Teresa de Grosbois: Igniting Wildfire
Shawne Duperon: What’s another one?
Teresa de Grosbois: So let’s use OM Times as an example. Many of you reading this right now might like to write for this magazine. If you want to build a relationship with OM Times, its publishers, you would start by becoming a raving fan of OM Times. You would circulate their magazines to other people. You could praise individual writers and shout out their work, giving influence back to the magazine. That’s the equivalent of taking an apple pie to your new next door neighbor to build a relationship.
Shawne Duperon: So what’s the connection with authenticity and influence because can’t you sometimes feel if someone is desperately trying to give influence and it lands weird?
Teresa de Grosbois: It does. Authenticity is the key. Authenticity is your inner voice saying the same thing as your outer voice. So if you are saying out loud “Wow, it is so great to meet you,” but you’re thinking “I really hope they can help me, I desperately need their help,” there is a disconnect in your energy. How you are showing up in the world is not the same as what’s coming out of your mouth. We can all tell when other people have that inauthenticity going on. It’s smarmy.
Shawne Duperon: Most of us can relate. How do you shift that so you are congruent?
Teresa de Grosbois: Start to become aware of your inner conversation around influence. Research shows, we are all hardwired with some kind of inner dialogue. Most of us invented it when we were very young. You have things you tell yourself, especially when you are in situations that make you nervous. That self-limiting dialogue is stopping you from becoming influential.
Shawne Duperon: Please share an example.
Teresa de Grosbois: I remember the day that I first created my most significant inner dialogue. I’m the youngest of a really big family from Northern Canada. I basically grew up in a Mark Twain novel, we spent our summers in our remote backwoods cabin. I remember one day standing in the kitchen, which was packed because my cousins were all visiting.
