The Timeless Secrets of Influential Leaders

“There are many secrets that are timeless and known by many leaders. If you know what they do differently, and can emulate those – your leadership can rise to a new level.”

Corey Poirier is an award-winning speaker, multiple-time TEDx and MoMondays presenter, author, and founder of bLU Talks — a global platform that unites Business, Life, and the Universe. Through his speaking, writing, and mentoring, Corey helps leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers discover their authentic voice and expand their influence. His mission is to help people ‘Be Seen, Be Heard, and Create Impact’ by aligning their purpose, story, and message. Corey has shared the stage with thought leaders such as Les Brown, Deepak Chopra, and Jack Canfield, and is recognized internationally as an expert in personal development, authentic leadership, and conscious influence.

In this episode of The Nonprofit Exchange, host Hugh Ballou and Corey Poirier uncover the timeless secrets of influential leaders — the principles that never go out of style. They explore how authenticity, storytelling, leverage, and holistic purpose empower nonprofit and ministry leaders to rise above challenges and create lasting transformation in their organizations and communities.

More about Corey Poirier and his work – https://coreypoiriermedia.com/ and https://blutalks.com/

 

The Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou:

Welcome to the Nonprofit Exchange. This is Hugh Ballou, founder and president of SynerVision Leadership Foundation, where synergy is created because we’re clear as leaders. on our vision. I have a great guest today. Corey Poirier is an award-winning speaker, multiple-time TEDx and Mo Mondays presenter, author, and founder of Blue Talks. We’re going to talk about that a little bit in this episode. a global platform that unites business, life, and the universe. Through his speaking, writing, and mentoring, Corey helps leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers discover their authentic voice and expand their influence. His mission is to help people be seen, be heard, and create impact by aligning their purpose, story, and message. Corey has shared the stage with thought leaders such as Les Brown, Deepak Chopra, and Jack Canfield, and is recognized internationally as an expert in personal development, authentic leadership, and conscious influence. In this episode, we’re going to talk about the timeless secrets of influential leaders, the principles that never go out of style. We’re going to explore how storytelling, authenticity, and holistic purpose empower nonprofit and ministry leaders to rise above the challenges and create lasting transformation in their organizations. This is powerful work you do, Corey. Welcome to the Nonprofit Exchange. Tell us a little bit more about yourself, your personal journey, and what inspired you to create this Blue Talks?

Corey Poirier:

Well, first of all, thank you so much. I’m super stoked to be here. And as far as BlueTalks, I guess the inspiration really came from people asking me for something similar to BlueTalks. So people were saying to me that I wish there was such a thing as a, let’s call it a spiritual TEDx stage, you know, a TEDx stage where they could also speak on things like synchronicity or meaningful coincidences. That was one group. Another group was saying, I know you help people that want to get on the stage and speak more. I wish you had more of a done for you service so that you could help people get on those big stages, those iconic stages, that they could then actually leverage that to get more clients and more bookings. And so the combination of people asking for both those things landed in me eventually saying, maybe this is something, maybe this Bluetox thing is something. And ultimately, I realized what they were asking for, it was the way that we could create it. And so really, at the end of the day, it was just people asking for something that I knew that we could create.

Hugh Ballou:

Power to you. So say more about business life and universe. What does that mean to you? And why are those important?

Corey Poirier:

So business, well, basically when we started it, I wanted it to be like that, where it had like a three letter or four letter name, and I wanted it to stand for something, meaning I wanted the letters to stand, like an acronym basically. And TEDx, most people don’t know what TED stands for, but it does stand for something. And so I was like, I want this, the letters, it’s one thing to say, I want it to be called whatever name, let’s say blue in this case, without the E. It’s one thing to say I want it to be that name, but the question is why? I don’t want it just to be like, well, we’re going to have the color blue when we do a talk or something like that. Or if you go to comedy, I come from a comedy background, blue comedy material is like when it’s dirty material. So I didn’t want it to just stand on its own. I wanted it to actually stand for something. And so I was in this meeting with a mastermind leader, a guy in my own mastermind. And he picked my brain for a couple hours. And by the time I left there, I knew not only did I want this thing to be called Blue Talks, but I wanted blue to stand for Business Life Universe. Why those letters and names really comes back to the fact that I wanted it to be like TEDx. But I also want it to be different. And so the business and even the life story is the like TEDx part like a lot of TEDx as you watch will be somebody’s life story or about business messages or lessons. They learn the you universe was more the synchronicity that more the spiritual side. And so it really was that I wanted our talks and our brand to be about those messages, like life stories, business messages, again, spiritual type messages. And that’s really where those three words came in. It just seemed to fit perfectly. The one thing that’s interesting is the one that we have the least amount of, which is the business, is the first letter. Just kind of worked out that way, I guess.

