How to Network With Celebrities and Thought Leaders like Steve Jobs with Kelli Richards

CEO of All Access Group LLC, Top Music/Tech Exec, Mentor, Author, Certified Coach – Kelli Richards

Kelli has an amazing story, and an even more amazing network. She worked with Steve Jobs and many others at Apple, and now helps deals with amazing silicon valley business and even celebrities. We talk about how to network with extremely high level people. I even created what I call “Connection Dinners” since taking advice from Kelli!

Go to AllAccessGroup.com for more info!

Thanks so much for listening!

Transcript:

Announcer: Welcome to the Eventual Millionaire podcast - with your host, Jaime Tardy. Real talk and real advice from real millionaires, with a sharp focus on you - the Eventual Millionaire.

Jaime: Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I'm Jaime Tardy and today on the show I'm excited to have Kelli Richards. She owns a company called All Access Group and she's a super connector, deal maker, trusted advisor. I'm super excited to have her on the show today. Thanks so much for coming on the show, Kelli.

Kelli: My pleasure, Jaime. It's great to be here.

Jaime: Tell me a little bit about what you're doing now; what All Access Group is.

Kelli: All Access Group is the culmination of a lot of things that I've done in my career. I don't know how much of the history you want but it sets the stage for what I'm doing now.

Jaime: Well, exactly. That's why I was asking you, because you have an amazing history and I definitely want to dive into that. I really feel that what you're doing right now accumulates all of it so let's work up to it. Tell me what those pieces were in your history that really made All Access Group.

Kelli: I will be as succinct as I can be so that we have time for more questions. It's hard to sum a 30 year career into a sound bite but essentially I started off as one of these eight year olds thinking about what they wanted to do for a living - some kids just know - and that was to bridge music and technology, well before that was even a possibility. So I wound up putting myself through college working at a group of music magazines - Guitar Player, Keyboard and Bass - and that happened to be in my home town of Cupertino, where I still reside, Cupertino, California, home of Apple, so I literally grew up in the shadow of the factory that was Apple. I then went to EMI Music, one of the big record labels, and became a young A&R executive, which meant that I was responsible for talent scouting, new artists and managing the artists on the label. From there, I got the knock on the door to return home to Cupertino, to Apple, where I was asked to launch and manage the earliest focus that Apple had on music and entertainment and I was there for 12 years.

Jaime: What year was that, do you remember?

Kelli: It was fall of 1987 - and I just came back from a really super reunion with a bunch of my Apple alum colleagues this past weekend, I had so much fun. So we did a lot of groundbreaking things for Apple around music and entertainment, as you can imagine, and it also allowed me to build a really powerful network of big artists, big record label execs, film studio execs, directors, luminaries of all stripes, and I had a parallel career as well - I had started to become a tele-producer of award shows, celebrity fundraiser events, concerts - so that was all going on in parallel to the technology world. While I was at Apple, I helped build what became the digital music revolution, starting with an artist named Todd Rundgren. We built the earliest version of Artist 360, artists going direct to fans, for big artists, and after that Napster launched and the rest is history. About that time I left Apple, after Steve Jobs came back, because Apple was in a very bad way at that time, and I went a mile down the down and started my own consulting practice, the All Access Group. I continued to consult with a mentor of mine on the iTunes team but I also started working with a range of innovative startups in the tech world that had something to do with music or entertainment and I became a strategic partnerships VP for hire to a bunch of those startups which I've done over the last 15 years. So that's where it all went. Midway along, say about eight years ago, I had gotten an MBA through Apple while I was there and then, about eight years ago, I got a coaching certification through two of my favorite personal mentor coaches - a bestselling author, who is Debbie Ford, and Alan Cohen. I also started working with Alan Weiss and Rich Lipman as my coaches. So Debbie has passed away, the other three remain my mentors and coaches. Obviously Steve has passed away, but I have built this trusted advisor part of my practice which extends beyond this super connector, deal making wall where I have made most of my living and now the trust advisor practice is all about working with high achieving, very successful people - luminaries, billionaires, rock stars, entrepreneurs, innovators - people who have carved a dent in the universe but something is missing in their lives or they're trying to figure out what comes next for them. So the work I do as a trusted advisor is a powerful coach, strategist and connector to bring them that one key insider connection that might shift everything for them. So a long answer to a short question but hopefully that gets us to where you want us to be.

