069: Larry Benet | How to Connect with VIPs

Larry Benet’s nickname is “The Connector” — and for good reason.

Larry is one of the most well-connected people I’ve met.  The man has quite literally created a career out of connecting with VIPs. In fact, when I have guests on my podcast, afterwards I usually try to introduce them to other podcasters and VIPs who I think would be good connections for them. I see it as a way of repaying the favor for coming on my podcast. But in Larry’s case, I kept emailing him names of people I wanted to introduce him to. He knew them all personally already.

Larry is an author, a speaker, and the founder of SANG the Speaker and Author Networking Group. He has run a number of high level multi-thousand dollar mastermind groups. He has connecting down to a science. And if you check out Larry Benet’s website, he has pictures on him with Tony Hsieh of Zappos, President Bill Clinton, Guy Kawasaki, even actor Ed Begley Jr.

In this episode, he shares:

• A challenge you should take on for the next 30 days to grow your network
• The strategy that you don’t learn in school and don’t learn at work but you MUST know to be successful in your career
• A story of how he got one of the world’s greatest marketing gurus to meet the governor of his state, even though he had never met the governor before and didn’t know the marketing guru (it’s a great story)
• What he said to my old boss President Bill Clinton at a charity event that made him stop the photo line and hand over his contact info so that Larry could follow up
• How YOU can start building relationships with VIPs today, even if you are just getting started or feel like you know no one.

This is definitely one of my best episodes so far. Larry is filled with practically tips and strategies for connecting with literally almost any VIP you can imagine. Enjoy! Resources from this Episode:

• LarryBenet.com
• SANG – The Speaker and Author Networking Group

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Transcript of Interview:

John Corcoran:	All right.  Welcome.  I am talking with Larry "The Connector" Benet.  And Larry, your nickname is "The Connector," okay.  So obviously you believe that connecting with people is an important skill that people should master.  So why don't we just start right there.  Why does it matter?  Why does connecting with people even matter?

Larry Benet:	Well, first of all, Gallup organization says the number one predictor of career success ? and which is interesting about this, they don't actually teach this in universities mostly, they don't teach it in most workforces, but the answer is the quality of one's relationships.

	So at the end of the day if you think about it, some people call it the easy button of life.  Other people it's ? I think it's the most valuable skill in the world because you can go anywhere, anytime, any industry and even if you did not know a soul and you're brand new starting out and you wanna get access to something, you wanna figure out how to do something, someone has the expertise.  Someone has access to the relationships you need.  Someone has access to your perfect clients.

	If you're trying to figure out how to do podcasting, you're doing podcasting, someone already knows the blueprint on how to do it better, faster, make more money with it, how to get it out there in a bigger way.  If you're trying to figure out how to go do social media, again, someone knows how to do it in a really innovative way.

	So to me it all comes down to how much connection currency, how much relationship capital do you have with your network, with people that are valuable relationships.  And that'll ultimately determine ? for example, if you send out an email to someone, if they don't respond back typically you may not have a good relationship.  If you text someone and they don't respond back, that's probably a good sign there may not be very strong what I consider connection currency.

	If you need to have a meeting or you need a question answered from one of your colleagues or partners or whatnot, if they respond pretty quickly, chances are pretty good you've probably got some strong relationship capital.  If you need to go raise capital for your business, if you need to ? and you wanna do a joint venture, you want someone to promote your webinar, you want someone to promote your book, all these things ? really when it comes right down to it, a lot of it comes down to how well you know someone and more importantly what have you done to help them previously so they wanna kind of reciprocate back to wanna serve and help you.

John Corcoran:	So then why is it not taught in our schools?  Why do larger companies not teach this sort of thing to young employees?

Larry Benet:	You know, I mean seriously, John, I have no earthly idea because it is literally one of the most valuable skills to have.  And it's shocking to me ? listen, there's a lot of things wrong that need to be improved in our education system.  And listen, you went to law school, as a lawyer there's people that are called rainmakers, right?

John Corcoran:	Yep.

Larry Benet:	Aren't they the highest paid typically in the law firm?

John Corcoran:	Yeah, they sure are.

