I wrote this article on the 3rd of April, 2018 and thought of sharing here. It’s about how you can grow your influence in African Leaders and Entrepreneurs Network (ALEN), a community I founded in 2018 that has now grown to about 3000 members and still counting. Even though this article is written for members of our community, it can work for anybody in growing her/his influence. Enjoy!
Imagine you’re to speak in the presence of 20 people in a room.
Imagine, at another time, you’re to speak to 50 people.
Imagine, you’re to speak to 100 people in a conference room.
Now, imagine 200.
Imagine 300, 400, 500, 600 and even 1 Million people.
I’m sure you would want to prepare and then speak passionately well.
Imagine yourself speaking to more than 600 African Leaders and Entrepreneurs which cut across different countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, South Africa and more.
That is what you should imagine in ALEN.
You should be able to POSITION YOURSELF FOR INFLUENCE. That’s the ONLY way you can sell yourself in this network.
I have once talked about the KLT factor.
People MUST KNOW you, LIKE you and TRUST you before they can buy anything from you; either products or services.
How do you position yourself in ALEN for influence?
GIVE VALUE!
It’s important that you start sharing value. For instance, if you’re into business of PUBLIC SPEAKING, start sharing lessons on public speaking.
You can even share videos or audios teaching people how to be great public speakers.
That way, we will KNOW you, LIKE you and TRUST you.
Let me give another instance. If you’re into the business of TAILORING and you want African Leaders and Entrepreneurs from different African countries here to patronise you, you can start by sharing tips on tailoring.
Another thing you can do is utilise the power of STORYTELLING.
This is a powerful tool that most people don’t use.
I remember how writing a story on my Facebook wall earned me more than ₦100,000 (that’s more than $250).
Your potential clients / customers would love to relate with you first before your business. This is true because people first buy into your personality before buying into your business.
When you just joined a group such as ALEN, you don’t just start sharing link-posts from your page to the group, you start by giving out VALUE. That’s how to position yourself for influence.
Some of the people that are CONSISTENTLY giving out value in this group are Temitope Ilesanmi, Oluwaseunfunmi BrainBox Fatoyinbo, Olamilekan Samuel, Benjamin Amaning Lyrics, Oluwafunmbi Purpose Adeoti, Adetayo Dada and Ademola Ridwan Adelu just to mention a few.
Another way is to CARE
Of course, if you don’t care about and for people, you might not get the influence you need. In fact, true leaders care for others.
When others post something in the group, be the FIRST TO COMMENT.
When someone asks a question, be the first to answer.
When you do these things, you set yourself as an AUTHORITY in your niche.
I challenge you to start dashing out value here and see if you’d not get results.
You don’t know who is watching you in this group.
There are ministers of state in this group and there are very influential people here who are just silently watching you.
Think about it! Take action.
SELL yourself.
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