honestly, i have always feared becoming famous. not because i think it’s at all likely, but merely because i think it would suck.

I’m not famous and I don’t want to be, mostly because I have a few friends that are. They can’t go anywhere without being hounded by epeople that AREN’T afraid to talk with someone famous.

On a book tour, I watched a good buddy grip and grin for hours once. He heard the same story a hundred times, the only detail that was different was the names of the people in the stories.

Wow. That took patience.

I’ve been writing and speaking on for about a decade now, but now I’m close to releasing my first book. I don’t expect the attention my friend receives when speaks or does a book signing.

Nor do I want it.

Much.

Happy Marketing.

Patrick Byers
OUTSOURCE MARKETING
http://outsourcemarketing.com

The Responsible Marketing Blog
http://responsiblemarketing.com

I used to be among the people who were intimidated by famous people. I got over it…. the day in the late 80s that Noel Paul Stookey (who I was too shy to approach) came up to my husband and me and said, “Oh! Everybody’s been telling me I should talk with you guys.” To him, *we* were the famous people, because we knew more about computers than he did. We ended up as tech support for his BBS.

Looking back at how I felt back then, I think it’s less the belief that the celebrity is too busy to respond to you than it is a mark of one’s own feelings of (relative) insignificance. You might say, “Oh, they’d never answer ME,” but what you mean is, “I’m not important enough to respond to” or “I’m sure my ideas aren’t interesting enough to appeal to this individual.”

Maybe that’s true. But if you don’t try, you’ll never know.

In point of fact, most people do like (non-attack) input, even if they don’t have time to respond. I’m not sure it’s possible to say “Thank you” too often, for example. That was another lesson I learned from Noel. He once visited us, after we moved to Arizona, and we took him to a local restaurant. Two fans approached him, just to say, “Thank you for writing all that wonderful music.” Noel was amazingly gracious, despite his meal being interrupted. “It’s a special moment for them,” he explained. “Even if it’s ‘just another fan’ to me.” He treated every Thank You as though it was the first he had received. (Just one reason that I think Noel is such a great person. And oh yeah. Peter Paul & Mary have good music, too.)

Most celebrities, I think, web or otherwise, have similar viewpoints. You rarely get to the top because you’re a jerk. You get to the top in any field because you’re a nice person *and* you’re brilliant. _Usually_; there are always exceptions. But most celebrities stay as accessible as they can.

Again, if you don’t try it you won’t know if they’ll answer.

And just as a side note. I don’t encourage people mass mailing everyone around. Personally I only email if I know or have a feeling that the person I’m mailing might be interested in what I have to say.

Being said that I want to apologize to everybody I mailed with this post and felt it was useless.

Again, if you have to deal with 1000+ emails on a daily basis you can’t do that. As Seth would say, you only attend the emails that look like a purple cow

The mysterious halo famous people have it’s because of the rest of the world promoting it, not because of them (generally speaking).

There are some great tips in some comments.

@Dave’s comment is quite insightful, I never though about it before. When you have a public face or are very widely known it’s indeed a problem to answer to emails you don’t know where they come from (I indeed feel honor that you did stopped by and left a comment. I greatly appreciate it).

I suppose it’s a matter of trust. It gets to a point you just have to trust the other person into not trashing you. It’s like what Ricardo Semler once said: I prefer to get robbed by a 2% of my employees that to treat the 98% of them like thiefs.

Indeed when the trashing happens with a high rate, then you’ve got a problem with very difficult solution

She brings up yet another reason to have a conversation with a successful individual: Ask them questions! I couldn’t agree more.

I produce a podcast of conversations with a variety of interesting people in entertainment, business, technology, etc. Craig Newmark, Kevin Rose, Dr. David Farber, Sean Cory and others have all made appearances simply because I wanted to learn about them and share their conversation with the world.

Again, it’s all about the approach.

In my experience, many famous and wealthy people are open to conversation if you approach them in the right way. I’ve managed to correspond with Bill Gates (Microsoft), J.B. Hunt (J.B. Hunt Transport), Donald Schneider (Schneider National) and a host of other CEOs and personalities representing dozens of industries.

Many people aren’t aware of this, simply because I don’t talk about it, however, I approached these people because I hand-picked them as role models and I was determined to learn from them (and I did).

After more than 15 years of doing this stuff, I’ve now realized the value in my experiences and I will soon help others realize the same.

If there’s any advice I could offer to anyone with regard to meet a celebrity, CEO, etc., it would be this: They too are human. They’re not God. They dress, eat and talk the same. Approach them as a human being and you’ll be surprised by their response.