Six Elements of a Voice of Influence®

We’re celebrating today because it’s episode 100 of the Voice of Influence® podcast! Our team is thrilled with where we’ve been and we’re excited for where we’re going with the show in the years to come!

In today’s show I share the ways the podcast has shifted and what has remained the same since the beginning. Then I discuss one of our biggest ah-ha’s from interviewing guests, the six elements of a Voice of Influence, so you can utilize the framework for yourself.

To get you started, here are a few examples of episodes where we address each of the six elements:

Your Purpose (or Passion)

Your Style

Your Message

Your Offering

Your Strategy

Your Community

Play here (the red triangle below), on iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn Radio (Amazon Alexa) or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Transcript

Hey, hey! It’s Andrea and you are listening to Episode 100 of the Voice of Influence podcast.

Your voice matters, but you can make it matter more through our in-depth conversations with leaders and experts. You’ll learn what it takes to move your audience with your message at home, work, and in the world. It’s compelling communication strategy brought to you by your host, Author, Speaker, and Strategist, Andrea Joy Wenburg. Welcome to Voice of Influence!

Welcome, welcome! I am so glad that you’re here with us today. It’s a kind of a day of celebration. We’ve made it to Episode 100, and it’s been just over two years and about two or three months since we started the Voice of Influence podcast and we’ve made it to Episode 100, so fun. So, thank you so much for being here, for listening, and for engaging. We appreciate it. We value you and your voice, and we really believe that your voice matters.

Over the course of the last couple of years, we have shifted, tried to figure out what exactly we’re doing with the podcast. I’m typically not somebody who makes up her mind and just goes for it and sticks with the same exact thing the whole entire time. Rather, we really believe in making iterations as we go.

And so as we started the podcast, we were really focused on the personal brand and personal brand strategy, which is still really important to the work that we do with people and the people that we’re hoping will listen to the podcast. So, we’re talking about people who are really wanting to understand who they are and how they portray themselves to the world, how you are able to provide a presence that it will leave an impact, and that has remained the same.

What has shifted over the course of the last couple of years, especially in the last year and a half or so is that we’ve also added in this idea of service and leading teams and having a bigger impact on business in general. But, really, it all comes back down to who you are as a person, what you believe about your voice, what you have been called to do, or feel a sense of purpose to do, finding meaning in your life and going after it.

And I tell you what, when it really comes down to it, it’s about putting yourself on the line for others, going that extra mile, being willing to sacrifice something of yourself in order to achieve something that is bigger, in order to put yourself in a position where you can have influence in a bigger way. And when we’re talking about influence, we’re talking about influence that is ethical, influence that is not manipulative, but that helps other people to find their path that helps other people to make good decisions.

Sometimes that really looks like bringing clarity and helping people to see the big picture. Sometimes that means giving advice, sometimes it could be providing an experience. There are all kinds of ways that we can have influence and make a difference with who you are with your expertise, with what you have to provide.

But when it comes down to it, like I said before, it costs something. It costs the person, you. It costs you something to offer it because there are things at stake. There are often things at stake. There are things like relationships at stake. There are things like your ego at stake. I mean the idea of failing in front of other people, gosh, you know when you’re voice of influence when you’re putting yourself out there and you’re going for it and offering who you are to others. Very often you’ll fail. You will be rejected by others and it’s just part of life. It’s part of what it means to lead and to be a leader, to be a voice of influence.

And so, I just want to say thank you first of all, for being a voice of influence. Thank you for being willing to put yourself on the line for your cause for other people, to love other people really well. I know that that comes at a cost to you personally and I just want to thank you for your courage and for taking risks. And I hope that somehow along the way we have been able to provide for you a companion, perhaps a little bit of guidance on this journey of finding and owning and using your voice of influence.

Well, today we’re going to talk a little bit more in depth about what we consider to be a voice of influence here at our company. We have a number of models, of frameworks, things like this. This is one thing that I have found over the course of the last few years that I’m actually really good at. And that is to help bring order to chaos, so, where there are lots of ideas or we’re trying to figure out how to solve a problem. I love to help companies; individuals bring order to that process.

