Category: Blog

Star-Struck: Tapping into the Power of a Celebrity Speaker

Kelli Richards September 1, 2014

Creating a well-designed event is a balancing act. Tapping industry leaders and controversial renegades, orchestrating brilliant panels, and throwing awesome after-parties all help draw people in, but a well-informed celebrity speaker can elevate your event to “can’t-miss” status with real punch and energy.

A well-chosen, well-prepared celebrity speaker can infuse your event’s atmosphere with a sense of excitement. And a celebrity who’s informed, articulate, inspiring, and entertaining guarantees an unforgettable impression.

Choosing the Right Fit

Looking to engage a celebrity for your event? Rule one: don’t get star-struck.

Just because you can score a celebrity speaker — or you’re a big fan personally — doesn’t mean that person is right for your event. In fact, you should consider celebrity speakers exactly the way you’d consider any other kind of speaker: Do their presence, skill set, and expertise fit? And, more importantly, are they relevant to your audience?

By hiring someone who’s the wrong fit, you’re courting disaster. Accidentally offensive jokes, mismatched humor, or a lack of industry knowledge could easily backfire. There’s also simply the awkwardness of a brand clash. You wouldn’t hire Kid Rock to speak at a Lexus engagement, right?

Poor celebrity partnerships can also damage both your company’s and the speaker’s reputation. Paula Deen spoke on behalf of the diabetes medication Victoza, even though she was still cooking incredibly high-fat foods on her television show. The media went haywire with a barrage of negative press aimed at both parties.

Before hiring a speaker, check out your celebrity’s reputation, experience, and expertise — and trust your own instincts. Do your homework. Does it feel right? Find a fit that’s authentic, seamless, and comfortable for both the speaker and your audience.

How Much Is Too Much to Pay?

Beyond finding the perfect fit, there’s another facet to consider when hiring a celebrity speaker: Star power comes with a price. A celebrity’s speaking fee is based on popularity and demand, and those rates can range from four to seven figures, depending on the celebrity and what he or she is being asked to do (e.g., speaking versus performing).

You shouldn’t sacrifice the quality of your event to book a single A-list act. So what is a reasonable amount of money to drop on speaking fees? It depends on your budget, your audience, and your brand.

Apple’s iTunes Festival featured big names like Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, and Elton John. How did Apple justify 30 days of A-list entertainers when they gave away the event tickets for free? Twenty million people registered to attend the live stream, which meant Apple had the opportunity to get its brand in front of a crowd roughly the size of Beijing. That’s the kind of exposure money can’t buy.

Creating a Lasting Impression

Often, this decision boils down to one simple question: Is it worth it? You have to keep in mind the goals of your event, understand your audience’s needs, and recognize what will truly “wow” them. You might not get a hard-and-fast financial return to cover this investment, but you’re paying to create a powerful and memorable experience, and that’s hard to quantify.

Good celebrity speakers inspire action, instill confidence, and invigorate your audience. And, most importantly, they help shape events that attendees will remember. With the right celebrity partnership, you’ll create an impression that lasts for years to come.

Creating a memorable experience pays off for you, your event, your product, and your celebrity speaker. By identifying a great-fitting match and paying an amount that will still pay you dividends, your company can host an event that becomes “can’t-miss” — and is talked about for years to come. That’s the kind of ROI you can’t pay for.

Until next time,

Kelli Richards, CEO of The All Access Group.

PS: Subscribe to my FREE All Access Group Newsletter https://bit.ly/AAGNewletter

The right mentor will also have the right CONNECTIONS to move any effort forward. Be sure to ask who they think they can bring to the table around advisorship, possible collaboration and even funding.

Personal Glimpses of a Comet: Comic Genius Robin Williams

Kelli Richards August 24, 2014

Sometimes there are people who touch our lives in brief glimpses – and those encounters are so magical that we hold onto them and look forward to the next one over and over. They’re friends of friends or colleagues we bump into at events or meetings or random connections where it seems serendipity is at work.

Robin Williams was one of those people for me. I was the talent producer of the BAMMIES (Awards) in San Francisco for nearly 20 years, and was fortunate to have the chance to work with Robin as a presenter a couple of times during my tenure. Each time without fail, as tensions ran high in production (which they do at live events, no matter how well prepared you are), Robin would be there, working his magic backstage, making everyone laugh and lightening things up for us – as well as for the other presenters and performers.

And our paths would cross that way for many years through different circumstances. When he was shooting, “What Dreams May Come,” I’d hear regular stories of his antics from my good friends Michael Van Himbergen and Jeff Diamond, who were part of the visual effects team. (The film won numerous awards for visual effects by the way, including an Oscar.)