Hugh Ballou:

I love it. I love it. And we are talking to an audience of nonprofit leaders who forget that they’re actually running a tax-exempt business. And we need all of these things. Now, I championed as a musical conductor. I had a career in that. And you’re on the podium. Authenticity is key. You know, if you try to fake it, they’re going to eat your lunch. So authenticity is, talk about authenticity, why it’s important, especially for leaders, faith leaders and nonprofit leaders.

Corey Poirier:

Yeah. I mean, well, I think authenticity in a lot of ways is sort of the, for lack of better term, it’s kind of the new, I mean, I’ve used the term currency, and I think that’s accurate, but I feel like authenticity is what everybody’s been waiting for. It’s like we’ve been building for years to a point where somebody could authentically go on Facebook Live, and be who they are versus trying to pretend they’re somebody else. I did a talk called Living the Unfiltered Life. And the idea was so many people are living a filtered life these days. Like, I know people that have online positioned themselves to look like they’ve got it all together all the time. You know, they might say, let me show you how to earn seven figures and get this house that I have. And then we don’t see when they turn the camera off you that they’re sitting in front of somebody else’s house using a video. And that person comes out and says, stop filming in front of my house. We don’t see that side because they’re not being authentic. Or we see people running Facebook ads to teach you something they haven’t done themselves. I feel like people more than ever now are craving somebody to be authentic in who they are, whether that’s leadership or whether that’s what the work they do. Be authentic. Here’s how I’ve said this in terms of that Facebook ad for how you can generate a million dollars. If you’ve, let’s just say, I mean, I’m just using numbers because it’s easy, but if you’ve generated, let’s say, six figures in your career, then work with people that haven’t generated six figures yet. But don’t bump yourself to seven figures when you haven’t done it. Because there’s plenty of people that need to know how to get to six figures. By the way, there’s plenty of people that need to know how to get to five figures. So I think we’re looking more for a person who’s authentic for two reasons. One, because we can feel that I’m dealing with somebody who has integrity, somebody that’s on the level, somebody who is open about who they are because they know it can help others. But I think the other side is, I think we also those people that are authentic serve more people. So if you’re pretending that you’ve earned seven figures and you haven’t, you get found out. You can’t answer the questions right. When somebody says, you know, what do I do when this happens, when I’m at seven figures, and you don’t know the answer to that, you get found out. So I think people are craving authenticity because we can feel that, we know the person has our best interests in mind. But secondly, the opposite of that is you get found out if you’re not authentic anyway.

Hugh Ballou:

Authenticity is key for transformational leadership. It’s one of the strong components. So we’re very much aligned. Authenticity is key. I’m a Southerner. We have different vowels than Canadians do. So he’s Canadian. You can tell by the out vowels that I love it. I love it. It gives a lot of character to the dialogue here. If you’re tuning in, this is The Non-Private Exchange. We’re talking to Corey Poirier today, a leadership expert, multifaceted and lots of gifts. So Stay tuned in. You can find this at thenonprofitexchange.org. So, Corey, in all fields, especially in non-profit, people hide behind a title. They think they’re the title. Talk about that. Why is that not a good idea?

