How to Lead with Influence: Stacey Hanke’s Essential Tips for SME Leaders

ABOUT THE GUEST

Stacey Hanke is a Hall of Fame speaker and a transformative leader in influential communication.

With over two decades of experience working with Fortune 500 executives and leaders, Stacey equips professionals to build trust, communicate with clarity, and drive action across every interaction—from high-stakes presentations to daily conversations.

Her strategies offer actionable steps for developing true influence that leaves a lasting impact.

Known for empowering leaders to understand how they’re perceived and cultivate genuine connections, Stacey will share her insights on refining influence and leadership—essential skills for every SME leader aiming for sustainable success.

To learn more about Stacey and her work please visit these links:

Website:       https://staceyhankeinc.com/
LinkedIn:       https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceyhanke/
Facebook:     https://www.facebook.com/StaceyHankeInc
Instagram:    https://www.instagram.com/staceyhankeinc/
Twitter:         https://x.com/staceyhankeinc
YouTube:      https://www.youtube.com/staceyhanke 

Why not also read the following books by Stacey:

• Influence Elevated: Maximizing Your Connection Monday to Monday (Published Nov 2024)
• Influence Redefined: Be the Leader You Were Meant to Be, Monday to Monday (Published Feb 2017)
• Yes You Can!: Everything You Need from A to Z to Influence Others to Take Action (Published Sept 2008)

ABOUT THE HOST

My name is Dave Barr and I am the Founder and Owner of RLB Purchasing Consultancy Limited.

I have been working in Procurement for over 25 years and have had the joy of working in a number of global manufacturing and service industries throughout this time.

I am passionate about self development, business improvement, saving money, buying quality goods and services, developing positive and effective working relationships with suppliers and colleagues, and driving improvement through out the supply chain.

Now I wish to share this knowledge and that of highly skilled and competent people with you, the listener, in order that you may hopefully benefit from this information.

CONTACT DETAILS

@The Real Life Buyer
Email: david@thereallifebuyer.co.uk
Website: https://linktr.ee/thereallifebuyer

For Purchasing Consultancy services:
https://rlbpurchasingconsultancy.co.uk/
Email: contact@rlbpurchasingconsultancy.co.uk

Find and Follow me @reallifebuyer on Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads and TikTok.

Click here for some Guest Courses - https://www.thereallifebuyer.co.uk/guest-courses/

Click here for some Guest Publications - https://www.thereallifebuyer.co.uk/guest-publications

Transcript

Intro  00:00

Welcome to The Real Life Buyer podcast. In this podcast, you will hear interviews with business owners, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, authors and technical specialists in their field. These professionals will hasten your development, accelerate your career, and broaden your business know how. Now introducing your host, Dave Barr, interviewing with a purchasing twist.

Dave Barr  00:21

Hello and welcome to The Real Life Buyer. Today, we're joined by Stacey Hanke, an acclaimed Hall of Fame speaker and author of the books "Influence Redefined" and her new book "Influence Elevated". She empowers leaders to communicate with impact Monday to Monday. For over 20 years, Stacey has transformed how fortune 500 executives and teams across industries from tech to finance lead with authenticity and confidence. Her influence framework is research backed focusing on building trust, mastering everyday interactions and overcoming common barriers to engagement and influence. In this episode, I'm looking forward to learning actionable strategies for SME business owners on how to make every interaction count for real results. So without further ado, I welcome Stacey onto the podcast. Hi Stacey.

Stacey Hanke  01:18

Hey Dave. Thanks so much for trusting me with all of your followers. This is the part of my day. I love having these types of conversations.

Dave Barr  01:25

Absolute pleasure. We're looking forward to this and congratulations on your two books. Fantastic milestone. 

Stacey Hanke  01:31

Thank you. Yes, it depends on the day you ask me, you, if any, if you walk the talk, talk to any author, there's this love hate relationship right before you publish the book. Right now, it's, it's been fun because it's tying into exactly what you're saying about getting actionable ideas of, how do you get results, really, just through the interactions and connections you have.