And the connections continued. As recently as last year, I was approached by Robin’s team to lend my “super-connector” expertise to help source potential buyers for his home in Napa from within my network. Unfortunately we weren’t successful, but the home is a real stunner.

There have been other modest and even indirect glimpses of Robin too – someone recently showed me where Thomas Kincaid, the artist, had painted Robin into a corner of one of his San Francisco paintings; something few would notice or realize was him if no one pointed it out. He was everywhere it seems. But again, these are only flashes… the off-stage Robin was probably known only to a handful of very close friends, to his children… for the rest of us, it’s like how a comet flies past us through space. Like Robin’s work, a fast-moving comet leaves trails everywhere in its wake, timeless. Nothing really ever fades away completely, does it?

The point I’m making here,ultimately, is to pay attention. To be sure that we stop and notice the people who whiz past us with comet-like brilliance. To recognize how much they mean to us, even in brief glimpses. And to BE that comet whenever we have that opportunity. In the immortal words of Robin, “You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”

Here’s to Robin … and the rest of his magical journey.

Kelli

PS: Please read my LinkedIn article on Robin Williams here: https://bit.ly/OnlyTheGoodDieYoung

Only the Good Die Young: Robin Williams & Other Creative Geniuses Taken Too Soon.

Kelli Richards August 18, 2014

My Tribute published on LinkedIn

I’ll never forget the first time I met Robin Williams. I was a teenager attending a taping of “Mork & Mindy” on the Paramount Pictures lot. He was incredibly gracious and encouraging to my 16-year-old self with aspirations of working in the entertainment business and making my dent in the universe.

Many years later, I crossed paths with him again when I was driving entertainment initiatives at Apple. He accepted our invitation to participate in a few marketing campaigns, and he even performed for our employees. He was always a delight to work with — no exceptions.

In 2003, Williams supported a fundraiser I helped organize. Through the Chairs That Care initiative, we asked celebrities to design a dining room chair that would be raffled off to support the Habitot Children’s Museum. Appropriately, Williams and his kids designed a chair entitled “Peace.”……….

Read the full article published in LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/KRRWTribute

And if we’re lucky, we will inspire and change the lives of those we reach, or at least make their days a little brighter along the way. I’m so grateful that we got to experience Williams’ magic and gifts; they touched many of us deeply. Honestly, it feels like losing a dear friend.

Until next time,

Kelli Richards is the CEO of The All Access Group. A highly sought-after consultant, mentor, speaker, producer, coach, and author,

I facilitate strategic business opportunities in digital distribution between technology companies, established artists and celebrities, film studios, record labels, and consumer brand companies in order to foster new revenue streams and deliver compelling consumer experiences. I’m also the author of the bestselling e-book, “The Magic & Moxie of Apple – An Insider’s View.”

5 Important Books to Create Your Best Success on Every Level

Kelli Richards August 11, 2014

Attention, book lovers – and CEOs – and artists – and entrepreneurs…. Here are five books I absolutely think you should read, and why. Yes, some of them have been out a while, but if you haven’t read them, give yourself an early birthday gift and order all five. (Then share them with someone you mentor. Remember, trusted advisors don’t just give advice and make powerful connections, they share the good stuff out there that inspires change and action.)

1. Leaders Eat Last, by Simon Sinek

If you’ve ever dreamed of more meaning and fulfillment in your work, or if you’ve ever wondered how to inspire others to rally around your cause, this book is absolutely necessary for you. After taking the world by storm with his captivating message about purpose in his book, “Start With Why,” Simon Sinek has turned his attention to the other critical question: How. What does it take for leaders to transform paranoia and cynicism into safety and trust? Is a common enemy necessary for true collaboration and cooperation? Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories from a wide range of examples, from the military to manufacturing, from government to investment banking.

2. Every Monday Matters: 52 Ways to Make a Difference, by Matt Emerzian and Kelly Bozza

How often have you had a project or a plan and a year later, it’s still there, on the shelf, untouched? Finding the motivation to create the most meaningful things, and avoid the to-do list is not easy. If you need a little help seeing the promise and inspiration of a Monday morning, this book will help you get outside your normal routine and glimpse the world around you in a new light. Authors Matthew Emerzian and Kelly Bozza remake Monday from “the end of the weekend” into something poignant, meaningful and inspiring by taking 52 Mondays and matching them with 52 creative and practical activities that make a difference — one for each Monday of the year. It’s the perfect way to have a positive impact, get others involved, and be a positive influence in your life and the lives of others.

