Guest post by by Cass Mullane, Accountability Coach, Right-Brain Business Plan® Licensed Facilitator, Prosper Creatively, LLC

Last month I wrote about adding a zero to your revenue streams to learn how to start thinking bigger about your business. This month I’d like you to add a zero to your Circle of Influence and start having a greater impact in your community.

Whether you think so or not, you already have a circle of influence. Think about the people you hang out with, work with, commune with… all are within your circle of influence. These are the people who listen to you and who you listen to.

Now I’d like you to expand your thinking and add a zero to that…

What I mean is, start identifying people you’d like to get to know, people that you respect and admire, people who are more successful, people who may even scare you a little bit. These are people who can help open doors for you. And these are people who can help you leap ahead in your business.

Let me give you an example. I have a delightful client who wanted to get to know a leader in her community who was a well-known public speaker, someone who was earning WAY more than she was and who had a network that was WAY bigger than hers. She was completely intimidated by this woman, yet admired what she’d done to engage her community and to grow her business. My client wanted to meet her, because she really wanted to play in her sandbox, but was scared to death even to say hello!

So, we set out a plan to get to know this leader. The first step was to follow her on social media and to start engaging online with likes, comments and shares. The second step was to do something helpful, to be of service to the woman my client wanted to meet. The third step was to invite her to connect more directly, in this case, since the woman was local, to have a cup of tea or, ideally, to attend a local event at which my client was speaking so she could see her in action.

Now, over the course of several months, my client worked diligently at building a relationship with the leader online. She commented, posted quality relevant content, shared regularly and began to receive comments back. Then the opportunity arose for my client to help the leader who had put out a request on Facebook for a handful of people to assist at an event. My client hopped on the chance to be of service.

What happened next was beautiful.

The leader made time to meet individually with the people who stepped up to help at the event. She thanked my client and told her that she was happy to put a face to the person she’d been interacting with online. Then she asked what she could do for my client.

My client screwed up her courage and said that she was a speaker and that she wanted to be considered for a breakout session at the leader’s fall event. The leader responded that she’d already booked all her speakers for the event. Then she went on to say that she already visited my client’s website (because she was intrigued by her quality posts and comments) and had another colleague who was looking for speakers for a similar event in the spring.

And that’s how my client got booked to speak in Scotland.

Now my client is receiving inquiries from booking agents and making inquiries of her own to speak at larger and larger events. She is building relationships with other speakers and growing her business by leaps and bounds.

That’s the benefit of expanding your thinking, doing the work and adding a zero to your circle of influence.

Cass Mullane is an artist with an MBA. Cass’ calm, comfortable approach consistently yields positive results for clients. Her business and personal coaching practice, www.ProsperCreatively.com, specializes in delivering solid left brain business skills to right brainers and creatives in a fun, visual way. She’s a best selling author, textile and mixed media artist and creator of the Cool Stuff Jar™ coaching program. You can also visit Cass on Facebook!