For Colin Gautrey, curiosity is key. After a long and storied career in the corporate world with specializations in mergers and acquisitions, international strategy, IT, sales and leadership development, Colin has never stopped being curious about the cutting edge. Through his research, writing, and coaching, he has been working to equip his clients with practical knowledge about how to achieve results with greater influence.

• Focus on the future, but not at the expense of the present.Colin talks about why mastering the day-to-day is part of an essential foundation in building long-term influence and achieving your goals.
• While delivering top-notch results is absolutely necessary, it’s only part of the equation; you have to be able to stand out from the crowd in more ways than one. Jennifer and Colin talk about the importance of building trust and goodwill relationships within your field that will ensure that everyone knows who you are and what you can do for them.
• But what is influence? What does it mean to be influential? And what is the difference between influence, politics and manipulation? Colin sets the record straight about the differences and the importance of intent in this equation.
• Influencing a person’s behavior isn’t just about applying pressure; it’s also about connecting your agenda with theirs. Building a trusting relationship can enable you to understand others and get them to understand your goals as a part of their own.
• Do you hate the politics of the corporate world? Are there moments where you feel like navigating this sphere is harder than it should be? Colin offers some insights into why this is such a common complaint and reiterates the importance of knowing the rules of the game.
• When entering a highly political organization, it’s all about the long game. At the outset, it’s easy to misstep by being overeager and trying to align yourself with the key players. Colin talks about why neutrality, patient observation, and relationship building are paramount when getting your finger on the decision-making pulse of an organization.
• Power can sometimes be a dirty word and often comes with a slew of emotions attached. Colin explains how taking a step back and breaking down what constitutes power in any given situation or group can inform where – and with whom – you should be developing influence.
• When assessing where you want to be, what you’ve got so far, what you’ll need, and where you can get it from, high-level influencing is all about investing time in people. Colin talks about what this looks like in large organizations and why it is so important.
• Power doesn’t exist in a vacuum. When thinking about developing individual influence, what about individuals or groups who start on the back foot, those that didn’t enter the world with the same privileges enjoyed by others? Jennifer asks Colin about his thoughts on how to approach the challenge of developing influence as a minority in an organization.
• Do you have the tools you need to become a successful leader for tomorrow? Colin provides a sneak-peak of some of his research around the importance of influence and risk-taking and talks about what these skills can do to keep traditionally static industries competitive.
• Always have a plan B! Just because you’re in a position to exercise your influence to achieve your goals or the goals of your organization, it might not always go your way. Jennifer asks Colin about what you can do to prepare yourself for a diversity of organizational situations.

Find Colin Gautrey

LearnToInfluence.com

Colin Gautrey on LinkedIn

Colin’s Books:

21 Dirty Tricks at Work: How to Beat the Game of Office Politics (2005)

Political Dilemmas at Work: How to Maintain Your Integrity and Further Your Career (2008)

Advocates & Enemies: How to Build Practical Strategies to Influence Your Stakeholders 2011

Building Reputations in Tough Organisations (eBook 2014)

Influential Leadership: A Leader’s Guide to Getting Things Done (2014)

A Project Manager’s Guide to Influence (2015)

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Does your day job feel like the first part of Shawshank Redemption? It did for Kary Oberbrunner. His day job was a prison, and it took some planning to get out, and the payoff for his patience and effort is a very successful publishing company. If that weren’t enough, part of Kary’s latest book was written in main character Andy Dufresne’s actual cell from the movie. What Kary has to say about life and entrepreneurship will inspire you, and hopefully, ignite your soul.