Jaime: Yeah, it does. It sounds like you're having amazing fun throughout this entire stretch that you've had. I want to dig into All Access Group and those 15 years. A lot of people, especially people who have had amazing careers beforehand, will hang up a shingle nowadays and nothing happens. Thankfully you had an insane network but what did you do at the beginning that really made all the difference?

Kelli: A couple of things - I got very serious, so I put the business structure in place that I needed. I made one foolish mistake - I tried the lone ranger approach for the first 12 years. Finally I got smart and hired a virtual assistant and a social media strategist to take care of all of my leadership stuff while I published books and newsletters and did radio shows. I could never have done all of that if I didn't have someone on my team, so that was about three or four years ago. But what I did do was I leveraged the heck out of my network and that's what brought me my initial clients and continued to through referrals. If you've got a strong network and you seek referrals from your colleagues and your clients; one of my mentors, Alan Weiss, wrote a book called "Million Dollar Referrals" - if nothing else, people should read that book, because just a few referrals will, believe it or not, set you up for the rest of your career. Or they can.

Jaime: Tell me more about this, because I've been told that people refer to me as a networker and stuff like that, but I want to hear it from the greats. So you've been doing this for a really long time - how did you become a super connector? Say I want to become a super connector, how do I go about doing that? I love having friendships, I make friendships first, right? But then, when they're friends, it's kind of weird asking them for stuff, so give us some tips.

Kelli: I'm so glad you asked that question. First of all, it does rest on the premise of establishing long term, trusted relationships, and that's probably what I'm best known for of everything, whether it's with the rock stars or the tech people. People trust me, they know I get the job done, they know I have integrity and I care about my colleagues. I always look for ways to create success for them. So to answer your question about the ickiness of colleagues and friends and asking for referrals, the way you have to think about it is it's a tripe win - when you ask for a referral from somebody it makes them look good because they referred you, a powerful resource, to a third party; it makes the third party happy because they got that powerful resource, and of course you get additional business if it turns out that way. If you don't get the business from this referred source, you've made a dent in building a long term relationship with that person - whether they hire you or they don't, they will refer you on, in turn, to somebody else. That's how it works and that's the whole million dollar referrals thing in a nutshell if you haven't read the book.

Jaime: Now everyone's going to go read the book. We're going to put it as a resource on the page so everyone can go check out the book too, because it's so hard to get into all of the details, I'm sure, in a half an hour conversation. But what I want to know is how deep does the friendship have to be before you ask' I'm a giver ' I want to give and give and give - and I don't know where the line is.

Kelli: It doesn't have to be very deep.

Jaime: Really?

Kelli: Whether it's a friendship or a colleague. It could be a new colleague, it could be a long term colleague - it's in how they perceive your value, whether you've just met them or you've known them for ten years. If you show up authentically and operate out of integrity and come from the strategy of wanting to serve people and make a difference for them, as opposed to what you can get out of it, people are going to pick up on that and they're going to want to make sure that you're not a best kept secret - they're going to want to share you with others in their world where they know you can make a difference and they look good for having referred you. Do you see what I mean?

Jaime: I do. Can you give me some examples, too, so that everyone can see this tangibly? Like how you?ve asked. When people come to me, they ask ?Do you know somebody who does this?? and I?m like ?Of course, I?ll definitely refer you in a second.? But when you?re trying to ask for referrals, sometimes it?s a little harder. So give me an example.

Kelli: Here?s a way to think about it, one specific way ? what you do is you say to your colleagues in your network "You know, I have a pretty full practice, and this is the description of my ideal client. If you know anybody who fits that description I would very much appreciate an introduction from you or, if you don?t feel comfortable doing that, providing me with their contact info and allowing me to say you referred me." Who?s going to say no to that?

Jaime: So it?s that easy?

Kelli: It's a formula. You just have to get it into your bones. You come up out of integrity, you spin it if you can, authentically, in a way that will serve them. Because, again, they want to look like a hero for having referred you. Does that make sense?

Jaime: It totally makes sense. So tell me more about how this goes. I know that, just in general, you have a huge network. I have a lot of people that I know and I've thankfully just got InfusionSoft to try to keep everybody straight because after a while you forget them all - not that you forget them, but they don't come to the top of your mind when you need them to. How do you manage your network when it's so big?

