IAM557- Best-selling Author Teaches Marketing Courses

Teresa is the #1 international bestselling author of “Mass Influence – The Habits of the Highly Influential”, which is now a bestseller in 7 countries. A 4X international bestselling author, Teresa teaches marketing courses around the globe to business leaders and entrepreneurs on how to create massively successful word-of-mouth campaigns. Teresa heads the Evolutionary Business Council, a global community of speakers and influencers dedicated to teaching the principles of success.

• CEO Hack: Spending at least five minutes every day being an influence to someone who really deserves it
• CEO Nugget: Give yourself permission to fail
• CEO Defined: Having a powerful vision that lights people up and inspires people to follow that vision

Website: https://teresadegrosbois.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TeresaDee
https://twitter.com/ebcouncil
https://twitter.com/Wildfirews

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teresa.degrosbois
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresadegrosbois

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Teresa de Grosbois of the Evolutionary Business Council. Teresa, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Teresa de Grosbois 0:40

It's awesome to be here. Thanks for having me, Gresham.

Gresham Harkless 0:43

Yeah, no problem, and super excited to hear all the awesome things that you're doing. But before we get started, I wanted to read a little bit more about Teresa so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Teresa is the #1 international bestselling author of “Mass Influence – The Habits of the Highly Influential”, which is now a bestseller in 7 countries. A 4X international bestselling author, Teresa teaches marketing courses around the globe to business leaders and entrepreneurs on how to create massively successful word-of-mouth campaigns. Teresa heads the Evolutionary Business Council, a global community of speakers and influencers dedicated to teaching the principles of success. Teresa, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Teresa de Grosbois 1:24

I assure him, it's great to be here. Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 1:26

Yeah, definitely super excited to have you on. As a new member of the evolutionary business counsel, I'm super excited to get to talk with you a little bit and hear a little bit more about all the awesome things that you're doing. But I wanted to kind of hear how everything got started. So could you tell us your CEO story? What led you to start your business and get you where you are now?

Teresa de Grosbois 1:43

Yeah, it's funny, I'd love to tell you that there's this beautiful linear path between where I was and where I am now. Unlike a lot of people in business, my path was anything but linear. I actually cut my teeth in the oil and gas industry in Canada and had a number of different leadership positions became a management system expert, etc. I got to a point in my life where I just really wanted to change. You start to ask yourself, Is this all there is the question. This is all there is, I want my life to count for something, right? So I started with the and now for something completely different.

I quit my job and started a charity, I wrote three kids' books to raise money for that charity. That very quickly taught me that I hated running a charity and being I didn't love being a children's author all that much. But sometimes we need to swing the pendulum too far to figure out what we want to do, right? I can actually remember one day I was sitting having a cup of tea with Dr. Shawna Paren, who's a dear friend of mine and she's she said to me, Honey, here you are complaining that you don't love being a children's author, you don't love running a charity. People are coming at you in droves saying, Hey, how did you get three books on the bestseller list and only eight months?

Would you teach us how to do that, you're really enjoying coaching them, but you're not noticing that. So that was one of those beautiful lightbulb moments where I changed my brand overnight, to teach what I've always been really good at influence. It's like fish don't know what water is, we often don't know what we're good at until other people start demanding it from us. This eventually led to me founding an organization that helps teach people who run impact-based businesses, all of which influenced the Evolutionary Business Council. That's truly the passion that has lit me up like nothing else. It's what gets me up in the morning, I have to say.

Gresham Harkless 3:49

Yeah, well, that's definitely awesome to hear. I always used to say, that sometimes, we have to do the things we don't love to do to push us towards where we should be. It is great. But sometimes we can't even recognize that ourselves. But it's great to have that environment and people we can be around and say, Hey, you're really good at x, y, and z. So maybe you should start doing that.

Teresa de Grosbois 4:05

Yeah, I know. It's funny, because as kids, people would never say, Do you like basketball? Do you like hockey? The kids would say, Well, I have no idea. I've never played any of them, right? Like, sometimes we gotta get on the field, and try something to actually figure out what our true mission and what our two true strengths are in life. That's a lot of times, I think, why a lot of business owners end up with a couple of failed businesses. Because it's them getting on the field, figuring out what they're good at and what they should be doing.