Larry Benet:	So I reached out yesterday to a gentleman named Joel Katz.  Joel is a well-known entertainment lawyer, former ? on the board of the Grammies and everything else.  And I'm ? so I was with the chief marketing officer ? I bumped into him, I didn't know him, but I was in a hotel, the SLS Hotel the other day in Beverly Hills.  And I recognized his [inaudible][00:03:38].  And I said to him, I said, hey, do you know Brandon Chapman?  And he's like, well, I work with Brandon.  And this guy was the chief marketing officer of the Grammies.

	And then we started talking about people that we had in common and I mentioned, do you know Joel Katz, that's the entertainment lawyer.  And, like I said, you went to law school.  And what ? the interesting thing that the CMO of the Grammies said about Joel, he says, all roads lead to Joel.  He says, Joel is one of the most connected people in the music industry, the record labels, the recording artists, the corporation.  It's just like all ? and he's able to make deals happen, he's able to get people in a room, he's able to get people on a conference call that would normally not be able to make things happen.

	A couple of years ago I got invited to the Grammies and I had never been before.  And I had a friend of mine Roger Love who's a very well known vocal coach, he trains a lot of these celebrities and artists and famous speakers, whether it's like a Tony Robbins, and he taught Joaquin Phoenix the actor how to sing.  And he won the Oscar.  And this year ? and that year he was up for a Grammy with John Mayer.  And the funny thing is, he was up for a Grammy, he was calling me to ask if I had any pull, if I could get an extra ticket to the after-Grammy party.  And I'm not even in the music business.

	And so anyway, what I did is I reached out to Joel Katz.  And no one else, I mean, I'm telling you no one was able to find a ticket.  Somehow, someway Joel had two tickets inside of an hour left for me at a hotel.  And I didn't even use them.  I gave them to other people.  But that goes back to the importance of the relationship capital.  Why they don't teach it more in university and corporations is beyond me.

John Corcoran:	So you obviously have a great network now.  You know all kinds of people in different industries who are at the top and you've done work with ? if you take a look at your website you've got pictures of you with Tony Hsieh from Zappos.  And you've got pictures of Tony Robbins and Mike Stelzner from Social Media Examiner and Jay Abraham the legendary business coach and thinker.  But how do you get to that point?  I mean, I think that's where a lot of people are stumped is, how do you ? where do you start in that whole process?

Larry Benet:	Well, that's the first thing, you gotta start, right.  One relationship at a time.  Here's a simple thing.  If anyone follows this simple advice, in my opinion, it's just a matter of time to go build your network, to build your level of influence, to build your connectivity and whatever else you need.

	Imagine reaching out to ? take what I consider the connection challenge.  Starting today for the next 30 days, reach out to two to three people a day in your network, okay, and find out what is important to those people.  Find out what they're passionate about.  Ask them, what are you most excited about now?  A lot of times it may not have anything to do with business.  It might be something to do with personal.

	And then typically after I have rapport or if someone has rapport, the question I ask them to ask is, what's the most important project in the next 90 to 120 days or what's your most important goal or project in case I or my network can help you.

	So let's just assume you're brand new, you're out of school.  You don't know anybody and you don't have a big network at all.  Well, you gotta start somewhere, one relationship at a time.  It really helps when you can understand what's important to someone business-wise, what's important to them personally.  You could find out what they're most passionate about.  Listen, you gotta grow with your network.

	So if you come out of law school, one day you may be a lead partner in a firm.  So where can someone go who's really trying to build relationship capital and connection currency quicker?  Well, could you help a political campaign?  Could you get involved in a charity that you care about?

	Here's a perfect example.  About a month ago I was at a party on Labor Day for Frank Luntz.  Frank is a pretty well-known Republican strategist pollster, probably one of the most famous guys around actually in that space, New York Times Best Selling author, really sharp guy.

	A couple years ago ? now keep in mind, it's not that I know him all that well.  We've had ? I've helped him on a couple things but when I first met him I recognized him in the subway in New York City a couple years ago and I said, are you Frank Luntz and he said, yes, I am.  And I said, Ironically I've been trying to get a whole of you and I've had no luck whatsoever.  I've reached out to your website and it just goes into one big deep abyss.