Corey Poirier:

I mean, well, I think, first and foremost, I feel like a title, again, used to be a big deal like used to be that if you have a certain title, then you represent something to people and. you know people see it as like this person has this title so they they’ve achieved this or they’re above this other person and what have you. I feel like now Robin Sharma has a great book called The Leader Who Had No Title and the idea is is that everybody can be a leader regardless of a title and so I think as a leader if you can help other people who don’t have the same title as you or don’t have a title at all, feel like they have just as much contribution as you do because you have a title, I think that’s true leadership. So for me, you know, we have in our team with Blue Tox, we have about 14 people, whether that’s what might call fractionally where they might work with us 20 hours a week or full time. We have 14 plus people. There’s other people that kind of work with us every three months on a certain project. But let’s say we have between 14 and 18 people. And I wouldn’t want any of those people to think, okay, well, Corey’s the founder. So his decision or his input should be valued more than me. And so to me, demonstrating that a title doesn’t make the leader, is what good leadership is all about.

Hugh Ballou:

You know, I’ve seen a lot of leaders, and I’ve been guilty many times. I’ve done this a long time. And, you know, I’m an expert at leadership because I’ve made more mistakes. I’m old enough to make more mistakes than other people. But, you know, there’s this authority thing where we actually cut ourselves off from the input of people who know stuff that we need to know, but we’re not in a place to receive that information. How do we overcome that liability?

Corey Poirier:

I mean, I feel like, for lack of a better way of saying it, I think it’s working on us. Like, I feel it’s doing the work, working on us, getting to the point where we can receive it. You know what I mean? Like, getting yourself to the point where you are coachable, where you can receive these things. Like, it’s interesting. I mean, it’s not meant to be like a deviation, but this was fascinating to me. a week ago I was at a live event and somebody on the stage the speaker was doing like the eat fire thing but he was getting another audience member to eat fire and he’s so he’s like literally he’s like here’s how you do it and he was showing him and then the other guy he was going to help him he said you want me to show you how and the guy goes nah I’m good but so he was still going to eat the fire but he’s like nah I’m good And I thought that’s such an example of us not being coachable, right? Like, you’re in front of somebody who wants to show you a tip for eating fire properly, and you’re like, I’ll figure it out as I go. Like, we need to become more coachable. And I say we, I’m generalizing. But to me, that’s a prime example of you need to be coachable. You need to be in a place to receive it. And sometimes we’re terrible receivers.

Hugh Ballou:

Well, isn’t there reciprocity here too, if you’re as a leader, founder, executive, if you’re coachable, doesn’t that help other people be coachable as well?

None:

100%.

Corey Poirier:

Yeah, I mean, I feel like, it’s like everything, right? We lead by example, and people are watching our example. And if, you know, it’s funny, John C. Maxwell had this great quote, where he said, if you’re a leader, and nobody’s following you, you’re really just out taking a walk. And I love it too. And so I think, yeah, I think we have to be what we want other people to be. You know, what do they say? What you put out there, you get more of what you put out there. So if you lead by example, then you’re going to find the people that work with you also match that example. But if you say, do what I say, not what I do, to me, that’s management. That’s the old school side of being a boss. But I think now we’re looking for people that say, if I’m going to ask you to do something, I’m willing to do it. If I’m going to ask you to do something, you’re going to witness me do it as well.

Hugh Ballou:

but you’re not going to do it all because you want them to do it. You’re going to let them raise the bar on their own. So, John Maxwell also had the law of the lid, which your organization cannot develop any further than your ability to lead it. So, like Jim Rohn said, work on yourself harder than you work on your business. So, these all resonate. It’s really legendary principles that we embrace. But, you know, I have to continue to remind myself of these key fundamentals, so this is so helpful, Corey. You work with leaders, and you work with leaders on storytelling. I want you to talk about why that’s important, but there’s a lot of people in this segment that just shy away from presenting When it’s really important for us to be up front as the leader telling the story, as a matter of fact, the surveys every year say that the number one fear people have is speaking in public, which the number two is death. So they’d rather die than speak in public. So how do you help people get their head around how important it is and to be comfortable telling stories in public?

