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672. Your Competitive Advantage Is Being Human · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Each day we share stories and insights to help you find be and build your influence in a positive and responsible way.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm Greg Clino, partner at IA Business Advisors and co-host of Daily Influence.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Be sure to follow, subscribe, and share Daily Influence with someone who could use a little extra positivity today, and make us part of your daily routine, whether it's during your commute, on a walk, or in a quiet moment just for you, because you're influenced matters.
• 0:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Brian Kramer is a globally recognized keynote speaker, bestselling author, and one of the leading voices on human centered leadership marketing and connection in the digital age through his books, including human to human share allergy.
• 1:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there is no B to B or B to C. It's H to H. Brian challenges leaders and organizations to lead with empathy, trust and authenticity at daily influence.
• 1:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: We talk a lot about positive and responsible influence and Brian doesn't just teach it.
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: He lives it.
• 1:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm excited to welcome Brian Kramer.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Alien Fluence.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for having me here.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: I appreciate it.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Brian, for those who may be new to your work, can you share a bit about your background or what led you to focus so deeply on human-centered leadership and influence?
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: The age-to-age philosophy has always been a part of every business that I've either been in or run or built in.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: So it's kind of the constant thread going all the way back to, you know, basically just coming right out of school.
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: So one of the things that always held true was how people connect with other people and how do they get things done in this world.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so, as we owned previous marketing agencies and I'd worked for companies in Silicon Valley, it was something that became glaringly obvious that it was always a challenge, always will be.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: And how do we stay with that?
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: How do we be with it?
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so, H.H.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: in its
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: when it was first and human, human-related and human-led businesses are something that we focus on in our marketing campaigns and our marketing work or our digital work.
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: But then, as I moved into or moved out of the agency world and into, the leadership coaching and advisorship area about nine years ago,
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: It easily translated into what now I focus on in both coaching and advising and helping people to run human-led businesses.
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, your journey really highlights how influence it balls when we put people first.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: In our IN team book series, we talk about how responsible influence starts with self-awareness.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: How is understanding your own values and humanity shaped the way you lead, speak, and connect with others?
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: In every way, it's that gosh, that could be its own podcast.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think one of the things that
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: That really helped shape things for me was the people that gave me a start, the ones that believed in me, the ones that helped me connect the dots and understand how businesses run efficiently and and.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: and sustain themselves.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so it just stuck with me.
• 3:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like, those people really stuck with me.
• 3:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: I had been involved in a lot of ups and downs in business.
• 4:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so when you get down into the pit of some of those areas and even at the height of business, it starts to get jumbled up.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: And as we start to connect it, and I think a little bit deeper with different people and
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: move through it a little more gently on ourselves.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: It makes more sense to be less isolating and more intentional in the business, in the human relationships that we developed.
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so I found that what got me through, each of those, either the height or the pit, falls the, the, the challenge areas.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was, it was way easier to have people on your side and for you to be on their side as you're going through that.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: And then you get into things like, you know, social media and, you know, some of the technology and communication transformations we've all seen and how disconnected we can all get in this idea of this perfection and putting out a message that doesn't necessarily relate to who you really are and so there's a disconnect.
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think there that's going on even more so now and.
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: We'll probably get into them with AI, but I think that that business doesn't have to be hard.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: It can be general.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: It can be easy.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: It can be fun.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: And to do that, we have to kind of honor that human side first.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that self-awareness naturally shows up and how we impact others.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Can you share a moment or experience where you realize the ripple effect of your work when you truly thought you made a positive impact on someone's life?
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thankfully, a lot.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: I work with a lot of different executives and a lot of different people in the last.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, just over my career, but, you know, every day I'm coaching and, you know, high level, high performing executives.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so there's a lot of little nuances and things that just give me a little boost when I see that they get a little win or a little moment where they're like, oh my god, I didn't see that before.
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: And to me, that's like,
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: That that's the goal is watching watching that little little win happen.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'd say on a kind of grinder bigger level.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was when when I was giving a keynote in 2014 at Bloomberg West in San Francisco.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: And my keynote was in front of the right audience the right time, just when social media was just starting.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: And a lot of people in the audience really resonated with one particular screen, which was what had become the title of my book, which was, there's no B2B or B2C, it's HHH human human.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: And over the next 48 hours, they had taken pictures of that screen and pushed it out and it got.
• 6:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: over 24 million impressions in the next 48 hours.
• 6:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that was not something that I had thought would happen from that keynote.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: But what did happen was the influx of messages and, you know,
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: little moments of intimate communication areas like people reaching out and saying, oh my god, this is how I really feel and this changes things for me just to know that like someone else thinks this too or companies just trying to figure out like how do we who are we and how do we how do we show up in the world and and saying like this really makes a difference
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: the right people.
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so that really like that day was just like the most magical day for me that that changed me and I think others based upon what I got back it was it was one of the I call one of the most business life life changing areas of my life.
