Remember that influence is simple… and first & foremost, you are already an influencer. You’re an expert. Remember that. Write it on the bathroom mirror.
(All content from THE INFLUENCERS FORMULA book, coming in September 2023, photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash.)
Thanks to your podcast or book, there are lots of powerful, valuable ways that people can (and will) say yes to you, and keep saying yes to you, like:
- Choosing to visit your website, subscribe to your list, and open your emails
- Clicking on your call-to-action, joining your webinar, and investing in your coaching, training, or product
- Connecting with you on LinkedIn or contacting you for an interview
- Hiring you for a leadership position or consultancy
- Inviting you to speak or train (onstage or online)
- Offering you a partnership or an appointment
- Investing in your services or events
- Doing your marketing for you by telling their colleagues, clients, and community all about you
- Signing up for your mastermind or leadership program
- Actually doing the work that will help them achieve the transformation they’re looking for!
No matter who you are and what you do, these yeses are important because they will help move your business forward smartly and effectively.
Imagine how many lives you can impact with your ideas, message, vision, product, or service!
Influencer in a Nutshell
The greatest influencers have three things in common: their voice, what they know about their audience, and what they offer (that nobody else can).
So become a person worth listening to by speaking the language of the people you serve.
Prove to your listeners, readers, and viewers that you are worth their investment of time and attention. And then their investment in your product or service.
Again, become a person worth listening to by positioning yourself as a unique expert, authority, or thought leader with your message and business.
How?
Leverage the idea or concept of what you’re creating (book or podcast) before it’s published or broadcast by conversing with your potential clients and strategic partners.
And remember, your podcast being done means eighty percent of your book is done. And vice versa.
The Many Voices of Story
Stories reach people’s hearts and minds. So, your stories create inspiration by creating an emotional experience for your reader or listener. While logic and facts are important, emotion moves people to action. Put another way: Facts tell; emotions sell.
Stories allow people to see the world through your eyes and stand in your shoes. They also help get everyone on the same page with what’s being communicated.
Stories (about you, about your clients, etc.) help people know you, like you, trust you, and want to develop an ongoing relationship with you because stories allow you to create an almost instant rapport with your audience, listener, or reader.
Thought Leadership: Your Stories and Your Special Sauce
Creating a new future with your podcast or book can initially feel overwhelming. But replace overwhelming with exciting, and you’ll immediately begin to enjoy a completely different experience.
What’s exciting is your story (even if you don’t think you have an exciting story).
Your story is an important part of who you are. Stories are the articulation of vision. Your story is part of your special sauce—your years of experience, education, failures, triumphs, anecdotes, mishaps, insights, investment, wisdom, time, energy, effort, talent, and everything in between.
Your stories can include any/all the following:
- Your signature story, mess-to-success moments, detours, and successes
- Case studies and testimonials
- Anecdotes about your colleagues, customers, clients, or audience
- Their successes, challenges, goals, and dreams
- Their experience of you or your company via your vision, idea, message, product, or service
- Relevant bits of the news/science/history/literature/popular culture/an interesting thing that happened to you last week
- Your purpose, guiding principles, and how you help make transformation and results happen
You have important stories. Your stories are key to what you offer to the world and the results you bring to people’s businesses and lives. That’s valuable stuff.
As you share your story, People will take an extra moment to read your words or hear what you’re saying.
Stories make concepts and ideas real and tangible because they connect with people on an emotional level. I’ll say it again: Stories reach people’s hearts and minds.
Stories connect the dots between the perceptual and conceptual parts of your experience. And they make what you’re saying so much more interesting.
It’s one thing to hear or read the word fruit.
It’s a completely different experience when you hear about, read, or see an image of a red apple in the hands of a smiling child getting ready to take another big bite as the juice is already running down her chin.
That’s the power of story. Stories are key, whether teaching, coaching, selling, serving, training, speaking, or leading, because your story will help you connect the dots from your vision to people’s goals and dreams.
Stories create opportunities for people to get to know you while positioning you as the influencer, expert, authority, or thought leader that you are.
- This means that people will like you, trust you, and understand you care about them and their experience
- They’ll realize you truly see who they are, what they face, and what they most want to achieve
- They’ll know that you’re the person who can help them get there, and they’ll be delighted to say yes to you
When you share stories, here’s what happens:
- You’ll establish the connection from a person’s head to their heart
- You’ll inspire them to take action that’s good for them and you
- You’ll have an audience that will hang onto your every word
(That’s why stories are good for your business.)
I always use stories in my teaching, coaching, writing, training, and speeches because stories are the most direct method to bridge the gaps among different people in a world with a dazzling array of cultures, customs, countries, languages, dialects, geography, history, and politics.
- You can tell a story with an image or a picture, a handful of words, or even a 280-character tweet
- You can tell a story through video, email, or any communication medium that connects you to the people you serve
- You can tell a story instantly with a gesture or with your smile
Stories allow us to speak from the heart and connect with the hearts of the people near us, across the country, and worldwide.
So, how are you using stories?
And since you’ve made it this far…
First off, thanks! 🙂
Next, want to chat about your book, podcast, or both… and bringing it into the world, THIS YEAR? Totally doable.
Let’s have a quick chat here and your book (or podcast) can (easily) be done, THIS YEAR!