Dave Barr  01:53

Brilliant. Dare I say it? Would you think you'll be jumping into a trilogy? I

Stacey Hanke  02:00

So I replied to my ad set that just the other day, a day Dave and I said to them, I go, just wait a moment. This book just came out. No, there will be. There definitely will be. And then a part of me too, I would love to write a children's book, just because, just to get one of those out there. But, yeah, still in my career, I think though there definitely will be a fourth, a fourth book.

Dave Barr  02:21

Brilliant. Wow. That's really impressive. Best of luck with that. Then I shall watch you carefully to see when that happens, 

Stacey Hanke  02:28

Right 

Dave Barr  02:30

So let's start off then. I'm particularly always keen to learn how a person develops into a hugely successful person. Now, your LinkedIn story initially refers to kind of three early roles over a six year period where you focus on training others. Can you unpack what the sequence was? You know? What was the sequence of events that enabled you to make your career transformation from a trainer into a professional keynote speaker?

Stacey Hanke  02:57

Yeah, it actually Dave. Was flopped. It was keynote came first, 24 years ago, and that's truly, that's all I wanted to do, Dave, just really impact people's lives from that type of platform, because I knew I could get, like, just magnitude of people impacting them and giving them the How to So, how to influence. About three years into that work, I would receive requests from the audience members, from the leaders, the executives, the sales professionals, teach our teams how to do what you're doing. Well, you listen to your clients. And I realized I am one person. There is no way I can take all of this and make it happen. So I started to build the training company. Well, then from there, there were even more specialty requests, where I was getting requests from CEOs and their executive team to work on their presence. And I thought, wait a second, that's more mentoring, and that's where the company is today. So we do the keynoting, which is my area of expertise, and then I have an entire team that does workshops, and we also mentor a lot of leaders, so it was really just listening to our clients and that request, and then if you're doing a decent job, it's referrals, it's word of mouth, and 24 years into this work, that's where we're at.

Dave Barr  04:14

Fantastic. I always admire people doing keynote speeches to stand in front of such a big audience, and I guess you're still nervous, but

Stacey Hanke  04:24

Oh yeah, and the key there, Dave, because I received so many requests from executives that do find themselves in front of larger audiences, how teach me how not to be nervous? My rule of thumb is, I won't do that. I'm going to teach you how to manage the nervous energy so that it is not obvious to your audience, because you don't want to come across as you don't know what you're doing. And to also teach you how to manage the nervous energy so that you can still focus on what's important. That's what's important for your listeners. And how do you convey that message?

Dave Barr  04:56

Fantastic. So let's dive into some of the things that you teach. And I know you talk about a critical gap between simply communicating and truly influencing. So for the audience as I've said, predominantly business owners, SME business owners and career professionals, what kind of common misconceptions about influence holds leaders back from making a lasting impact? 

Stacey Hanke  05:20

Well, let's unpack this. The first is, we go off of our feeling. We believe that our titles, our years of experience, if I feel comfortable when I'm in a conversation, if I know what I am talking about, I'm influential. None of that has ever been proven to communicate your level of influence. Your level of influence needs to make sure that your body language and your messaging, they're always consistent. Dave, Monday to Monday, and it's whether we're here together, whether we would be in person, my social media posts, whatever it is, influence is also you're taking a close look at what your listeners are seeing and hearing when you communicate, rather than what you believe to be true, and that is the biggest misperception we always go off of how we feel. Well, if I feel good, I've been doing this for a long time. And even worse, Dave, is the false feedback, the fake feedback we all get when we ask, how did I do? What did you think of me on that Zoom call, good. It was good, nice job, and I hear it so many times from so many organizations. Influence also is that you have this ability to move people to take action long after the interaction has occurred. Because we know you and I both know this with the businesses that we run. It's not just the first interaction where someone you gain trust. It really is a series of interactions you have with someone over time that are consistent

Dave Barr  06:45

Absolutely. Now, you mentioned Monday to Monday there, and I believe in your book, Influence Redefined. You introduced this model. So can you walk us through some of the few simple things that but that are highly effective in Monday to Monday habits that business leaders can adopt. They want to increase their trust, increase their engagement with both their own teams, but also with potential and existing clients. So what can you help to share with them that could really help them?

