Book of the Week: Become a Key Person of Influence by Daniel Priestley

Wealth follows if you build yourself as a key person of influence in your industry and not the other way around. Priestly gives his take on how to build yourself to be a key person of influence. It's an idea that needs continual re-enforcement as we tend to confuse the cause and the effect; and end up wasting a lot of money, time and effort.

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Here are some key ideas from the book:

1. The harder you work, the less you earn. Your best ideas will come out to play ... not to work. ... The minute you begin to feel yourself "working hard" as opposed to "playing a challenging game", its time to take a break.

2. ... the difference between successful people (and unsuccessful people) on the planet is not Functionality, it's Vitality. Functionality is about performing a task well, whereas Vitality is about doing it joyfully. ... Beneath your desire to have a great home, a snappy wardrobe and some money in the bank is a part of you that longs to make a difference as well. Getting in touch with this part of you will give you a broadband connection to your Vitality.

3. Your greatest asset is your existing passion, the skills you already have and, most of all, your own personal story. ... The truth is that your real wealth lies in your story. Your journey thus far has not been a waste of time; it's been perfect. Your hobbies and interests are not meaningless, they are a gold mine. Your passion isn't hollow; it's the best fuel you will ever have. ... The person who just made a fortune from real estate loved real estate for a long time before they got rich. The person who trades the markets was happy trading through the ups and downs for a long time before they just seemed to "get it right". The NLP Life Coach did three years of unpaid work in the industry before they got their break. ... Unless you have been keenly interested in something for atleast seven years, forget trying to be a success story in that field. You simply can't outdo the people who genuinely love that industry, because they don't think it is a quick formula for cashing in.

4. All of your future learnings will come from the process of producing value.

5. The top 20% of the USA's wealthy control 89% of all the wealth! The top 1% control 34%. ... Wealth moves to and from a small percentage of Key People of Influence. If you are a Key Person in the top 20%, you can expect to be sharing in 89% of the pie. If you aren't, you will be fighting it out with the other 80% of people for the remaining 11%. It will be exhausting...

6. There are 5 things that you need to have in place for you to demonstrate that you are a Key Person of Influence (KPI):

i. Know and communicate your micro-niche

a. KPIs can answer the question "what do you do?" with power and clarity. ... When you know "what you are upto in the world", you become a magnet for opportunity.

b. … at the heart of a "Perfect Pitch" is a mission …,”Your Big Game" you and your business want to be known for. Your perfect pitch is your "why". It's your compass. It's the reason you get up each day.

c. More often than not, YOU will be the micro-niche. Your target market comprising a specific age group and gender will be YOU. The frustrations will be YOURS.

d. Your micro-niche should consist of people who you would enjoy connecting with and people who would equally enjoy connecting with you.

e. Choose a micro-niche that you identify with personally, with genuine concern and interest. ... you must know your stuff well that it comes more from your heart than your mind.

ii. Gain credibility through writing - Your book ... tells the world that you are an authority in your field.

a. A published book communicates some important and necessary messages about you. It says you have put enough thought into this idea to have written a book on it. People can read your ideas and get to know your story and your take on things. It also says that you must either be an expert or have access to experts. … Very few people have ever published a book and for most people, it’s impressive to know that you have completed this project.

b. … there’s a book in everyone if they follow a process and commit to its completion.

c. Here are 5 types of books you could write:

• Your Take on Things
• Book of Interviews
• Book of Tips
• Picture Book
• A creative Piece

d. … a great book answers a significant question that the reader (your customer segment) is trying desperately to answer.

e. Mark Twain - “The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time, you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.”

f. … you should choose a title that reinforces that you are a Key Person of Influence. It should be “brand enhancing” and you should feel proud to tell people that you are the author.

g. … it is not vital that your book is a massive seller. It is more important that you are an author. … The purpose of the book is to promote you, not the other way around. The mere fact that you are an author and that people can see you on Amazon gives you more kudos and opportunities.

h. … it is not authors who get great opportunities, it is Key Persons of Influence. Your goal is to become the Key Person of Influence …, not to spend all the energy to sell books.

