Larry Kings tips on how to reach out to influencers without an influence of your own

When you're just getting started, it can feel hard to build traction.

When I was a young broadcaster, doing my shows out of Pumpernik’s restaurant on Miami Beach, I didn’t even know who I’d be talking to from day-to-day. It could be someone famous—like Bobby Darin—or it could be the cashier next door.

I’m often asked, how do you reach out to influencers when we have no influence of our own?

When I was a kid, Johnny Mathis came to my school and I worked for the paper. I wanted to get an interview, so I wrote Johnny and said, “Mr. Mathis--all my friends told me that you would never give me an interview. Would you?”

Guess what? He did! Why? It made him the hero. Everyone wants to be a hero.

You can do that, too. You will be surprised of the people who would talk to you if you just said--true to the moment--”I’m just getting started, but I think you are important and think you could help me. Would you talk to me?”

And once you get the interviews you want, don’t forget these good interviewing habits:

• Learn to listen. Listen to the answers. Listening brings the next question.
• Approach each day with excitement.
• Have faith in yourself.
• Remember: all you can do is all you can do. There has never been a perfect interview. You can’t make a salad into an apple pie.
• “I” is irrelevant in an interview.