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Relationships with influencers are critical to your content brand’s success: they help you expand your knowledge as well as open doors to new opportunities.

Some of my biggest successes are directly tied to the relationships I’ve built and fostered along my journey. However, reaching out to influencers and building relationships with new contacts can feel overwhelming.

You may feel uncertain about how to go about it, and even question whether you’ll get a response to your initial efforts.

I’ve been there, believe me.

That’s why I want to share five powerful hacks that helped me build relationships with some of the most influential content marketers and productivity experts on the planet.

#1: Interview Influencers On Your Podcast

Both my Breakthrough Success Podcast and virtual summits have allowed me to interact with some of my niche’s top influencers. Interviews are a brilliant excuse for asking for an influencer’s time 🙂

Not only do you get to ask questions and interact with top influencers, you also get to provide your audience with valuable content.

Combine that with the fact that podcasting is a growing and less-tapped-into industry than blogging, and you’ll begin to wonder why more people aren’t doing it.

I currently publish an interview every week, but I am formulating a plan for daily episodes. And my knowledge stores will only grow as I interview more and more influencers – it’s amazing what you can learn from a single interview with a top influencer.

#2: Collaborate With Influencers

As I plan my blog content, I consider which influencers can provide relevant advice, resources or opinions, and contact them well before the publication dates.

I often work on the copy first, and then copy and paste submissions into the post to craft a more engaging article. Once the post is published, many of the influencers I mentioned will end up sharing the blog post to their own audiences, expanding my reach.

If you’re pressed for time, you can simply mention the influencers by name while you’re writing the post, and then let them know you’ve included them in the post once you publish it (and be sure to provide a link).

Some will share it and others won’t, but having at least some influencers share your content is a thousand times better than having no influencers share your content.

#3: Do The Influencer A Favor

The more you give someone, the more willing he or she will be to return the favor. But keep in mind these small favors will change according the influencer.

Some influencers (like me) would love a positive review for their podcasts (here’s mine). Other influencers would prefer you leave a 5-star review for their latest book. Writing a guest posts for the influencer’s site is also a viable option.

Determine which favor holds the most value for a particular influencer, then offer it without expecting anything in return.

If you approach relationships in this manner, it won’t be long before an influencer voluntarily provides you with something in return (if you have to ask, start with something small).

#4: Ask Meaningful Questions

Top influencers love shepherding other people through the path they once traveled.

Gary Vaynerchuk has an entire podcast dedicated to helping others. Want to get on Gary’s radar? Ask him a really good question.

Nearly all influencers recall a time in which they spent countless hours trying to figure things out. When they see other people in a similar situation, they naturally want to lend a helping hand.

Influencers enjoy steering people in the right direction and providing that little nudge to keep them moving forward. And they like it even more when people act their advice.

This is the starting point for repeat interviews and a much greater relationship.

#5: Be Everywhere To Them

You can’t be everywhere for everyone, but you can be everywhere for someone. What’s everywhere for someone mean?

Simply focus on the places where your special someone spends the majority of his/her time. This is why television ads used to work (and why now they are less effective).

Today, people spend more time on Facebook than they do watching tv, which is why social media ad spend has greatly increased over the years.

But that doesn’t mean you should try reaching an influencer with an ad. Rather, you should seek out the places they’re engaging with their readers.

Do they reply to tweets? Do they respond to blog comments? Are they posting a lot on LinkedIn?

These are the places where you need to be. Like, share, and comment on everything they post. Mention their social media handle when you share their content and eventually they’ll notice you.

For example, I notice the people who repeatedly share my content on Twitter more than anyone else in my audience. While I write with my entire audience in mind, I can match names and faces with the people who consistently share my content on Twitter.

Find the platforms most frequented by top influencers who share your mindset.

In Conclusion

Connecting with influencers is as easy or as difficult as you make it. The beginning stage may feel difficult, but as you continue, you’ll have a much easier time connecting with influencers and building relationships.

The ultimate hack not mentioned above is that once you build all of these relationships, you can ask for referrals.

Once I have over 30 speakers for my virtual summits, I ask them if they know anyone else who would also be a great speaker for the summit. They usually make intros and that alone makes relationship building much easier.

What are your thoughts about these hacks for building relationships? Have any tips for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

I have published 21 podcast episodes in which I have interviewed a variety of people. During the entire process (connecting with people, preparation, and the interviews themselves), I learned many new things.

As a part of my end of the year reflection series, I decided to come up with a list of 23 lessons I learned from my podcasting adventure.

