When should you be lobbying your elected officials? 

Elected officials are just like you. They have a job and a family and they volunteer. In this case, they have volunteered to put themselves in the public eye, under a ton of scrutiny by you and ten thousand others. If you don't have a relationship with your elected officials, you should, and as you might have guessed, I have three tips for you. 

1. Catch them in the off-season. Find out their down time. If they are a state rep or senator, that means don't schedule time with them at the capitol building. Find time outside of session when they are back home in your neighborhood. 

2. Find their hot buttons. What is on their agenda that you can help them with? Reciprocity comes when you help them first. 

3. Ask them how you can help them. Wait didn't I just say that? No, I said "what's on their agenda." Now I'm suggesting that you literally say the words, HOW CAN I HELP YOU? And then sit there silently and listen to their answer. If they have never thought about it before, you're on your way to a better relationship and maybe even some reciprocity - which builds trust. 

And here's a bonus tip from my friend Eddie in Lubbock Texas: If you're meeting with the winner of the election, but you backed the other candidate, offer to use your Political Action Fund to pay off a little bit of their campaign debt. And the reciprocity begins!