Jon Levy Talks at Ted on
What makes us influential
Full Transcript
Welcome to the Age of Influence
Jon Levy
A few years back, I was at a launch event for a new product.
I struck up a conversation with a woman in her early twenties. As people often do, she asked,
“So, what do you do?”
I explained, “I’m a human behavioral scientist. I study decision-making and influence.”
She immediately lit up and said,
“Then you should study me.”
A Shift in How We Define Success
I was a little confused, but I didn’t want to be rude. So I asked,
“What do you do that I should study?”
She replied, very simply,
“I’m an influencer.”
Up until that moment, I thought I had a general grasp of career options. I don’t think anyone had ever told me I could just be influential professionally.
But as you may have noticed—and as this woman clearly understood—our relationship to influence has changed.
In fact, influence has become the new mark of success.
Traditionally, success was defined by power.
The more power someone had, the more they could accomplish.
Unfortunately, power was often gained through authority, control, or even violence.
And while power still reigns in many places, in today’s connected world, the rules are changing.
The Limits of Power
As we’ve seen in recent years—particularly in the entertainment industry—power has its limitations.
Those who use their position to intimidate, threaten, or control are eventually called out and exposed.
Power is often short-lived.
Which is why, for many, the pursuit of power has been replaced by the pursuit of influence.
Unlike power, influence cannot be wielded through threats or force.
And it isn’t limited to an elite group of people from the “right” families, schools, or companies.
Influence is earned and granted.
Which means if you understand how to gain and exercise it, your only limitation is deciding what to use it for.
Welcome to the age of influence.
Influence in the Real World
In this new age, parents complaining online can dramatically impact major corporations—
like when a pharmaceutical CEO was called into a congressional hearing after hiking the price of EpiPens.
Then there’s Malala—a young Pakistani girl who shared her struggle to attend school under Taliban rule.
Her near-fatal attack and advocacy led to global awareness and support for access to education.
But influence isn’t limited to social justice, taking on big pharma, or becoming famous online.
What Influence Really Is
At its most basic level, influence is simply the ability to affect a person or an outcome.
Which means most of the influence we care about happens at work, in our industry, within our families, or in our communities.
And there—you don’t need a massive online following.
In an era where everyone can be heard, what matters is who we give our attention to and how much we trust them.
Influence is built on two essential factors:
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Who you’re connected to
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How much they trust you
A Personal Turning Point
About a decade ago, I was in my late twenties. And by society’s standards, I wasn’t exactly living up to my potential—whatever that means.
I had big ambitions. But whenever I had an idea, I either didn’t know the right people, or the people who trusted me weren’t in a position to help.
I knew I needed a path to influence—but I wasn’t going to take the traditional route.
I wasn’t climbing corporate ladders or heading into academia to become a thought leader.
So I had to find another way.
The Science of Social Contagion
You’ve probably heard the saying, “It’s not what you know, but who you know,” or
“You are the average of your five closest friends.”
It sounds like a cliché—but science backs it up.
Researchers Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler discovered that human behavior is contagious.
If you have a friend who’s obese, your likelihood increases by 45%.
Friends of friends see a 20% increase.
Their friends see a 5% increase.
That’s three degrees of influence.
And it’s not just obesity.
It applies to happiness, smoking, voting, marriage, and divorce.
Curating Community
This research suggests one of the most powerful things we can do is curate the people around us.
Not only can we develop traits we admire, but those traits ripple outward to friends, loved ones, and coworkers.
So imagine what happens when you bring together people you admire.
Your life improves.
Their lives improve.
And as their lives improve, yours rises even further.
Everybody wins.
When you bring people together and form strong bonds, you create a community.
And a community’s diversity of knowledge, experience, and talent allows problems to be solved faster—with a multiplier effect.
This suggests that our accomplishments may be less about innate talent and more about the communities we build.
Influencing the Influencer
So I thought: if I could bring influential people together, maybe I could influence the influencers.
After all, not all of us will become CEOs or Nobel laureates—but all of us can build trusted relationships.
To do that, I needed to solve two problems:
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How do I get the attention of people I admire?
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How do I get them to trust me—and each other—quickly?
Novelty and Trust
Researchers Bunzeck and Düzel discovered that the brain is highly responsive to novelty.
Humans are drawn to novelty like moths to light—or teenagers to their phones.
If I could create something novel enough, I could capture attention.
But attention alone isn’t influence.
Trust is built through effort.
That’s where the IKEA effect comes in.
A Completely Insane Idea
So I asked myself: what novel, shared activity could get influential people to connect and trust one another?
And then I had a completely insane idea.
What if I could get the most influential people in culture to come to my home, cook me dinner, wash my dishes, clean my floors—and then thank me for the experience?
A Final Thought
You don’t need status, titles, or accolades to be influential.
Influence comes down to who you’re connected to and how much they trust you.
It comes from the strength of the community you build.
If there’s one thing worth doing, it’s bringing together the people you admire.
There are few greater joys in life.
And when you do, your life improves, their lives improve, and even their friends’ lives improve.
All because of you.
Thank you.