I already knew some of these lessons but thought they were important to share. In addition, I needed to remind myself of some of these lessons, especially #17.

#1: Start Before You Are Ready

I had many false starts before I finally launched my podcast. It was two years in the making. What made it happen? I started contacting people about the podcast before I could even think of what I was doing. I then had to think really fast when I got the first yes.

#2: Conduct Your First Interview With A Fellow Podcaster

The first person I interviewed for my podcast was none other than Jeffrey Shaw. Big shout out to you my friend. He gave me some tips after the interview and steered me on the right path.

#3: Don’t Be Afraid To Ask

I contacted some people knowing that they would almost certainly agree to be guests on my podcast. I contacted other people in hopes they would say yes. Some of those people said yes while others said no. I wasn’t afraid to ask people like Seth Godin, Neil Patel, Mike Michalowicz, and many other people.

#4: There Are No Limits.

One of the things I despise the most is when people say they don’t have the right credentials to pursue a goal. If you think of an 18-year-old without a license, do you think about me? I am that 18-year-old, but that hasn’t stopped me from interviewing millionaires, bestselling authors, TEDx speakers, and other successful people. I don’t say this to brag but rather to show you the possibilities.

#5: Be Over Prepared

Each guest is different. Some of them will elaborate with their answers while others will give you quick answers that make you run through all of your questions quickly. If you don’t have enough questions, you’ll have to improvise on the fly. After enough interviews, I decided to come up with at least 20 questions for every guest. I don’t get to all 20 questions, but I do get to the important questions. Everything else is icing on the cake.

#6: Outsource Most Of The Work

I have never edited a single episode and yet they get published as if they were edited. These episodes are edited, but they get edited by one of my freelancers. Without this individual, the podcast would not be possible. I don’t have enough time to devote to editing the audio, so I hired someone else to do it instead.

#7: Go

I continuously hunt for motivational quotes I can share with my audience. I asked Seth for his most inspirational quote and he just said, “Start.” As the conversation unfolded, Seth gave us another motivational quote, “Go.” The simplest approaches are often the most effective. If “Go” doesn’t get you fired up, I don’t know what will.

#8: Everyone Wants Another Breakthrough

I have interviewed several people with six, seven, and even eight figure brands. I have interviewed guests who have achieved everything that many of their listeners want to accomplish. These same guests aspire to hit the next breakthrough. They aren’t settling with where they are now. They continue to push the envelop, and that’s why these guests have achieved great admiration for what they do.

#9: Don’t Give Up If The Launch Is A Bust

While I got hundreds of listeners for my podcast, it did not end up in the iTunes New & Noteworthy section. At this point, some people give up because their intention is to get into that New & Noteworthy section. But to be a successful podcaster, blogger, YouTuber, or anything else of that nature, you must continue producing content, video, or audio for many years to come. Keep those launch ambitions alive, but remember there’s far more to a podcast than those first weeks after the launch.

#10: Have A Structure

All of my podcast episodes follow a structure. The intro, interview, and outro reside within the structure of each episode. I also have an email rubric that I use to contact potential guests. The more structure you have in your life, the more efficient and effective you will become.

I learned the first 10 lessons by pushing through and launching the podcast. The rest of the lessons mentioned here come directly from prior episodes.

#11: Have a team around you that shares the same vision.

#12: Set bigger goals to get bigger results.

#13: The habits you develop will make or break you.

#14: It’s possible to chase your startup dream without quitting your job. To do that, you’ll have to be a 10% Entrepreneur.

#15: Outlining your goal enables you to take action at a quicker rate.

#16: Writing a book increases your authority within that subject.

#17: Perseverance is vital regardless of what ambition you pursue.

#18: Speaking to a targeted audience may mean reinventing your methods of delivery. If you are a KeyNote presenter, you’ll have to go without the slides if you wish to speak at a TEDx.

#19: The email list is the most important platform you have for your business. If you don’t have an email list, create one now.

#20: Fear can be a motivator that results in you accomplishing your goals. From personal experience, fear of the deadline works very well.

#21: Don’t say yes to any client who comes your way. Only say yes to the clients you want to work with.

#22: Several guests on the show grow their businesses exponentially with the help of referrals. For some, it meant raffling free prizes to people who got you more email addresses. For others, it meant cross promotion.

#23: Recruiting affiliates for your products will allow your products to spread farther than you could have spread them on your own.

Which lesson was your favorite? Who would you like for me to interview? Have any lessons for us as we head towards 2017? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Hacks For Connecting With Influencers