![](https://ik.imagekit.io/o08ysq9vx/main/tomhanks.jpg)
![2 mins](https://ik.imagekit.io/o08ysq9vx/main/tomhanks.jpg)
How to get Tom Hanks on your podcast
Step 1 - Research
First up, we need an angle. How can we connect with Tom Hanks and not just be another person asking him to do something:
![Tom Hanks likes typewriter](https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/gdmarketing/th1.png)
Typewriters! Tom Hanks loves typewriters.
Step 2 - Idea
We’ve got an angle. Now we need an idea.
What about if we send him a vintage typewriter? Or, even better, what if we type out our podcast invitation on a vintage typewriter and leave it in the carriage:
![Chris Hardwick Nerdist Tom Hanks Podcast Invitation](https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/gdmarketing/th2.jpg)
Step 3 - Execution
Now, all we need is Tom Hank's address.
FanMail.Biz and Contact Any Celebrity show the same place. Reddit confirms it. Let’s post this thing:
![Tom Hanks Address Typewriter](https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/gdmarketing/th3.png)
Results
Four days later Tom Hanks sends back a brilliant reply:
![Tom Hanks reply to Chris Hardwick's Nerdist Podcast Invitation](https://s3.amazonaws.com/harrydry/gdmarketing/th4.jpg)
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This is the formula Chris Hardwick used to get Tom Hanks to come on his podcast back in 2012.
It works for the same reason you open a FedEx envelope before a regular envelope. We can’t help but assume the importance of a message is proportional to the cost of delivering it.
Whose fan mail shall I reply to first? Probably the people who sent me a vintage 1934 Smith Corona.
For more articles on this topic I'd recommend, “Costly Signalling Theory”