So, for example we the model of engagement, the A2 Model of Engagement and sometimes I call it A2, I don’t know. I haven’t nailed that one down yet, but an A2 model of engagement, which is about how do you find context and understand where people are at in terms of engagement. And we do that in the context of agency and agreement, and I would love to explain that to you sometime if you want it, but it’s pretty darn hard to do that over a podcast episode.

So, send me an email if you’re interested in learning more about the A2 Model of Engagement and how I talk about that in keynotes and in breakout sessions or training sessions. I’d love to visit with you about that. You can send me an email at andrea@voiceofinfluence.net, and I’d be happy to schedule that with you.

But today, we’re going to talk about the Voice of Influence elements. These are six things that over the course of the past few years as we’ve been putting together our thought leadership around voice of influence, these are the elements that we believe are absolutely necessary to dive into, understand, and get a grasp of for yourself when you’re wanting to be a voice of influence.

And as we are moving forward on the podcast, we want you to know that the way that we are structuring the podcast and the conversations that we’re having, the things, the insights that we share, the stories that we share are going to have to do with these six categories, these Six Elements of your Voice of Influence. And that’s how they fit together. This is how it all fits together. And it all also, as I mentioned previously, fits together under this idea of influence and service.

So, whether that’d be customer service or serving as a leader, we are serving other people and offering our voice of influence. And so, in that process then these things all relate to all of those kinds of interactions.

Your Purpose

So let’s talk about these six elements. We’re going to dive in. The first one is your PURPOSE. Your purpose could also be called your passion, but this is really about why you care. It is so fundamental and important to have a sense of purpose, to give you meaning, to give you a reason to, you know, go that extra mile to get over that hump, to walk through the fire that you’re going to walk through in order to really offer what you have to offer well. Having that sense of purpose and knowing why you care is incredibly important.

We’ve talked about this in a number of episodes. I am going to a link in our show notes. We will link to different episodes that have tackled some of these elements so that you can easily go back and see where we’ve already covered some of these things. For now, just know that purpose is about why you care. You need to know your purpose and have a purpose. Whether it’d be something that you feel like is your own purpose and calling and that sort of thing, or if it’s something that you can align yourself to.

A lot of times when we’re working in a company, for a company, their purpose, the company’s purpose may not be exactly what our purpose is or what your passion, where your passion lies and that sort of thing. But as long as it aligns with your purpose, as long as it fits together with what you care about, then you can still harness the power that comes with having a purpose and be able to utilize that. So, the first category then is having a purpose.

Now, the Purpose at Voice of Influence is to help connect people’s gifts and expertise with the need in the world. So, people and companies helping them connect what they have to offer with the need that is in the world. That is something that drives us so that is incredibly important when it comes to what we do and why we care. We see the need in the world. We see your gifts, your talents, your expertise, and we’re saying, “Let’s figure out how to connect that.” “I do not like dizzy thing go unconnected.” So, we love to help make those connections with folks, so your purpose.

Your Style

And then your STYLE is the second element. This is about how you show up. What is the way that you do this? How do you show up? It’s kind of your personality. Sometimes it has to do with your gifting, but certainly, the way that you show up in your personality. The thing that we find that is so important about style is that folks often feel like they shouldn’t be the way that they are, or they don’t want to fully own who they are inside and then it doesn’t show up on the outside. And it just really depends on the person, OK?

So, there’s a spectrum of different ways that we handle this, but let’s say on one side of the spectrum, there are people who want to be chameleons and sort of fit in with everybody else because we’re afraid of standing out. We’re afraid of looking like we want to have attention, that sort of thing. But maybe we do want attention or maybe we don’t want attention, but we need to receive attention in order to get a message out.

So, style and how we show up then for that person could mean owning who they are and showing up in a bigger way. For somebody else, on maybe the other side of the spectrum, it could be that they are so out there and they beat everybody to the punch. They are bigger than life and almost to the point where they’re covering up. On the outside, they’re so big and flamboyant or extreme on the outside that they’re covering up something very, very intimately fragile on the inside. And that fragileness on the inside then doesn’t have a chance to come out because it’s being covered up by a show.

