In this solo episode, Jeff Ross unpacks the “I” for Influence in his signature VOICE Framework™—and spoiler alert: it’s not about likes, followers, or viral posts. It's about living a life that others want to follow. If you're building a business, brand, or legacy, this one’s a wake-up call to show up, serve, and lead from the front
If you're ready to grow your leadership, income, and impact, join the Laptop Lifestyle Dads Academy and discover how to build a business that works for you—while becoming the leader you wish you had.
📩 Email: jeff@lld.email
📌 Comment the word “INFLUENCE” on this episode to start your journey.
And don’t forget…
Post something today that doesn’t impress people—but expresses your leadership.
Jeff Ross (00:00) Well, good day legends, Geoff Ross here, Caffeinated Kangaroo, bouncing back in. Proud dad of three living down here in Tasmania, Australia. I'm the founder of the LaptopLives.dads Academy and welcome back to our Voice Framework series. If you've been tracking us, we've already been covering the Voice Framework. V for values, O for origin, influence is for eye, C for clarity and E for expression. And today,
We're going to unpack I for influence. This is not about fake guru flexing, not about ego or hype, real influence, the kind that comes from integrity, connection and leadership that last. Influence isn't about how many people are following you, even that today's world, you know, with all of the influence out there, most people think that's what influence is. It's actually about
how many people you lift up. This episode is going to challenge you to rethink what it means to lead, to serve, to show up with purpose. So let's dive in. Let's make something very, very clear. As I've already mentioned, influence is not about followers. It's about impact. It's about becoming the kind of person people trust, listen to, follow through storms.
Go to war with setbacks and success. John Maxwell says leadership is influenced nothing more, nothing less. know, Zig Ziglar has always been known to said that you can have everything in life. If you want to help people enough. Let me say that again. You can have everything in life. If you help people, sorry, you can have everything in life. You want, if you help people enough and to help them get.
what they want. John, sorry, Joseph McLendon says in teachers all the time, people follow emotional leaders, those who show up with certainty, those who show up with compassion, those who show up with direction. You don't need to be loud, just need to be heard. You need to be real. You need to be remembered. And that is the way people hear you.
People follow people who are consistent, who are congruent, who are courageous. And what builds true influence? Trust built through action, not talk. Integrity. Your words and your walk should always match. your yes be a no. Yes, you let your yes be a yes and your no be a no. Repetition with your message is clear and consistent.
and repeatable. When people feel safe around you, they lean in. That's where true influence begins. When people feel safe around you, people aren't looking for a hero, they're looking for a guide, someone who's been through the fire and came out with the torch in hand. So here are five foundations to help you to grow your influence. Number one,
It's a pretty obvious one, but it's one that needs to be said is lead yourself first. How can you be a leader if you can't lead yourself first? You can't lead others if you're still ghosting on your own goals. Integrity starts with you. Integrity starts with when no one is watching you behind closed doors. How you show up is how you would do everything behind closed doors is how you will show up. Ask yourself.
Would I follow me today? Would you? I had to ask myself that very profound question about 10 years ago and the answer was no. Today, 100 % without a doubt, I would follow me. So you got to lead yourself first. Two, serve before you sell. Let's stop trying to sell everything to everybody at every time. Let's, how about we flip the script and serve.
I love Jesus Christ because he came to serve us not to be served. That is a great example to follow to help you to build your influence. Help, give, teach before you pitch. And what you find is when you do that, help, give, teach, the opportunity comes to you because you're seeking and knocking on the doors and the doors will open. Build goodwill before you ask for any sale. I can't repeat that in more enough.
Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. And when you lead by giving, by teaching, by serving, doors will open up for you. Give value that solves small problems. This will earn the right to speak into big ones. Here's how you can do it. Bit of a social strategy for you. Post at least three times a day across your preferred platform.
For me, it's Facebook and Facebook groups all day long. Ideally, one piece of content that's short form, one that's probably a real or a story, and one value post or one personal post that gives people value. Why? Because attention is the new currency and consistency will help you to build authority. Your content should answer these questions in your audience that they're already asking themselves.
Can I trust this person? Do you get me? And can you help me? That is caveman test right there. Most people, when they come across your content in three seconds or less, they're asking themselves these three questions. Can I trust you? Do you get me? Can you help me? Gary V's book, know, what is it? Jab, jab, hook. You know, jab, jab, jab, then right hook. That's really a book. I highly recommend every marketer go reads it. But some from wisdom from this book.
is if you ever post this, sorry, if all you ever post is this, buy this, join that, join me, recruit that, right? You're shouting into the void. It's no wonder that you're lost in the very noisy crowd that is social media. See, influence isn't earned in the pitch. It's earned in the patience. See, jab, jab, jab, then right hook.