3. The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, by Michael Singer

This is truly one of the most profound books I’ve read in a long time (and I’ve read many) on personal growth and transformation. Anyone interested in becoming your best self must invest in this book! By tapping into traditions of meditation and mindfulness, author and spiritual teacher Michael Singer shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and let go of painful thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and self-realization. After all, a life well lived is a life we recognize, moment by moment.

4. Small Changes, Big Results: A Wellness Plan for a Healthy Balanced Life, by Ellie Krieger

I’ve tried to recommend five books that touch every aspect of our lives, and let’s face it, probably 80-90% of us could use a wellness plan – without that, the roadblocks to doing great work can be profound. This book is a great investment for anyone trying to create healthy habits – it provides an easy-to-start, simple-to-maintain, scientifically sound, 12-week program of small steps -just three each week – such as starting a food journal, choosing healthy fats and proteins, and replacing refined grains with whole grains. Krieger also tells you what technology to use for tracking your fitness progress and finding others who share your interests so staying fit will be second nature.

5. Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, by Ed Catmull

Do you want to give full expression to the best that lies within you? To the rescue comes this incisive book by Ed Catmull (co-founder with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter of Pixar Animation Studios) – an illuminating discussion of creativity in business that will be a welcome addition to your library – and your life. This is not just a book for managers; it is a must-read manual for anyone who strives for originality.

It is also the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is an invaluable discussion of how to build a creative culture – but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and President Ed Catmull writes, “An expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.”

Got a good book to recommend? Facebook me and tell me why. https://Facebook.com/AllAccessGroup

Until next time,

Kelli Richards
CEO of The All Access Group, LLC

PS, The right mentor will also have the right CONNECTIONS to move any effort forward. Be sure to ask who they think they can bring to the table around advisor ship, possible collaboration and even funding.

How Technology Has Made Home Business Easier

Kelli Richards July 28, 2014

Of the 28 million small businesses in the United States, 52 percent of them are home-based. Maintaining and organizing your business from home is easier with the advancements in mobile technology. With the latest apps and services you can organize your business’ finances, organize your team, market your product, and provide your customers with top-notch customer service. These technologies have made it easy for home businesses to streamline processes and produce products that mimic larger organizations.

Managing Finances

Managing your business finances can be challenging, to say the least. While you may want to consider contracting this job out to a savvy accountant, programs and apps can help you manage the task yourself. With a great business data plan from T-Mobile on a tablet like the iPad Air, you can even enter invoices and payment in the field or on the go. Quickbooks: The cloud-based platform from Intuit has been a stalwart in tracking expenses for businesses both large and small. The all-encompassing account software allows you to send invoices to customers and accept payment for any sales as well as track any expenses towards you make for your business. Also, if you have employees, it has a payroll feature to cut checks to your employees. Paypal: Paypal also allows you to receive or send payments through your mobile device. If you are on the go you can make sales on the spot. For an extra $30 a month you can customize the experience for your shoppers and even receive payments via phone, fax, and mail.

Organizing Your Team

If your team works remotely, the latest technology enables you to communicate with your team and track milestones: DropBox: Share files with team members seamlessly and securely through DropBox. Share large files with important data with your team members without the need to physically hand it to them. Skype: The leader in video conferencing software, Skype enables your team to communicate face to face and discuss anything related to the business. Omnifocus: This multi-faceted app allows you to organize your team and yourself, as well. Omnifocus let’s you create tasks for your team to complete and provide them with any material to complete any goals you place for them.

Marketing Your Business

The advent of social media has made marketing easier for all types of businesses, but there are plenty of tools home-based businesses can leverage: Buffer: Buffer allows you to manage all your social media accounts on one platform through your iPad. It enables you to schedule your content to publish when you think the most interaction will occur. TweetDeck: This is a great app for you to directly engage with the followers of your business and track what your customers and potential customers are chatting about. This allows you to engage swiftly and produce content towards your target audience.

Customer Support through Mobile Applications

These mobile technologies have allowed home businesses to provide top-notch customer service to their customers. Zoho CRM: Zoho gives you access to to your customer’s data through its mobile app. It saves and tracks all communication and transactions with the customer so you have all the data in one place wherever you are. Zendesk: Zendesk is used by companies worldwide, large and small, and creates a platform for addressing the issues your customers face.

Until next time,

Kelli Richards CEO of The All Access Group, LLC

PS, The right mentor should also have the right CONNECTIONS to move you forward.