Now, there are all kinds of people in between or perhaps on even further in different directions; who knows. But how you show up authentically as yourself and knowing who you are being that person with others and then also at the same time being able to communicate and meet people where they are. This is an interesting delicate kind of a balance.

It really comes down to being authentic. It comes down to knowing who you are, being that person with others and caring about them enough that you don’t have to be you. You know that you can make adjustments in order to meet somebody where they are. So, the person who is naturally maybe loud, let’s say, like I’m naturally more of a sharer, there are times when I have to be quiet in order to meet somebody where they are, because they’re not going to share as much if I just start sharing.

So, there is this interesting balance that we have to kind of consider when it comes to being authentic, owning our voice, but at the same time doing it for the sake of others means being authentic to ourselves while at the same time meeting them where they’re at. And that can be difficult but it is achievable. You can do that.

And what I found with my own personal style is that I do tend to be dramatic. I tend to be deep and intense. I talk about all these things in my book UNFROZEN: Stop Holding Back and Release the Real You. I really went through a lot of struggle in my own life to figure out what was real about all of that and what wasn’t real or wasn’t me.

What I found is that when I’m feeling tension inside, when I’m feeling fear inside, when I’m feeling shame internally and that is unresolved inside of me, then I’m going to end up showing up as something that I’m not. I’m going to show up in a way that is more self-protective. That is more about me taking care of me and my ego than it is about loving others and serving them.

When it comes to our style, Voice of Influence, one of the ways that we know that we’re in-step with who we are in our style and how we’re showing up is if we’re not feeling that tension, if we are feeling free to be able to offer and love well. So that’s something that you can consider for yourself, your style, if you’re feeling that tension.

If you’re feeling resentment and anger and sometimes righteous anger is legitimate and you should consider that as something that maybe is more of a passion or a purpose. But when it’s indignation, when it’s, “Uh, I cannot believe they would do that,” that sort of thing. Look, these are things that indicate that you are not totally resolved inside to be able to show up in a way that is true to who you really are and what you really want, which is to serve others well, to love them well, and to fulfill your purpose.

Your Message

And so this is Purpose, why you care; Style, how you show up. And then MESSAGE, these are the words that you say. Words that you say and how you show up are both part of your message truly. But when it comes down to it, you actually need real words to be able to say, “You need to know what exactly you’re trying to communicate.” “You need to know what your core message is.” It’s one of the first things that we started doing at the Voice of Influence was to help people find their core message and get clear on the fact that you have to have a tiny message at the top, something that is specific and helpful to somebody else in order to be able to bring a bigger message behind it.

And so I call that the arrowhead alignment of a message, and we have talked about that some on the podcast. So, I will make sure to link to an episode in the show notes on that one. It’s about being really clear on what you’re going to say about your message, you know, what is it that you’re actually going to say? One of the hardest things I think for people who tend to be more creative or passionate is that they might have a lot of different ideas, a lot of different things that they care about. And it’s hard to narrow it down. It’s hard to get more clear. But if you’re wanting to come across as clear, you’re going to have to get clear for yourself.

And so, finding those words that you say are super important and the core message of Voice of Influence is when you align your voice or what you do and what you say with who you are, you will have more connected relationships and a bigger impact in the world. That is the core of what we’re saying. We are very clear on the fact that we want to help people get to that point where they can align what they do and what they say with who they are because that is where they’re going to find their voice of influence.

We also have other messages and you should have other messages that you’re really wanting to convey that you, you know, feel like are really important to you. And we’re going to talk about having an anthem or a real clear set of values in Episode 102, so I’ll be working out for that one. We’re going to be talking about what it means to have additional messages that are core to who you are and what you’re bringing as a team or what you’re bringing as an individual. So we’ve talked about your Purpose, which is why you care; your Style, which is how you show up; your Message, which are the words that you say. So we’re halfway done.

Your Offering

We’ve gotten down your OFFERING, what you can do to help. All of these things, words are just words. If you do not have something to offer, if you are not actually doing something for others, if you’re not putting out something that others can actually, you know, use or listen to or if you’re not serving them in some way, if there is no offering, then it makes it really hard to communicate a message.

