This episode of the Empowering Bytes delves into the profound impact of influence and how it can empower others. Hosts Nkechi Nwafor-Robinson and Gaby Mammone discuss the distinction between authority and influence, emphasizing that true influence comes from authenticity and connection rather than power.

Drawing from personal stories, they highlight the importance of storytelling in inspiring others and fostering a sense of trust. The conversation also explores how everyone has the potential to be influential, regardless of their position, by being genuine and heartfelt. Listeners are encouraged to recognize their own capacity for influence and to lead by example, ultimately empowering those around them to see their own potential.

Key Takeaways:

• Influence comes from authenticity and being true to oneself, not from authority.
• Storytelling is a powerful tool in influencing others and inspiring change.
• True influence is about connecting with others and helping them see their potential.
• As a leader, focus on building trust and credibility to maximize your influence.
• Influence is not about pushing others; it's about pulling them in with authenticity.

Have an empowering story to share on an Empowering Bytes episode? Submit your request, for a chance to be a guest.

Find us online: https://linktr.ee/nkechinwaforrobinson

Great day, amazing human. Welcome to the Empowered in my Skin podcast, where our mission is to help 1 billion people in this world think in more empowering ways.

Empowered humans empower humans. So you are in the right spot to become a lead domino for empowerment today. My name is Inkechi.

I'm not only your host, but I am a vibrant optimist to bring you empowering content with each episode, we will be bringing you content, alternating between longer episodes with feature guests and shorter episodes called Empowering Bites, where I'll be joined by my co host, Gabby Mamone. So if you're ready, let the show begin. Great day, amazing humans. Yes. Welcome to the next episode of Empowered, my skin, the podcast.

And for all you youtubers, you know that I'm here with my g to the a to the b to the y. Gabby one b, Mamona is here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

First of all, I spent three days, three amazing last days with a Gabby one bh.

No way.

But it was a male.

No way. That is crazy. What's his real name? Is it Gabriel or.

Oh, Gabby one b?

Does he actually say Gabby with one b? Does he actually use that?

No, no, I'm just saying it's Gabby with one b. It's like, he doesn't. I told him that. You are the one that uses Gabby one b as your stage name type thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's fun. Wow, what are the odds?

Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. Really nice guy. So. I know, I know. Only nice gabbies.

Oh, I love it, I love it, I love it.

Yeah. So, yeah, we are.

So one of the things that I actually was inspired by the course is, and I knew that we had an episode today, and so I wanted to talk about the power of influence. Right? Like, I think people are more influential than they think that they are.

And I thought, this is such an great empowerment skill that I think we should all possess. And so I'll just start off like I never, I never. I never. There was a period of time where I didn't realize I had influence, okay.

Until one day I was invited to speak. At the time, there was a leader I was supporting at my company, and they invited me to speak at their leadership town hall. Okay.

And so I went up, and I must have done.

At the time, I probably did one of, like, definitely something around the forward thinking mindset, but in large part, I would have talked for sure was talking about love. You know, it was actually been in tech. Like, I.

That was sort of my, you know, mission was to open, like, create, make love cool in the workplace, you know? And. And I remember at the end, I had these slides, and at the end, the last slide was, like, this big, giant heart. And it was.

It was a word cloud with everyone's name on. On my. On that leader's team. So 600 people were informed the heart.

And I had redone the heart because the speaker that was following me, I found out is a. Was a senior vice president, and. And they.

I knew they were going to be in the room, and I didn't want them to feel excluded, even though you couldn't really, like, the names are so small. I.

I added them to the heart, and so I was getting ready to close my talk and open it up for them, and I just happened to kind of call out to them that their name was in here, too. Like, I made sure that their name was in here, too. And I was a senior manager at the time, I believe. So.

Anyway, all of that happened, and obviously, like, the whole, like, I had them up doing, like, affirmations, whatever in Kichi kind of does in crowds. I did that that day. And I remember leaving the. I remember leaving the stage and kind of.

I think I might have high fived that next leader as they were coming up. And they got on the stage, they stood there and they.

And they said, oh, well, I had a whole bunch of slides prepared to share with you all today, but after that, I think I'm just going to speak from my heart.

That's awesome.

Right? And so in that moment, I.

I don't know if I called it influence, but in that moment, I remember feeling that because I had a big sin one time in my career about titles and stuff like that. And I remember feeling, wow. Like I had the ability to change the trajectory. Like, I guess, influence, you know, more senior leaders than myself.

And so. Yeah, so, influence, really? I think it is about. It is about.

I think it happens when you are real, when you're standing in your truth, and I think when you're actually not even trying to influence, I think, unconsciously you get people to do things or change their behaviors.

Yeah, I love that. I love. Thank you for sharing that story. I think that's amazing.

What are your thoughts?

Well, I think that there's a big difference between authority and influence.

Yes.

And I think that there's a line, because sometimes people feel like they have to rather than they want to. And so I think there's a big difference there. And it comes down to inspiration. Right. How do you inspire people? How do you bring up the best of them.

How do you really have them come from the place of heart and, you know, heart centered, and instead of you being commanding, but the influence is commanding just because of how it's communicated. So, you know, I'm thinking of times where I've been influential in it. It comes down to storytelling as well.

Like, yes, that's a storytelling. Yeah, yeah.

Like, I remember there was a hospital that had reached out to me, so for any listeners that don't know, I have multiple sclerosis. And there was a hospital that had reached out to me, and they were looking to increase their funding for neurological illnesses.

And they had said to me, you know, can we write a story about you and send it out as a mail out to our database? I said, yes, of course. So, you know, we got on the phone, we did a little interview. They sent me the mail out as a draft before it went out.

