Chapter 1 - Definitions

01-01 - Introduction to Influencing (8 min.) Sample Lesson
01-02 - Significance (5 min.)
01-03 - Evolution of Influence (7 min.)
01-04 - Case Study - My Story (11 min.)
01-05 - Types of Influence in Oil and Gas (4 min.)
01-06 - AI and Influencing (3 min.)
01-07 - A Way to Influence is Presentation (11 min.)
01-08 - Course Summary (2 min.)

Oil and Gas Branding Masterclass / Chapter 1 - Definitions

Lesson 01-01 - Introduction to Influencing

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Transcript

01. Lesson 1.01: Introduction to Influencing 02. Disclaimer 03. Agenda 04. Definitions 05. Influence 06. What does an influencer mean today?07. What does an influencer mean in oil and gas?!08. Influence and Popularity are NOT the Same

01. Lesson 1.01: Introduction to Influencing

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are, it could even be 2 a.m. My name is Yoshi Pradhan or Yogashri Pradhan, and I run a consulting firm called Iron Lady Advisors. I run this consulting firm focused on production engineering and reservoir engineering, and data analytics, and .
Today, I'm going to talk about how I developed my brand over 15 years in the oil and gas industry. I'm going to show you some of the tips and tricks on how to develop your brand, whether it's through social media or whether if it's in person. And it's called Oil and Gas Branding Masterclass.

02. Disclaimer

So as a disclaimer of what I'm about to present to you in the next 70 or so slides, all my thoughts are my own and not based on any of the associations that I'm with. And everything I gathered is based on public information or personal experiences. So a lot of the public information you'll see are based on the sources that are peppered throughout the presentation. And then when I say it's personal experience, I will preface it with the personal experience before I go on and talk about the experience.

03. Agenda

As an agenda for today or in the evening or maybe even at 2 a.m, whenever you're tuning in, I'm going to talk about what is influence and what is an influencer today? Why is influence important? How influence, especially in oil and gas, has evolved over time? My story on influence, and the different kinds of influence you could have, how to monetize, and how to maintain that influence.

04. Definitions

So let's go over the definitions.

05. Influence

For influence, I took it straight out of Merriam-Webster because I think that is a grounding point that we can all relate to when it comes to our definitions. It is the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways or to sway. So when we think about influence, it's not about direct authority. Just because you have an authority, you are able to tell somebody to do something. Rather, it is being in a position where you're not of an authority and you're still being able to cause some type of change or direct another person's behavior. It is the act or power producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise or command. And then a corrupt interference with an authority for personal gain, there is a connotation to that. But I think we need to focus on the first two definitions that the power capacity causing an effect in an indirect or an intangible way. So this is where influence becomes extremely important when you're not in positions of power or where you're or you don't have any direct reports. How are you able to get someone to do something without exerting any force on them?
Another definition of influence as a verb is to affect or alter by indirect or intangible means or to have an effect on the condition or development of. So I influence you to vote for a particular candidate or I influence you to go for a particular initiative. That's the way that influence is used. Again, I'm using some basic definitions from Merriam-Webster's just to get us in a grounding point of what exactly does influence mean. And the key takeaways that we're getting here is that this is being able to convince or have someone's behavior in a certain way without directing any force on them.
Now I had to put this on here because whenever I think about my personal brand, a lot of people have approached me and said that you're kind of an oil and gas influencer. And there are a lot of influencers out there. So Merriam-Webster surprisingly has also put influencer in their definitions as well. So it's one that exerts influence, a person who inspires or guides the actions of others. It goes back to the definition of influence. And then a person who's able to generate interest in something such as a consumer product by posting about it on social media. Again, another modern definition of an influencer, when you think of Instagram, Facebook, or my favorite, LinkedIn, to where you are convincing somebody otherwise to direct their behavior in a certain way without exerting any actual force. You're inspiring someone to take some action or to think in a certain way.

06. What does an influencer mean today?

So what exactly does an influencer mean today? I wrote some connotations in green and in red. Those common notations that are in green are those that are pretty positive connotations, connotations that we'd want to adhere to. The ones that are red are also tacked on to what we think of as an influencer should be. So it's someone who sways emotions, behaviors, interests, and ultimate actions of others. So I wrote positive and negative connotations. For positive connotations, we're thinking of authority, domain and marketing expertise, authenticity, someone who's inspirational, educational. But for those of you that are not used to the influencer culture or who perceive influencers a certain way, because there's so many of them on Instagram, there can be materialistic, shallow, selfish, manipulative, or unrelatable.

07. What does an influencer mean in oil and gas?!

So what does an influencer mean in oil and gas? We think about social media influencers, those that are marketing beauty products or other consumer products that are not related to oil and gas. How do we bring it back and think about oil and gas applications? The most developed space when it comes to influencers in oil and gas is that there's a huge talk on transition and addressing . And I put some additional reading on there as well. Others are addressing uncertainties in the industry, attracting younger talent. And of course, what else? Another medium, podcasting. So I also put another link for further reading on how oil and gas influencers, or there's an application to oil and gas influencing today. And most of the subjects are related around how the industry is perceived. How the industry is also perceived in relation to the energy transition? And at the same time, how do we continue that pipeline of talent for petroleum engineers or geoscientists, geophysicists in the industry?

08. Influence and Popularity are NOT the Same

One thing that I do wanna point out is that when I think of influence, I also think of another word, which is popularity. And you might think of this word as well. I wanna clarify that influence and popularity are not the same. Influence is mostly focused on breadth, or influence is mostly focused on depth, where popularity is mostly focused on breadth. Popularity has a broad reach. Influence is how well you reach is to convince somebody to do something without any direct force on them. So I also put another article on there to further your reading on influencer marketing, may not have an oil and gas application to it, but this is just the concept of how influencer and popularity are not the same. There's a lot of people who know me, but I could say a lot of things and nobody can act on them. That's an example of me being popular, but not me being an influencer.