Leveraging Thought Leadership

We start the New Year by looking back at a few of our best guests of 2020. We start with John Jantsch, the Founder of Duct Tape Marketing Consulting Network, and the author of The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur. John discusses making his consulting networking, packaging the content to be delivered by others, and how he maintains quality control over the process of those that join the network. Next, we chat with Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and internationally bestselling author of Contagious, Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst. Jonah shares the challenges and joys of being a keynote speaker, how price can help you narrow down which engagements to take, the relationship you need to develop with the speaker's bureaus, and why it's important to add value off stage to your bookings Last but not least we finish with the incredible Tom Peters. Tom is the co-author of In Search of Excellence in addition to seventeen other books that have sold more than 10 million copies combined and recipient of the Thinkers50 Lifetime Achievement Award. Tom discusses writing about Brand You, how it is misinterpreted, the evolution of how we see personal brands and intellectual property.

Today's guest is Jen Cohen the Vice President of Engineering at the Toyota Research Institute (TRI). Jen has over twenty years of technology and operations leadership experience that she uses to make technology work for business. Jen shares how her work at TRI is helping to strengthen the research structure that is developing technology that amplifies humans, allowing them to age in place and continue to enjoy their lives with the aid of AI and robotics without replacing the human aspect. Jen discusses the ever-important need to create processes in the development stage that will guide a project to completion. With 50% of IT projects failing, she understands the need to have effective change agents in place and to never take shortcuts in development. During our discussion of what successful thought leadership means to Jen, she shares the concept of Ikigai, a Japanese concept meaning "A reason for being." We chat about how our lives feel most fulfilled when we incorporate work that we love and how TRI is helping people to achieve their Ikigai. Three Key Takeaways: · Thought Leaders can include various forms of automation in their work, the key is to ensure it enhances the human experience and does not replace the human. · When developing processes for anything thought leadership should look at the end goal and ensure the steps to get there are developed early and nothing is skipped. · Ikigai is a great concept for thought leaders. Finding ways to help others live their best life by doing work they love will increase the productivity and satisfaction of clients.

Today's guest is Cara Macklin, Founder of Caram, Innovative Entrepreneur, and Success Coach helping entrepreneurs to do things differently, accelerate success, and create meaningful change. Cara discusses her early work in her family business of healthcare and hospitality and how she helped to more than double the size of the business, while training as a coach that allowed her to understand and replicate processes and outcomes. We discuss the type of clients Cara works with, how she finds them, and why fit it isn't a good fit you might be better off referring the client to someone else. We wrap up our conversation discussing how Cara has taken coaching, which often has an outdated modality, and create a suite of offerings that allow her to serve clients one-on-one, create groups from various industries together, and finally a wide audience with an online course. If you want a sample of the aid Cara can offer check out this video just for listeners of our podcast! Three Key Takeaways: · Learning to become a coach is one of the best ways to understand the processes of thought leadership and reliably replicate the outcomes. · Your thought leadership isn't going to be the right fit for every client. Passing on clients that don't fit your offerings is better than failing them down the road. · Having multiple modalities will allow your thought leadership to reach a variety of clients with multiple platforms.

Today's guest is Harry Kraemer, a professor of management and strategy at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches in the MBA and the Executive MBA programs. Previous to that he was CEO of Baxter Healthcare. These two careers have given him a unique perspective on how academia and business work hand in hand. Harry shares his journey from being a student at Northwestern to CEO, and back to Northwestern as a professor. We explore the somewhat strange origin of his first book Becoming the Best and how a student was the forcing mechanism that brought it to life. We discuss the trilogy of books (Becoming the Best, From Values to Action and Your 168) that Harry has written over the last ten years and how the themes all tie together to help you become a value-based leader, running a value-based organization while living a value-based life! All of the profit from the sales of Harry's books go to One Acre Fund, we highly encourage you to learn more about this incredible initiative. Three Key Takeaways: · Thought leaders can gain a lot from listening to the academic and business communities and developing a perspective that understands both. · Thought leaders need to know their values and their purpose if they want to understand how they affect how you lead and interact with people. · Thought Leaders must live their values even in the face of distraction and difficulty.

