Episode 124: Understanding the Technology of Influence with Elaina Zuker – Transcript

Wealth On Any Income Podcast Episode 124

Rennie Gabriel  00:09
Hi folks, welcome to Episode 124 of the Wealth On Any Income Podcast. This is where we talk about money tips, techniques, attitudes, information, and provide inspiration around your business and your money. I'm your host, Rennie Gabriel. In past episodes, we spoke about how to understand the numbers from your business, how to measure the level of pleasure based on where you spend your money, how to track your money in 5 to 10 seconds, what determines how close you are to Complete Financial Choice®, and how to run your business without being in your business. Last week, we had Ralph and Bryan White, two business coaches, one of whom I've known for 30 years, who took one business from $8 million a year in revenue to over $1.4 billion in revenue. Today, we have as our guest, Elaina Zuker. Elaina, did I pronounce your name correctly? 

Elaina Zuker  01:06
Perfect. 

Rennie Gabriel  01:07
Great. As the president of Elaina Zuker Associates, a management training and consulting firm in Montreal, Canada, Elaina is a seasoned businesswoman, educator, author, and consultant. Her clients have included Fortune 500 corporations, such as AT & T, American Express, IBM, and Bank of America. She's the author of six books on leadership, management, assertiveness, influence, and communication. Her best selling book, The Seven Secrets of lnfluence, has been translated into four languages. Elaina, welcome to the Wealth On Any Income Podcast.

Elaina Zuker  01:48
Thank you so much, Rennie. I'm so happy to be here.

Rennie Gabriel  01:52
Terrific. Well, let's get right to it with some questions. All right, well, okay, so you talk about leadership, management, assertiveness and all this stuff. Tell me why.

Elaina Zuker  02:05
What a great question. Well, you know, I am a graduate, I have a PhD of the school of hard knocks in New York City. So I lived in New York for 25 years. This is my home - I'm in Montreal right now, folks, but I lived in New York City  - meant for a long time. I was in advertising and marketing. And then I went back to graduate school, and seriously did not get a PhD in hard knocks. But, you know, I started my consulting practice, without any contacts without, you know, I really didn't know any people in the field, which is called organizational development. And the why, is that I like to help people be more proactive in their lives and their careers. So it's kind of a continuum. I started off teaching, communication and assertiveness. And then I developed a program about influence. So you could say that it's a little more hard hitting. It's a little, it's more precise. So it isn't just standing up for yourself, it's really how to proactively persuade other people. And influence happens one person at a time, even in groups. But it's the "why", I would say is I want to empower other people to feel like they're more in charge.

Rennie Gabriel  03:48
Thank you, Elaina. And now, you told me you listened to my TED Talk. So you know that I donate 100% of the profits, from my programs to charities. Tell me what's the cause or charity that's most important to you and a little bit about what they do.

Elaina Zuker  04:05
Well, you know, it's very nice. I'm glad that you asked that question, because I think everybody has a sort of favorite in that realm. And we may not be able to, you know, donate 100% But we try to, you know, many of them are funded by little donors, so we have to keep it going. So the ACLU is something that's very dear to my heart, because we see what's happening regarding, you know, to free speech and not enough free speech. I think it's it's super important in the US and everywhere. I mean, we see what's happening, you know, in countries that are, do not have that opportunity. And then the Southern Poverty Law Center, people may not know, it's, it's kind of a very archaic name. Because that's where it started from. You're familiar with it.

Rennie Gabriel  05:03
Yes, I am. 

Elaina Zuker  05:04
So . . . 

Rennie Gabriel  05:05
Yes, I donate to them as well. 

Elaina Zuker  05:06
Good. So, you know, they are dedicated to hate crimes, and it's almost in a way, or hate speech. And, you know, in a way those two are, the two charities I mentioned, the ACLU and the Southern Poverty are kind of in a very delicate dance, because we value free speech, but as we've seen, I guess, in the last, I'll say six years. You know, I mean, that's not exactly code. But everybody knows what I'm talking about. 