	And then we started talking, one thing led to another.  He mentioned he had a new book that was coming out.  And I said, well, I'm ? he asked me could I help him, and he was willing to give me money to help him promote his book.  And I said, well, your money's no good with me but I'm willing to help you.  And I recorded an interview just like this and I did some other things to kind of connect the dots to help him out.

	But the point is, he was someone that I did not know.  I found out what was important to him.  I added value to him.  And then recently I reached out and there was a ? and I also think, can you figure out ways to invite people to group activities?  Maybe it's your group activity but maybe it's not.  Maybe if there's  -- as a matter of fact I reconnected with Frank, like I said, about a month ago.  There was a comedy show in L.A. and I basically invited him and some other people to the comedy show.  And you don't even have to pay for it.  I'm just saying, how can you tap into things?

	And in this case I ended up reconnecting Frank with actually the comedian Yakov Smirnoff.  And I was trying to help Yakov because he was in his first show back in L.A. in a long time.  And so at the end of the day, even if you're just starting off, you can go to these charity events.  When I first started I helped Larry King, I helped Richard Branson, I helped Bill Clinton, I helped these guys raise money for their charities and causes.

	And what I've learned is no matter how successful someone is ? Richard Branson has Virgin United, Bill Clinton has the Clinton Global Initiative, Larry King has the Larry King Cardiac Foundation ? all these people, they need volunteers.  They need to know, can you make phone calls on their behalf.  Can you set up early?

	Years ago when "Chicken Soup for the Soul" was the biggest book in the land, I was really intrigued and really impressed with Mark Victor Hansen.  And I was just so blown away on his magnetic, charismatic nature on how he was around people.  And I would reach out to his office ? he lived in Newport Beach and I was in Atlanta.  And if I got wind that he was coming through Atlanta, I would call his office and say, hey, can I volunteer?  Can I drive him to the airport?  Can I help you guys?  Do you guys need someone to pick up books?  Whatever it was I just wanted to help.

	And so if I look back to the beginning, I did the same thing with Jay Abraham.  Years ago I got wind that Jay Abraham was coming to Atlanta, Georgia for a class project for his son.  His son was like nine years old at the time  And I did not know Jay Abraham at all but I got wind through a teleseminar that he was taking his son.

	I reach out, I said, hey, my name's Larry Benet.  I'm a student of yours.  If I can make your stay in Atlanta more enjoyable please reach out to me and let me know how.  And there was a guy that ran a science museum.  I figured a kid of nine years old would really like a science museum tour, especially if I can get him a VIP tour.  So I reached out to the guy that ran the science museum.  I said, hey, you got this amazing marketer and one of the best marketers in the world coming to Atlanta.  Would you be okay taking a VIP tour with him and his son?  No problem.

	Then I reached out to some other guy.  My friend's father was running for Senate that year but missed.  And I figured who better to talk about the entire State of Georgia than a guy that just ran for State Senate?  So I reached out to Michael Coles and Michael, he actually created the Great American Cookie Company that's in a lot of these malls.  And I said, hey, Michael, would you be open to having a conversation with this kid?  He's nine years old but his dad is a genius marketer.  I'm sure you guys will get along great.  And he goes, yeah, no problem.

	And the day before Michael and Jay were gonna meet, I called Michael to remind him, the meeting is about his nine-year-old son.  It's not really for you guys, but I'm sure you'll hit it off, just as a reminder.  And he goes, well, do you think he might wanna meet the governor of Georgia?  And I'm like, well, that'd be great but he's coming in tomorrow.  I don't even see how that's possible.  And he goes, well, he's my best friend.  Let me call him.

	Ten minutes later he calls me back and he goes, tell Jay to meet me at 10:30 in the morning at the governor's office.  And I admit ? I mean, by this time I'm probably in my 30's, I'm pretty connected.  I never met the governor.  I decided to go tag along with Jay Abraham and his son.  And unbeknownst to me, the science museum executive, he used to be the Secretary of State for the State of Georgia and he got wind that the guy was going over with ? Jay and his son over to the governor's office.  He calls ahead to the Secretary of State and orders up one of these honorary citizen-of-the-day kinda things.

	So the ? 

John Corcoran:	For the kid or for Jay Abraham?

