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Ben Gioia, author of Influence with a Heart and Marketing with a Heart, tells us how to use trust marketing for greater income, influence, and impact.\n\nDisplay TranscriptRobert Plank: We're here with Ben Gioia, who is a speaker, coach, trainer, and author of the number 1 bestseller, Marketing With A Heart. He's the president of influencewithaheart.com.\n\nBen has helped AARP launch one of the world's biggest magazines with 32 million circulation, and he's a trained, or he's trained top business leaders at Stanford University, and supported the ALS Association in improving healthcare and quality of life for thousands of people with Lou Gehrig's Disease after almost dying 4 times in 72 hours on a hike in India. We're going to have to talk about that for sure. Ben received a gift, a fire inside to make a bigger impact. Today, he teaches entrepreneurs, visionaries, organizations, and leaders how to communicate with more influence by using more empathy, story, and thought leadership. Lots of cool stuff. Welcome to the show, Ben.\n\nBen Gioia: Thank you so much, Robert. It's a pleasure to be here, thank you for asking me.\n\nRobert Plank: Awesome. I mean, yeah, I'm glad you stopped by. Can you kind of tell us, I mean, there's that little bit of bio there, but can you kind of tell us in your own words what it is you do, what's kind of driving you right now, and what makes you special?\n\nBen Gioia: Absolutely, absolutely. Thank you so much. Gosh. Yeah, I'm going to, I guess, start this off, kick this off with a little bit about that story in India. Basically, I had this incredible hike, 72 hours, where I almost died 4 times, and it was ... My bus going, almost going off the road as we're going up a windy mountain curve. I mean, literally, the back of the bus was like skittering the edge and almost sliding off. The second time was running from a fire. It hadn't rained where we were in about 4 months, and literally, my guide turned to me at one point because he heard some agitated yelling, I couldn't understand it in English, off in the distance, and he said over his shoulder, "Run," and I said, "Run?" He went running off down the path.\n\nThird time, we came upon a poisonous snake that I wouldn't have seen at all, just right in the path, tiny snake. My guide fortunately stopped me, and then ... The last time was running into a mountain lion, kind of stumbling upon a mountain lion. I think we were surprised, he or she was surprised, and fortunately, the mountain lion ran away; so, that was a wake-up call or a series of wake-up calls that just made me realize, "What an amazing gift this life is, my life. If I'm here on this Earth, and I'm functional and capable, I'm going to do good in the world;" so I started thinking about, "How could I do that?"\n\nI pulled together talents, experience, all that kind of stuff, and that was the thing that brought Marketing With A Heart to the light; because I realized that there's so many people and good in the world, there's the whole idea of conscious business and transparency and ethical communication, all that stuff, and I realized that that needed to come into the marketing space as well. People felt good about their marketing, really would lead with value, be transparent, and really resonate and connect with the right audiences, so they could stop focusing so much on competition; and really focus on creativity and collaboration, and magnetizing the right people by speaking truthfully and honestly about themselves, who they served, what they do, and their secret sauce, and how that all makes it happen, so ...\n\nYeah, so did that for a bunch of years, and then Marketing With A Heart kind of morphed into Influence With A Heart, which is what that is today. I launched that just a few months ago, and it's been a rocket ship since I changed that. Influence With A Heart was what, I realized, made so much more sense for who I am and what I want to do in the world. Right after that happened,