How does Charisma relate to Greek Mythology: Scott Mason

How can you build your charisma? How does Greek mythology offer constructive leadership analogies?

Episode 118 (Scott is based in New York City)

In this conversation with Scott Mason, we explore:

• Charisma as a leadership quality
• The difference between entertainment and charisma
• Why powerful charisma both attracts and repels
• Why we need heroes that are flawed
• How to recognize charisma
• The importance of enabling the connection between your head and heart
• The rich litanies of Greek mythology
• Why Greek myths are a safe source of leadership lessons

About Scott Mason

Scott is a graduate of Columbia Law School and worked as legal counsel & a senior executive with government and nonprofit organizations for a quarter of a century.

Scott's insights on Greek mythology and business success have appeared in book compilations and online magazines and blogs; he additionally was the founding host of the Greater New York City area's official podcast for Toastmasters International, the world's largest public speaking organization.

Scott encourages everyone he knows to find a personal mythological avatar whose characteristics inspire them and keep them reaching high; his is Helios, the god of the sun, and has been ever since he was a little boy.

 

Arrange for your complimentary Charisma Assessment with Scott. Select a meeting time from his calendar.

https://calendly.com/scottmasonllc/ignite-your-charisma

 

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Excerpts from this conversation with Scott Mason

06:26

Actually, I'm gonna bust you out a little bit, George, before we started taping you and I had a conversation about some apprentices that you're bringing on, and they were from Africa, and you wanted to work with them to help them help you.

I find it interesting in light of that conversation that you mentioned Perseus because Perseus from a symbolic perspective, and I actually wrote a series of essays about this for LinkedIn and Instagram represents also someone who understands the need to ask for help.

When it comes to achieving their goals. He literally saw the thought originally, he made the promise to kill Medusa basically as a boast.

But then the king that he made this boast in front of held him to it, he realised pretty quickly, I can't do this alone. This is more than any one person can handle.

And so he sought the help of the gods Athena, and Hermes, who literally walked him through an entire process along with some other folks along on the way to find Medusa. And then to destroy her.

On the way back, he stopped in Ethiopia to help some other people out. That was a woman who was being chained to a rock to be eaten by a monster as a as a sacrifice. He used Medusa his head, or maybe actually use a sword to kill that monster.

But in any event, he's left with this woman, Andromeda, who was an Ethiopian Princess, flew back to Greece, and they found it actually the greatest ancient Greek civilization of Mycenae.

And so I think that in terms of what you just said to me, about what you're doing in your own professional life right now, as a growing business person, where you want to go, and the possible outcomes of what your work with other people could lead to Perseus as perhaps an even greater and more profound metaphor than you even realised.

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Anyone can be charismatic so long as they take the four foundational steps and apply them into their lives to become charismatic, and it manifests itself very differently depending on who you are and what age and stage and and other characteristics you have in your mind.

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22:19

Your intended message could not be a more appropriate set of words, for the answer to that question.

When I decided to land upon this framework as the tool for passing on my message, I knew that there would be a lot of people that responded to it exactly, as you just described. And in fact, one of the things that I viewed initially, as a sign that this ultimately would succeed, was the amount of negativity that I received, unsolicited online.

I had people, by the way, who didn't seem to understand that I realised that Greek myths, right, like Zeus doesn't really exist. So I had people that were concerned about my immortal soul, or people who, you know, reminded me that I wasn't talking about the Bible, that sort of stuff.

And I also, though, had people including some in my immediate circle, who felt the need to send me text messages, or DM saying that what I was doing sucked.

Actually, George, that's charisma. Because I tell you, how many times when you're scrolling through social media, do you feel the need to stop and tell someone that you hate what they're doing? Usually, most people just scroll on, it said to me, it had an impact.

My message is not intended to go to everyone. If you don't like Greek myths, well, I can get you to like them. But if you don't like allegory, if you don't like something that's out of the box, and creative, and there's nothing wrong with folks that aren't that way, I don't judge them. This ain't for you.

The clients I have, make no mistake, they are committed. I have a client who began my program, we start talking about ethics from the beginning, because ethics do relate to charisma and less direct way.

He started reading Aristotelian ethics. This on his free time because of that, that's commitment.

I have other clients who when we do the actual mission statement that we sent her their charismatic exercises around, found an obscure Greek goddess that really spoke to her and that helped her frame her message and tighten and understand exactly who and what she needs to be.

This program is not for those who are just interested in what I call pep rally motivation, or you go girl sort of encouragement of what you need.

This is for those who are seriously seeking transformation as as cerebral. I'll be fun as the Greek myths are That's the depth that I seek for my clients to go to. The deeper you dig George, the more you find

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Your Intended Message is the podcast about how you can boost your career and business success by improving your communication skills. We’ll examine the aspects of how we communicate one-to-one, one to few and one to many – plus that important conversation, one to self.

In these interviews we will explore presentation skills, public speaking, conversation, persuasion, negotiation, sales conversations, marketing, team meetings, social media, branding, self talk and more.

 

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George is a specialist in executive communication skills. That includes conversation and presentation. He’s fascinated by way we communicate and influence behaviors. He delivers training and coaching programs to help leaders and promising professionals deliver the intended message for greater success.

 

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