Larry Benet:	Yeah, so the governor walks over and brings the kid over and they literally hand him this little plaque Honorary Citizen of the Day.  And anyway so long story short, that's how I met Jay Abraham.  And, like I said, it wasn't like I knew him.  I mean, I was a student of his.  I bought his books or his tapes or whatever.

	So it all goes back to ? you were asking me right before we got on, how does someone connect with an influential person?  How can you relate to them?  How can you help them?  How can you add value to them?  How can you contribute to them something that matters?  Sometimes it's personal, sometimes it's business.  It just really depends but you gotta figure out those things.  And the more high-profile and more public, you could actually read in their blogs and articles and what's important to them is right there.  It's like black and white.  And then it's just reaching out and trying to figure out who knows them and who their right-hand handlers are and all those kinda things.

John Corcoran:	Okay.  You just gave a lot of real value bombs there.  So I wanna dive into a couple of those.  But I wanna start with one of the comments that you made which was you said you have to start with one relationship at a time.  And I really like that, in part because I'm writing an article right now about that, about how people often jump to these high-scale things like Facebook and Twitter and they try and use those things rather than developing the relationships one at a time.

	But I wanna ask you about this.  How do you manage it as your network grows?  As your network gets larger and there are more people in your network, how do you continue to manage that many people that are in your network and remain in touch with people and continue to have that one-on-one relationship with people?  Are you just inundated with phone calls and texts and emails or is there a way to manage that?

Larry Benet:	Well, a couple things.  This is just my belief but it's also backed up by research and statistics and all that.  It's well and good to say you've got 5,000 Facebook friends but you and I both know, they're really not friends.  They're on Facebook.  You don't really know much about them.  You know a little bit about them, okay.

	So I think the key thing is organization, technology, systems, and processes.  So in my phone, for example ? so for example, the day we're recording this is the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day for the Jewish people.  I'm Jewish.  So let's just say you're not Jewish but the reality is what you can do is, who are all the people that you know that are Jewish could you reach out to them, could you call them, could you send them a video, could you text them, could you send them an email wishing them a happy and healthy New Year?  Of course you can.

	So one of the things in order to do that, it has to be organized in such a way.  So in my Smartphone, in my iPhone, but you could do this on an Android device or anything else, I have categories or tagged people.  So for example, with you I would put San Jose, attorney, speaker, author, coach, politics.  I might even put knows Bill Clinton.  I would try to put little buzzwords so ? 

John Corcoran:	Do you have dashingly handsome in there?

Larry Benet:	Dashingly handsome, of course.

John Corcoran:	Cool.

Larry Benet:	[Inaudible][00:17:01] think of that, you know.

John Corcoran:	Yeah, yeah well, sometimes I have to remind people.

Larry Benet:	Yeah, yeah.  And ? I know.  But seriously, so then the next time I go to Silicon Valley or San Jose for a technology event, it would be like, who else could I invite to an event?  Who could I reach out to to have dinner?

	It's interesting.  This morning I went hiking.  And then it dawned on me, I'm like, you know what, I like this.  I get all these requests all the time.  I can't meet with everybody so I'm gonna start a weekly hike.  And my friend Ken Rakowski who's an amazing connector, one of the most connected guys I know on the planet, he's got a weekly hike every Sunday for his metal group.  And sometimes ten people come out, sometimes 50 people come out.

	So now, he's not gonna be able to get to know every single person on a one-to-one basis that way but he's utilizing a group activity to engage his network, right.

John Corcoran:	Yeah.

Larry Benet:	So on the comedy thing I reached out to a chunk of people that I thought would have some interest, but I knew they were L.A.-based, right.  So it really just depends.  My friend Bob Bodine who wrote a great book called "The Power of Who," he hosts an annual barbecue.  My friend Pina who I just went hiking with today, she has an annual 4th of July party with Lisa Haisha and her husband Lee who was the creator of Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory.  So every 4th of July their signature party is this 4th of July party.

	Now, Pina, only in the last couple years, she got in on the gig and she also gets to invite people to the party.  When I could not afford a ticket, for example, years ago to the Larry King Charity Benefit, I asked Larry King, Jr. that was running the charity, I'm like, listen, can I invite people?  And if I get enough people could I then go to the event?  Sure.  So I was able to fill up a table.

