If you weren’t quite awake when you arrived at the July Comms Breakfast then our guest speaker Russell Wardrop ‘an oratory wizard’, metaphorically sent a rocket through the audience!  We all need to be motivated and inspired and that’s exactly what Russell achieved.

Leaders need to get key messages across persuasively and clearly and Russell (co-founder of training company Kissing with Confidence) took us on a whirlwind trip through The Six Factors of Influence:

• Reciprocity – make someone feel special
• Social proof – credentials, reputation and social media
• Consistency and commitment
• Authority – be the best, your profile and your pitch
• Scarcity – don’t always be available
• Likeability – empathy

He also told us about the key skill of listening, something that not all of us are very good at, we are all too interested in talking about ourselves!

Even at that early hour in the morning Russell was wide awake and firing on all cylinders, the feedback has been excellent and his wit and animated presentation had the audience wanting more.  I for one was certainly motivated and it got me thinking about, who in business I would want to influence.

What you’ve been saying on Twitter:

@DunningDesign @russellwardrop Putting scarcity and authority into practice from now on. If you want me, you’ll have to wait, so there!
IainReekie

@russellwardrop and laugh. What a great way to start a Thursday #commsbreakfast
ValueAddBiz

We just enjoyed Russell from Kissing with Confidence speaking at this morning’s #commsbreakfast. Great presentation on influencing skills
LHnow

Kissing with Confidence have also created a portal with more information about ‘six factors of influence’
http://clients.kissingwithconfidence.com
username: commsbreakfast
password: influence

Don’t forget you can see a summary video from the breakfast along with some other juicy clips from past events at our new TV Channel

We’ve also created the Communications Breakfast Group on LinkedIn, so if you’re active there, why not join us and continue the debate online.

A big thanks to Russell for entertaining and educating us, and to the Corinthian Club and 29studios for making it another excellent breakfast event.