What if you could become someone who makes people want to say "yes"? What if you could walk into a room and say "I've got an idea", and people would be wanting to say "yes" to your proposal before they even heard it?

This is what influence can do.

It can win hearts and can spark change and can get you what you want in your work life, at home and in your creative endeavors. And it 's what the guest of today's episode teaches.

Yale behavioral scientist Dr. Zoe Chance is a writer, teacher, researcher and climate philanthropist obsessed with the topic of interpersonal influence.

She earned her doctorate in behavioral science from Harvard and now teaches “Mastering Influence and Persuasion,” the most popular course at Yale School of Management. Her research has been published in top academic journals and covered in global media. Zoe speaks internationally for Fortune 500 firms and leading NGOs, and gave a popular TEDx talk, How to Make a Behavior Addictive. Her framework for behavior change is the foundation for Google’s global food policy that helps over 100,000 people make healthier choices every day.

In her bestselling book Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science Of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change And Making Good Thigs Happen, Zoe explains that influence does not actually work the way many of us expect and she shows us how to move past popular misconceptions, such as the idea that asking for more will make people dislike you.

Today Zoe will share her strategies with us and here is why what she has to say matters profoundly: Zoe teaches smart, kind people to raise money for charity, get elected to political office, fund startups, start movements, save lives, find love, negotiate great deals and job offers, and even get along better with their kids. In other words, she helps people to use their superpower of influence as a force for good.

In this episode with Dr. Zoe Chance, you'll discover:

-Why business school is NOT the place to learn the intricacies of business...03:20

-How to bring your exciting idea into the marketplace...08:08

-How to overcome the innate fear of asking for help...12:35

-How to change behavior without changing the mind...17:30

-A counterintuitive method to gaining control over situations...31:46

-The biggest misconceptions of possessing influence...36:35

-Ethical influence vs. manipulation...44:00

-Why we should "practice" getting rejected...50:18

-The man who saved the world by saying "no"...57:00

-The gator and the judge analogy...1:04:00

-The essential elements of charisma...1:16:45

-The "Magic Question" that will help you gain more influence...1:24:40

-Zoe's best practice...1:28:50

Resources mentioned:

Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science Of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change And Making Good Thigs Happen

The Man Who Saved the World