The Introverted Leader Podcast

I joined Greg Weinger on The Introverted Leader to talk about winning buy-in without faking extroversion.

Influence isn't about volume. The person making the call usually trusts someone, and it's almost never who the org chart says. If you've done great work, had the right idea, and still couldn't get a yes because the decision-maker barely knew you existed, this conversation is a different way in.

The Episode

Prefer audio? Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

What We Covered

• Rapport mapping. The method I learned from Esther Derby and use to run influence campaigns. Put yourself at the center, mark which relationships are strong and which are strained, then find a path to the decision-maker through people who already trust you.
• Why doing the work isn't enough. Making your work visible without performing, including the time I asked a director to leave a kickoff meeting.
• Networking when you don't even call your best friends. I'm bad at staying in touch, so I built a system around it. An AI partner tells me every morning who to check in with.
• Energy as a budget. Never stack hard conversations in one day, and be straight about your limits. I once opened a room full of VPs by telling them I had a migraine. It earned trust, not doubt.

Try It Yourself

Greg and I built a free AI skill from the method in the episode. Bring it a real situation at work and it walks you through your influence map step by step. It works with Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini: get the influence-campaign skill.

Your Next Step

Mapping who trusts whom is the easy part. Knowing which path to take, and what to say when you get there, is where most people stall. If you're stuck on a decision you can't get through, grab 30 minutes with me and we'll map it together.

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Keep Going

• Trust Triangles: building trust beyond one-on-one relationships, starting with the day I had to tell my team they were being let go.
• Pre-Meeting Interviews: why I talk to everyone before a big meeting, and what it tells you about the room before you walk in.
• Two Underdeveloped Leadership Skills: facilitation and delegation, the two skills that make influence scale.