Corey Poirier:

I mean, I feel like the first part, well, the second part first, I’ll go that way, like the comfortable part of it. So my experience, and like we all have our own experiences. I’ve worked with a lot of speakers. This has been my experience. Other speaking coaches will say, will tell you maybe different, but my experience is most people, what they think they’re scared of is speaking in public. What they’re really scared of is the unknown. So in other words, what could happen? It’s like, you know, somebody when they’re drinking, some people won’t drink alcohol because they don’t like the fear of what they could do when they’re drinking alcohol. In other words, they’re not in control. And so when you go up and speak on a stage, if you’re used to your whole life being in control, and you go up and speak on a stage, you have no control what’s going to happen. Now, here’s the thing. You know it’s possible you could knock it out of the park. It could be the best moment ever. but you don’t know that that’s what’s going to happen, meaning it could be the worst that things ever happened in your mind. And so what my experience is their fear is the fear of the unknown. Secondly, maybe it’s rejection, but it’s fear of the unknown first. So what I try to do when I’m helping people is remove the unknowns. So as an example, whenever I’ve done five TEDx talks, and a lot of people that doing a TEDx is even more scary than doing a talk, of course. And so what I always say is people say, do you memorize your talks? Because they’ve seen me do other talks, which I don’t memorize. 90% of what you’ll see me speak on a stage, I don’t memorize. I could might have a picture of something and that reminds me what I want to talk about if I’m using the PowerPoint, but I don’t memorize. I know the story. I don’t need to remember the story or I’m on stage and I’m like, I’m just going to wing it based on what the audience asked me, but. Five TEDx’s, five for five, I’ve memorized at least 50 times each. So why did I do that? It’s because the TEDx talk is something that’s going to go out there potentially and could be your hallmark. And I know that you signed an agreement for a lot of the TEDx’s that say they can air it no matter what it looks like. So you’re thinking as well, it could be a bad talk and they’re still going to air it. So you want to make sure you get that right. So for me, I memorized the TEDx. Why am I doing that? It’s because then I don’t have an unknown. Now, is it possible? It still might not go perfect, of course. But what I’m getting at is, if I know my talk, I’ve gotten rid of the unknown. Because the unknown for a lot of people is, what if I say the wrong thing when I’m up there? Well, if you have it dialed in and you have it really locked in your head, the odds are lower that you’re going to say the wrong thing. Now, the one thing is the more experience you have doing this, the more if you say, if you get off track, you can get yourself back on track. Because there’s another risk you run. If you memorize and you forget one thing, guess what you just forgot? Everything. Because you probably memorized it in an order. Like, first I talk about the dog, then I talk about the cat. But what if you forget you’re talking about the dog? Where is your connector to the cat now? So for me, because I’ve been doing it long enough, I’ll get myself back. But I still memorize it. I always say it’s like this. I’ve memorized it enough that it’s like I built the house, the foundation, so that if I need to, I can break the foundation. Meaning I know it well enough that I can get back on track. But saying all that, I think the more you know what you’re gonna speak about, the more you are comfortable with it, the more you know that topic, the less unknowns there are. Now, as you get speaking, eventually you don’t have to worry about that. You’ll get good enough, you’ll put in the reps, you’ll get good enough that even if somebody says, I need you to go up and talk about this, you’ll probably be able to do it. But what you’re talking about is that person that’s terrified in the first place. So my answer to them, if you’re terrified, two things, one, Figure out, so know your stuff inside and out. But then the second piece, which I didn’t mention yet, is also to remember it’s about the audience and not you. So one of the things we get hung up on is, uh-oh, like, what if they think this of me? What if they think that of me? So what I always try to do is make it about the audience. So I’ll give you an example, real world, of something I do. Is whenever I’m about to do a talk, I always think of a time now, even if you haven’t spoken before, you can still do this. I always think of a time when somebody said that thing you shared changed my life or that when you worked with me, this changed my life. So I think about a testimonial. Before I get, like, so I’m getting on this, going on the stage, they’re introducing me. I’m already thinking in my head about that time that somebody said, when you talked about writing in a journal, a synchronicity journal, that changed my life forever. And why I’m doing that is because it reminds me that the next person’s life who I could change is in that audience that needs me to be on today. But what that also does, it takes all my focus away from me. and puts the focus on who am I delivering this for and who is this about. So that’s what I would say on the fear side. Honestly, on the demonstrating why it’s important to be a good communicator or why it’s important to be able to communicate, that one’s not heard. You literally just have to show them the people that have changed the world the most are the people that communicate. Like just look at whether it’s presidents, whether it’s speakers, you look at people like Steve Jobs, and Apple wouldn’t probably be where it is today if Steve Jobs wasn’t the communicator that he was. Whether a person likes him or not, the guy was a world-class communicator. Martin Luther King Jr. probably wouldn’t have changed the world without that famous iconic speech. So what I’m getting at is we have so many examples of the fact that if you want to make an impact on the world, and that could be your staff in a staff meeting, but if you want to make an impact on the world, you need to be able to communicate with the world.