Stacey Hanke  07:13

Yeah, I've got to look on my face and thinking, How much time do we have again? Dave and I want to make sure I unpack this so it's not overwhelming for your listeners, but they can actually apply it. The first the best advice you can give anyone is start taking a look at yourself. And I record myself often on my phone, that that's such an easy thing to do, whether it's an audio or video playback, because you can get a lot of feedback and suddenly it's like paralysis. There's so much feedback versus when you watch yourself or you listen to yourself on a playback, you get a chance to compare. Well, how did you feel in that moment? How do you think you sound? What do you think you said, versus what really happens? So think of your phone as the eyes and ears of your listeners that that's that's just step number one. Step number two is really taking a step back and asking yourself, when it comes to influence, what do I want? The answer to that question is going to help you understand where, what's your baseline, what's your brand, what's your reputation. You've got to have direction first, and then you can start working on the skills. And from there, Dave, it would be two, big ones. Brevity, how many times have we left a conference call, a zoom call or an in person interaction? You say, I should have said that. I shouldn't have said that. How many times, if you do sales pitches, how many times have you lost a sale because you did not look someone in the eyes? And you'll never know the answer to that, because they went somewhere else, brevity and trust are the two big skills that I work with every leader. It's this whole idea of get to the point, adapt your message on the fly to make sure that your listener follows you, so you have greater influence. When it comes to trust, it's a simple, simple concept, but hard to do, and that is only speak when you see eyes, because the minute your eyes start darting, you start questioning your listeners mindset of go you believe in what you're saying? And there's so much research around this idea of trust with the eyes we've we've never, if you've never, gotten trainings, professional training on how to stay connected with your eyes, whether it's the camera or whether you're in person having a conversation. We don't realize that the fidgeting of the eyes not only will make it hard for you to focus in the moment, but how powerfully it communicates your listeners, not important that there's other things on your mind and from there, Dave, we really unpack for our listeners, our clients. How do you use those? How do you break it apart based on what you want or where you're currently at by watching your video playbacks. And now let's give you tools to elevate that.

Dave Barr  07:57

That's interesting. Now, thinking of when you know somebody, they already have the established, perception of how you are. They perhaps know you a little bit more personally. But when you are, let's say, pitching to a new client or working with somebody new, there's a there's quite a big gap there of their understanding of your your beliefs, your vision, your mission, all those kind of things. So how do you kind of try and influence those people to align with you a bit quicker, because it takes time to build that trust when you have your own team, that's something they gather each day. But when you're trying to make a good impression on somebody relatively new, that can be quite difficult, and sometimes you don't have the joy of waiting six months to build a relationship. Are there certain things that you can suggest that help to get the authenticity of yourself across, and you're just not pitching for pitching sake. 

Stacey Hanke  10:46

Yeah, definitely. In the third book, Influence Elevated. The book's premise is our four years of research of how influence has changed in this hybrid world, and what does it really take now to truly elevate your influence. One of the chapters in the book Dave is I really have seen over the last four years, we've lost the ability to communicate with empathy and warmth. It sounds so common sense, doesn't it, but empathy, and I'll give you a technique of how to do it, right off the right at the beginning of a conversation, will answer the question you just laid out there. You don't know this person. They don't know me. They know you from what you're posting on social media, like that's a whole nother conversation, correct? One of the first things that I will always do, I wanted to make the conversation about my listeners. I call it tapping into their why? Making sure that they feel like this conversation is really about me. That's empathy. And when I say tapping in your listeners, why? It's identifying and communicating. Why is this conversation important to them? Why should they care? Why is it happening right now? For example, when I go on a sales call, I haven't met them ever first time, one of the first questions I'll ask Dave is, what is happening now, either in your team or in your company. That led you to have a conversation with me today. What? What is happening right now that you're thinking, My topic is the best fit for your conference, and you open up a wide angle lens on that question they're feeding you. And as they're talking, Dave, I am really trying to find the keywords, because those keywords are going to be my next question. I challenge your followers who are listening to this right now is just for the next seven days in your personal professional life, pay attention to how many closed ended questions you ask. You may be surprised. I have rarely met someone that I'm not coaching on taking the majority of their questions and making them open. Our listeners, you know someone that you're meeting for the first time when you're thinking you're thinking, I need to build this relationship, they need to know that you care. Because, again, we've lost empathy. They're not giving it as often as they used to. The other tie into that, Dave, is the direct eye connection. I think when you can look people directly in the eye, there's this level of authenticity, there's this level of warmth people buy off of trust, and when you tap into your listeners, why you're tapping into their point of view, which taps into their emotion, maybe we need to go back to 8020. Rule. You know, the real basic you speak 20% let this individual speak 80. Not only that, it's a lot easier if you really pull this apart. It's so much easier to let them do the majority of the talking and you're filling in the blanks. 

