I love to speak in front of an audience. My wife claims that me+stage+microphone=my happy place. To that end, I will accept just about any offer especially in my hometown of Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill and all its bedroom communities. For years, Marshall Brain would ask me to come speak at his entrepreneurship class at NC State. With a room full of 100 students, here is a powerful story about unexpected influence and why you should share your experiences with whoever will listen.
I am an entrepreneur. I am an investor. I am a mentor. I am a startup community builder. I am an author. I am a public speaker. I am an influencer.
The last one is the one I am most proud of and the role I have leaned into for the last 15 years. You see, an influencer is different from a leader. Leaders get assigned. Influencers get things done in as many places as they can.
As an entrepreneur. I would gladly be recognized as an influencer first.
The funny thing about influence is that it is typically subtle and nuanced and many times small and almost always not visible.
In the fall of 2016, I found myself in front of those 100 students at NC State as I had done many times before. Some were bored. Some were listening and unbeknownst to me, at least one was really zoned in on my talk.
Fast forward to October of 2017, and I am keynoting the kickoff of Chattanooga Startup Week circa 2017. It’s a Monday morning. I have had a heck of a prior week having arrived back in the states from a 2-week startup community consulting gig in Lima, Peru. Then rushed back home to Philadelphia for my uncle’s funeral and now in Tennessee.
At the end of my talk there is the normal number of well wishers (every speaker loves those!) but at the very end of the line was a woman and a young lady. She reminded me that she had emailed me a few days prior alerting me that she was going to come see me and that she had driven 3 hours from Georgia.
And then she shared an incredible story about influence.
Her daughter Chey Haas, was in that class I spoke at back in the fall and was inspired by what I had shared. She pulled out Chey’s notebook and showed me notes about me and some of the thoughts and experiences I had shared. She went on to say that Chey had started a company with some friends and they had actually gotten the business off the ground.
Very cool.
She then shared that Chey had been killed in a car accident a few months before graduation and Mom wanted to share that with me and to thank me for inspiring her daughter. She then handed me 2 painted rocks with the words – “live like Chey”.
My world was obviously rocked. I asked if I could give her a hug as I shared what many others had, that I was sorry for her loss.
In the 7+ years since then, I am frequently reminded of that moment and the lesson for me and all of you. (Of course I still have the rocks.)
Our influence is subtle, nuanced, and mostly not visible. But it is not small.