This picture is of our actual core team – they’re women I love and respect and I’m grateful beyond grateful to have them in my life.

A phrase we use occasionally at Influence in reference to people within the network is “they’re on our team”. We don’t mean they have a job or they attend our core team meetings, but we value them (YOU) just as much as we value those that do. Women that are on our team are simply women that get what we’re about. They understand what we mean when we say we want to make online life mean something. They are asking God to help them seize and steward the influence He’s given them. We’ll lovingly speak about y’all when we want you to teach a class or when we’ve seen something amazing you’ve shared in the forums and we say – “Oh. I love that _________. She’s on our team.”

As you’ve probably seen, Influence isn’t an exclusive club. It’s isn’t a who’s who list of famous women online. It’s just women genuinely wanting to do this thing together and to find that when we step away from the internet, we’ve made our time here count. It’s not a particularly prestigious thing to be on our team, but goodness gracious – we pray that once you’ve joined us, you’ll feel loved and uplifted. Today I thought I’d share with you one core value that we want all women of Influence to be about.

Women on our team should speak life.

I wrote an eBook last year that ended up challenging the mess out of myself in regards to how I use my words and how I purpose to communicate with those around me. In it, I gave the example of a driver I encountered early one morning in a Walmart parking lot. It was crazy early and the parking lot was deserted, so I cut through the lanes to go straight to the front of the store. I was no where in danger of hitting the other driver, but my actions TOTALLY offended her and she proceeded to lay on her horn and scream and shout obscenities at me from a long way off. The experience kind of rattled me, but it also showed me that we’re all like that woman when we’re online. We have this ability to SCREAM life and bless others or we can, in selfishness and sin, SCREAM death.

For as long as we live, we will have excuses to be rude and sarcastic. To complain. To criticize. To talk behind others backs. To say snarky things or say just enough to make others worry about what we’re thinking. BUT. For every excuse we have to be negative, we have a thousand more to be positive. As women of Influence, women who have been influenced by Jesus Christ, we shouldn’t even waste our time with justifying our negative words. Not when our time is precious and people are listening.

I’m not saying we’re always going to be perfect. I’m not saying our actual team has always been perfect. I am saying, it’s something we’re seriously committed to here and we want you to be as well. However large your influence is today, people are listening and watching and waiting to hear what it is you’ll say with your words and your actions. Your children as you greet them in the morning. Your roommates. Your coworkers. Your husband. Your twitter followers.

Tell them today who they really are and how amazing He really is.
Speak truth and life and encouragement and blessing to them.
Be on our team. We’d love to have you.