11:17

Yeah, yeah. I certainly try, certainly, as a a purchasing professional, as a buyer by trade, that I certainly make sure that I do very little talking. It's more interrogative, trying to understand what the person's trying to tell me. I'm trying to obviously gage the truth, the validation in what they're saying. I'm trying to get as much information as possible and make them feel like I am genuinely interested in what they've got to say, not anticipating just responding to a question. So I certainly empathize with you know, the old adage of, you know, one mouth and two ears. I would say, I take a bit further than that. I say, as least as possible, and really help people to open up and talk about themselves, their business, their products. I think I've get a lot more information that way. 

Stacey Hanke  14:16

Let, let them talk. I see so many times we feel like, I get you on a call, I need to tell you my 20 plus years of experience. Really, they don't care. And numerous times this happened yesterday, I received a call from a business owner who wants me to mentor him. We started the call. He started asking me questions about me, and at some point I said to him, I go, You know what this is about you. I'm happy to answer any questions at the end. And he wants me to mentor him, but that wasn't a done deal. When he first got on the call, he talked because I always kind of watch my clock on my laptop, because I want to make sure I honor his time. It was 25 minutes into the call. He's talked the entire time, but at this point I know exactly am I the right fit? Am I not the right fit? And then when it was my turn, I had five minutes left, he said, I'm in what? What do we need to do next? I thought, well, that was really easy on my part, but I think sometimes people just want you to know I will trust you if you're not someone that is always interrupting me, always talking about yourself. Here's the other thing. With empathy, start paying attention to how many times you say, I especially kicking off a conversation, the beginning of a conversation, or the beginning or the entirety of an email. I and I'm challenged with that in an email. I'll watch that, and I'll think, wow. I'll sit here and try to figure out I've used five eyes. How do I get down to two? I guess this is all about Dave. We just don't think about how we show up, how our words land. Instead, from what I hear from our clients, it's zoom call after zoom call. It's I just gotta get this all done. I've got a deadline, so you reach five o'clock at night, or whenever you finish your day, and you're like, you're exhausted, but and you look back on what you did during the day, how much of true focus was there around how you show up, the relationships that you're creating, we don't give a thought. Yeah, it's quite interesting. You mentioned some of the things there, and one of the things that I always strive for, and I'm sure many people do, is to make sure they get what classes, genuine feedback on their communication style and how effective it is. Now, if you, as you mentioned earlier on, if you ask somebody who knows you well, perhaps they'll pander to what you want to hear. So if you really want genuine feedback, what's the best way who are the best people to ask for that? What's the best way to ask the feedback as well? So it's constructive and objective, and it can really help you change the way you do things for the better.  Definitely, in my new book, we won't go deep, but they're literally, I researched five different types of feedback. There's a lot, and I think that's why it's not pertinent. It doesn't have impact. The best way to do it is, let's say, right before we start recording this call today, I would have said to you, Dave, here's what I'm working on. And the more specific I can be, I would ask you, would you watch for that, or would you listen for that? And then when we're done recording, you quickly give me feedback. If you saw my workstation in front of me, there's tons of post it notes hanging up on my round light right now. And it's all this feedback that I get from my accountability partners, my team, my coaches, prepare for the feedback. And even after you prepared for the feedback and said, I am trying not to ramble. Would you listen for that during this call with the client? If they cannot interactively coach you in the moment and bring it to your attention, then afterwards, even if your response to me is what that was good, you can't do anything with that as the feedback receiver. So follow up with what did I do? What did I say that gave you most value? Or what can I do? What can I say next time to make sure it's more worth your time, it's your responsibility to figure out what is the feedback you want, and then to ask it accordingly and be careful. Silent feedback, crickets. Is not good. And it's interesting, because part of my evaluation, my assessment, before I mentor a leader, are these questions, what feedback have you received? You know, everyone says it's good, or, you know, we just culturally, we really don't give feedback, because we figure we worked hard to get to these leadership positions and I'm thinking, oh my so people are saying stuff behind your back, and you have no idea they're saying it. Indeed, it's really honing in, and it's asking the right question up front to prepare for the feedback. And then it's up to you to also go deeper on where it is okay. I still think, Dave, your best form of feedback is watching yourself on playbacks.

