Fuck the Gatekeeper: How to Get to Anyone, Anywhere.

In 2001, I met this “humble” guy Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal at the Walmart in Boynton Beach, FL — he was the coolest cat ever — they even made a movie about him, maybe you saw it — “Casino” — starring Robert DeNiro as him. (They called him “Ace” in the movie, but the book the movie was based on was all about “Lefty.”) I spent the next several months meeting him for coffee every morning at Starbucks in Boca talking about business, horses, gangsters… and broads. His insights made me a better businessman — he taught me the secret to getting to anyone, anywhere — no one is untouchable, everyone you need to meet is one degree away, just find that degree and exploit it. We talked about “gatekeepers” — those hardened buffers, usually secretaries or assistants, between you and the person you need to speak with to make a sale (or get what you want).

“Fuck the gatekeeper,” he told me. “Not literally.. well, maybe as a last resort if THAT gets you in the door.”

Seriously though, he taught me that getting to the man behind the desk, or the celebrity behind the agent, is simple. There’s only one degree between you and them, and rather than wasting your time at the front desk with the gatekeeper, find that one degree that gets you in the back door:

• Who’s their best friend?
• Who do they hang with?
• Where do they eat? (Everyone eats!)
• Where do they shop? (Frank shopped at Walmart. You’d be surprised, so does Jack Welch.)
• Who are their parents? (Parents love to talk about their kids and tell them they met someone they too should meet.)
• Who are their kids?
• What causes do they belong to?
• What are their motivations? (Fame, glory, sex, money, rock and roll?)
• What are their vices? (Drugs, girls, gambling?)
• When they have a barbeque, bar/bat mitzva, graduation, or confirmation, who goes?
• Who’s the one person they will take a phone call from, no matter what? (Is it their drug dealer, their doctor, their lawyer, their kid, their mom?)

It doesn’t matter if they’re the CEO of the largest company in the world, they’re human too, and when that phone rings there are a handful of people they will take a call from no matter what. There are a handful of people that CEO will spend his free time with, no matter what. And in most cases THOSE people are easy to get to. And once you’ve gotten to them, you’re only one degree away. Cultivate THAT relatioship and you’re a shoe-in. You’ve in essence, fucked the gatekeeper.

It’s not who you know or who you blow. It’s who you can meet. The low hanging fruit is fruit nonetheless, and you can use that branch to pull it down and gain access to the higher fruit.

He called me Philly, like the horse. I called him Ace — that’s what they called him in the movie. There wasn’t anyone he couldn’t get to — he knew all the right people to get him to whoever he wanted. As a casino operator, he pioneered the concept of “whales” — bringing the wealthiest gamblers to his casinos while the other casinos focused on the average bettor. It was only a matter of getting to them — and he was good at that.

Phil Autelitano is Founder/CEO of Mediarazzi, we develop TV channels for connected television platforms including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV. www.mediarazzi.com @philautelitano