Recently I spoke with Brian Wallace about influence. Brian Wallace is the Founder and President of NowSourcing, an industry leading infographic design agency based in Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH which works with companies that range from startups to Fortune 500s.

Many people do not have a clear understanding of what influence is. There’s a gap between the word “influencer” and “influenced”. When you hear the word “influencer” you might cringe and think of people posting pet pictures on Instagram or people lip syncing on TikTok. Are they making money from it? Do they just want the rush of more likes? Oftentimes you just don’t know. It seems to be very self-serving instead of serving others. In this commencement speech the speaker discusses using your influence to positively impact others. Influence should be about empowering other people. Power doesn’t mean that you can take the stage; power is giving OTHER people the stage.
“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
~Zig Ziglar
How To Expand Your Influence The RIGHT Way

It all starts with looking in the mirror and knowing what you want to do and WHY you want to do it. Many people look at celebrities and extremely successful people and try to copy them. When you do that you can be aiming for targets that don’t exist. Instead of doing that you should be comfortable with who you are and be self-aware. When you are a fully transparent version of yourself without an act people will relate to you and naturally gravitate towards you.

One thing you can do is explain the facets of who you really are. Let’s take LinkedIn as an example. Most people, in their headline, just put their work title. Some people think of it as an “elevator pitch”. As Brian points out, first you have to get INTO the elevator. Look at your headline as a getting INTO the elevator pitch. If a bunch of high-level executives or successful entrepreneurs were in an elevator that you’re running towards, what would you scream down the hall that would make them hold the door for you? Just a title, the line “all thoughts are my own” or a list of hobbies won’t do the trick. Brian puts his qualifications and why people should want to follow him in his headline. It’s about what he does and he makes it interesting. His headline is “Founder, NowSourcing - Infographic Expert | Google Board Member | #LinkedInLive | Podcaster | Featured: NYT, Forbes, Mashable | #SXSW Advisory Board”.

Find Your Tribe

Everyone is influential in some way. If they say they’re not it’s because they don’t believe in themselves. This is where being authentic can help because you’ll attract more people to you and feel better about yourself. Brian believes that the inauthentic “influencers” with a bunch of fake likes are going away. Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, find an expertise niche to fill with people that should be part of your tribe.

Listen In!

During this episode we also discuss:

Tips for successfully marketing yourself to become an authentic influencer.
The types of content that you should be sharing and how to be interesting.
Why having true fans is valuable.
Where to spend your time online if you want to become an influencer.
…and other golden nuggets of advice!

About The Guest

Brian Wallace is the Founder and President of NowSourcing, an industry leading infographic design agency based in Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH which works with companies that range from startups to Fortune 500s. Brian also runs #LinkedInLocal events nationwide, and hosts the Next Action Podcast.  Brian has been named a Google Small Business Advisor for 2016-present and joined the SXSW Advisory Board in 2019.

Brian can be reached here on LinkedIn.