Never Know Who's Watching or Listening
A couple of months ago I received an unexpected email from a major corporation inquiring about purchasing a large quantity of autographed copies of my book. "Stoked" and excited for the opportunity, I of course reached out with an enthusiastic reply. I asked how they had found out about the book and of course quickly agreed to provide them autographed copies. It turns out, they'd been following me for quite some time.My level of stokiness (I may have just made that up) increased to a level that we'd have a hard time measuring without sophisticated seismology equipment.This email exchange eventually led to a phone conversation. It turns out that they wanted to use my book as part of an internal training series for emerging leaders. I was humbled that this major corporation would want to use my book! I'm not well known and despite a small online social presence, still consider myself and my book largely unknown. I mean I am no Gary Vaynerchuk or Michael Hyatt.During the course of our conversation I learned that several of their key executives followed not only my blog but also were fans of my #Ripplethoughtoftheday that I post on Twitter almost daily. Then when formulating content for their upcoming training several had put me forward as someone they might want to leverage. I barely could contain myself as we continued to chat. This was a huge shot in the arm for my confidence.Although I can not share who the company is because of a confidentiality clause in our agreement. I can say they are a major player in the credit card and finance space. I was blown away that my little random musings were being read and influencing leaders from a company. Not even in a million years could I imagine getting this opportunity.It goes to show you, especially those of you who are blogging or using any social networking platform, you never know who might be watching and listening to what you are saying. Your next client, your next employer or your next acquirer could be out there silently consuming whatever it is you put there.I not only was able to deliver the books to them but I was invited to participate in several ongoing sessions with their leaders. This has turned into an ongoing engagement that now has me being asked to be a thought leader in some new curriculum that they are developing for a new training program. Not bad eh?Talk about an amazing Ripple! All because a couple of people were out there, watching, listening and leveraging what I had to say. Although this big break seemingly came out of no where, I am realizing now, it didn't. I was influencing this company before they invited me to the party and that's what's cool about the whole thing. Just when I thought that no one was watching or listening, someone showed me they were.None of us know what kind of Ripples of influence we might be making out there in the world. But rest assured we are always influencing someone.Ripple On!!!
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