A message in and of itself is nothing until you actually put it into some sort of creative contribution that you’re making to the world. And so the question then becomes, what is your offering? What can you do to actually help? With Voice of Influence, our offerings have to do with training and coaching and strategy and these sorts of things. And so we have a number of different offerings including the Voice of Influence Academy that allows us to draw from different teachings and different trainings that we have in order to create custom programs for our clients.

The Voice of Influence Academy is one of our offerings, but so is coaching and so as group coaching and the Fascinate Assessment and a number of different things that are aligned with our message and our style and our purpose. And we want to encourage you to find an offering that aligns with who you are. And with offering, it may mean that you have to say no to other things in order to be able to do the thing that you really should be doing, that you really feel called to do.

While many of us have many opportunities to say yes to this committee and that nonprofit and this one and that and, “Oh my goodness, there are so many opportunities to serve in the world.” And if you haven’t found those, if you haven’t found opportunities to serve or places that you can offer your gifts, even aside from your work, then I would encourage you to open up your mind to the possibility that there are a lot of opportunities out there and that you have to just go out and start to explore those and see them for yourself.

But because you have a specific voice of influence, you’re not just doing everything. Instead, you’re going to need to narrow it in a little bit and make some decisions on what is going to be most in line with who you are with your purpose, your style, and your message. OK, so now let’s figure out what you want to offer.

Your Strategy

Then the fifth element is STRATEGY. This is about how you share your offering. Now, in some situations it just means getting a job. It just means getting the right job. But really it doesn’t just mean, “OK, now I’m on this committee,” or “Now, I have this job and now I’m just going to play this role, this is my strategy.” But instead when you consider your purpose, your style, your message and your offering, what is the best way forward? What are some things that you want to do that will help you to share your offering better?

So, one of our strategies at Voice of Influence is to have a podcast. So we’re going to have a podcast, we are going to get our message out there. It’s going to give us an opportunity to connect with guests, to connect with listeners, to potentially help them to see a lot of these things for themselves. And maybe there are a few people in the mix who are going to eventually want to work with us as a company as well. So this is part of our strategy.

Other pieces of our strategy have to do with going out and speaking. I’m doing a lot of speaking and going to conferences and getting in front of audiences who could potentially use what we have to offer, not just anywhere but places and getting in front of the audiences that actually need what we have to offer. This is not about feeding my ego and getting me in front of big audiences just to get me in front of big audiences. This is even tackling or going for smaller audiences of people who actually do need what we have to offer. Then we are kind of more quickly getting to the path that we’re trying to get down, you know, moving down our path.

So for you, what choices do you want to make about your strategy that don’t have to do with your ego, but do have to do with what is the best path forward? What’s going to turn the needle the most? My husband is the one that’s kind of always talked about this with me, “That doesn’t turn the needle for us, Andrea. So, it’s not worth doing it.”

And as I started our business and we’ve kept going, I started to realize what exactly he’s talking about because there are times when I have great ideas, I have lots of ideas, but what is going to actually turn the needle on our purpose and getting us closer to the goals that we have, the vision that we have, what is actually going to turn the needle? And that’s what you need to be thinking about when you’re thinking about your strategy.

Your Community

OK, and then your COMMUNITY. This is the last piece. This is about who you serve, not about who you’re leading, not about you being in charge of people. This is about who you’re serving and you’re going to serve people in different ways. There are different people in your life who need different things from you and who you want to serve in different ways. Maybe this friend of yours, for example, maybe they are a great friend you love having fun with them, but you’re not going to talk to them about deep things inside of your heart because they’re not the kind of person that really likes to talk about that stuff. And they’ve shown you that that’s not something they can handle, so OK, no problem. I will reserve that sharing these really deeper things for another situation or just, you know, share minimally.

So, with your community, you’re not just saying, who am I targeting? That is part of it. You know, who is this? Who is the person who needs what I have to offer? This is an important question to ask, not just who needs it, because a lot of times you could say, the whole world needs what I have to offer, which of course I feel that way about Voice of Influence, everybody needs to know how to have a voice of influence, right? But that’s not the only criteria. Here, we’re also talking about who is it that not only needs what you have to offer but is open to it and wanting it, and looking for it. Maybe they have a pain point inside that is driving them to look for an answer and you have that answer.