Dave Barr  19:05

It's certainly challenging. I think you really look at yourself in a different way. When I first started podcasting, seeing myself on video, hearing my voice, my goodness, it was horrendous. But now I kind of got used to it, and it's good to get, as you say, feedback from people who come on the podcast, like yourself, and from friends and family and colleagues who have now got used to seeing me multiple times. Yes, it's really quite interesting and helpful. What people tell me sometimes it's a bit painful, but there we go.

Stacey Hanke  19:39

It totally is. I want to dig deeper, because I really want your listeners to at least test this out. And a lot of people don't do it because it's painful. Last night, I was in our dining area. My husband was in his office, and I was listening to an audio playback of a podcast I recently did, and he comes in and he's like, You still listen to those? Yes. And I said, Yes, I go. I'm sitting here, and I was just jotting down everything I didn't like. I also jot down what I like. So the best way to listen or watch your playbacks is always keep in mind what you felt like during the conversation, what you thought you were saying, how you sound it, then when you listen to it, you're doing the comparison. And give yourself grace, because I've never met anyone that says I love watching myself. I love hearing myself. I think I sound so good. Here's the benefit of it. I've watched and listened to myself so many times on recordings. I would lie to you if I told you it's easy. I just keep picking it apart. What it has helped me do, though, even as you and I are talking, I'm really aware of some of the bad habits I have fallen into that my coaches are coaching me on right now, your awareness increases. Benefit number two, the more I understood my behaviors, my communication style, the better I can read my listeners. Now that's important, because you gotta always be in their lane if you want consistent influence part of empathy.

Dave Barr  21:12

Yeah, it's interesting. You mentioned that you too have coaches and something most people don't consider they see as a as a cost. But clearly you've got, sounds like you've got more than one coach. What's your you know? Why is it essential, from your perspective, that you have coaches to help you in your journey?

Stacey Hanke  21:31

I only know what I know. I don't know what I don't know. We are all especially if you've been in your industry for a while, you're so close to it that when I have a coach, watch one of my keynotes on video, and they come back and they'll point out either my behaviors, my content, my interaction skills or lack thereof, I don't know. I don't see it now when they point it out, I go back and I listen and watch and I realize, oh, wow, I did not notice that. It's also I think learning. There's something be said about success in learning. I don't think success continues without learning. What a huge benefit we have, no matter what's going on in the world, no matter what's going on in your life, the one thing you will always have control over is your development. And keep telling you that you know what doesn't challenge you will never change you. But my coaches always say to me, Stacy, nothing good happens quickly, and that's the tough thing about what we're talking about with influence and just constant development, this is a journey you never officially check the box and say, I'm influential forever. I never need to do this again. This is a journey, and the only way that I think I can continue to grow personally, professionally, I need guidance. And why do it by yourself?

Dave Barr  22:56

Fantastic. It's good to hear so few people do have a coach or a mentor that helps you. Think it's a excellent advice. Now, something that you've clearly gained lots of experience on is hearing and speaking to very influential people, executive people from big industry and small industries. Now my audience, I'm sure, be quite keen to understand for those people that have smaller businesses, maybe only up to 10 or 15 employees, have you come across any particular communication challenges that is more associated with a smaller business owner? And if so, what kind of things would you recommend that they do to kind of overcome those challenges? Is there anything particular to small business that you can pick up? 

