There is an art to engaging people in our dreams and projects. And it's all about good questions. Good questions make it easy for people to give us their ideas, time and connections.
We ask what they particularly like and would improve about an idea instead of asking what they "think" about it. Asking specifically for the feedback we want makes it easier to answer with more efficiency and value. We give them a couple specific dates and times to talk instead of asking them to make calendar decisions of when they're available. We ask if they know specific people we name who they could introduce us to instead of asking them who they know to whom they could introduce us.
The theme in good questions is they don't ask people do work for us. They are also the opposite of being annoyingly evangelistic. They make their responses quick and easy. And the value of engaging them easily is that when we make someone a participant in our thinking, they more authentically support what we intend to create.