	And so one of the things I do when I tag and when I organize and ? whether it's in my Smartphone or whether it's in Infusion Soft or however ? whatever tool or Act or Sales Force or whatever you're using, you've gotta be able to tag people a certain way.  What industry are they in?  What's their expertise?  Where do they live?  Who ? how did you meet them?  Who introduced you, all these kind of things?  What are they passionate about?  What school do they go to?

	And so if I'm watching a football game and I know my friends are in Denver, I like the Denver Broncos, so during that time I may text some of my friends from Denver.  When I go watch a Florida State football game, I know some of the people that obviously went to Florida State.  So I might ping them via text about the game and they'll respond back.

	So again, you gotta group things ? it goes back to process, system, tools and technology.  I know you like to use Contactually.

John Corcoran:	I'm a big fan.

Larry Benet:	I've been using that a little bit, not as much as I should.  But it'll say, hey, it's been 67 days since you reached out to John Corcoran.  Do you wanna reach out to him?

John Corcoran:	Yeah, that's a really cool feature.  But, yeah, other CRMs have similar types of features as well.

Larry Benet:	Yeah, and by the way, let me just give you ? because I got off the train of thought.  So what I was gonna say, about a month ago I met Bob Shapiro who's an attorney, very well-known attorney.  He was the founder of LegalZoom.  He was one of O.J. Simpson's counsel at one point.

	So asking key questions is mission critical because if you don't ask the right questions, you don't get the right information.  And then if you don't organize your network of information in such a way to get at it quickly, it becomes impossible to stay in touch and manage the network.

	So the question I asked him when I saw him that evening on Labor Day, I asked him what is his favorite charity or cause that he cares about and why.  And he told me that he supports drug and alcohol awareness for kids.  And now the key question was, I followed up and I asked him why and he said, his son died of an overdose.  Had I not asked him why, I would've never even known that.  We would've probably just had a brief conversation.  The conversation would've ended.

	When he told me that I could see the absolute passion in his face and his wife's  And he basically said, we took a really bad tragedy and tried to turn it into something positive.  So I said to him, I'm like, well, would there be a value if you had more celebrities or maybe sports people or influential people attached to what you're doing?  He goes, that'd be great.

	And so literally two weeks later he was having a charity event.  And I literally spent several hours on a Saturday afternoon and I cranked out, I don't know, 40 plus emails, personal emails that I personally sent about this event.  And listen, not many people were able to make it because it was short notice or whatever.  But some did and again, I tried to think who did I know in sports?  Who did I know that might be able ? that would either resonate with the cause or they would wanna meet some of the people that were going to be there?  Like John Paul DeJoria, the guy that founded John Paul Mitchell and Patron, he was there.  And he's like one of my all-time business heroes.

	And anyway, so it was just how do you serve people?  And by the way, you're good at this but it's counterintuitive.  Most people are gonna go, why in the world would you take a couple of hours of your time?  You're not making any money off this or anything.  Why would you do that?  Because A. I know some of the influential people in my network would benefit from going to this thing.  They would have fun at it.  And B. Bob is a super influential guy.  And again, I'm investing in the relationship first.

	And going back to your initial question, how do you manage all this stuff?  I don't think it's possible to manage thousands and thousands of relationships on a one-on-one basis.  I do believe you can know them.  I do believe you can invite them to different events but to really be intimate, to really advance the relationship, to really invest in the people that I care about, those are my most valuable relationships.

	And those I'm gonna treat and care for a little bit differently than just people maybe on my newsletter or people on my Facebook.  I'm gonna try to share great content.  I'm gonna try to introduce them to great webinars and other things but to really invest in an individual, I really believe you're gonna have to pick your choices and invest wisely.

John Corcoran:	So I have a couple of follow-up questions to that.  One is, how ? and you kind of touched on this, but how does spending your Saturday sending those email and inviting people to a fundraiser, and you're not getting paid for spending your time doing that, how do you then turn that into income for yourself?  Because I know some people are gonna be listening to this and thinking, well, that's all great and well and good but what is my ? what do I benefit from having a relationship with someone?

	So where's the benefit because ? well, and I'm gonna guess for you, you do organize events, like you have conferences and stuff like that.  So there's benefit to you to knowing people who you can later invite to one of your events.  But what about someone listening to this who maybe doesn't organize conferences?