If all you ever post is buy this, join that, then you're just shouting out like everybody else. Influence is earned. Document, not more than you promote. Don't just create, share your process with people. Let people see you serve before you sell them. When they watch your journey, they believe in your solution.
don't pose to impress, pose to connect, then you will finally make the ask. And when you do, it lands with weight. Why? Because you've built influence. Ultimately, you've built trust. You've built a connection through that influence. Third step here in this whole process to something you can do to help build your influence is be known for something. What do you want to be known for?
For me, ultimate word, hero maker. When you think of Jeff Ross, I want you to think of hero maker. That's what I want to be known for. So your personal brand is not your logo. It's not your font choice. It's the story people talk about you when you're not in the room. Your influence isn't built by shouting louder. It is built by owning your lane so clearly when your name becomes the shortcut in someone's mind.
the shortcut on their journey. You want people to say, if you're stuck with XYZ problem, you've got to follow that person into your name. Dan Kennedy calls this mentioned marketing. When people think your name, what do they know? See, clarity builds influence. Be the go-to voice for a specific result.
Organic growth content tip here for you is make your bio, your interest posts, your pin content to the point to the same message, who you help and how. leadership tip around this is share your frameworks, give names to your methods, brand your language, branded language will increase memorability and magnetism. There's a reason why I use words like sucks bill and awesome to boom source, right? What are they doing?
They're bringing you to me, giving you that memorability, which helps you to build that magnetism. We're to unpack that more when we dive into E for expression. Fourth thing you can do to help you build your influence is use story and vulnerability. If you're just listening to this now, go back and rewatch, sorry, rewatch and relisten to last week's episode on O for origin story. So influence when you grow with people.
People feel your story. Every day you show up is another footnote, is another page, is another paragraph in your story. Influence grows when people feel your story. Don't just teach. Show your scars. Show your journey on a daily basis. So your audience needs to know you're real before they care about if you're right. Your storytelling will help people to connect with you on that heart to heart business.
So don't just show up after the fact with your highlight reel, show what life looked like back in Sucksville before you found your way to Awesome Town. Go back and re-listen to O for Origins Story to understand how to create your story formats. The fifth way you can build your influence is create ripple effects. Empower others to lead. Create content, create community, create conversations that make others feel
significant, seen, heard, valued, known, understood, loved. See true influence multiplies. It's not about your platform. It's about how many people rise up because of it. See your spotlight is, should be a floodlight. You should be onto the community members, your clients, your students in your content. Show the winds you've helped to unlock.
That is one of the best golden content out there to build your influence. Host weekly life calls, collabs, panels, interviews. Leadership becomes visible when you're building platforms for others. This is why I partnered with the Los Angeles Tribune to help to be part of that conversation because their platform is about helping others to become visible. And I get to play a central role in helping lift up the voice to the voiceless.
My final note here before I move on is legacy over likes. Let's call it what it is. If you're all about likes, all about followers, all about shares, they're vanity metrics. And they are important numbers to measure because they are about lead and lag measures. But anyone can get a viral reel. That's called reach, not influence. Influence is what life looks like.
when the lights fade off.
Build a life worth following and others will be influenced by you and the influence will come.
So here's your mission. Here's your call to action on today's episode. Choose one way you can show up with a deeper integrity, consistency or service this week and do it loud and proud. See post something not to impress the people, but to express your leadership. If you're ready to grow your impact, your income, your leadership, we would love to guide you inside the Laptop Lifestyle Dad's Academy.
please reach out to me in the show notes. You can find my email, jeff at LLD dot email. You can reach out to me personally. You can leave a comment on this word on this podcast. Just leave the word influence and someone will reach out with you to help you to get started in our LLD Academy. And let's go build something that lasts. Let's go build influence and help you to become the leader that you wish that you had. So you could become the leader that goes and creates other leaders and become
that hero maker. All right. It wouldn't be a dad joke. I am LLD episode without a dad joke. Let me repeat that. What you actually got in the way. would not be an LLD podcast episode without a dad joke. So why did the influencer get kicked out of the jungle? Because he couldn't stop posting in the lion's den. I don't know where chat chat. He begins going with that joke. Sometimes it nails it. Sometimes it misses it. I think it missed it with that one.
Hey, that's all for today, legends. Leave with love, show up with strength, and let's help the world hear your voice.