In this presentation Sally Curtis explains how a strong, easily‑communicated reputation creates real leverage in personal and professional networks. She begins by stressing that people must know what you stand for before they meet you, using her own experience as a “connector” to illustrate the need for a clear, layered identity. She then shows how exceptional, detail‑rich customer service (the story of Carmel the cleaner) demonstrates collective influence – small actions that add up to a powerful impression. Curtis introduces the concept of a personal sphere of influence, anchored by the “Law of 250” which suggests each person regularly interacts with about 250 contacts, and argues that most of us actually know far more. Drawing on her multi‑level‑marketing background, she presents the edification or trust‑triangle model, a step‑by‑step method for introducing two parties by sharing background, needs, and mutual benefit, thereby building trust before the meeting. Finally, she ties these ideas together, urging listeners to invest heavily in themselves and their reputation, teach key contacts to use the edification model, and become “easy to edify” so that others will readily recommend and introduce them, turning their network into true leverage.
Chapters
The second principle is your reputation. So how does your reputation create true leverage for you? As I said at the beginning, it's very much about what people know about you. What is it that you are known for? More importantly, what do people know about you before they meet you? Do they hear positive things about you? Are they excited to be meeting you or are they going, oh my God, no? So what is it that you're actually known for? Can others explain you easily? This one was an interesting one for me because I started Twisted Connector about 6 years ago because everyone kept saying to me, you're a great connector, get out there and start a connecting business. So we did. But people could explain that I was a connector, but because I'm so so outside of the box, they didn't understand all of the other layers to me. I was like that Shrek says— no, not Shrek, Donkey says about the onion rings. There was many layers to me. So it was very, very difficult for people to explain what it was that I actually did. Yes, they'd say Sally's great, go and see her, she's a great connector. But there was no great depth to that. So this has been a really, really great lesson for me. Can others explain you easily? Do they get who you are? And what it is that you're about, because that's where your reputation comes from. And when your reputation precedes you, your 5-minute conversations are far more effective. Another really, really important one, are people inspired to share you with others? And if I use customer service as an example here about when we're inspired to share people with others, other people. It often comes— customer service is usually a really good one. Because we usually experience, I'm going to say, poor quality or average customer service, when we have somebody that gives us exceptional customer service, how many of you have shared that person and told them how good that was? Yep, we all have. So I get to sing and use Carmel as an example here. Great customer service is just simply small little things that when added together or accumulate make a massive impact for people. And that is exactly what collective influence does. It's little things when combined create a massive impact. And I'll use Carmel as a customer service example to paint that picture for you. Carmel owns a cleaning company. But if you talk to Carmel, she doesn't clean homes. She transforms people's sacred spaces. And trust me, that's exactly what she does. It's the little things that Carmel does that makes a dramatic impact in her customers' lives. So to give you an example, when you get home and Carmel's been around your place or her team's been around your place, yes, you would expect the floorboards to shine. And bedazzling. And yes, the house does smell clean. But it doesn't smell chemically. It smells very fresh and very inviting. It's got that warm energy to it. Now when I go around the corner and get into the kitchen, and I look at the bin, the bin liner is actually tucked in for a start. But it's actually got a bow in it as well. OK. Then you go down to the toilet. And the toilet roll has got one of those perfect little triangles on it, just like a 5-star hotel or resort. And then the one that always tickles me is I go down to the bedroom, and on the bed, in the corners of the sheets, there's that precise line where the sheets have been made perfectly. Now, that was not the way I left it in the morning. So it's those little things that make you feel Wow, fantastic, Carmel's been here. So it's those little things that somebody does that provides great customer service, and it's those little things that when added together makes the difference between influence or collective influence and the difference between a really effective 5-minute conversation or one that crashes and burns. The next section I'm going to talk about is spheres of influence, and most of us are aware of at least the term of spheres of influence. But often we don't know, A, what they are. And if we don't know what they are, we don't know how to work with them. So this is a sphere of influence. And we all are the center of our own sphere of influence. And on average, a sphere of influence is based on the law of 250. And that just simply states that everybody knows 250 people. Now I'm going to be bossy here for a minute and have a slight soapbox moment and say that everybody should know way more than 250 people. And I say that because in my previous training that I did, I used Rory, my son who was then 5 and a half, as an example of teaching people how to map out their network. And as a 5 and a half year old, Rory actually knew 465 children, which we just simply mind mapped out. I don't