Larry Benet:	Yeah, I mean, listen, it all goes back to whatever their business is.  But think about this.  Could you be a connector in your industry?  Can you ? there's a strategy that I've used for as long as I can remember and it's all about inviting people to events.  It doesn't have to be my event.  It just has to be, are there events that take place that are high value for other people?

	And sometimes there's some immediate value to someone.  Sometimes it happens down the road.  In the example you asked about though for me personally, one of the guys that ended up coming was a guy named Davin Michaels.  He's got a very large outsourcing company.  He's a New York Times Best Selling author.  He is part of my same network.  And he was really impressed because he got a chance to meet Kris Jenner and all these interesting people and get photos with them.

	And then I followed up later that week and asked him, hey, can you partner with me and be a joint venture partner to promote a high-value webinar that I do about connecting and being more influential, yada-yada-yada.  He's probably got a list of a couple hundred thousand people, so that'll end up being a profitable thing.

	As it relates to everyone else based on their business, I still think the more relationship capital, the more connection currency they have, the easier it is for them to get more referrals in the future.  The easier it is for them to make things happen.  Whatever goals that they have, whatever revenue opportunities, advancing initiatives, getting people to wanna take their calls, their meetings, raise money, whatever that is, it's going to be a whole lot easier if there is that connection currency in the proverbial relationship bank account.

	So that is how everyone typically will win.  And whether it's gaining access to an influential person that you personally have access to, just because you know someone doesn't mean you're gonna give them access to them.  It's all going to be, what have you done for them?  Is there ? do they feel confident?  Do they have trust in you?

	And so by inviting people to different things and serving it up adding value it's a positive thing for everyone.  It's a win-win and good things tend to happen.

John Corcoran:	Now, another follow-up question I wanted to ask you about that was, when you're meeting someone like a Bob Shapiro for the first time, you're asking them a question like, what are you interested in, what charity do you support, that kinda thing.  One of the doubts that's going through some people's minds is that the person that they're asking that question of is thinking, oh, this person's just trying to get something out of me.

	So how do you address that?  How do you address that fear that the person that you're trying to help, that they're gonna perceive you asking to help them or you asking what charity they're interested in, that they're gonna perceive that as you're just trying to get something from them?

Larry Benet:	Well, first of all, I don't walk up to someone and right away ask them, hey, what's your favorite charity and cause and why?  I'm trying to get ? and first of all, be curious, like be Curious George.  Be curious about people.  Second, be really present.  Think of like the Dalai Lama and how present that human ? he is as a person.  Imagine you being that present in the moment with other people and you're really curious about who they are, who their family is, what makes them tick, how they became successful, all about those kind of things.

	In Bob's case, I was really intrigued.  I know he's the founder of LegalZoom, he's been very successful.  And I was just asking him, what is he up to these days that he's most excited about?  What ? those ? I was asking questions that I was just interested in.  And then at some point I asked him about the charity and his favorite cause.  I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

	When you meet someone that's super successful and you say, hey, out of curiosity what do you think your legacy's gonna be?  What do you want your legacy to be?  I don't think it's about necessarily trying to get something.  And to me, you gotta come across as being authentic.  I think people can spot a fake from a mile away.

John Corcoran:	Yeah, people tend to be good at that.  Now, how do you avoid the person that you're talking to perceiving you as just kinda like a fan boy?  So that is just like a little too excited, a little too eager?  How do you allow the relationship to not be one of you're just kind of a fan of the person?

Larry Benet:	Well, more ? well first, there's the initial introduction.  There's the initial connection isn't made over the phone, isn't made in person, isn't done over social media.  But at the end of the day, if it's done over social media, I'm gonna try to advance it to a phone call.  If it's done over a phone call, I'm gonna try to advance it to a face-to-face meeting at some point.  At the end of the day, if I could figure out either what they're passionate about, maybe there's an article that I send them, but it's always trying to think of things that would be of value.

	One of the guys [inaudible][00:30:03] that was also part of my 25,000 mass for my group was a guy named Jeff Hasley.  Jeff is on ? he's got his own television show on Bloomberg and he's probably one of the most connected guys that I know.  He's really unbelievable.