Gresham Harkless 4:34

Yeah, that's super powerful. I think it's so funny because I say, a lot of times, we should go back to what we used to do as kids to find out like, what our passions and our gifts are, but just as you said, we know what our passions our gifts aren't usually it's what we do well, because we're doing it not because we're sitting on the sidelines and just looking to say, Oh, that looks good, but because we're actually getting our hands dirty and actually doing it.

Teresa de Grosbois 4:55

Yeah, it's so true. There's there's a human condition that we all have, which is we tend to discount stuff that we're really good at. We tend to not move toward things we love. Because most people don't feel worthy to live their own dreams, right? Because your dreams are bigger to you than they are to anyone else. Right? They're your dreams. Huge. So we tend to never feel worthy to step into the things that we would really love to step into. At the same time we've got this, the things we're good at, we tend to think everybody's really good at them.

We don't see our own strengths, because they're so easy and so effortless, and so intuitive to us, that we don't get that the rest of the world isn't finding that super easy and super intuitive, right? There's that interesting combination of parameters that a lot of people really struggle to find, what's that thing they love they're good at and it takes a little bit of swinging the pendulum back and forth before you hit it.

Gresham Harkless 5:57

Yeah, absolutely. It definitely sounds like it takes a certain amount of acceptance as well, too, because I think there's probably definitely I don't know, I can say myself that sometimes when people say, Oh, you do X, Y, and Z? Well, you're like, Oh, well, no, everybody does that. So you kind of have to sound like accept that as well, too, and step into that.

Teresa de Grosbois 6:12

Yeah, very much. Because it is true are our dreams are scarier to us than they are to anyone else. So it makes sense to start looking at what really are your dreams, and I don't mean your dreams, don't a nicer sports car, a big house, we all have those appropriate dreams, the self-reward dreams. But what are your really deep dreams to contribute to the world? If you were to think about one legacy that you wanted people to remember you by, that's what you should be doing in business. That's where you'll be able to make a real difference.

Gresham Harkless 6:50

Exactly, that's when you'll be able to push that pendulum even farther than you think you could. I know, obviously, you're heading in helping so many people be able to do that. So could you drill down a little bit deeper? Tell us a little bit more about the Evolutionary Business Council, exactly what we're doing there, and all the awesome things you're doing.

Teresa de Grosbois 7:06

Yeah. Well, the Evolutionary Business Council was an idea to break all the rules. Which is, what if we create an organization for people who are the Rule Breakers? I don't mean rule breakers in terms of not doing things that are legal or appropriate. I mean, let's rethink the way we live as people. Like, who are the change agents, the people who want to teach us a better way to live, who want to teach us to get past our own inner dialogue, or the people who want to invent better products for cleaner water, smarter living, or healthier living? Because society really depends on those people that are out there on the cutting edge, thinking of better ways of being better ways of living, better ways of doing, and it's those people we want to support.

Basically, what we said is, What if we created an organization for those people who are on the cutting edge of the evolution of humanity? Let's think through a better way, for a world that works for everyone. Let's teach those people about influence. Let's teach them how to create word-of-mouth epidemics around their work and how to really support each other. Influence is a very simple principle once you learn it. But it's like a lot of things until you have that paradigm shift. Like, there was a time we all had to learn how to breathe. Came out of that beautiful, warm environment, somebody idiot whacked you on the back, and you cried for a moment.

Then you master this skill of breathing and by and large, you never thought about breathing again. It influences a lot like that. It's it's very intuitive and natural once you get the paradigms and the principles of it. But a lot of people have never thought about it, they've never stepped into that realm. So they simply don't understand the way influence, especially mass influence, like the world of word-of-mouth epidemics, they don't understand how that works. Yet, once they get it, it's so simple and so easy. They can't imagine that they ever didn't know how it works.

Gresham Harkless 9:04

Yeah, absolutely. I think that something that he said, you have to step into, and I think that not even understanding I know that before I join or apply to join, I should say, the council, I picked up your book and started to read the beginning parts of that and understanding that is something that you can learn and there is kind of like art to it as well, too. Being aware of all those things is something that we sometimes take for granted, like breathing, riding a bike, or walking as well, too.

