Hey Reader,

Last week in this newsletter I shared how I experimented with text-free slides for my keynote speech at the Connect25 conference in the US. I had a flood of emails in response asking me to share the content of the speech and asking if it’s available online anywhere. Well jeepers, wow thank you for your interest, I loved getting all your emails and for some reason I was super surprised at the level of interest.

The bad news is that there is no playback available from the conference, it was live in-person and was not recorded. But the good news is that I am recording the speech for The Curious Tribe so if you’re interested in joining up you can access it in my video library in the tribe community.

And more good news, in today’s newsletter I’ll give you a flavour of the key message of my talk which is this:

Does the word "influencer" make you cringe?

Because it does for me, or at least it used to.

When someone first called me an “internal comms influencer” in a LinkedIn message, I nearly fell off my chair. The word felt completely wrong for me and I couldn't relate to that word at all. I don’t post unboxing videos on YouTube or “get ready with me” make up videos on TikTok. I’m certainly not filming yoga fitness and matcha latte videos at 5am (I don’t even know what 5am looks like tbh).

So I always felt weird about this word "influencer". But the word kept coming up. It kept appearing in my DMs and I even got introduced to someone at an event as an "influencer" which kind of made me laugh. But it also made me curious. I got curious about the word influencer and the concept of influence and after a lot of reflection I changed how I think about the word and about our profession entirely.

And at the start of my keynote, I asked the audience to raise their hands if they considered themselves influencers. Not surprisingly, very few did. At the end of the speech, however, I asked the question again and encouraged people to stand up if they now saw themselves as influencers - and guess what, everyone stood up. Each person now understood how they really ARE influencers and that everyone who works in internal comms is an influencer in their organisation. It was a powerful moment that highlighted just how transformative this perspective shift can be.

[And lucky for me they DID stand up because I had no back-up plan for how to end my speech if they all stayed sitting down, haha!]

What does “influence” really mean?

In my speech, I explored the history and etymology of the word “influence” and explained how it has evolved over time to describe the capacity to change others’ actions, thoughts, or behaviors.

So if we think through history and about people who had influence, we think about people like kings and queens, religious leaders, artists, writers and philosophers - they all had significant influence on society and people, didn't they?

They were all influencers in the true sense of the word.

Because they changed how people think, feel, and behave.

And hang on a second - isn't that exactly what we do every day in internal comms? We influence what employees know, how they feel and what they do at work. That is literally our job.

Don't we regularly use the think-feel-do framework in our role when setting objectives? We ask questions questions like:

• What do we want our employees to think or know?
• How do we want them to feel?
• What do we want them to do with this information?

​

We are trying to influence them. We are trying to influence their knowledge, their thoughts, their behaviours, their actions.

We. Are. Influencers.

In my full keynote, I share a story about an internal communicator named Alex who saved a failing app launch by influencing employees' knowledge and behaviour. Within three weeks, adoption jumped from 25% to 75% because she influenced:

• What employees knew about the app
• How they felt about using it
• What they did with it in their daily work

This is the essence of what we do. We’re not just pushing out messages, we’re strategically influencing behaviors, attitudes and knowledge.

So that's the first part of the keynote, essentially urging you to accept the title of 'influencer' and embrace your role as an internal influencer.

The talk goes on to explore how we can use published psychological research to maximize our influence to make a bigger impact in work. I looked at how you can use two key psychological principles in your role as an internal communicator, specifically how you can use them to wield more influence over your audience and drive the results you want.

And of course, it wouldn't be a speech of mine if I didn't discuss the topic of curiosity. I explored curiosity as the ultimate superpower for maximising your influence and becoming a truly effective communicator.

Because the most influential internal communicators I’ve ever met aren’t just great writers or brilliant presenters; they’re intensely curious people. When you’re curious, you go beyond simply delivering information. You get deeply interested in identifying and solving business problems and figuring out ways to really change how people think, feel and act.

You can figure out how to influence people simply by asking good questions and indulging your curiosity.

Here are two curiosity-fuelled mantras I provided in the keynote that you can take away and apply to your own roles.

1. “Before you communicate, investigate.”
2. “Before you act, understand.”

These are more than just catchy phrases. They’re practical approaches that can completely change how you work. If you investigate the problem before communicating and you put in the time and effort to deeply understand the problem before acting or jumping into tactical solutions, you can identify the most effective approach to take to influence a successful outcome.

Want the full experience?

This newsletter only scratches the surface of what I covered in my Connect25 keynote. In the full recording (availably to members of The Curious Tribe), you’ll learn:

• The six psychological principles that drive human behavior and how to apply them ethically in internal communications
• Specific examples and real-world stories of how to leverage “social proof” and “authority” to increase your influence
• A step-by-step approach to building your personal authority within your organisation
• The exact questions to ask in different scenarios to maximise your influence
• How to transform challenging stakeholder relationships through strategic curiosity

Plus, as a Curious Tribe member, you’ll get access to our community discussions, invites to my regular live events, access to my exclusive video library of past events and access to all my courses and workshops. And also, of course, access to ME to get direct support and advice on your internal comms challenges.

Btw I personally hate add-on fees for memberships so there are absolutely no add-on costs for anything in The Curious Tribe. Your membership fee covers everything, including new content and courses that I make.

If you’re ready to embrace your role as an influencer and transform your impact, maybe this is your sign to join The Curious Tribe.

Download this letter to convince your boss to cover your membership fee!

Thanks again for all the interest in my keynote and I hope today's newsletter gives you some food for thought.

From one influencer to another, thanks for reading and stay curious.

Joanna

Find me on YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn and check out my book​

Want to work together?

• Join The Curious Tribe. This is my membership community for ambitious, curious communicators who want to achieve more in their roles and have fun at the same time. Membership allows you to work directly with me for 12 months, make deep connections with other communication pros who 'get it' and improve your skills through training and learning. More info here.
• Ready to review your channels and content but don't know where to start? Download my practical Internal Comms Audit Playbook to guide you through a DIY audit - no expensive consultant needed.​ This has ready-to-use templates and checklists to give you a systematic way to do your own audit which you can repeat every single year. Get it here.
• Take a shortcut. I've developed a collection of tried-and-tested templates, checklists and how-to guides for the key processes you'll need in your role as an internal communicator. You can download my Internal Comms Cheat Sheets here.​
• Enroll in my course, "How to use ChatGPT as your personal assistant". This is a practical, on-demand course where I'll show you 38 specific ways to use ChatGPT to help you in your job as an internal communicator. You can enroll in the course here.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​
​Unsubscribe ·