	Anyway, long story short, Jeff's had two Best Selling books.  And both times he sent me an email.  And the email basically said, Twelve-and-a-Half Ways to Help Jeff.  And here's what to do on Linked In.  Here's ? write a review on Amazon.  Do this on Facebook, on Twitter, yada-yada-yada.  Tell your friends.  So every time I have someone, no matter who they are, an emerging author, a famous person or whatever, I would send them this article Twelve-and-a-Half Ways to Help Jeff.

	So yesterday was ? Peter Thiel was being interviewed by Peter Guber.  I don't know Peter Thiel from ? I know there's obviously a few people in my network that know him but I don't know him.  But he just came out with a new book.  That article, if I could get that article to him, would be of huge value to him.  He just launched the book.  He probably just spent six months to a year of his life writing the book.  I'm sure he wants to get the book out to as many people as possible.  So to me it's not being about a fan boy.  It's really about trying to be a servant and figuring out how you can serve other people.

John Corcoran:	Well, Larry, this has been really tremendously helpful.  I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us, except we can't wrap things up without hearing about your efforts to meet Bill Clinton because we have that in common.  I know you've met him at some point and had some interaction with him.  So tell us that story.

Larry Benet:	Yeah, so a couple years ago I got invited to pay $2500 to make a donation to the Clinton Global thing.  And it was my understanding I would have a chance to be in a small room, intimate environment to ask him questions.  And I'm like, I thought that would be pretty cool.

	As it turned out that was not the case and it turned out to be a photo op.  And secret service men, they were pushing everyone into a single file line.  And about an hour before I went to go meet the president I asked myself a question, who did I know in my network that might actually know the president, that would actually have some name recognition with him?  And I called Ken Kragen who's creator of We Are the World.  He used to manage Lionel Richie, Kenny Rodgers and some others.  And he actually at one point did the inauguration or one of the inaugural balls and produced it with Quincy Jones.

	So I called Ken.  Ken shared some insights about Mr. President Clinton.  And as I got closer to President Clinton, listen I was definitely nervous.  My heart was beating fast A. because I knew I hold ? and I only had near seconds to make an impression because I knew secret service was gonna push the next person and move the photo along the line.

	And what I did was I said, President Clinton, we have a mutual friend in Ken Kragen.  And that got a conversation started.  And I said, We Are the World Two is taking place soon and I know you love music and I know you play sax.  And I was wondering, would you like to go to the live recording with Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion, Barbara Streisand and Lionel Richie and many of the other recording artists?

	And I don't care if you're President of the United States or who you are, that is a pretty cool opportunity.  So ? 

John Corcoran:	Yeah, I'm sure he loved that.

Larry Benet:	And it was just in a few seconds of that that he motioned over to his people to bring me his contacts so I could follow up with them.  Now he wasn't able to make it but here's the point and the moral of the story.  I had never met President Clinton.  You got secret service breathing down your neck.  And at the end of the day, if I, who's a shy technically introverted kinda guy, can go connect with the President of the United States, it's all because A. doing a little research and homework and B. bringing something of value to the table.

	And so to me you can connect with anyone, anytime, anywhere and just know you can help other people no matter how successful they might be.  There's always a will, there's always a way, especially if you're creative, persistent and you're bringing something to the party.

John Corcoran:	It's such great stories and anecdotes, Larry.  Thank you so much for taking the time.  And so one final thing, how can people connect with you?

Larry Benet:	They can just go to either LarryBenet.com.  If they wanna get a ? we have ? if they go to FreeGiftsFromLarry.com there's a free report that they can download that tells them how I met Richard Branson and got his private email within 30 seconds and how I connected with Larry King and got him invited to breakfast and how they can do the same thing.  Basically it's some of my formula and they can just ? it's that FreeGiftsFromLarry.com.  They can follow me on Twitter or Facebook as well.  Would love to hear their success stories.

John Corcoran:	And we're gonna have to keep that Richard Branson story until next time I guess.

Larry Benet:	Exactly.

John Corcoran:	Yeah, I wanna hear about that.  Oh, great.  Well, thanks so much, Larry.

Larry Benet:	I appreciate it.

Transcribed by GMR Transcription