3 Ways to Grow Your Sphere of Influence

Jim Rohn’s famous quote says it all. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

Think about the people you spend the most time with.  Are they helping you grow? Are they making you a better person?

It’s simple, if you want to improve, improve the people you surround yourself with. This is much easier said than done. I’ve struggled with this throughout my professional career. But over the last few years, I’ve been able to dramatically improve my sphere of influence.

Here’s how I did it.

Power of the Thank You

It started with the Thank You Experiment. As I shared in a previous blog, I made it my goal to write a thank you letter every single day in 2016. I wrote to anybody who made an impact on my life.

As an avid reader, many of my letters were to influential authors. These people were inspiring me every single day.  I wanted to let them know the impact they were making.

As soon as I began writing the thank you letters, an amazing thing started happening. These authors and thought leaders were now calling and writing to me. They wanted to connect and hear my story.  I began to build great relationships with these people.   The connections and friendships became stronger than I could ever imagined.  Today, I speak to a handful of these leaders all the time. They have now become an important part of my sphere of influence.

The important thing to remember is that the best leaders and influencers are always looking to help people. It’s what drives them. If you are able to share that they helped you, it’s easy to connect with them. And it starts a relationship.

This lesson hit home with me when I was 25 years old and emailed Mark Cuban. He emailed me back within a couple of hours. He gave encouragement and support. One of the busiest entrepreneurs in the world, and he was still giving his time to help people he didn’t know.

Pay to Skip the Line

It’s not always as easy as just sending a thank you letter and hoping they reach out to you. To connect with people at a higher level, you often have to work hard to build a relationship. I’m now investing heavily to travel to workshops and conferences to meet these leaders. I call it “Paying to Skip the Line,” and I’ve learned quickly that it’s well worth it.

Showing these people how much they mean to you and letting them know you want to learn from them is essential.

Providing a Platform to Share

It all comes down to bringing value to people. Thank you letters and investing in their work provides value. But what else can you do?

Can you provide them with a platform to share their work? Do you have a podcast you can invite them on or introduce them to another podcaster? Can you refer them to speak at a conference or another event? Can you connect them with another influencer? Do you have media contacts that can help share their story? Can your company or team make a bulk order of one of their books?

Every great influencer wants to make a bigger impact. The more ways you can help them do that, the better.

Always find ways to bring value to others.

This is how you can build a strong relationship. And this is how these people can truly enter your sphere of influence.

Once you realize you need to improve your sphere of influence, you are on the right track. Now you just need to think about who will have the biggest impact on your life. Think big and don’t limit yourself. Go after these people and be relentless in your pursuit.

Make sure to always give more than you take from these people. And you will grow more than you ever imagined.

Action Steps:

1.) Write down today 5 people you want in your sphere of influence.

2.) Write a handwritten letter to these people this week.