• Your pain is your platform. Kary had an early life filled with pain, and rather than honoring his voice, he used self-harm to deal with the pain and anger. But it was his heartbreaking childhood that has become his medium for making an impact on others and, as he calls it, igniting the souls of those he comes in contact with.
• Self-injury isn’t just physical. Kary believes that another way people do it is by having self-limiting beliefs. It’s an emotional, and sometimes spiritual wound that many people don’t realize they have. He shares the story of his daughter’s teacher and how she reacted to it.
• Do you know the definition of entrepreneur? Kary learned it when he realized that’s exactly what he is: the bearer of risk. He shares the story of how he decided to leave a stable income and benefits and became an entrepreneur. But Kary did it the smart way.
• One of the things Kary teaches is to use the Shawshank Redemption method for leaving your job to become an entrepreneur full time. Andy, the main character, didn’t break out of jail in a year. It took him 19 years. Similarly, Kary suggests you spend time developing the character and discipline you need by keeping your entrepreneurship as a side hustle until you can do it right. You don’t have to wait 19 years, though.
• So what did Kary move to from ministry? He wrote his first book while still a pastor, but a call with one of his colleagues was a terribly RUDE awakening that he was taking too long. Kary shares the story of being called out, called a hypocrite, and how it changed his future.
• For a long time, Kary couldn’t get clients. He realized it’s because his thoughts were centered on himself. So he began to ‘show up filled up.’ People noticed the difference immediately, and he shares exactly what he did to get his first coaching client.
• Do you want to know what selling and marketing are at the core? Serving and storytelling, respectively. Kary explains what this means and how he uses it in his everyday business life. He also shares his tactics for getting people to REMEMBER his stories.
• If you’re fuzzy on what your VPS is, your Value Proposition Statement, then you need to hear Kary’s explanation. It begins with the thing that people will pay you money for. There’s a simple sentence you can fill out that will get you laser-focused on yours: I am _______ who helps _______ do or understand _______ so that _______. Before you fill it out, you need to hear how to make it work like a true VPS.
• Kary has made a practice of writing a book and generating multiple revenue streams around it. When people starting noticing the trend, they came to him asking how he did it. He couldn’t find anything for them so he decided to teach them himself. He tells the story of how he sold out a course before it was built and focused his efforts on a publishing company to help others.
• If you’re interested in writing a book and having help building a business around it, that’s what Kary does. What’s better, you keep the royalties and intellectual properties. He uses the method he used for his own 7 plus books, so it works.

All Things Kary Oberbrunner:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

YouTube

Instagram

Igniting Souls Podcast

Igniting Souls Conference

Author Academy Elite

Business Academy Elite

People Mentioned:

Mike Kim

Chet Scott

Jeff Brown – Read To Lead podcast

Dan Miller

Books Mentioned (affiliate links):

Kary’s Books:

Elixer Project – Everything Can Be Hacked, Even The Truth (fiction)

DAY JOB TO DREAM JOB – Practical Steps for Turning Your Passion into a Full-Time Gig

THE DEEPER PATH – Five Steps That Let Your Hurts Lead to Your Healing

YOUR SECRET NAME – Discovering Who God Created You to Be

THE FINE LINE – Re-envisioning the Gap between Christ and Culture

CALLED – Becoming Who You Were Born to Be

THE JOURNEY TOWARDS RELEVANCE – Simple Steps for Transforming Your World

Book published by Author Academy Elite:

Vlog Like a Boss: How to Kill It Online with Video Blogging by Amy Schmittauer-Landino

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Sarah was given the nickname ‘Buzz’ when she was 3 because she was always buzzing around and getting into things. So when she decided to begin a blog, Buzz was a natural pen name for her. Sarah’s work on ‘The Buzz on HR’ blog has been challenging not just the HR community to be better, but also bringing a healthy dose of racial awareness and proactive problem-solving to the table.

• Sarah has spent 20 years in the HR departments of many companies. Her latest has been one of the most fast-paced, dramatic jobs she’s ever had. Sarah’s company installs home security systems, and she shares some of major things she has learned in doing it. First among those are the soft skills that are often overlooked.
• Sarah a blog called ‘The Buzz on HR’ but her employer at the time refused to let her use her real name, and she shares the story of trying to hide her identity. She also brings a unique insight into how HR has changed over the years, from when she first started her blog to current day.
• Sarah has struggled with how much she should advocate on racial issues as a Black woman in HR. How much should she say, what should she say, and how often should she say it – that won’t cause her HR audience to abandon her? Sarah shares the experience of the first post she wrote about a racial issue and how it became one of her most popular articles. The WAY she wrote it made the difference.
• Despite the success, Sarah found that it was harder and harder to write in her blog. She almost considered abandoning it, but her friends encouraged her to do a blog-writing challenge, promising that it would break her out of her block and help her ‘get her mojo back.’ She ended up doing the challenge her own way, one that did more than revive her blog. It shifted Sarah’s entire writing life.
• It would be easy to write about race issues from a safe, lukewarm perspective, but Sarah doesn’t. She writes from her own perspective, and her reasons will make you appreciate what she does even more. The most important part is the practical advice that’s part of everything she writes. Sarah is in it to improve problems, not just complain about them.
• It’s not just racial issues that Sarah covers; she also talks about women’s issues. Her thoughts on ‘educating’ women on how to be assertive are refreshing. She believes that women are already educated enough; it’s on those with privilege and in positions of power to educate themselves about how better to behave.
• Sarah has a profound impact on so many lives, and there are many who have had a profound effect on her. She shares stories of how she went to her mother’s grad school class during the 80s. Another positive force in Sarah’s life was her acting teacher, but the reason she took the class to begin with will make you smile. Finally, Sarah’s first boss was the one who modeled how a modern professional woman operates.
• True to form, Sarah leaves us with some very practical advice, both for HR and for educating ourselves to be better people as we go about our business. It’s this type of small, daily impact that can change the world.