And, you know, being a speaker, we know there's essential things that need to be in a story to catch someone's attention and elicit emotion. And I asked them, I said, would you be open if I recommended some things to add in here?

And it's really, you know, there's five tips to storytelling that, you know, we teach. And so I. And she was like, yes, of course.

So I made some changes to that story again, to elicit that emotion to help influence, and that mail out went out, and she had shared with me that that was one of the highest fundraising. Fundraising campaigns that they've ever done in terms of the donors and how much was raised.

And, you know, I felt really proud about that, but that was influencing, you know, it wasn't just telling them you need to donate. It was really influencing and putting them in a situation of why, you know, and it's no different than marketing campaigns.

You don't sell a jacket if that's your product. You sell someone wearing the jacket while they're hiking or whether they're on a.

Date, which then appeals and pulls people in.

Yeah, yeah, right.

I think that the big. I think when you influence pulls, like, I'm just gonna say, influence pulls. Yeah.

Yes, yes, yes, it pulls.

It doesn't push. It pulls. It pulls people in. When I think about, like, people that in my life, that. So they're.

Goshenhe, um, I felt first, I'm going to start with some of the, like, just well known influencers in the world that, like, deserve, like Martin Luther King.

Yeah.

We are still talking about I, you know, his I have a dream speech. Like, all these years later and how much that has been used.

And, you know, long after he's gone, Nelson Mandela is another who has actually, through just the way he led, has had leaders write books based on his leadership, like what they observed of him as a leader, because I don't think he ever wrote a book about his leadership. Right. So it's really about how he was observed or spoken about in terms of how he led the people.

You know, Oprah Winfrey, you know, you think about the rock is a big influencer, right? Yes.

And so when I think about all of these, the commonality is like at some point or other, all of those incredible humans have invoked some type of emotion from within.

Yes, for sure.

I think influence, like has, there's an emotional connection that leaders need to make and I don't. You can't put that on.

No. That comes from a credibility perspective.

Right.

Trust, trust, credibility. That's how it works. It's critical, isn't it?

Well, I think that that comes first and then I think when leaders are more in tune and authentic. I like the aspect of storytelling, which I think is really an important component here, but, yeah.

So for anyone out there who thinks they're not, can't influence, I would beg to differ.

I actually think that when you are in roles where people do not directly report to you and yet they're willing to go through the calls with you, like, they're willing to like, you know, lay it all out and go hard with you, you have influenced them in some shape or form. Right.

Yeah, I agree.

And I think it's those people in those kind of roles that probably have more opportunities to influence, for sure. And they get to see what it's.

And they actually get to see their influence on much quicker, I guess, than maybe somebody who is leading people, because then there's also authority at play, you know, so it's hard to say what's influence, what's authority. But, yeah.

So for all the ics out there, individual contributors in this world or entrepreneurs in this world where you're on this solo journey and there's people that are just like, how can I help you? How can I lean in? How can I, how can I, how can I, how can I. All those. How can I's. Are because you influenced them in some way.

You connected, they trust you, you've. What is it? Credibility.

You said credibility, authenticity.

Yep. And when you have influenced people, be okay to share it. Right.

It's, again, it's proof point that you're able to, to be an influence to be someone of influence. Right.

Yeah. One thing that I can give credit here is, you know, it's an honor to be on this empowered in my spin, empowered in my skin podcast.

And we have a WhatsApp group for the listeners that are out there because we have a team, you know, and Keshe and I are just here recording, but there's a whole team that we work with that does the show notes and puts it together and does the guests.

Forget there's no show notes without guests. Hey, if you want to be a guest on the podcast, shameless, plug, just.

That's right.

Fill out the form. Go to the website. Fill out the form. We'd love to interview.

That's right. Of course. Influence. But where I was going with this is your ability to lead is authentic, and that's influential.

It's like, great day, team, you know? And then it's like we want to be excited and we want to do the work because we are impacting lives. And so it's very, very authentic. And I love that.

I love that about you.

Thank you. Thank you. We are. We are on episode. I want to say when we start. 299.

Wow.

And what I can actually say to all the listeners and watchers now is that Gabby influenced the empowering bites. We used to be called thriving Thursdays.

Right? Yes.

Right. And so it is because of you that, you know, you influenced us. You know, sort of bringing our minds together and are obviously our optimistic spirits.

We are insatiably optimistic and positive and radically positive. And we've created these empowering bites. They're short and they're sweet. And I know that there's a following out there.

There's people out there that always comment how they love these episodes and how they make them feel. So kudos to influence.

Thank you. Thank you for that shout out I receive. Thank you. So, to sum it up, influence, it's not about power. It's about connection. It's about trust.

It's about authenticity. It's about storytelling. And, you know, we need to lead. We need to lead by example.

And if we want. If you want to sort of a takeaway quote, quote, like, we need a quote of the episode.

Influence is not, I think you kind of said at the beginning, it's not about convincing others to see what you see, see the world your way. It's about empowering them to see the world and the potential in themselves. That's really what I believe is the mark of influence.

I love that.

I love that. I love you and I love everyone that's listening and go out there and be the most empowered human that you can. It's a girl.

I'm ink and I'm Gabby with one beat.

And this is where we say we're out.

Bye bye.

There you have it. I trust you are feeling more empowered in your skin. As the late doctor Maya Angelou said, when you get, you give. When you learn, you teach.

So it would mean so much for us at Eims if you would share this episode and tag us or teach an insight that you took from today's episode on your socials and tag us. Feel free to leave us a review over at iTunes and follow us on social media at empowertomyskin.

Finally, remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode. See you soon.