Stacey Hanke  23:43

Yes, yeah, I see as a small business, the pressure is a lot, because you have to do everything. And the best advice that I've gotten from some of the coaches that I am involved with is you've got to find your right. Who. Finding that right Who, to support the things you shouldn't be doing. So you're not in the business, but you're running the business. That there's a big difference. That's why it ties back to our previous conversation, is finding the resources in your life that you can have someone, that you can lean on, that you can reach out to I've always thought, as an entrepreneur, how easy this job would be. And I thought, you know, I'll be going to the Chicago which is where I live. I'd be going to Chicago museums on a Tuesday afternoon, and everyone else will just be doing their work. And you know how many times I've been to the museum? It doesn't happen that way, and it's lonely. I think running a small business as an entrepreneur can be very lonely, and one thing I'm constantly seeking is a network of people that I can lean on, that I can talk to in your family. I personally want to keep my personal and professional life separate and. Certain things. I cannot tell my team I want their leader. I can't go to these places that I really need some some help that will be my best advice is I've learned over the years, I really am confident with the people that are in my circle. I have people I can constantly reach out to and from there, always recognizing when am I running? When am I in the business versus running the business? And at that point, that's usually an opportunity to either create a new position or find my right who? 

Dave Barr  25:31

Yeah, absolutely. I'm personally a member of a local business group people from all different types of businesses. And it's amazing how, sharing our challenges and seeking advice from all sorts of different business owners, how healthy and beneficial it is as well you feel part of a friendship group almost as well as a business group.

Stacey Hanke  25:53

Exactly. Yeah, and it's I find like the more variety of people in the group has you have to find what works for you. I find that the more variety I get, so much more resources and help. I love to be able to call to these groups and say, Alright, I'm struggling. What did you do? Or do you have anyone you recommend I could talk to.

Dave Barr  26:15

Absolutely now, I'm sure there's a number of business owners that are concerned with the challenge of gaining and sustaining employee motivation. In your view, how can leaders communicate in a way that aligns and energizes their team to take positive action, but do the action consistently? Sometimes you can. You can get people motivated for short periods of time, but how do you sustain it? How do you influence that perception, that energy level? How do you keep it high?

Stacey Hanke  26:48

There's several things that we do because we are all remote. So I've been working in a hybrid world from day one. The one thing is, I do a lot of check ins with my team, and I'm always asking them some hard questions the first one, when I bring anyone on, I always want to know what's the best way to communicate with you. What are you looking for in a leader? We always do a 90 day review, which means we get on these team calls, and I have them measure backwards, and we talk about in the last 90 days, I want you to just get it on paper, because I believe what you write you invite in your life, and they write down positive focus from their personal professional life. I've learned that if they can keep measuring backwards, that when they are in a tough time, they're looking backwards and say, You know what I did, that I can do this right now. That's a big piece of it. It's I really want them to have a voice. So when I put someone, or I promote anyone in a certain position in our company, I say to them, you're smarter than I am in that you're going to run that. And it's, it's, it's takes, it's taken us time to get to this point where we want to make sure everyone's in their unique ability lane. If that's off, motivation, if I've noticed, if one person is off, it starts to jeopardize everyone else. The third, fourth, whatever I'm on is because we're a communication skills company. I'm very focused on the communication I deliver that it is consistent. They always get me. They're never questioning which Stacey is showing up today, everyone has a voice on our calls. I'm very transparent to the things that they need to know, and constantly letting them talk on our team calls. For example, I have an entire team of trainers, and I'm not out there doing workshops anymore, so I'm asking them, you tell me, what do you want? What do you think we need? So it's giving them ownership, which, again, I think it goes back to my chapter and influence elevated all about warmth and empathy. But when in doubt, I think if you're ever nervous, you're concerned, someone's not happy, your guts probably right, then it's time to have that conversation. 

Dave Barr  29:00

Yeah, I'm working with a management team at the moment where we engage in monthly one to ones, and we do that before the senior management team gets together. And I also have the same one to ones the next level down each month. So it's a great opportunity to share what's happening, where we're going, perhaps, where they're stuck. Are there things that I can help them with, etc, and give them the opportunity, and particularly the level below, to also explain how they're achieving to the level above. And I find that really gives some some ownership and clarity and feeling valued that I'm taking the time to spend, perhaps only an hour, but an hour of time with them and really helping them to move forward. And interesting. You're doing that at least on a 90 day basis. It sounds like, yeah, Yeah, fantastic. So before I last my last question, I'm sure people are very intrigued to find out where they can hear more about you and what you do and your business. Where's the best places for them to check that out?