Kelli: That's a really good question. I've got a really big network and the truth is that I don't stay in touch with everybody as much as I should because I don't have time. The newsletter helps, if they've signed up, obviously. I also host quarterly breakfast gatherings ' like in the '20s people held salons in France and New York and they gather in intimate groups of 20 or something and they met and engaged and talked about things that matter and networked and all of that stuff. So I host that thing once a quarter and, frankly, I attend a lot of events where a lot of my colleagues show up and so the networking continues. So those are some ideas but there's nothing that beats reaching out one at a time, whether it's once a year or whatever, and having coffee or lunch with someone and really catching up, one-on-one, in a way that matters, when you can make requests authentically and, more importantly, offer to support them in some way.

Jaime: Yes, face to face makes a big difference, compared to shooting out a quick e-mail or something like that.

Kelli: That's what fosters that long term friend.

Jaime: I've just moved to Austin, Texas, so I've got about a bazillion introduction e-mails. Now I'm looking at my inbox, going "I don't have time for coffee with all of these people!" which is amazing and I'm really lucky, but how do you fit that in? Networking is really important but I still have so many other things that I have to do.

Kelli: Just as important as trying to figure that out is the ability to filter and to politely say "No". You've got to learn to say "No" or you'll drown. When these people reach out, some kind of quick response saying "You know what? I've got a happy situation. My plate is full. I've got a lot going on, I simply don't have the time right now but I wish you well and perhaps we can try this again down the road." I'm just riffing that off the top of my head. If it's somebody where you think you can really make a difference or they could become a client then you prioritize finding a little bit of time, even if it's two weeks or a month out, and putting that on the calendar. So it's a filtering exercise.

Jaime: I'm so glad you said that, because I can't say "No" to anyone. I want to meet so many amazing people, I have so much fun doing it, but you're right, I don't have enough time.

Kelli: The other option is you could host an event in Austin. You could host an event where you invite them all to come and then you're knocking over a bunch of bowling pins in one go.

Jaime: That's what we're talking about, having dinner with 10 people plus, and they can meet each other too.

Kelli: That's exactly what I was saying with these salons; that's what I'm talking about.

Jaime: Yes, you mentioned it and I was like "That's what I was thinking about." I think that's great. So that might really help those pieces too; I appreciate that. I want to dive into your other skill, which you said was deal making. I think a lot of new entrepreneurs especially aren't very good at this yet so can you tell me a little bit more about how that's a skill of yours?

Kelli: Again, it's the same kind of spin that we just talked about. It is looking to create value for any two parties that are trying to make a deal happen. So coming up with what that would be for the other party, even if the other client is just one of them, and you happen to know the other side and you can see there's an opportunity, it's framing things in a way where there's value for the other person, so that's where the strategy piece comes in. it's the power of having a great network, so you do have a wide range of opportunities to do a deal. But if you're coming from that win/win mentality and you're offering value in the deal, that's going to really amp your chances of being a successful deal maker. It comes from the mindset of integrity and authenticity, again, of where you're coming from. When they know that, they'll trust you, they'll take the call, they'll make the deal, they'll make the time, and from there the deal either happens or it doesn't.

Jaime: So tell me how you would do this, an example. Because I'm thinking of deal making as you know one person and another person and you're getting them together. How do you be the middle person, or do you?

Kelli: There is a range of deals. There is that piece where you make the introduction and you move on, and I do a lot of that. Then there's the piece where you roll up your sleeves and you're actually in with your client to make sure that the deal actually happens beyond the introduction, you're part of the whole process. As an example, I'm working on some pretty big deals right now that have come to me, I didn't seek them out, they have come to me by referral. One is to fund the next 100 films that a major motion picture studio will release, and that's a nine figure deal.

Jaime: That's a big deal. My goodness!

Kelli: Then there's finding the development of some luxury resorts and those are really big deals. Getting the next Nascar, that's for motorcycles, funded so that it will take off, and that's a billion dollar enterprise when that's funded. So really big deals have just come to me by nature of my network.

Jaime: So what do you do in that piece too?

Kelli: It's to cross pollenate within my network to find people that would be a good fit to get involved with these big deals. For example, I have presented this big motorcycle, World Moto Clash it's called, this new motorcycle league, if you like, to one of the top two biggest talent agencies in the world who, under their wing, they have a bunch of actors who love motorcycle racing who are all gazillionaires, as is in the head of the agency. So that's an example where, because I know them and I know what drives them, pardon the pun, I can create a bridge that they might decide they want to participate in and that's a win for everybody, myself included, of course.

Jaime: Nice, so you're using that network and just connecting two people together.

