Who
is influencing you in your business?
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Jim Rohn said that decades ago, and I used to believe it was true, but I think we need to update the idea a little for the world we live in today. Because I don’t believe it is just five people anymore.
It’s the people you spend time with. But it’s also the coaches and experts you follow. The podcasts you listen to while you’re driving. The books you read. The Facebook groups you’re in. The newsletters that land in your inbox. The people you follow on social media.
And yes, even the random post you read at 10:00 at night that suddenly has you wondering if you’ve been running your entire business wrong.
All of those voices have influence.
The question isn’t whether you’re being influenced.
The question is whether you’re paying attention to which influences you’re allowing to shape your business.
You May Have Picked Up More Than You Realize
Think about some of the things you believe you have to do in your business.
You have to post every day.
You have to be on a certain platform.
You have to have a funnel.
You have to price your offer a certain way.
You have to launch.
You have to niche down this particular way.
You have to use this system, follow this formula, or build your business in this order.
You have to be on every training and masterclass to learn how to run your business.
Says who?
That’s a question I think we need to ask ourselves more often.
I’m not saying any of those things are necessarily bad advice. Some of them may be exactly what your business needs.
But somewhere along the way, it’s very easy for “This is one way to do it” to turn into “This is the way I’m supposed to do it.”
Those are two very different things.
Good Advice Can Still Be the Wrong Advice for You
This is where things get tricky.
Someone can be incredibly smart.
Their strategy can work beautifully.
They can have hundreds of testimonials proving that it works.
And it can still be the wrong strategy for your business.
Why?
Because their business isn’t your business.
Their audience isn’t your audience. Their strengths aren’t your strengths. Their goals may not be your goals. They may have a team of ten while you’re building a business you intentionally want to keep small. They may love being on video five days a week while you’d rather have a root canal.
Context matters.
I have always believed that there are very few one-size-fits-all answers in business.
What works depends on where you’re going, what you’re building, who you serve, what resources you have, and how you actually want to run your business.
That’s why I don’t like business advice that starts with “Everyone should…”
Everyone probably shouldn’t.
Your Experience Gets a Vote Too
This is especially important when you’re building a business later in life.
You aren’t starting from scratch.
You may be starting a new business, but you’re bringing decades of experience with you.
You’ve worked with people.
You’ve solved problems.
You’ve learned what you’re good at.
You’ve figured out how you like to work and, just as importantly, how you don’t like to work.
You know things.
Yet it’s surprisingly easy to get online, find someone who appears to know the “right” way to build a business, and suddenly give their opinion more weight than everything you’ve learned over the last 30 or 40 years.
That’s when I want you to stop and ask:
Does this actually make sense for me?
Not: Does this person know what they’re talking about? Because they might.
Not: Could this strategy work? Because it probably could.
The question is whether it makes sense for you, your business, and what you’re trying to create.
Your own experience deserves a seat at that table.
Influence Isn’t the Problem
I don’t want you to read this and decide the answer is to stop listening to everyone.
That would be silly.
I’ve learned an enormous amount from other people throughout my career and my business. I still do.
We need other perspectives.
We need people who challenge our thinking. We need mentors, colleagues, books, classes, communities, and conversations that expose us to ideas we wouldn’t have come up with on our own.
Good influence helps us grow.
The problem comes when we stop evaluating what we’re hearing.
There is a big difference between learning from someone and handing them the keys to your business.
Take the idea.
Look at it.
Question it.
Try it on.
Does it fit?
Keep it.
Doesn’t fit?
Leave it.
You don’t have to adopt someone’s entire business philosophy because one part of it helped you.
Be Careful With the Word “Should”
One of the easiest ways to spot outside influence in your business is to listen for the word should.
“I should be posting more.”
“I should start a podcast.”
“I should raise my prices.”
“I should create a membership.”
“I should be using that new AI tool.”
“I should have more followers by now.”
Whenever you hear yourself saying should, get curious.
Where did that come from?
Maybe it came from a smart strategic decision you’ve made.
Great.
But maybe it came from a podcast you heard three months ago.
Maybe it came from watching what someone else is doing.
Maybe it came from a coach whose business model looks nothing like yours.
Or maybe you’ve heard the same piece of advice so many times that you stopped questioning whether you ever agreed with it in the first place.
That’s influence at work.
This Is Also How Businesses Start Looking the Same
If we’re all listening to the same people, following the same formulas, using the same templates, and repeating the same advice, what happens?
Our businesses all start sounding the same.
Our content all starts sounding the same.
Our offers all start looking the same.
And then we wonder why it’s so hard to stand out.
This has become even more noticeable with AI.
AI can give us access to more ideas and information than we’ve ever had before. That’s incredibly useful.
But it can also make it easier to absorb someone else’s thinking without realizing it.
You see an idea. You feed it into AI. AI expands it. You tweak it. You publish it.
But somewhere in that process, there’s an important question:
What do I actually think about this?
That’s the piece we can’t afford to skip.
Because your experience, perspective, opinions, and way of seeing things are what make your business yours.
Take Inventory of Your Influences
Think about the last few meaningful decisions you made in your business.
Maybe you changed an offer, changed your pricing, started or stopped using a platform, bought a program, changed your messaging, or added a new tool.
Now trace each decision backward.
Where did the idea come from?
And then ask yourself:
- Does this actually fit how I want to work?
- Did I consciously choose this, or did I simply absorb it?
- Does it make sense for the business I’m building now?
- Am I doing this because it supports my goals, or because someone told me I should?
- What does my own experience tell me?
You don’t have to throw everything out.
In fact, you’ll probably discover plenty of influences that have made your business better.
Keep those.
The goal isn’t to eliminate influence.
It’s to become more intentional about it.
You Still Get the Final Vote
Jim Rohn was right. The people around us influence who we become.
Today, I’d just make the circle a little bigger.
Look at the people around you.
But also look at your feeds.
Your inbox.
Your podcasts.
Your communities.
Your courses.
Your AI conversations.
Look at all the voices that have a seat at the table when you’re making decisions about your business.
Some have earned that seat.
Some may have been sitting there so long that you forgot you invited them.
And a few probably need to leave.
As the saying goes, people enter your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
Learn from people. Get help. Listen to people who know things you don’t know. Surround yourself with smart people who challenge you and help you grow.
But don’t forget something important:
It’s still your business.
You get the final vote.
So, here’s the question I want to leave you with:
If you traced your last three business decisions back to their source, whose voice would you actually find?
If you are not 100% sure, come and join us for the next The Unicorn Factor® masterclass and learn how to set yourself apart from the crowd.