• 7:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I can see that what a huge ripple that you saw immediately, like literally 48 hours is pretty immediate, right?
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Especially back then.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was, it was even a glint in my, it was not even on my peripheral to be honest, and I was writing my first book, which was shareology, which I ended up being my second book.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: And then that escalated into a TED talk and then it'd be speaking and then building other things and it just it really was a gift the way that it all naturally happened.
• 8:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: So for me to see the like you said like little little moments where people resonated with something that felt simple, but yet so hard.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: Because how do you be more human if you're already human is really the tough part and I think, I think, you know, the simplicity of it is what made it made it really special.
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, really, we'll make someone take a step back and think about it.
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, truly, what does that mean that human to human and I mean so much, right, not just a business, but just in personal.
• 9:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: interactions and communication and conversations.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you really peel back the onion at the end of the day, we're all humans.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we should all be treating each other like humans.
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And probably the world will be a lot better pace of more people thought that way.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: Amen.
• 9:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: Full stop.
• 9:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, one of the core ideas across our book series is that influence carries responsibility.
• 9:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: From your perspective, what is responsible influence look like in today's fast-paced digital and often New Easy World?
• 9:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: I can probably answer that a couple of different ways.
• 9:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: First one that cut his mind is,
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: is honesty.
• 9:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: There's a lack of information right now that we can we can point to and say that that's true or that's factual or that's something that we could fall back on and be able to
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: share with another human being and say that I'm not passing along information that's that's not made up.
• 10:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so I think I think that doing our homework right now and verifying what it is that we're sharing is probably one of the most important things we do before we just hit repost or or sending to someone else a thought on what we believe to be true.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: It could be an
• 10:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: And then the second way to answer that is that there's a lot of complexity, there's a lot of perfection, and there's a lot of non-empty going on right now.
• 10:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so when you look at the antithesis of each of those, you're just really looking at what is, what is it about your business or yourself that you want to put out into the world?
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so how do you make what you are already
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: where does empathy or embracing more empathy come into play for you, your clients, your potential clients.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: So they have resonance and understanding that you're going to go to bat for them when and if that time comes and it will, right?
• 11:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: There's always a customer service problem everywhere.
• 11:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: So something's going to happen.
• 11:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: And when it does, where's the empathy and that they can come to expect?
• 11:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: We could spend a lot of time talking about, but the last one, I think, is imperfection.
• 11:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's, it's, it's almost like if, you know, we're, we're honoring who we are individually and saying like, this is, this is my truth.
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: This is what I'm putting out into the world.
• 11:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm, I am imperfectly perfect with who I am.
• 11:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: than who is that.
• 11:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that when you start to take little baby steps into what imperfection really means, not that you're going to, you know, overshare, over inflate like your problems into the world.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: But letting people understand who you are at your, your, your center, like really really understanding what it is that people are going to gravitate towards and in the same back, you know, the, the brands that we all love are the ones that that are easy to understand that.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: that we know that they care, that they do good in the world, and that they have this ability to show up when things went wrong and say, we got it wrong, or sorry, we're gonna get it right next time.
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: When you have those three ingredients, it is
• 12:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: It is like the you just want to jump from the rooftops and be like that's the company I will never leave that's the that's the brand I want to work for those of the people I want to be with and I think that that's that's the kind of influence that really makes a difference.
• 12:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
• 12:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, and in today's digital world, are you using AI and your work and if you are, how do you balance.
• 13:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: innovation and efficiency with maintaining trust and but the and the human connection that you're so well known for I use say I every day I think at this point adventure to say who doesn't but maybe that maybe that wouldn't be a 100% true but it is it is something that that I use as a as an assistant.
• 13:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: I don't use it as a thinking partner, I use it as a way to help me create something that in a way that maybe I wasn't thinking about before.
• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that, yeah, I could have called.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: a person or it could have called two people and got in their thoughts on how to do it.
• 13:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that might be, even in some cases, a better way to go.
• 13:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: But starting with that as a prompt, starting with it to just kind of think about, like, where are the questions I should be asking, rather than giving it a question and saying,
• 14:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: much more supportive of someone who who still needs to show up in a human way that still wants to write.
• 14:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: I love to write.
• 14:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: I will never, I don't want it to take the place in my writing, but I wanted to challenge my writing.
• 14:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so if it can challenge in a systemy water, then I'm all for it.
• 14:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: But once it starts to,
• 14:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: to do the thing that I now is taking away from my joy factor of what I like to do every day, then I think that's where the line gets crossed.
• 14:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, we can go into all the creepy stuff, and we can go in all the other things, but at the base bit, that's where I use it.
• 14:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for sharing that.
• 14:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I love that you use it to challenge you and to broaden your thoughts and make you potentially, you know, think of something in a different way that you may not have thought about it before and not that you're going to move in that direction, but at least it's expanding your brain to think in other ways.
• 15:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's a great way to use it.