Kelli: Yes, but it's not just making the connection - it's being a part of the strategy so that it's a win/win for everybody involved and trying to stay in for as long as it makes sense for me to and knowing when to step out so that the deal actually happens. Another example is when I do celebrity wrangling - the other side of the coin to my talent producing - I bring celebrities to Silicon Valley to be a part of marketing campaigns, big sales conferences, employee events, you name it. At the request of John Chambers, who is head of Cisco, I brought Jerry Seinfeld for a big anniversary employee event a few years back. It wasn't as simple as just calling the agent and making the deal because he didn't want to do it. It was a lot of influencing and negotiating and managing the process over a 10 week period and blowing out John Chamber's budget by 4x to make sure that the deal actually happened.

Jaime: It's never like this, right?

Kelli: "Oh, well I'll just make a phone call and put you in touch." No - because I had to translate what the value would be to both sides and help shepherd it all along to make sure that it didn't fall apart.

Jaime: That's awesome. I've never really heard deep into deals like this. I find it really interesting and I find it ridiculously interesting that you have celebrities and musicians, a network that's incredible. How did you get in with amazing people like that? I know in your history you had access to them, but how did you make that friendship over all those years?

Kelli: It's the same thing as with the innovators and wizards and entrepreneurs and geniuses in Silicon Valley. It was just forging relationships - whether someone's a billionaire or a rock star I treat them just like you and I are talking. They're just peers; I see them as peers. I see them as people and I don't put them on a pedestal and I forge relationships that are trusted over a long period of time and that's reinforced when I bring them opportunities to participate in that add value to them, whether it's bringing them new revenue streams or new audience or whatever it is based on what I'm working on.

Jaime: I love this. Let's say there was somebody that you met at a part or something like that who were kind of a big deal, a celebrity or whatever - how do you maintain that relationship? Because meeting once is great - I've met some amazing people once and then I'll follow up with an e-mail or something but that's about it. We're acquaintances and that's about it. How do you build that deeper?

Kelli: Frankly it's how I do what I do. I get involved with meaningful opportunities where I can weave value back to them and that gives us a reason to stay in touch that's going to be a benefit to them, if that makes sense.

Jaime: So it's not like "Hey, let's hang out next Thursday," and they're like "No."

Kelli: No. Having working with celebrities and luminaries for as long as I have, they're very sensitive to their privacy, their boundaries, what they need to feel safe, what they are looking for to solve some pain points and therefore I know how to approach them and be in touch in a way that's not intrusive but that's always looking to add value to their lives or their work.

Jaime: Can you tell me more about how to do that with a high valued individual? People ask me all the time how I get in touch with millionaires but I find this way more interesting so tell me more!

Kelli: So an example would be Stuart Copeland who's the drummer and founder of the rock group The Police. I had met Stuart, I had had him be a presenter at award shows a couple of times but we had never actually worked together so I asked for a meeting with him last summer and I went and spent an hour with him and we had a fabulous time, it was actually on my birthday, and I can't imagine a better birthday present - I was on cloud 12 when I left. We hit it off beautifully, I told him what I was doing, what I had done, how I could help someone like him and, sure enough, within a month, someone came up with a project that would be a perfect fit for him. I went back with them to his office, his studio, and we took a meeting for another hour and he could quickly get that it was a win/win for everybody and so from there he's already trusting me to work on his behalf and away we go.

Jaime: I love this. I want to dive in a little bit more with the time that we have left on the trusted advisor piece. How did you learn how to do that? And give us some tips that you help your clients with, some of the most common things.

Kelli: Well the trusted advisor piece is really an outgrowth of the fact that I had the ability to work so closely with Steve Jobs, with my mentor, with Alan Cohen, Alan Weiss and Rich Lipman. Those four men were all very powerful in their own right which caused me to conceive of this notion of being a trusted advisor. Yes, I'm a trained, certified coach, but coaching is so commonplace it's just like anybody can be a coach and my work is much deeper than that, it goes to the heart of transformation in someone's life, transforming the quality of their life, creating exceptional opportunities and relationships that they would otherwise never meet for themselves. It includes strategy for their businesses and their life, solving problems but also seeing a vision that's bigger for them than they might see for themselves, so helping them to see objectively, and finally, again, bringing key connections to them that can accelerate their vision and what they want to do next. So I seek out who I want to work with, or sometimes they come to me, again, by referral. I only work with a handful of people at a very high level and we do some amazing things together. We address what they think they want upfront and inevitably that leads to other things, maybe because they want something else, whether it's external for business or balancing their life more effectively or maybe it's more internal, blockages or obstacles that are getting in their way, so that they can jettison some baggage and move on to the next phase of their life.