Be sure to ask who they think they can bring to the table around advisorship, possible collaboration and even funding.

A Hard Day’s Night for Digital Legacy – The Lost Beatles Recordings

Kelli Richards July 5, 2014

Great work will never die in today’s ever expanding online digital world. According to the IDC “The digital universe is growing 40% a year into the next decade. By 2020 it will contain nearly as many digital hits as there are stars in the universe.” In fact, according to Science Daily, 90% of all the world’s data has been written in the past 2 years. Wow. That is an incredibly daunting idea. Literally 90% of the information that is readily accessible to the world today was not available only 2 years ago.

While imagining the sheer magnitude of all this data is overwhelming, studying this information on a more local, individual level is far easier to wrap your head around.

Let’s take a look at the Beatles first Big Screen appearance in the film, A Hard Day’s Night, for example. In examining the 50th anniversary restoration process for the film, technicians needed to compensate for the original recordings (which had been lost) of what is now widely considered the most inspirational musical group ever. Imagine that, the original recordings were lost.

An incredibly foreign idea today in a day and age that with one quick internet search can find you thousands of Kids Pop covers of every song ever done. So how were these recordings lost in history? Well, despite Beatlemania, apparently some doubt still existed as to whether or not The Beatles would make a serious lasting impact; and who wants to track down and organize a possible “one hit wonders” second and third album? I’m 1960, the answer was no one; apparently not even for the Beatles. Today, this is routinely done for even small artists. It may have been a Hard Day’s Night to make a lasting footprint back then, but now, there’s almost no one left without an online footprint. The solid win for all of us is that great work never dies in today’s online digital world, and as a result, we are all, always building a digital legacy for lifetimes to come.

Let’s look at the Lennon legacy. Everyone is probably aware of John’s journey from Liverpool, his work with the Beatles, his marriage with Yoko Ono and his untimely death. But what about his children? Julian, John’s eldest son, has expanded his own musical career, fighting through adversity often faced by platinum artists children, attempting to get out of the shadow of their musical parents. (Luckily for humanity, in addition to his music, Julian has made great strides in his White Feather Foundation, raising funds for a more sustainable future for the planet.) And Sean, John’s youngest son is touring with bands like the Flaming Lips and Tame Impala while releasing his own albums and unique sound.

Our digital footprints go beyond music, of course, Paul McCartney’s daughter Stella need only be Googled to find pages and pages of images of her enormous impact on fashion. And of course, the remaining Beatles themselves continue to make great music and build their legacy, both online and off.

So while the early pieces of Beatles history have been lost, their legacy will not be forgotten and in fact, continues to grow and grow. Living on in their new accomplishments, their children, their fans, and in an online database for everyone to access, so no one will forget.

Until next time,

Kelli Richards, President, CEO of the All Access Group, LLC

PS: Subscribe to my FREE All Access Group Newsletter https://bit.ly/AAGNewletter

PSS: Listen to an entire library of intimate discussions with industry visionarieshttps://bit.ly/AllAccessPodcastSeries (Priceless)

Annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference

Kelli Richards June 30, 2014

Every year since 1983, government officials, media moguls, journalists and technology buffs gather in Sun Valley for the Allen & Company Conference. This year was no difference, boasting names such as Zuckerberg, Buffett, Cook, Gates, Murdoch and Weinstein.

“Allen & Company is a private investment firm formed in 1922, located in New York and London. Allen & Company has advised, helped found and/or invested in numerous companies including BET, InterActiveCorp, Oxygen Media, Discovery Communications, News Corporation, the Coca-Cola Corporation and Google.”

The Allen & Company conference mixes thought-provoking presentations and a laid back mingling for industry leaders to foster relationships. CNBC dubbed the conference the “summer camp for moguls.”

The conference isn’t only fun for moguls though; local businesses thrive from the influx of people the conference brings each year. Sun Valley is known to attract many celebrities, but the Allen & Company Conference brings them in hundreds.

According to an article on MagicValley.com, the highlight of the afternoon was Tim Cook’s presence. Journalists spotted the Apple CEO buying a drink from a vending machine.