You need to know who those people are and what those pain points are. How can you help them to see that you actually do have what they need? And as I mentioned at the beginning, one of our great purposes at Voice of Influence is really about connecting people’s gifts and expertise with the need in the world. Well, that is a lot of this community piece. Who is it that we are here to serve and what is it that they need from us? Why are they looking for what we have to offer?

For us, for Voice of Influence, we know that there are customer service teams, for example, who want to have influence or who might be feeling like they don’t have influence, that they are just there to answer questions. They’re just there to clean up the mess. But really, we’re missing out on such an opportunity to serve and to draw in our customers and build customer loyalty if we’re not helping our customer service teams to really have a voice of influence.

Because if they know what their purpose is, they show up with their style and their message and the offering of the company and they know the strategy and they understand the customer who they’re serving, then they can come to their job with a sense of purpose and they’re going to go the extra mile. They’re going to do what they can to help. And all of that is going to lead to building customer loyalty. That human element that you really can’t control, it’s something you can only release.

And so, this is something that we know that customer service teams that are really looking forward to build customer loyalty, those are the ones that we can really serve. We can serve them, and so those are the audiences we’re trying to get in front of and that sort of thing. But at the same time, we also know that there are leaders and executives who want to lead well, who want to do a better job of getting buy-in from their teams. These are also things that we do at Voice of Influence, and so those are also people that we recognize we serve.

So, my question for you is who do you serve? Who is it that needs what you have to offer? This is your community and then the people that aren’t open to what you have to offer, they need something else from you and that’s OK. You don’t have to be all things to all people and you don’t have to try to knock down every door to make sure that everybody gets what you have to offer. That’s OK, you don’t need that. Instead, what you need is you need to go through the open doors. You need to look for the open doors.

Sometimes you got to knock, but very rarely should you ever knock down a door just to get somebody to take what you have to offer. These are the elements, the six elements of having a voice of influence. These are the things that we build into, the things that we address, the things that we help other people to cultivate either individually or in their teams. And what we want to provide for you here on the podcast, we want to give you the resources to be able to think through these elements for yourself.

When you get pretty clear on these things, then you’re going to show up in a way that has more purposeful that does have a clear message with, you know, more confidence for who you’re here to help and serve or work with or collaborate with or what you’re here to truly accomplish. And so that is what we have created for you moving forward. We want to offer you podcast episodes that are going to address these elements. And really most of the ones that we’ve already done in the past do address these elements in some way.

And so the question for you is what are you doing right now? How is this helping you to grow as a voice of influence in your purpose, your style, your message, your offering, your strategy, or your community? I just want to thank you for listening. I want you to thank you for being here. It is an honor, a deep honor that you would listen to what we have to say here, and I counted a privilege. I counted a huge responsibility to be serving you in this way and I hope that it’s been helpful.

If you have listened to over let’s say five podcast episodes, would you consider going to your podcast player wherever you listen to podcasts and leave us a review, particularly on Apple podcast. That would be so helpful for us as Voice of Influence, the podcast and for helping other people to find the podcast. I’ve not asked for reviews very often and I know I probably should do that more, but I thought, “Well, you know what, it’s episode 100, let’s go ahead and ask you to leave a review.”

So if you have listened to over five episodes, would you go and find your podcast player and leave us a review. We’d so appreciate it and we will read them. We will take a look and see what you have to say and you can always email us also at andrea@voiceofinfluence.net. I would love to hear from you, especially if something that we’ve shared with you here on the podcast has made a difference, we’d love to hear about it.

It’s so fun to hear from you and to hear the things that you’re doing in your community, in your place of business, in your families because of what you’ve listened to here and what you’ve heard and, and how you’re applying it. And so that’s what it’s all about. It’s about making a difference. And so we wish that for you. Go and leave that review on the podcast player that you listened to. Take these six elements and make your voice matter more.

I know that that comes at a cost to you personally, and I just want to thank you for your courage and for taking risks.