I asked Christine Comaford, CEO of Mighty Ventures, for advice on how an ambitious person could land a hard-to-get meeting that could help grow her business. You can read or see her answer below. (And you should grab the full interview.)

The clip

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The transcript

Check this out. This worked great for me. I sent probably 10 FedExes to Steve Jobs. You can call it “stalking.” You could also call it “pursuing.”

I was calling about every week, saying, “I just want five minutes with Steve Jobs. I just want to pick his brain. I really just want to get some advice.”

Finally, after all of these FedExes and all these phone calls, and his poor admin going through this. She finally puts him on. And, he goes, “Christine. I give up. OK. Come in, you get five minutes, and bring a timer.”

So, I bought one of those egg timers, like when your mom used to make cookies and it would go “Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.”

It’s kind of noisy. I brought one in and I put it on his desk and set it for five minutes. “Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.” I asked him for all this advice. It was over. It went, “Ding.” And I go, “OK. Thank you so much, Steve. I really appreciate this.” I’m shaking, I’m bowing, I’m walking out of the office.

And he goes, “Wait. I’m not done with you. Come back.”

We talked for another 45 minutes.

So, one of the pitches that I give to people is I say, “If I can have five minutes of advice, I will give five hours to your favorite non-profit.” It’s pretty hard to turn down.

Continue to the full interview >>