Want to meet someone you think is out of your league? The power of #JustAsk the question!

This is not going to be a long post, but hopefully it will be an inspiring post.

I often find when I’m reaching out to connect with people on LinkedIn I sometimes get stuck.

I find myself thinking “why would this person say yes to me?”

The person in question usually has impressive credentials, a fantastic following and/or is hugely experienced.

I’ll sit there for a few seconds or so and then I just ask to connect anyway.

One of the reasons I do it is that I know from experience that I should not be surprised by who actually says yes.

Take these examples.

One of my friends many years ago took on a job as a CEO of a literacy charity.

While her title CEO was impressive, in reality she was a one person operation, shoe-stringing like many similar not-for-profits, running out of a borrowed corner of another business and heavily reliant on a few overworked volunteers to get things done.

While big overseas, the charity was new in Australia and had zero real visibility or track record here.

My friend knew she needed to get some  high profile supporters fast.

So she went straight to the top and asked the Governor General to become a patron.

For all of the above reasons I was gobsmacked when I heard my friend had done that.

Firstly it would never have occurred to me to do that, and even if it did, I would have assumed I would have needed to be far more established before I did.

Just as an aside as I’m sure you’re all asking the question – “how did she do it?”

Well, along with knowing this was a good match for the areas of interest for his office, my friend’s winning point was timing. The Governor General was new to the job. My friend knew she needed to get in quickly before he got bombarded with similar requests.

So she asked.

Cutting a long story super short, the Governor General’s office said yes and he became a patron.

And the launch of this charity was actually held at Admiralty House.

Once the GG came on board a whole host of other high profile sponsors were interested.

Here’s another inspiring story I heard yesterday from Dilbert’s creator Scott Adams.  (I heard this as part of a long and fascinating interview on the Tim Ferris podcast. and instantly wanted to share it.)

Adams tells the story of when he was trying to work out how to get published as a cartoonist and how he reached out to the host of a TV show on cartooning to ask his advice on entering the profession.

Check out the story here.

Anyway, the famous TV cartoonist came back answering all his questions and with some wonderful advice and really encouraging feedback on the cartoon samples Adams had sent in.

Not only did he answer the first letter Adams had sent in, he wrote again with more encouragement the following year.

Now I know it sounds flippant to suggest you #JustAsk for a connection or a meeting.  And obviously there is the right way to ask and you do need to do your homework on the person in question.

But what I have found after many years of “just asking” for all sorts of meetings is that in the most cases d*ckheads don’t say yes.

I love that saying you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Because so many of us miss out on opportunities when we talk ourselves out of asking.

So if you’ve had an opportunity come out of just asking for a meeting where you first thought someone would say no, here’s my #JustAsk…..I’d love you to tell others about it in the comments below.

PS: this post comes courtesy of the thought behind the Straight to Shortlist Challenge. – learn how to get 5 meetings with 5 employers in 5 weeks.