Hugh Ballou:

I had to pivot in 2007. I remember May, it was a Wednesday, and 40 years of my back to the audience as a conductor. I had to turn around and face people. Now, that’s scary if you let it be. But I gotta tell you, speaking is a whole lot easier than conducting, because you make a mistake there, you’re dead meat. If you make a mistake, start with the wrong word, you can just sort of pivot. I think one of the worst mistakes I see with people make is they make excuses for something they just did and point it out, when really, what you said, it’s about the audience. And I can’t tell you, when I’ve done hundreds of speeches and 600 of these interviews, I have said things to people that I don’t remember, and they come back just like you said. The one thing you said to me made a difference. So we tend to underestimate our own abilities, don’t we?

Corey Poirier:

Absolutely. Yeah, we totally do. I mean, what’s that great quote that says, we overestimate what we can do in a month, but we drastically underestimate what we can do in a year. And so I’m paraphrasing. I know that’s not the exact quote, but you get the idea. But I agree completely. We totally underestimate ourselves. And yeah, I mean, I feel like it’s a call to action to stop doing that. But yes, we totally underestimate ourself.

Hugh Ballou:

Well, and as a leader of a non-profit or a faith-based institution, we represent that organization, we represent the brand, we represent the value proposition of it. So we bring some wisdom to the stage that nobody else has. So how do we… And one of the things that musicians do that most company leaders don’t do is we rehearse. The better we are, the more we rehearse and the more fine-tuned we become. So how do we get better at our craft? How do we get in the community and do some speeches? Got any wisdom on that for people to build a skill set?

Corey Poirier:

Yeah, absolutely. And I would agree with you too. I’m a musician as well. And so that’s another part of my life. And, and, you know, it, it’s funny because when I compare that I’ve compared the two over the years and comedy as well included, and in order, I found Early on, playing music live and getting good at music was the toughest thing. And now I’ve found of the three, it’s the easiest thing. Once you get comfortable with it, once you get used to it, because the song doesn’t lie, right? Like you’re playing certain chords, you might arrange it differently, but you’re playing certain chords and the song doesn’t lie. So I find that speaking and comedy take a lot more reps, I’ll call them, but a lot more times on stage to get good. And to answer your question about how you do that, the very first easy starting point would be, I mean, the low-hanging fruit, as we might call it, would be Toastmasters. So go to Toastmasters locally. It’ll probably cost you 55 bucks for a year. I don’t know if it’s still the same price. That’s what it was when I joined years ago. But, you know, you join and you’ll be in front of a group of people that’ll want to see you get better. as a communicator. Another option is rotary. Join a rotary, give back, and then you’ll also get speaking opportunities. But if you want to get real, like, I want to get corporate or in-person speaking opportunities, the other option would be something like a Chamber of Commerce. So what I recommend to people, or board a trade, or depending what they call it in the area they’re in, but what I recommend to people, and it’s how I kind of really got kicking in over time is let’s say reach out to a chamber of commerce and say, hey, I noticed you have some speakers coming up and each month you seem to have a speaker on a different subject. You know, I’ve been a speaker myself, however you want to word that, but I’ve been a speaker for a bit. Normally I’d like to charge for my talks. So if you want, if you’re not charging yet, maybe say normally I’d like to charge for my talks because I think words matter. You have to be authentic. but normally I’d like to charge my talks, but I’m willing to give a no-fee talk. Don’t use the word free, a no-fee talk at your chamber on this subject, whatever it is. Here’s what’s really cool about that. A, that’ll give you that stage that you mentioned, and chambers are often looking for speakers and often chambers don’t pay, sometimes they do. But then what you can say is, and in return, all I’m looking for is if you like my talk, that you give me a good endorsement, Let me, if I’m okay with it, if you’re okay with it, let me bring in my own person to film my talk so I get some footage. Just say you’re trying a new talk and you want footage of it. And then the last piece is, which was a game changer for me, I also would like to hand out an evaluation form to make sure that I’m getting better all the time. And so on my evaluation form, what I did is I had seven questions, but one of them in the middle was, do you know of others who could benefit from a similar talk? And so I could go in, do a chamber talk for 100 people in a room and walk out of there with five more talks. So that’s how you can go beyond just like doing one Toastmaster speech to actually getting in front of a real audience doing a talk that generates more talk. So that’s what I would do.