i. … atleast write a set of ten articles, each 1000-1500 words in length before you even begin to talk to publications.

j. A book is a very valuable way to publish your ideas; however, if it’s genuinely not right for you at this time, get started on creating your set of articles ready for publication.

iii. Turn what you know into product - An information product (such as a CD, DVD, Download etc.) opens up a world of opportunities. ... An information product can also be a high-value, high-margin product that can add considerable profit to your enterprise.

a. From Victor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning - “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfilment. Therein, he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone’s task is as unique as his specific opportunity.”

b. There will always be a limitation on what you can earn if your earning capacity is based on your personal appearance.

c. Regardless of your business, it is the ideas behind your business that make it special and prevent you from having to constantly compete on price.

d. Any industry-specific product can be worth a lot of money and can make you one of the most respected people in your field, opening you up to joint ventures and partnerships.

e. Everyone should have a free product. … The person who will dominate your industry in the next ten years will be the one who is able to give more away for free than anyone else. The fastest growing companies in the 2000s were all companies that gave away incredible value for free - Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.

f. There’s nothing you can create more cheaply that has more value than an information product that shares your experience and insights with your potential clients.

g. Share your best ideas with everyone. … The more people have, the more they want, so share your ideas freely. You will also make room in your mind to have even better ideas.

iv. Raise your profile and Google well - When people do a search for your name, it must come up on the first results page that you are a KPI in your chosen field.

Social media is like a microphone that amplifies you out to every corner of the world. Most people are too busy playing with the technology and go too far “off message”.

v. Forge Joint Ventures & Partnerships - There are already experts in your industry who would jump up at the chance to be interviewed by you to create a product that enhances their brand (and yours).

a. Always approach this with the question: “What is my client REALLY trying to accomplish when they work with me and who could I team up with to get an even better outcome?”

b. All the time, I hear people say, “I just had a good idea but how do I actually make it happen?”. Firstly, you should never ask,”HOW do I make it happen?”. You should ask, “WHO do I need to talk to?” Whenever you have an idea, no matter how crazy, make at least 3 calls to see if it’s doable.

c. One of the key differences between KPIs and everyone else is that KPIs don’t go out looking for clients, they go looking for partnerships and JVs. … KPIs only go networking to find leverage. … To step things up as a KPI, forget looking for clients and start looking for relationships that can really make things happen for both parties.

d. A KPI is not interested in chasing sales. A KPI knows that their goal is to attract the right types of opportunities  and the right opportunities for a KPI will always be win / win.

e. The money is in great partnerships and joint ventures. Whenever you want to take your income up to a higher level, go looking for a higher level partnership or joint venture.


7. Unfortunately, our brains are mostly geared to look for quick, easy wins. You mind will play all sorts of tricks on you to stop you from making it big.  

8. The most powerful way to save time, money and mistakes is to learn from others who have walked the path before you. … In this age, its possible to find someone who has done what you want to achieve already and learn from them. It’s called standing on the shoulders of giants.  

9. No matter what you need in your business or your life, getting it will be a function of your resourcefulness rather than whether the resources are available. The 3 biggest factors that determine your resourcefulness are:
i. The questions you ask
ii. The people you know
iii. Your willingness to stretch into the unknown

10. Unless you are a child asking your parents for something small, the language of requests does not work very often. You need to learn the language of opportunities. This is where you win, by helping someone else win. When you want something, you express it in a way that works for the person you want assistance from. … Great business people speak the language of opportunity ALL the time.  

11. Firstly, get in the habit of spotting great opportunities for others. Quite often I will see something in a blog and email it to a friend. Quite often, I will connect two people who I know can do business together. Often enough I will share an idea with someone if I think it would be beneficial.

I don’t spot opportunities for friends because I am looking for an immediate reward. I do it because I believe that it strengthens my network.

Given time, a strong network leads to more wealth, more fun and more success.

12. You must focus on your passion and become a KPI in that field. As soon as you are a KPI, you will not even notice opportunities in other industries because you will be swamped with great things to do in your own industry. And the rewards will come thick and fast.  