Rennie Gabriel  05:43
I understand. 

Elaina Zuker  05:45
People have been empowered, kind of given a free pass to leech their free speech into hate speech. 

Rennie Gabriel  05:56
Yes. 

Elaina Zuker  05:57
And so as I say, it's a very delicate dance. I never really thought about it this way. But between those, those two goals.

Rennie Gabriel  06:09
I get it. I get it. Thank you. Because, yes, I mean, we're certainly seeing the results of that here in the United States. And the level of gun violence against different groups based on . . . 

Elaina Zuker  06:19
Here too, you know. Canada used to be such like a nice, it seemed, sounds like a peaceful place. But you know, I'm in a city. So this is, there's been a lot of anti-semitism, and a lot of racial animus. 

Rennie Gabriel  06:34
Yes. Well, let's get back to the work that you do. Tell me kind of like, who your target clients are.

Elaina Zuker  06:41
Okay, good. Well, I've made a transition. So for the last, when you mentioned all those Fortune 500 companies. 

Rennie Gabriel  06:50
Yeah. 

Elaina Zuker  06:52
I created a course, which I won't go into now, but people can go to my website, ezinfluence.com.

Rennie Gabriel  07:01
We'll add that not only into the show, I'll ask you about it, but I'll put in the show notes as well.

Elaina Zuker  07:07
Yeah. Over the years, I refined this idea that I had, I like to call it the technology of influence. So having been failed many, many times and succeeded many more times in the arena of New York Business, I analyzed, what are the skills and behaviors that successful influencers do? And let me just clarify, I know we don't have a lot of time now. But being a successful influencer doesn't mean having a million followers on Instagram. Okay.

Rennie Gabriel  07:49
Thank you.

Elaina Zuker 07:49
It's what I call portable power, which is a set of skills that anyone can learn, practice and master. So I broke down what the successful outcome behaviors are. And then I reconstructed them. So that it's a model that was teachable. And so that came after much research and a lot of years of perfecting this model. So the target is, has been, corporations and organizations. I've worked for a lot of nonprofits also, like the National League of Cities, and some state governments. And basically, it's the course has, is a one day class live, it was live, before COVID, to teach people how to have a better ratio of selling and influencing. So that's basically what the course promises and delivers. Now, during COVID, I worked with a very talented team of educational technology designers. And we created an elearning version of the course. So now I've turned my marketing to expand my target customer, to answer your question, to individuals. So previously, you could only take advantage of my knowledge by buying a book, which really is good but not enough. 

Rennie Gabriel  09:36
Right. 

Elaina Zuker  09:37
Or work - or belonging - to an organization where my program was being offered. I didn't do much in the way of public webinars, public seminars, but now since it's an off-the-shelf, 12-module program at a very reasonable price, people can get what corporations have paid thousands for, for a smaller investment and learn these skills, you know, in the privacy of your home, office or car. And the privacy is an important factor as well. So in addition to the corporate target market, which is one decision maker, who takes the programming and offers it to hundreds, if you will, and it's a licensed program, so they can choose to buy the license, and then I will teach their trainers, you know, internally, but now, it's being offered to, you know, people like me, individuals, solo entrepreneurs, who would like to perfect their influence skills.

Rennie Gabriel  10:54
Terrific. Now, earlier, you mentioned lots of failures, lots of successes. Give me the most influential failure and what insight you gained from that.

Elaina Zuker  11:05
Okay, how many minutes do you have?

Rennie Gabriel  11:07
We don't have a lot.

Elaina Zuker  11:09
Okay, so I'll . . . the lesson, let me get to the lesson first.

Rennie Gabriel  11:13
Okay. Maybe we don't need the failure. Just the lesson.

Elaina Zuker  11:16
You're either succeeding or learning -

Rennie Gabriel  11:19
Yes.