Stacey Hanke  29:51

We we meet every other week with the whole team, every week with my leadership team, but every 90 days, which will be in in about a week will reflect back. I'm a big believer that, whether it's for myself, the team vision, the company vision, I'll plan out all of 2025, but then from there, I take it in 90 days. And when I learned that suddenly I accomplished almost, almost everything every 90 days I wasn't doing it when it was a full year out.

Dave Barr  30:34

Lovely. Thank you very much for that. I'm sure people would love to take that up. So the last question something that's been working with a company recently on if you had to advise a business owner where there's a should we say, a significant resistance to change so that business has been running for a long time. They've been doing the same things in the same way, and now things have to move forward. The business has grown to the point it needs to change, and you need to get people on board. What approach would you suggest in sort of communicating and engaging the people in that business to really take on board the company's new mission, vision and values? What can they do? How can they do it to overcome the hurdles of resistance when that comes about this.

Stacey Hanke  30:34

Yeah, good place to find where everything is seated. Obviously, our website. It is my full name on it. Stacy Hanke, S, T, A, C, E, Y, H, A, N, K, E, i n c.com, and they'll see all the social media links that we are on or sites that we're on. Dave, we're constantly sending out resources to just be help from afar. And in addition to that, I want to make sure that we've given you also a link, Dave, to share with your followers. I'd love to give everyone a complimentary ebook of my previous book, Influence Redefined, which is the best place to start. Ths might sound really common sense to your followers, and I can speak from experience, because about 10 months ago, we were in that position, and I noticed that what had gotten us there was not going to get us to where we need to go. I sat down and really worked on my messaging to the team. I knew I had to be very, very clear, what's in it for them, what's in it for the whole company, because if the company is not successful, they're not successful, and it's just not going to work. Now, I had some help. I would highly advise, you know, you're again, you're so close to the messaging. I reached out to my network, and I had someone really help me with how am I going to communicate this so that they really understand, why am I doing this? It's for their benefit. It's for the company's benefit. I still think it's through the messaging, because that's what that's like, the first step, right? It's, it's they need to know, why can't we just keep doing it? Especially for those on your team that do not like the change. I also sat down and thought through who's going to leave, who is not going to like this, and they're going to leave, and I'm at, am I okay with that? I think that's a conversation you have to have with yourself, because there you're there's a good chance you're going to have someone that doesn't leave, and in the long run, I've learned it was time. Now I can say at that moment that was not fun and having those conversations, but once I threw it out there, I knew, Okay. Now I also have to communicate that I'm confident, I truly trust that this is the right way to do even though inside Dave, I was like, I've no I don't know. I don't know if this going to work. Now, I did show vulnerability. I did tell my team that I am I'm scared to do this. I'm also I'm more scared if we don't do it, which was the truth. And I said to them, give me grace. Give each other grace as we go through these changes. And now what? 10 months later, we look back and everyone's like, Thank goodness you did that. So you think it's just, we just have to be clear, say it with confidence. Let them ask any question that they want. I would be prepared for that, but I to the back of your head, be prepared for the person that's going to leave.

Dave Barr  34:19

Brilliant. That's really good advice. See, we're now out of time. Thanks so much for sharing lots of good information there, and also, obviously sharing the, you know, the link to your website and everything else that goes with it. Really do appreciate that.

Stacey Hanke  34:32

You're welcome. Thank you. 

Dave Barr  34:39

Absolute pleasure and lovely to talk to you today. Thanks very much for joining me. 

Stacey Hanke  34:43

You too, take care, Dave. 

Dave Barr  34:45

So there's another Real Life Buyer podcast. I do hope you enjoyed it, and it has given you some ideas and inspiration for greater action and achievement. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes. You. And a five star review would be most appreciated. If you would like to discover more about me and what I do, take a look at www.thereallifebuyer.