13. Resist the temptation to chase the new thing and keep taking steps closer to the inner circle of the industry you love.  

14. … the people who are successful are the ones who commit to things that take them forward, even when they aren’t sure exactly how it will all come together. … there’s never a right time. You will always have challenges going on with either your time, your money or your focus. If something comes along that you know you should do, then do it, and figure it out along the way.  

15. Resources show up AFTER Resourcefulness. Resourcefulness shows up AFTER you make a commitment.

16. Without a commitment, humans use too much brain energy on assessment of the idea, the timing and trying to predict an unpredictable future.

When you finally commit to an outcome, you free up gallons of energy to become more resourceful in following through.

Commit to a big goal (… sign yourself up to some sort of deadline or external commitment) and then start filling in the blanks.

17. Becoming a KPI doesn’t happen for most people because they are waiting for the clearing. They think that “one day” they will have the time, money and focus to get something done. … I ask them, “Why you are working so hard?” They reply. “So I can get some spare time and money to go and do what I want.” … Don’t work for the clearing, work for the result. Ask yourself what it is you actually want to do. Then go and do it. … Bite off more than you can chew and then figure it out as you go.

​18. If you don’t become a KPI, you will get stuck chasing revenue, spend too much time searching for (half decent) opportunities and forever feel undervalued.

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​​Now, everything Priestley says is logical and makes sense. You know if you followed the advice in the book, you will become a Key Person of Influence. But the challenge is taking effective actions consistently over a period of time without letting yourself come in the way. We all know how to be fit but how many of us are actually able to take the required actions to become fit.

Based on my experience, there are 3 journeys you would need to undertake in parallel to become a Key Person of Influence. Those journeys would give you the depth and mastery to consistently take precise powerful actions as outlined in the book.

1. Leadership Depth - The inner journey of personal transformation for an integrated wheel of life for deeply fulfilling success at work and at home; and for greater impact in the world through living our Purpose of Life.

This journey is from Gear 0 to Gear 5, where Gear 0 is when our life is still driven by unconscious fears that create our circumstances. The journey forward is an outcome of moving from limiting habits to growth habits across all the 4 bodies of our Being - physical, mental / intellectual, emotional and spiritual.

In Gear 1, you strengthen your Agility of Mind Leadership muscle that has you experience your own greatness, instead of doubting it. It has you finally recognise that your suspicion of self (I am not loved, I am not good enough, I am not important) is just that - a suspicion with no basis in truth; it is simply a paper ghost.

In Gear 2, you strengthen your Being of Service Leadership muscle that has you not just intellectually, but viscerally feel for your customer. You genuinely want to make a difference to your customer community for the sake of making an authentic difference, not because you want wealth and fame.

In Gear 3, you strengthen your Communicating while Being in the World of Others leadership muscle that has you find your voice and have the courage to speak your truth.

In Gear 4, you strengthen your Delivering on Your Word leadership muscle that gives you the depth and humility to have people experience their own greatness in your space and through your work.

In Gear 5, you strengthen your Excellence leadership muscle that you gives you access to Personal Mastery and has people relate to each other as extraordinary in your space and through your work.

You cannot find your niche if you are not operating from Gear 2 consciousness. You will not have the courage to write your book if you are not operating from Gear 3 consciousness.

2. Business Excellence - The outer journey of professional success by contributing to the communities that we serve through the work we do and leading our organisations / business functions from good to great.

This journey is from Mountain 1 to Mountain 5.

In Mountain 1, you discover your business idea in alignment with your Purpose of Life.

In Mountain 2, you discover your niche iteratively by marrying your Purpose with what’s missing in the world.

In Mountain 3, you arrive at a repeatable, scalable, profitable business model through a series of iterative experiments.

In Mountain 4, using the repeatable, scalable, profitable business model you arrived at through multiple iterative experiments in Mountain 3, you begin scaling up your business. You need Gear 4 consciousness to create high productivity, performance, creativity and innovation in your organization for the task of scaling up within (your employees) to scale up outside (customers, profitability).

In Mountain 5, your business is ready to run without you. Your organization is now a self-sustaining, value creating engine giving you passive income.