Teresa de Grosbois 9:33

Yeah, well, and the reality is, for many people, we learned to sort of a rulebook when we were first playing in the sandbox about you do this for me and I'll do that for you and sort of this tit-for-tat fairness and rules. Then we started networking in business and we learned things like you should buy a colleague a coffee or if you've got someone you want as a client, you ask them for lunch or stuff like that, and then you only have to offer to buy a coffee for the head of a Fortune 500 company and faster than you can say, gatekeeper run into the notion that, oh, there's a different set of rules at play when you're dealing with the highly influential, and there's this other etiquette, there's another rulebook out there that nobody ever got you related to.

It's sort of like you've been playing basketball your whole life, and suddenly someone set you on the hockey rink, and you can't figure out why you ended up on your butt and everybody's shooting pucks at you. But once you get related to it as Oh, it's just a different sport to play. It's amazing what you can achieve. Especially when you're in a community of people who want to create change and shift in the world. The Evolutionary Business Council is an amazing group of colleagues that just deeply support each other. When you find there's like an army impact, when you're up to something, it's pretty amazing what you can accomplish.

Gresham Harkless 10:57

Yeah, absolutely. I always say your environment is infectious. So a lot of times when you're in that environment, it starts to create that momentum. As you talked about what the Evolutionary Business Council what you're creating is these influential people are coming together to make the world a better place. So I definitely appreciate that.

Teresa de Grosbois 11:14

Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 11:15

No problem. Now, I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce and it could be for you personally, or it could be for the Evolutionary Business Council. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Teresa de Grosbois 11:26

I would have to say when you really understand the whole notion of pay it forward and pay it forward powerfully. I think there's something to be said, for really investing in leaders. For me, the secret sauce is to find the people who are worthy of investing in and I don't necessarily mean money, I mean, investing in your time investing your influence, investing your help. When you find those people and just continually pay it forward, pay it forward, pay it forward, it's amazing how much energy comes back to you.

Influence works on one basic principle, you can't make yourself famous or influential, you can only give influence, and flank fame and credibility to other people, and other people can give it back to you. When you set aside this whole notion of scorekeeping and just live your life to shine a light on people who deserve it. It's amazing the amount of influence that you can hold and the amount of influence you can bring to bear.

Gresham Harkless 12:29

Definitely appreciate that. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app or book or habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Teresa de Grosbois 12:41

My favorite hack is every day, spend at least five minutes and give influence to someone who really deserves it in your life. I don't care whether it was the shopping clerk who helped you and you wrote a little email to their manager, or it was the janitor who went the extra nine miles and you read an email to their superior, or whether it's someone in your industry who's up and coming, who really deserves it, or someone in senior management that needs to be nominated for an award or something. But spend five minutes every day, shining a light on someone who really deserves to have a light shone on them.

When you get in that habit, and you consistently do that on a consistent basis, you will be amazed at how much your life changes in terms of the amount of energy, gratitude, and influence coming back to you. It's quite incredible what can be created from that.

Gresham Harkless 13:33

Very powerful. Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget and this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine what would you tell your younger business self?

Teresa de Grosbois 13:44

I would say permit yourself to go outrageously big, give yourself permission to fail.

Gresham Harkless 13:51

Awesome. Well, Teresa, I truly appreciate that. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So Teresa, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Teresa de Grosbois 14:04

To be a CEO is really to have a powerful, incredible vision that lights people up and then inspires other people to follow that vision. So the more you invest in the leaders around you, the better the CEO you are.

Gresham Harkless 14:20

Absolutely, I couldn't have said it better myself. I think that's definitely right in line with influence and everything that you're doing with the EBC. So definitely appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get a hold of view and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Teresa de Grosbois 14:41

Well, I would say if you're someone who's really inspired and fired up to help build a better world in some way. Maybe you're teaching principles of personal transformation or personal health or maybe you've just invented a better product then please come see us at the Evolutionary Business Council. We are invited only because we want to make sure people don't come in who just want to sell to the highly influential. But if you are someone who is inspired to really build a better world then we want you and you're very welcome and encouraged to join our organization. So please come check us out, come speak to one of our senior members find out about the organization. We're at edcouncil.com and I just want to say what are you waiting for? Just take a leap.

Gresham Harkless 15:31

Awesome. We will have to definitely have those links and information in the show notes. So thank you so much for that. I appreciate the reminder, there's no better time to do something than now. Don't wait till tomorrow. Don't wait till the week after that. Definitely do it now. So anybody who wants to know more information we'll have that information there, but thank you so much again, Teresa, and I hope you have a phenomenal day.

Outro 15:49

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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