Hugh Ballou:

Brilliant ideas. Folks, if you didn’t get all that down, there’s a transcript at thenonprofitexchange.org. So Corey, we’re coming to the end of this. A lot of good stuff. We could talk for hours, but I’m gonna share your website. So tell us what the link is for your website.

Corey Poirier:

The main website, I’ll say, is coreyporeamedia.com. And if you go there, usually a pop-up will open up. And that’s just for those that may want to join our newsletter so they’re in the loop on different things we’re doing. So the first time a person goes to the page, there may be a pop-up. You can ignore it if you want. But if you want to get on our newsletter, you just literally put in your email address, your name. But this is kind of my main website. For those that want to know about the work I’m doing, we have bluetox.com. We do a lot of different things with Bluetox. Bluetox is meant to be separate from Cory, but this is my website that kind of, this is where I send people if they’re thinking of booking me on their show and stuff like that. So, CoryPoreaMedia.com.

Hugh Ballou:

Lot to learn, lot to learn going there. So Corey, a lot of really good stuff here. So as we close out here, in a world that prizes productivity, they just award that, how do leaders stay grounded and aligned with their purpose?

Corey Poirier:

Wow. This isn’t easy, but there’s two answers to this. The non-easy part is to have a system for reminding yourself what your purpose is, like your why, why you do this. So what I mean by that is maybe once a year you do a check-in. Am I still living on purpose? Am I still doing what I committed to do originally? That’s one option. But a more tangible way to do it, which is something that I’ve done all throughout the years, is I wrote a personal mission statement. You can call it a purpose statement, a mission statement, whatever you want to call it. But I wrote this statement that defined why I was doing what I was doing. And here’s what my mission was, to be the guy that motivated, donated, inspired, educated, and entertained. And the idea there is I have that written, it’s in my wallet in handwriting, but the idea is that I can look at that and remind myself, here’s why I’m doing what I’m doing and this is my purpose. And by doing that, it reminds me a couple of things. One, if somebody says, are you willing to do this for us or take this on? I can look and say, okay, is it going to allow me to inspire, motivate, entertain? Like I can go through the five. If it’s four of the five, it’s an easy yes with a regret. If it’s zero or one, easy no with a regret. But what it also does by having that, and I also have it in my office in front of me when I’m in the office, it reminds me of why I do what I do. So I think having a visual reminder of some sort is one great approach. And then whether it’s every three months, six months, or a year, maybe schedule in your calendar a purpose check-in to make sure you’re still grounded in why you started doing what you’re doing or why you’re doing what you’re doing right now.

Hugh Ballou:

Love it. I’ll put in the link for the Blue Talks website as well. Connecting purpose and service. You know, Corey, this has been priceless information today. So there’s a contact button on your website, Corey Poirier Media. So do you respond to people that reach out to you?

Corey Poirier:

Oh, 100%, yes. We never leave anybody suffering silence. So if somebody reaches out, good or bad, but if somebody reaches out, then yeah, absolutely, they’re gonna get a reply.

Hugh Ballou:

This is refreshing. You’ve encouraged us to think about leaders embodying principles of authenticity, influence, and purpose. We’re so closely aligned with this. Corey Poirier, it’s been great having you on the show today. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with our audience. Thank you.

Corey Poirier:

It’s been an absolute pleasure. Till next time and to be continued.