expect you to be able to see that from there, but my point with this, if Rory's 5 and a half and he interacts with 465 children on a regular basis, and none of these connections are mine, they're all his, it's very likely that we all know way more than 250. So the Law of 250 came about and is created by a guy called Joe Girard, and he is the world's greatest salesperson. For 14 years consecutively, he has sold the most cars globally. And he came about this law of 250 when he attended a funeral. He asked the people that organized the funeral how they knew what number to create of the little memory photographs. And they told him that based on the number of signatures that they get in the I don't know what the book's called. Attendance book. Attendance book, thank you very much. In the attendance book was around 250 people. So then when he attended a wedding, he asked the caterers, you know, what's the average wedding party? And they said, oh, there's usually 250 potentials from the bride and there's 250 potentials from the groom. So this is where this law of 250 came from. But as I said, we all know more than 250 people, I believe. But if you just consider a sphere of influence, and we are all the centre of our own sphere of influence, and Darren knows 250 people, I know 250 people, Joanna knows 250, Sharon knows 250, Di knows 250, et cetera, there is a lot of potential in this room, just on a very simple note, of resources, knowledge, energy. Expertise, and more importantly, links into other networks. That's the power of a sphere of influence when it's actually utilised effectively. So my point really here is that we do have access to lots of people, and we can seize opportunities and work and understand how we can leverage opportunities that are available to us. Now, I grew up in my teens in multi-level marketing. And the greatest gift that I actually took from multi-level marketing was the edification principle and the edification or trust triangle principle, which I'm going to be sharing with you. And the edification is just simply the art of being able to speak highly and effectively of somebody else, share that person with somebody else in an honest and sincere manner, but also explaining why you're bringing those 2 people together. Okay, so that's the art of edification. So this is the edification triangle, and I use this model all the time as a way of actually introducing different parties to different other parties. Okay, so let me explain this. You've got trust and edification and respect within the triangle. So in this example here, this is me, this is Darren, and Sean. So what I do is I give each person a little bit of background on the other. So in Sean's case, because I'm introducing him to Darren, I would tell Darren that Sean is a 6-figure speaker coach and he helps people create well-crafted presentations. And he is currently looking for opportunities and people that have database or access to to his ideal clients. I talk— I tell Sean that Darren has a corporate business, but he's extremely passionate about all things speaking. He's extremely passionate about personal development and is open and is interested in potentially sharing people he knows with Sean. So I've told a little bit to Sean about Darren. I've told a little bit about Darren to Sean so they know the background on each other. I've explained to them what each of them is looking for. So Darren is dead keen on anything to do with speaking and more education in that area or personal development. And Sean is particularly looking for ideal clients that would fit into that realm of what he's looking for. So I've given each a bit of background on the other. I've explained to them what each of them are looking for. But I also go on to say what I see in it for them. So I explain why I would be bringing the two together. That yes, Darren, you're looking for clients— sorry, Sean's looking for clients. Darren has potential ideal clients for him. It could be an opportunity for each of them to do some form of joint venture. And the reason this works so well and is so simple is by simply doing that third-party introduction, you're actually building trust and respect between these 2 people before they even meet. So there's trust and respect there straightaway because I have simply edified each of them to the other, and they know why they're meeting and what the purpose of the meeting is and what could potentially come out of it. And that is how you can get yourself in the middle of 5-minute conversations very, very easily. So let's have a talk now about true leverage. The key to understanding true leverage is knowing the power that is available within networks. Investing wisely in yourself firstly, and most definitely your reputation. So looking at investing 95% in yourself, improving where you can, and building a reputation that's positive that brings people to you. By enhancing your reputation, using the edification model. Leverage is created when key people, key people within that sphere of influence— so you've got your 250 people around you— when the key people within that sphere know what it is that you stand for— again, it's not what you do, it's what you stand for— can explain and edify you easily And you've actually educated those key people on how to use the edification model as a way of introducing you. Now, the way that you educate them to do that is leading by example. You do it first. Think of the key people that you know within your network, and think about other key people that they should be introduced to, and use that edification model to do so. The results then is when you are easy to edify, you become very easy to introduce, and people will recommend you because it's easy and it's very effective and it very accurately builds your reputation for you. And the key is investing in the right people, because by investing in the right people, it affects every interaction that you're involved with.