Jaime: I love it, and it really sets you apart. I didn't call you a coach or anything like that - calling you a trusted advisor makes it feel better just in general, instead of being just another coach.

Kelli: Especially with that caliber of people, very high level people.

Jaime: Give us some marketing tips to high level people too. I know there are tons of books about this, reaching the higher, influential people who have a lot of money and that sort of thing. There are very different marketing tactics - like you said, just naming it differently.

Kelli: Again, not everyone will be able to reach them or work with them or engage them in any capacity; the bar is very high. But because I am who I am and I've done my job and I've worked with the people I've worked with I have something above average and because I'm essentially more of a peer than a sycophant I don't want something from them, I come at it delivering exceptional value to them and a lot of horsepower in terms of what I can do for them, who I can introduce them to and how I can make a difference in improving the quality of their lives. It's born out of everything I've done; it's who I am as a person and the relationships I've established.

Jaime: I love this. I know you have something called Inner Influence coming up or something like that?

Kelli: That's a program that's kind of on hold. It's a collaboration with a wonderful colleague of mine, Jacqueline Wales. I'm nothing if not a collaborator - I'll seek to collaborate with everybody I meet with, whether they're my clients or my colleagues. This was going to be a group program aimed at high achievers, about 16-20 people for six months, working together in a high powered mastermind capacity. We've put that project on hold temporarily. I publish a book a year and this year's book is going to be opening around the ripple effect of coaching and influence, self-mastering the world, and so that will come out as a collaboration between Jackie and I. On the heels of that we decided to instigate the Inner Influence program by invitation or referral only. That's how I work with my clients - only by invitation or referral.

Jaime: I love that. So when does that book come out?

Kelli: In the summer. Probably July or August.

Jaime: Perfect. I don't know exactly when this interview is coming out but we'll make sure we have a link to where we can get it once it comes out. We don't have too much more time but I want to ask you the same last question that I ask everyone - what's one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of $1 million?

Kelli: Again, credit where it's due, one of my mentors, Alan Weiss. It's as simple as it sounds - if you meet with four buyers per month, you send proposals to three, you close two, at an average of $50,000, that's your $1 million. It's a math exercise. If you have 10 clients at $100,000 for a year, that's your $1 million. The deal is that you don't have to do much, you just have to get out there and meet with people who are true buyers who can write checks; decision makers who would embrace your work. Get the proposals done, get those converted. It's really that simple.

Jaime: So looking at the math. Because if you sold something that was worth $1 apiece it would take you a million sales.

Kelli: You would never be able to do it, you wouldn't have a life, you wouldn't be able to do it in the time in the day. You just have to choose how many clients you really want to handle and do the math.

Jaime: Awesome. And then use the techniques that you were talking about for referrals in order to find those people.

Kelli: That's exactly right, yes.

Jaime: Awesome, Kelli, I really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Where can we find out more about you online? I know you have a radio show and a newsletter - tell us more about that?

Kelli: The radio show is part of Blog Talk Radio, it's called All Access Radio, no surprise, and it also leads into a podcast on iTunes, same name. My website is allaccessgroup.com and I have a newsletter that you can sign up to on that site.

Jaime: Beautiful. So everyone that listens to this podcast can go and check out Kelli's podcast too. We'll definitely link everything up in the show notes. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Kelli, I really appreciate it.

Kelli: It's my pleasure, Jaime. Have a great rest of your day.

Jaime: I hope you enjoyed that interview with Kelli. She was really fun and can really show you the power of an incredible network. I'm living proof of that - I lived in the middle of nowhere in Maine and somehow, over the last three or four years, have an insane network of not only millionaires but amazing, successful people that has just created so many opportunities that I never would have even dreamed possible. So it takes time to pay attention to that. If you haven't already checked out my book, it's called "The Eventual Millionaire". If you have, if you could leave me a rating on Amazon just letting me know what you think, and if you haven't yet, pick it up, I would be forever grateful. I've had some amazing feedback so far. Thank you so much for being a part of the Eventual Millionaire community. I really appreciate it and I hope you have an amazing day. You can check out the book at EventualMillionaire.com/book. Take care.

Announcer: Thanks for listening. You can find out more great information like this on EventualMillionaire.com.

Tags: business netwrok, business proposal, Connection Dinners, Decision Making, Kelli Richards, millionaire interview, network, networking

Categories: All, Business, Business Model, Entrepreneurship, Millionaire Interviews, Relationships

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