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How To Become Friends With Richard Branson (And Any Other Billionaire)

This article is more than 7 years old.

If you want to connect with someone who is seemingly unreachable, how do you do it? That’s what my friend, Joe Polish, is a master at. Joe curates Genius Network, the highest level network in the world for successful entrepreneurs, and, as far as I’m concerned, he’s one of the greatest connectors alive today. I recently spoke with Joe to hear the story of how he became friends with Sir Richard Branson, and how you, too, can become friends with the most successful people in the world. Here’s what I learned:

The first time Joe met Richard was at a charity event. Joe made a $15,000 donation to Richard’s charity, Virgin Unite. In exchange, Joe was invited to have dinner with Richard and a small group of other donors. And that’s the first lesson — sometimes the simplest way to get proximity to seemingly unreachable people is to pay to play. At the dinner, while many people were asking Richard environmental questions or being super serious, Joe kept the conversation light-hearted. After all, Richard is not a stuffy guy; he’s ballooned across the Atlantic, signed the Sex Pistols, and been knighted by the queen.

While some people were trying to extract as much value as they could during the dinner with Richard, Joe realized the way to build relationships is by adding value — not extracting it. So Joe shared an idea with Richard which involved distributing a video. The video would educate people about Virgin Unite and the cause in exchange for donations. Joe explained to Richard how utilizing education-based marketing could take Virgin Unite’s message to the whole world. And if people understood more about Virgin Unite, they would be more likely to support it via their time, efforts, and contributions.

After hearing the idea, Richard asked Joe if he could put this idea in writing and send it to his personal email address, which he gave to Joe. “I believe I’m the only one who got Richard’s email that evening,” said Joe.

Now, years later, Richard has spoken at several of Joe’s events, Joe has traveled to Richard’s private island (Necker Island) multiple times and Joe has spent a lot of time with Richard. Even though Joe didn’t ask for Richard’s time at first, or even second. After Joe gave Richard that idea, he then asked if he could interview Jean Oelwang, the person running Virgin Unite, so that Joe could promote the interview to his contacts, subscribers and fans. Through this interview with Jean, many more people were educated about Virgin Unite and inspired to get involved. In fact, at one of Richard’s “Rock The Kasbah” gala fundraisers, 92 people came as a result of Joe and his Genius Network — including myself — and each person made a $2,500 contribution to Virgin Unite. Plus, many people bought items at the “Rock The Kasbah” auction, which meant Joe’s efforts ultimately raised $327,000 for Virgin Unite. And that’s just one of many ways Joe has helped Richard and Virgin Unite.

As Joe told me, “A lot of value comes from sharing ‘how-to’ ideas with people. And a lot of the marketing strategies I give away for free on the I Love Marketing podcast, and many of the ideas me and one of my best friends, Dan Sullivan, the founder of Strategic Coach, share on 10xtalk.com, can be parlayed into transforming your business, your connections and your life.”

Joe also uses his Magic Rapport Formula. It’s Joe’s unique networking approach that can help you meet and connect with high level people. Joe did a whole episode of I Love Marketing about the formula. I’ll list the 9-part formula here, but I would encourage you to listen to the full podcast episode Joe recorded if you want to truly understand it.

Joe Polish's 9-Part Magic Rapport Formula:

  • 1. Focus on how you will help them or reduce their suffering.
  • 2. Invest time, money, and energy on relationships.
  • 3. Be the type of person they would always answer the phone for.
  • 4. Be useful, grateful and valuable.
  • 5. Treat others as you would love to be treated.
  • 6. Avoid formalities, be fun and memorable, not boring.
  • 7. Appreciate people.
  • 8. Give value on the spot.
  • 9. Get as close to the “in-person” as you can.

The same line of thinking and action can be used to connect with any billionaire. Never ask them to do anything until you provide value for them first. Find ways to be useful and grateful. Look for ways to be positively memorable and try to wow them. Most importantly, be valuable. The reality is, you’re only one valuable idea away from connecting with anyone you want.

Joe Polish is the Founder and Creator of GeniusNetwork.com, the highest level network group for successful entrepreneurs and Co-Founder of 10xTalk and I Love Marketing®, 2 highly popular podcasts on iTunes. 

Check out my website or some of my other work here