Elaina Zuker  11:19
. . . in my book, right. 

Rennie Gabriel  11:20
I agree. 

Elaina Zuker  11:21
And you know that. So my, I would say that the biggest failure was that I put all my eggs in one basket. Okay, so I had a lot of business coming from this little company in New Jersey called AT&T. Right, like, I became their go-to person. I don't know why the Manhattan consultants weren't going there. But they found me. And they basically gave me almost all of their training business. So as we say in New York, I really stepped in it. And what happened was, I wasn't paying attention to marketing or working on my business. You know, we say working on your business or in your business. 

Rennie Gabriel  12:10
Right. 

Elaina Zuker  12:10
And they had huge monumental changes and reorganizations. And the people that were hiring me with their budget, they kind of were like, redeployed. And I was like, you know, like, cut. 

Rennie Gabriel  12:30
Yeah. 

Elaina Zuker  12:30
So there I was from top of the world, to, where am I going to get my next client? And then, this was a very, also wonderful lesson, I stayed in touch with a lot of those people, because, you know, we were close, they were clients. I wasn't going to cut them out of my life just because of, you know, their head office shenanigans. And another company was created two years later, called Bell Communications Research, which used a lot of those people. They were not allowed to use any of the training programs that were owned by AT&T. 

Rennie Gabriel  13:17
Right, because you have to have the license.

Elaina Zuker  13:21
Those programs were owned by me. Many of them. 

Rennie Gabriel  13:25
Yes. 

Elaina Zuker  13:25
And so as an outside vendor, they hired me for all the programs they knew had been already road tested. 

Rennie Gabriel  13:35
Yeah. 

Elaina Zuker  13:35
So similar population. So you know, it ended up being a great triumph.

Rennie Gabriel  13:41
One of the things that I wanted to focus on is that you had a business that relied on one client. And so if one client disappears, so does your business. 

Elaina Zuker  13:52
Very, not smart. 

Rennie Gabriel  13:53
Exactly. But when you're in it, you don't see it, but it turned out, okay. So thank you. If people want to know more, how do they get a hold of you? Is there some free resource that you can provide information? 

Elaina Zuker  14:07
Thank you, yes. I don't know if you're going to post it when you post this.

Rennie Gabriel  14:12
Whatever link you provide will go in the show notes. People can just click on it.

Elaina Zuker  14:16
Great. So the free resource is I'm very, very active in LinkedIn. And a while ago, I did a poll of LinkedIn members asking them, what is their take about influence? What is their definition? How do they think about it? Because they really are the audience that I'm marketing to. And I created a booklet. So it's called, Influence Myths and Truths. And it's a free booklet. And it's a compilation of all those answers of people just like you, people who are listening to this, entrepreneurs, professionals, and it's available at ezinfluence.com/free-booklet.

Rennie Gabriel  15:09
Perfect. And I've got that and I will put that in the show notes. 

Elaina Zuker  15:13
Thank you.

Rennie Gabriel  15:14
Elaina, thank you for being on the show.

Elaina Zuker  15:17
My pleasure, a lot of fun and I love your questions. 

Rennie Gabriel  15:20
Thank you. 

Elaina Zuker  15:21
Very thought provoking.

Rennie Gabriel  15:23
And to my listeners, thank you for tuning in. You can listen to the Wealth On Any Income Podcast on your favorite platform. And please rate review and subscribe. And if you'd like to know how books, movies and Society programs you to be poor, and what the cure is, then log on to wealthonanyincome.com/TEDx. You'll hear my TEDx talk and can request a free 27-Page Roadmap to Complete Financial Choice®, and receive a weekly email with tips, techniques, or inspiration around your business or your money. And if you'd like to see how you can increase your wealth, and donate to the causes that touch your heart, please check out our affordable program, Wealth with Purpose, again on our website. Until next week, be prosperous.

Bye bye for now.


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