How do you decide your influencers?

This conversation can be directed in many ways:

• Content engagement - thought leaders in every medium, profession, topic
• Professional growth - CEUs, mentors
• Tribe - more immediate circle including family, peers, friends

In today's world there is no shortage of individuals sharing insights, strategies and how-to's.  My own curiosity and tendencies means my podcast library is extensive, my bookshelf is ever growing and the number of newsletters and emails hitting my inbox each week was out of control.  And I didn't even mention social media!  (PS - you won't find me on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc.)

Of course we're in a different generation of marketing strategies, yet there was abundance of CEU providers jockeying for my attention (and dollars) even before I graduated PT school.  Unfortunately over the last 20 years I've attended my fair share of courses that simply underdelivered.

What was at the source of the disappointment?

Let's walk through a the layers.  Knowledge has never been a limited resource.  Yet the cycle of change has a few critical elements once interest has been established:

• The ability to convey a message in order to create buy in
• The ability to influence audience to take action and integrate principles
• The ability to show a result that is meaningful
• The ability to create conviction and lasting belief

Notice that BELIEVE is a beyond ongoing results.  Those experiences create an internal sense of KNOWING that is unstoppable in it's transformation.  It is in this knowing that success exists, and is reproducible.

For those seeking resources to level up, here are a few questions to help you discern  go those individuals that you to beyond interest with:

1. Would I give my head or heart to this person?
2. Will this person help me become a master?

Why these questions?  The obvious of your time is a valuable and fixed resource.  Don't give it away.  And use it to grow in meaningful ways.

There is also standard created in these questions.  Not just for the influencer, but the 'seeker'.  For the time you invest, for your commitment to integration of principles.  For the influencer, the sustained change in trajectory that transforms your future.

You either have a person that you answered yes to both of these questions and know why these two questions.  Or your someone realizing that those you are following and giving of some level of your life to don't meet those standards.

We've all been there.  Chasing.  Seeking.

For me, finding what clicked with how my brain worked and how I best showed up as a clinician yet challenged my reasoning and skill in unique ways.  And it took time.  But I evaluated my influence(r)s and recognized that those in my day to day work flow didn't meet that standard.  Like most therapy providers, I looked into the world of continuing education for those influencers, and there were many!  But for me, proximity and access to true masters wasn't there.  The two questions couldn't be answered with a yes.

In a world of abundant noise, I started to sort through the messages, the individuals, the tactics to connect, the authenticity behind and found a handful of thought leaders that I could relate to and with.  There was also a collective humility, grace and excellence that drew me in beyond anything I had encountered in my nearly 20 years of education and practice.  And I could finally answer 'heck yes' to my two questions.  And my growth has delivered results for me to further believe and know that this is the path for me.  No more chasing or seeking.

Live.  Feel.  Think.  DIFFERENTLY.