Only on scaling the 2nd Mountain of the Business Excellence journey will you find your niche and you need to have Gear 2 consciousness for inner power to climb Mountain 2.

Only on doing the work required to climb the 3rd Mountain of Business Excellence, will you deepen your understanding of the customer needs and increase your expertise. This will give you the required breakthrough ideas and solutions for the problems faced by your customer community to write the book that is relevant, meaningful and makes a difference. You need Gear 3 consciousness to find your authentic voice and the experience gained from work done till Mountain 3 for content to write your book.

To convert your knowledge and experience into an information product that is a runaway success requires you to operate from Gear 4 consciousness. Building a successful profitable information product is needed for you to scale your business and climb Mountain 4.

Joint Ventures and Partnerships create value only if you are in Gear 5 consciousness and you have time on your hand as an outcome of being on Mountain 5 to invest in meaningful business relationships. Before, Mountain 5 and Gear 5, spending substantial amount of time on Social Media wastes your energy and distracts you away from Craft Mastery.

3. Craft Mastery - Becoming a key person of influence in our industry through continual learning, unlearning, re-learning to become the master of our craft.

This journey also has 5 stages.

Stage 1 of Craft Mastery is passive learning through reading the books and researching for information on Google. It starts when you are on Mountain 1 and it helps you to zero down to the domain that fills you up with excitement, passion and joy. Gear 1 consciousness is needed to slow down to learn passively. The usual norm is for people to get excited about an area because there seems to be wealth creation opportunity and quickly invest money for certifications without ploughing through to discover what inspires them, about which community and for what problem.

Stage 2 of Craft Mastery is active learning where you are applying your knowledge learnt passively to make a difference to your customer community. This requires Gear 2 consciousness and happens while you are on Mountain 2. This process helps you to zero down on your niche.

Stage 3 of Craft Mastery is seeking out mentors of your domain and apprenticing with them to become an expert. This requires Gear 3 consciousness because without your own voice and the courage to speak it, you will merely become a copy of another master and create no differentiated value in the world. Finding your unique take on the problems of your customer community and discovering / inventing a unique, innovative solution helps you to establish yourself on Mountain 3 by arriving at a repeatable, scalable, profitable business model.

Stage 4 of Craft Mastery is mentoring others in your industry to become experts (bring them to stage 3). To give away all that you learnt in your journey requires you to be in Gear 4 consciousness and helps you to do the work of scaling up in Mountain 4. In this stage, you seek masters of your domain to apprentice with.

Stage 5 of Craft Mastery is mentoring the experts to become mentors (bring them to stage 4). You need Gear 5 consciousness for this work. Creating mentors for your industry helps you to lead your Business to Mountain 5. You have now become the master of your craft, you have become your craft and your craft has become you. You transform your industry through your work, leadership and depth of understanding of your domain. Now, you become a Key Person of Influence.

In Stage 2, writing articles to make a difference to your customer community will help you integrate all that you are learning and all your unique experiences to deepen your understanding of your craft and discover innovative solutions for the challenges faced by your customer community.

In Stage 3, you are ready to write your book. It will now be a process of reviewing your articles from a fresh perspective and collating them together to create something that is meaningful, impactful and transformational.

In Stage 4, while mentoring industry professionals to become experts and having done deep work to write a book, creating an information products for your customer community and industry professionals becomes an almost effortless process.

In Stage 5, having established your credibility by writing a book, mentoring professionals and experts, finding the right Joint Ventures becomes the next logical step. Instead of chasing customers and partners, your customers and partners chase you. When that happens, you know that you have arrived.

Too often, the journey outside gets the focus without the realization that the success outside is always an outcome of the growth within. 

I am grateful to Daniel Priestly for his understanding of what it takes to be a Key Personal of Influence as it helped me to clarify lot of concepts in my own head. My reverence for his massive commitment to make a difference to entrepreneurs and professionals by writing this book.

Wishing you all the joy of the journey. Stand on the shoulders of the giants to see further than they saw and go further than anyone has gone before.

Love, Jyoti.