Clinton Senkow

I am 100% ready, Luis.

Clinton Senkow

Yeah.

Clinton Senkow

Honestly, I think it’s a real hot topic these days. Some people are social media influencers, and others are entrepreneurial influencers. There is an influencer network in every industry nowadays, and we can get access to anyone and everyone we’ve never had access to before. Everything; from your favorite sports stars to musicians to the biggest entrepreneurs of our time.

Most of them have accounts on social media or have some following or presence online.

How do you get access to those people? How do you connect with them?

That’s something I’m continuing to craft the best way in everything that I do and always get better.

I always find people that are like, “I want to connect with so and so,” or “I want to do this.”

Clinton Senkow

One of the things you need to do if you ever want to connect with people that are maybe a little bit higher than you or a little bit more successful in your industry or whatever it maybe, is you need to provide value to them.

The number one thing is just when you show that you’re someone of value and you are valuable. You are worthy to talk to and to sit down for lunch.

Clinton Senkow

It’s finding that person or business you want to connect with and influence, and you should be providing value to them.

Clinton Senkow

You should be sharing their articles, commenting on their posts, and doing all these small tangible things on a consistent basis. When you do them on a regular basis, they add up because everyone likes to have someone ask them questions, have someone question something, and have someone support them.

I feel that’s one of the best ways. It’s to be someone of value and just always trying.

Clinton Senkow

Find out about them. Find about what they need. Try and fill a gap in there, and that’s understanding them and exactly what they need.

A second part that I’ll say has to do with confidence as well.

When you’re starting off on your entrepreneurial journey or your professional career, it can be intimidating seeing these individuals that are at the top of the ladder and these other influencers that have millions of followers.

Clinton Senkow

You think, “I’m never going to connect with this people,” Or “How do I get access to them?”

The thing is you’ve got to have confidence in yourself. You got to believe that you belong in the room with people like that. You need to portray that in your calls, messages, emails, and all your communications you have with people of that stature.

I think those are two main areas that I find are super important to help with anything to do with influencers, being someone of value, and being confident in yourself.

Clinton Senkow

Like a practical way to reach. Okay.

Take for instance every social network we have out there right now is everyone is trying to get away from email. That’s an easy way to look at this. Everyone’s trying to get away with email.

I get hundreds of emails. I’m sure you guys get lots of emails. We sign up for newsletters. We do this and that. We can’t even keep up, and we don’t even know what we’re getting anymore.

Clinton Senkow

But there’s still an area out there that I think is relatively untapped and it honestly depends on the network, but it’s going out there and direct messaging people. The power of direct messaging is powerful.

It’s crazy that you can just follow someone on Instagram who has a million followers. And you can send them a message and say, “Hey, I love your page,” or “Hey, you’re a huge inspiration to me,” or “Hey, I like what you’re doing with your business. I would love to talk about collaborations.” You send a message with just a quick, simple one liner.

Clinton Senkow

You follow somebody you appreciate what they’re doing, and you want to find a way to work with them or partner with them. I think that’s easy and tangible, and almost something a lot of people I feel overlooked.

But if you just sit there for an hour a day, and you direct message people on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, I guarantee you’re going to get some replies back, and you’re going to be surprised with some of the people that will get back to you.

Clinton Senkow

With everything that we’ve done with Influencive, we’ve had the pleasure of interviewing some very top notch people like Kevin O’Leary to Scooter Braun, to the Wyclef Jean, to Lewis Howes, great entrepreneurs, celebrities, and influencers, some of the biggest ones in the world.

Ways I’ve been able to get through to some of these people is through social media. It’s connecting with them, providing value, and reaching out to them. Maybe they’ll reply, perhaps they won’t. Find their emails, the way into their inbox, and people that are connected to them.

Clinton Senkow

It’s always great to have a soft intro to somebody or business. If you know somebody that knows somebody on a better level than you, leverage that and see what you can do with that.

With my life, I’ve used anything from social media which what I’ve already explained or straight off just cold emailing or straight up just getting people that are connected to them to connect me to them and interview them or whatever it is.

Clinton Senkow

Regarding Wyclef, that was through my business partner with Influencive, our founder CEO, Brian.

He was the one who knows Wyclef and has done some stuff with him in the past. That was just more of a personal level.

Clinton Senkow

Yeah.

I would love to just elaborate on something you just said right now. I learned this from my business partner, Brian.

When it comes down to the whole networking piece, here’s another way you can put yourself in a whole other category than other people instead of making blind intros to people.

Clinton Senkow

Let’s say, I come to you, and you think I’m going to be good to connect with your friend, Jim who has his business, and you believe that we’re going to collaborate.

Instead of collaborating, messaging, and introducing him and me together to show more value to other people, you can come to me or go to him first and say, “Hey, I met this person, and I think they would be a cool person for you to collaborate. I just wanted to let you know. Would you like it if I connected you two and you guys can take it from there?”

Clinton Senkow

That’s a networking tool I’ve learned from Brian. It sets you apart from everybody because getting blind intros is not the right way that you should be using your network.

I get those all the time, and when people do that, I don’t appreciate it because I don’t necessarily want to connect with that person or maybe I don’t see the value you see in that person.

I think that’s a real easy, tangible thing that your audience can take with you. Don’t abuse your network and just start connecting, and using your network to connect with so and so and whoever.

Clinton Senkow

Provide more value by seeing that connection, and then reaching out to one or the other parties, and asking and saying, “Hey, this is who I connected with. Would you like for me to make the connection?” That provides more value and just makes a lot of sense in that whole networking piece.