 Arnold Schwarzenegger, someone who's a bodybuilder, who becomes an actor, who becomes a politician. You get really good at one thing, people will trust you. So to summarize, just on this point, before we crack into the practical steps here. Passion is attainable, but it's something you have to work very hard for. It's something you will not have at the beginning, and you have to be very strategic and patient in how you go about building it. So, to get into the steps. I'm beginning this with what I'm calling pitching preliminaries. Three things that you need to begin with. The first is that you must develop a body of work. Today's job market is so fiercely competitive that you need to be an immediately proven prospect. Whether in the form of writing a blog, having a YouTube channel, if you're a designer getting a really solid portfolio, you must have a body of work that distinguishes you. Now, there are certain stigmas attached to this in the way of people not wanting to put their name out there. They're fearful that friends and family will see these things. And to that, I would say that getting over this and getting over what people care about is really a lifelong endeavor, and that this is a great way to start. In doing so, you will refine your thinking. I was checking out a book called Rework by the Guys at 37 Signals in which they have a title of a chapter, Hire the Better Writer. If they're on the fence about a key hiring or a key hiring decision, they pick the better writer because it shows a clarity in thinking. So, in doing something like blogging and really thinking about an area, you will begin to understand it better. The second is research. You must research the person that you are looking to contact to death. Now, when I began working with Matthew, I was in quick succession given the reigns of the beast that is the Get the Guy recruiting inbox. And so, over the years, I've read hundreds, if not thousands of emails from people writing in looking to work with the company. I've seen every conceivable mistake that anyone could ever make, and I've seen the few gems of people who really do it well. What always amazes me is the number of people who will hear one radio show or hear one interview or one podcast and decide that this is enough to contact the person. You need to be able to distinguish yourself. You need to be able to put yourself out there. You need to really be able to get inside the head of this person. I would encourage you to read every single article this person has ever written. Listen to every single interview. Watch every video. Understand this entire person's body of work. Now, once you have, and this is where we get a little dark, this is where we're really getting inside this person's head, I have a list of ten questions, and I have this as a handout to pass around to everyone at the end, but this is a list of ten questions which I've stolen from a very world-renowned copywriter, a guy called Craig Clemens, and these are questions that he will use to get inside the mind of a customer for a potential client. So when he's writing a sales video or a sales letter, he will use these questions to get inside a person's head. The way to approach this exercise is to go about it by free writing, to open up a Word document and to spend ten or fifteen minutes per question writing in a stream of consciousness, likewise not caring about spelling, not caring about grammar, just spilling out your answers on the page. Now, the questions. Why did he or she start whatever it is they're doing? What are the main benefits that their followers, clients, or customers receive from what they do? What are their followers, clients, or customers' biggest problems? What are their biggest frustrations of the person or the people you're contacting in having to provide a solution to this? How can you help and where is your proof? What specifically can you help with and what can you not help with? What tasty tips or information can you give away right away? Why wouldn't they want you to work for them and what objections might they give? What is the dream and what they're working towards? What is really getting them up out of bed in the morning? And lastly, what is the nightmare? If you answer these questions, if you really take the time to do this, you'll have a profound level of understanding for this person. And once you do, we'll move on to, we can call this step zero, pitching preliminaries. So research and get inside the head. Step one is to meet this person in person. You'll notice from my story that I'd gone along to four, five, perhaps even six events of Matthew's before I even got on the phone with him. He knew how I was, I was something of a familiar face, and so I'd encourage all of you to find some sort of organized event that you can go along to meet your prospective person in person. Now when you do, it's great to go and be able to make an impression with this person. This isn't an easy thing to do when you're going along to some kind of organized event, but I'll tell you a quick story of how I was able to do this recently with someone that I wanted to learn from. A friend a few months ago, or this was coming up to the end of last year, turned me on to a guy called Owen Cook from Real Social Dynamics, someone who you'll mostly know as Tyler. We have Alex here from Real Social Dynamics speaking today, and Owen is the founder of that company. Now, Owen has a really incredible YouTube channel. He has videos on success, on motivation, on working really hard, and I really wanted to meet this person. I was in Toronto towards the end of last year, and he was doing an event in New York. It'll be an event for four or 500 people, but I decided I'm going to make it my mission to go along to this event. I'm going to meet him in person. I'm going to leave a lasting impression. So I went through all of his videos. I asked myself these questions, and I identified that the problem he had was a personal problem. He'd had a shoulder injury for two months. Now, I've read very widely around athletic performance and injury prevention and rehabilitation, and I decided that I would get him the book Becoming a Supple Leopard. This is by a guy called Kelly Starat, a really fantastic book. And I went along to the event. I had the book in a bag along with a little lacrosse ball, which is one of the necessary tools for applying Kelly's formula. And at the event, I realized there was going to be no appropriate time to do this. It's an event for 400 people. They're all here to see Owen, and there's no way I'm going to be able to do this. So when he'd set the group up, the audience up with a two or three-minute audience. We've got a lacrosse ball here in the audience. Very cool. When he'd set the audience up with a two or three-minute exercise, I walked up to the side of the stage, and again at this point, I'm nervous. I'm shaking. I'm almost trembling for doing this. But I tap him on the side of the arm, and I say, hey, Owen, I just wanted to introduce myself. My name's Edward. I'm a huge fan of your work. I really appreciate everything you do. And I just wanted to give you something as a token of my appreciation. Now, he pulled the book out of a bag, and when he did, his whole face lit up. He called across his girlfriend, who's on the other side of the stage, and said, pull out your phone and show Edward the text message that I sent you earlier today. She pulled out her phone, and lo and behold, was the text message that read, check out this guy, Kelly Starrett. He's amazing. We have to buy his book. I was in awe, but I knew why it happened. See, I've been following him on Instagram for a little while. I'd seen that he'd been hanging out across the gyms. I knew that he was going to be recommended this book by someone, and so I got the book just a few days ahead of him. If you ever see a prospective mentor reading a book, get your hands on it, read the book a few days quicker than they do, and you will see the other books that this book recommends, and you can buy it for that person. It's getting inside their heads on this crazy, crazy level. The second part of this, kind of one B, if you will, is to charm their assistants. Going back to my story with Matthew, you'll see that it was really only from befriending a member of his team at the time that I was able to present this opportunity for myself. There was someone I was recently looking to interview, and I've been...