Meg Mazzocchi, a local working at The Toy Store was quoted in the MagicValley.com article saying, “You don’t ogle and you don’t intrude and you don’t ask for autographs,” she said. “Just let them enjoy their vacation. I think that’s why Sun Valley is popular.“

For more information about the conference, check out this article on MagicValley.com https://bit.ly/IgDde4

Until next time,

Kelli Richards, President, CEO of the All Access Group, LLC

PS: Subscribe to my FREE All Access Group Newsletter https://bit.ly/AAGNewletter

PSS: Listen to an entire library of intimate discussions with industry visionaries https://bit.ly/AllAccessPodcastSeries (Priceless)

Kick-Finishing: The Next Big Thing in Promotion – from Linkedin Influencers

Kelli Richards June 29, 2014

To see this article in its entirety, please go to: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140629221852-9638-kick-finishing-the-next-big-thing-in-promotion?published=t

…. It’s no surprise that artists and entrepreneurs alike frequently turn to crowdfunding — it works.

Crowdfunding campaigns raised more than $60,000 every hour in March. That’s a huge network recognizing and supporting individual projects and careers.

But it’s not just the initiation stage of a project that can benefit from a crowdfunding network. By using crowdfunding to spread the word after you’ve completed your project, you can turn your fans and partners into a massive marketing team and drastically increase the reach of your brand. This tactic is called kick-finishing, and it’s exactly what my musician friend Brent Bourgeois is doing with his new album.

Brent Bourgeois and the Origins of Kick-Finishing

Brent is a rock musician based in the San Francisco Bay Area with an extensive career in performing, songwriting, and producing. In the ’80s, he was a founding member of a fantastic band called Bourgeois Tagg and has since collaborated with numerous other talented artists.

How to Build a Strong Relationship with Your Mentor?

Kelli Richards June 23, 2014

There is nothing more valuable for your personal and professional growth than finding the right mentor to guide and challenge you. But working with a mentor is not a transaction; it is a relationship, and as with any relationship it can be easily destroyed if you don’t take good care of it. Here are 8 things you can do to build a strong and productive foundation with your mentor:

1. Develop clarity around WHY you want a mentor. Before you meet with your mentor, ask yourself what type of help you are seeking and what qualities you hope to find in a mentor. Are you looking for someone with an entirely different skill set from yours? Someone who will call it like it is, even if it hurts? Knowing your own reasons for seeking a mentor will help you establish meaningful goals together.

2. Be OPEN and TRANSPARENT. You must be completely honest with your mentor about every aspect of your career – your hopes and fears, your strengths and weaknesses, your ideas, goals and highest aspirations. Your mentor will be able to have meaningful insights to enable him or her to propel you forward.

3. Set SMART goals. When creating goals, make sure they’re SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. Review your goals every so often to make sure you are on the right track. If not, revisit and realign.

4. Decide when and how you will COMMUNICATE. Meeting regularly and face-to-face, or communicating mainly through phone and e-mail; once you’ve established what form of communication will take, don’t forget to discuss duration and frequency.

5. Be PREPARED for your sessions. It means coming to the conversation with a specific focus and a list of key questions. Be punctual, well organized, and ready to give a brief update on recent progress. Don’t hesitate to propose an agenda for the conversation.

6. Build TRUST and RESPECT. Mentoring is a sacrifice for both parties, but especially for the mentor. Be respectful of their time, boundaries and other priorities in life. Do everything you can to avoid trust-breaking behaviors.

7. Be RECEPTIVE to criticism. Your collaboration is mostly for your benefit, so it is vital that you never take it for granted. Be open and receptive to feedback as well as criticism.

Finally, keep in mind that your mentor is likely to give a lot more than you do in the relationship. Focus on the relationship, not the results, and always make sure to express often that you value and appreciate your mentor’s guidance.

Until next time,

Kelli Richards
CEO of The All Access Group, LLC

PS, The right mentor should also have the right CONNECTIONS to move you forward. Be sure to ask who they think they can bring to the table around advisorship, possible collaboration and even funding.

Why Apple’s Beats Acquisition May Be Its Smartest Move Yet

Kelli Richards June 16, 2014

The most talked-about “secret” of 2014 was Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats. Although it wasn’t officially announced until May 28, rumors swirled around the Internet for weeks.

Apple now owns Beats Electronics (the makers of the headphones and speakers) and Beats Music, a streaming service similar to Pandora and Spotify. Apple has also added Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine to its executive roster, though their roles have not yet been clarified publicly.

To read the rest of this article on my LinkedIn Influencers Page, please go to: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140609013728-9638-why-apple-s-beats-acquisition-may-be-its-smartest-move-yet?trk=prof-post

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Category: Blog

Personal Glimpses of a Comet: Comic Genius Robin Williams

Only the Good Die Young: Robin Williams & Other Creative Geniuses Taken Too Soon.

My Tribute published on LinkedIn

5 Important Books to Create Your Best Success on Every Level