People/Resources/Links Mentioned

Sarah Morgan LinkedIn

The Buzz on HR website

Sarah Morgan Twitter

The Buzz on HR Facebook

#BlackBlogsMatter on Twitter

Janine N. Truitt

Keirsten Greggs

Ben Eubanks

2017 #BlackBlogsMatter Challenge initial post: Are You Up for the #BlackBlogsMatter Challenge?

2018 #BlackBlogsMatter Challenge initial post: #BlackBlogsMatter Challenge – Week 1 – Black Blogs STILL Matter

If you’re ready to make a real impact in others’ lives and build influence so you can do more, subscribe to this podcast. Help us spread the word by leaving a review!

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Jennifer gets a LOT of questions from many different types of people. Chief among those questions is how she got to where she is in her career.

People want to know how she’s managed to make such an impact through her entrepreneurship and her speaking career, so Jennifer has dedicated an episode to the answers of those questions and more.

 

 

• The real reason that Jennifer got to where she is now is because of the others who made an impact on her over the years. She starts at the beginning: how her early life was shaped by growing up in a literal log cabin. From there she ended up in a career that wasn’t quite HR. (Back then it was called Personnel.)
• Jennifer shares the story of her first job out of college. Her manager told her where her office was, let her know there was a pile of books there, and that she’d have to figure out the Personnel department alone because he had no idea what it was. Jennifer was overjoyed at the prospect.
• When Jennifer decided to be a stay-at-home mom, her 2-year-old son quickly let her know that it wasn’t a good idea. He ASKED to go to daycare, and Jennifer recalls how it felt to be fired by her own son. She also shares the interesting opportunity at a Japanese automotive company that came her way a few months later.
• Jennifer decided she wanted to be a speaker and consultant but gave herself an arbitrary limit of having at least 20 years in her professional career first. In the meantime, she joined an old, broken company to help turn it around. It was after she accepted the job that she learned she would most likely be replacing herself if she did well.
• Long story short, it did go well and Jennifer found herself out of a job. She took several months off and started, after 18 years, seriously considering entrepreneurship and speaking, so she hired a coach. The first thing he had her do was write a marketing plan for herself. From that point on, his advice shaped Jennifer’s future, including the “remedial networking plan” for introverts.
• As Jennifer began to test the waters of entrepreneurship, her new network pointed out some of the flaws in her plans. These issues were the kind that would sink new businesses before they start, including not knowing what she was selling. They suggested that she learn how to do business development first, so she ended up working with an executive recruiting firm — the very place where she began building her network.
• In early 2010, Jennifer took what she learned and finally made the step into entrepreneurship and speaking. It happened organically. She was an early LinkedIn adopter and was asked by the executives she knew to speak on how to build a network using the platform. It wasn’t easy, though. For the first year, Jennifer struggled despite the help and support of her peers.
• When Mike Sipple, Jr., gave her a book called “Just Do Something“, it changed everything from page 1. At least, it removed the mental block that Jennifer had that was preventing her from succeeding. Jennifer is a person of faith, so it was exactly what she needed to take the next step personally and professionally.
• While Jennifer still struggled a bit, she began making real progress, and she wraps up with the lessons she learned. What was it that finally made everything click? What were the steps she took once that happened? And how has it turned out for her? And how YOU can take when Jennifer learned and apply it to your own story?

People/Resources/Links Mentioned:

Centennial, Inc.

Mike Lynch – President – Mike Lynch Career Consulting

Mike Sipple, Sr. – CEO of Centennial, Inc.

Mike Sipple Jr. – President of Centennial, Inc.

Bonita Martin – Sr. HR Business Partner at Harmon

Sharlyn Lauby – Author & Publisher at HR Bartender

Robin Schooling – VP Human Resources at Hollywood Casino Baton Rouge

Book: “Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach To Finding God’s Will” by Kevin DeYoung 

SCORE – Free small business advice

Freshbooks.com 

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Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”