at the time was really 10 clients, but they were all VIPs. I put them in the room, and it was a value added to her, so she put me up on her stage.

7. Build Your Community

People often ask me, “How do you develop these A relationships?”

The answer is simple: you have to be in the game, in the circle, and in the right community.

Being in the right community is super important. Not only are you able to test your gift to the world, but you can also nurture and magnify the gift.

How To Get Connected: Try This

There’s a higher chance for #success when you’re around people working towards the same #goal. 🙌🏽 #InspiringQuote pic.twitter.com/PIh4ASK5it

— Ted McGrath (@ted_mcgrath) November 9, 2017

It’s incredible how one relationship with Loral led to a relationship with Glen and Marcia. It then created a ripple effect that eventually led to a relationship with Les Brown.

I want you to learn how to get connected with strategic partners as well, so let’s try this.

Make a list of your wow partners. Consider five.

Then ask yourself, “How do I get connected with one of those five wow partners?” One of them can change the game.

Get connected through the closest link to them. Get on the phone, know what value you’re going to add to them, and give something of massive value.

Once you have already given some value, it’s time to reach back, show up, and receive support from them.

In learning how to get connected, you’ll discover one thing: you will always be investing. Sometimes you invest time. In other cases, you put up money. You’re always investing in relationships. But if you follow this formula, you’ll get big-time relationships, and you’ll crush it in this space.

What are your struggles in learning how to get connected with big-time speakers and coaches? Let me know how to help you.

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