Never Eat Alone, and other secrets to success, one relationship at a time.

Keith Ferrazzi

Keith Ferrazzi, who has been called one of the world's most "connected" individuals by both Forbes and Inc. magazines, is CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight, a consulting and training company based in Los Angeles and New York. He is the author of Never Eat Alone. Ferrazzi's extraordinary rise to prominence has even inspired a Stanford Business School case study. In our exclusive Total Picture Radio podcast, Keith and I discuss the underlying principles of his book.

Background on Keith Ferrazzi:
Source: Ferrazzi Greenlight web site.

Before founding Ferrazzi Greenlight, Keith Ferrazzi served as Chief Executive Officer for YaYa Media, a leading interactive entertainment consultancy. Prior to that, he was Chief Marketing Officer at Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. There, he oversaw all marketing activities for global brands such as Sheraton, Westin, The Luxury Collection, St. Regis, and W Hotels.

In his posts at YaYa and Starwood, Ferrazzi drew heavily from his experience as Chief Marketing Officer of Deloitte Consulting, where he was the youngest ever to be tapped for Partner. While at Deloitte, Ferrazzi developed and managed the industry's first globally integrated marketing organization. His creative marketing strategy drove the ascent of Deloitte's "Consulting" brand recognition from the lowest in the industry to a primary position.

Ferrazzi was an early leader in the quality movement as the youngest examiner of the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award. He has been named a "Global Leader for Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, one of the top "40 Under 40" business leaders by Crain's Business, one of the most distinguished young Californians by the Jaycees, and one of the most creative Americans in Richard Wurman's "Who's Really Who.'

In addition to his book Never Eat Alone, and other secrets to success, one relationship at a time, Ferrazzi has authored numerous articles for leading business publications, including Inc., Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. He has also been a commenter on both CNN and CNBC.

Ferrazzi actively supports numerous civic, charitable, and educational organizations. He serves on Yale University's Board of Alumni Governors, is a Fellow of the Berkeley College at Yale, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kiski School in Pennsylvania. Additionally he founded and chaired Equality 1st, a foundation focused on assuring that everyone has an equal chance at success. He is particularly interested in the relationship between leadership success and spirituality. Ferrazzi earned a BA degree from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Do you want to get ahead in life? Climb the ladder to personal success?

The secret, master networker Keith Ferrazzi claims, is in reaching out to other people. As Ferrazzi discovered early in life, what distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else is the way they use the power of relationships so that everyone wins.

In Never Eat Alone, Ferrazzi lays out the specific steps and inner mindset he uses to reach out to connect with the thousands of colleagues, friends, and associates on his Rolodex, people he has helped and who have helped him.

The son of a small-town steelworker and a cleaning lady, Ferrazzi first used his remarkable ability to connect with others to pave the way to a scholarship at Yale, a Harvard MBA, and several top executive posts. Not yet out of his thirties, he developed a network of relationships that stretched from Washington's corridors of power to Hollywood's A-list, leading to him being named one of Crain's "40 Under 40" and one of Davos' Global Leader for Tomorrow.

• Don't keep score: It's never simply about getting what you want. It's about getting what you want and making sure that the people who are important to you get what they want, too.
• "Ping" constantly: The Ins and Outs of reaching out to those in your circle of contacts all the time - not just when you need something.
• Never eat alone: The dynamics of status are the same whether you're working at a corporation or attending a society event — invisibility is a fate worse than failure.

In the course of the book, Ferrazzi outlines the timeless strategies shared by the world's most connected individuals, from Katherine Graham to Bill Clinton, Vernon Jordan to the Dalai Lama.

Chock full of specific advice on handling rejection, getting past gatekeepers, becoming a "conference commando," and more, Never Eat Alone is destined to take its place alongside How to Win Friends and Influence People as an inspirational classic.

Resources:
Never Eat Alone web site
Ferrazzi Greenlight web site

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