• 15:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: In the IN team philosophy, collaboration thrives on people feel seen and valued.
• 15:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: What advice do you have for leaders to want to build high performing teams without losing the human element?
• 15:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's hard.
• 15:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's a hard one, because it depends on what kind of company the size of the company, your position with the company, your longevity, and so I think that where I would start is with your non-negotiables.
• 15:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Instead of looking at it as a list of what, who do I need to connect with and how do I want to make sure that I'm being with others?
• 15:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you know, you get this opportunity, I love, I've got CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies to someone running a 50-person startup, the concepts the same, where your boundaries, what are your non-negotiables, and what's the impact you want to leave
• 16:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you can claim those three and really iron out the operating manual.
• 16:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: and how you want the impact to be after you've left the room, after you've left a team from a project or in any situation.
• 16:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: An impact to me is a feeling.
• 16:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's an emotion.
• 16:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: An impact is not a percentage or a dollar value.
• 16:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's a goal with a financial outcome.
• 16:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: But an impact is something we leave behind where when we leave the room, they feel something.
• 16:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: When we go on to Amazon or on any shopping site where there's a probably a good chance that you're buying something that has maybe 5, 10, 50 different options of that same type of thing that you're about to buy, your car, when you go to buy your car or your house, when you walk into the home and you know that it's the house that you really want to live in because it just feels right for you.
• 17:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: You could pick two other homes but it just feels right and all of it leads you back
• 17:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: you feel.
• 17:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: And if so, I think that if you can leave the same kind of an imprint on the people you work with and treat things not as product reviews, because people are not just product reviews, but leaving them with impact on emotion.
• 17:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: and start their first and then work backwards to the dollars and cents.
• 17:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: How does that impact help us achieve the financial outcome that we're looking for?
• 17:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's way more human.
• 17:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's actually how we operate.
• 17:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: Now we're going to be more in alignment with moving towards that outcome or the outcome than we thought it would be.
• 17:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's great point.
• 17:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I really appreciate you sharing that.
• 17:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, enclosing what message or words of encouragement, would you like to share with our listeners who inspired a lead with integrity, creating meaningful connections and make a positive difference in the world?
• 18:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe my favorite question.
• 18:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
• 18:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: I believe that being human right now is everyone's competitive advantage more so now than it's ever been.
• 18:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you were to do something that's that's outlandishly human, it's going to stand out.
• 18:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: Now also, if you did something even just slight, just a sort of a little bit human, dare I say, like, I know it's an overused thing, but right a thank you note, or
• 18:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: send something in the mail or or or do something that like pick up the phone and actually call someone.
• 18:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: Doing these are these are like table stakes, but but doing things that are just a little bit hey, I was just thinking about you in a non-transactual way is is already above and beyond everything else that's being done right now in the automated world.
• 19:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: So right now you want to stand out
• 19:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: just be as human as possible.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: But start with just one thing and I guarantee you it's going to stand out from everybody else because there are a lot of, I mean how many, how many emails are we're getting, how many automations are we getting, how much AI slopp is there.
• 19:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: So just that one little thing that's going to move the needle right now.
• 19:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, thank you for sharing that Brian and thank you for reminding us that influence isn't about platforms, titles, or technology.
• 19:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's about people and being human and your work reinforces what we believe deeply at daily influence.
• 19:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: We lead with humanity, empathy, and responsibility.
• 19:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: We don't just grow businesses, we elevate lives.
• 19:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: If our listeners want to get in touch with you, what is the best way to do so?
• 19:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: two really easy ways.
• 19:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: Go to brinecramer.com.
• 19:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's brine with a Y. Creamer with a K. And you can reach out to me.
• 20:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: You can subscribe.
• 20:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: You can check out all kinds of free resources.
• 20:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: There are my books there.
• 20:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: Or you can see me.
• 20:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you want, who would I be if I'm not that?
• 20:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, a mage page guy.
• 20:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: So if you want to reach out at my private email address is private at Brian Kramer.com and just email me there and you know the first three people that reach out either to you or or to me, I will I'll give them a just as a thank you for listening to your podcast and supporting your podcast.
• 20:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'll give them my
• 20:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: the first three people I'll give a my my age to age book as a as a gift.
• 20:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm just simple just put age to age book and the name of this podcast and the subject line that's all you need not do that for you.
• 20:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Great.
• 20:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much Brian.
• 20:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: We really appreciate that.
• 20:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll put all this information in the show notes.
• 20:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm really grateful for you joining us today.
• 20:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
• 20:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me.
• 20:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate it as well.
• 20:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And thank you to our listeners for tuning into daily influence.
• 20:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hope today's conversation brought you insight and inspiration.
• 21:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: If it's spoke to you, share it with someone who could use a little positivity today.
• 21:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Remember, small actions create big impact.
• 21:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Keep showing up, leading, and growing one day to time.
• 21:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Until next time, stay inspired and keep having a positive, responsible influence.
• 21:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bye.