Today's guest is Rita Clifton, the co-founder, and chairman of BrandCap. She has been called "The Brand Guru" by the Financial Times and is the author of a new book Love Your Imposter: Be Your Best Self, Flaws and All. Rita is best known for her work on branding, so a book on imposter syndrome might seem like a departure. She shares why she wrote the book and the principles from branding she incorporated that can work in any aspect of your life. We discuss moving the book to the next stage and creating a business around it. What the goal of that might be, how it could play out, and how to scale it to reach more people than you ever could 1-on-1 or by webinars. In addition, we discuss the change many have experience of working from home using video tools to communicate and how it has added a touch of humanization to a business that is dearly needed in today's troubling times. If you feel like you are just faking it in your job you are not alone. 70% of people feel that way at some point in their career and this might be the conversation you need to hear in order to start believing in yourself. Three Key Takeaways: · Even the most successful professionals often feel like an imposter. Thought Leaders really need to come to understand themselves to overcome that feeling and help others. · When taking your thought leadership from written to scale, you need to fully understand your content or the tools you build from it will fail. · Often thought leaders will think of a brand as a logo, design, and packaging but it is the substance that lies beneath it all that is the most important part.

Today's guest is Dorie Clark, one of the Top 50 Thinkers in the world by Thinkers 50 and the #1 Communication coach in the world by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards. She is the author of Entrepreneurial You and Reinventing You as well as a business professor at Duke and Columbia University. Dorie joins us to discuss what traditional avenues are still working for thought leaders in a world on pause due to COVID-19 in addition to what creative and new ideas have come from having to adapt to how the industry functions. Dorie shares how she created an online course by starting with a test group and developing the content in real-time, asking questions,s and taking feedback from the participants to nail down what was most important to them. Plus she explains how she adds community to the fully developed course and why that aspect is so important to make the content really stick. Last we discuss the future of thought leadership post-COVID-19, the plans that are being made to account for the unknown variables that still lie ahead, what changes we've made that we might stick with and what old habits will we return to. If you are thinking about developing online content or worried about how to continue business in the future Dorie and Peter have some amazing advice for you in this episode. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leaders can gain an invaluable amount of feedback from running their content at a discount with a test group. * You can add additional value to your thought leadership by developing a community that allows peer-to-peer learning. * Thought Leaders need to be prepared for how the industry will change post-COVID-19 and what aspects we are currently living with that might stay the same.

Today's guest is Rhett Power. In 2007 he co-founded Wild Creations which became one of Inc. Magazines 500 Fastest-Growing US companies. Currently, he is a co-founder of Courageous Leadership a consultancy that brings an amalgamation of experienced behavior scientists, entrepreneurs, and best-selling authors together. He is the best-selling author of The Entrepreneur's Book of Actions and One Million Frogs. Rhett discusses how the need to follow his gut led him from position to position while avoiding becoming complacent and then as he became better known avoided becoming over-committed. Rhett has a strong background as a writer, starting with Inc. Magazine and he shares how working for them allowed him to use their brand recognition to open doors and meet people he previously might not have received access to. Rhett hosts Linkedin Live interviews and he details how he is not only able to build two and three other pieces of content out of each interview but how he is building relationships that help share his content, introduce new people, and even become clients! Three Key Takeaways: · Thought leaders need to trust their gut and move to new challenges when it tells them to. · Live interviews via podcast or Linkedin live can be turned into multiple pieces of written short-form Thought Leadership after the fact. · Building a following for your thought leadership is a multi-year commitment. You have to have a work ethic around it and be persistent.

Today's guest is Michele Zanini, the co-founder and Management Director of Management Lab and co-author with Gary Hamel of the best-selling book Humanorcracy a thought-provoking book about organizational change that will help you scale the creative ability of each person in your organization and break through the bureaucracy that often kills innovation. Michele discusses why many organizations continue to operate with a top-down bureaucracy heavy structure that is outdated, while those that embrace change and enable the power of each individual in the company are having record-breaking production and innovation. We discuss the struggle of creating and transmitting thought leadership ideas internally across a company with thousands of employees and how enabling the voices that are often not heard, both inside and outside of an organization can be part of the solution. Michele and Bill also talk about the need for a clear and solid strategy and how it will be impossible to create compelling thought leadership without it. If this deep conversation leaves you wanting more pick up Humanorcracy and for a limited time you can get a four-hour free course filled with tools and tips that will help you create a resilient, creative, and daring organization! Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders should consider an approach that unleashes the creative potential of each individual in an organization. Thought leaders will need to develop a clear and well thought out strategy if they want to cultivate persuasive thought leadership. Thought leaders in an organization should reach out to the voices that are often not heard to find new points of view that are likely valuable and overlooked.

Today's guest is Luke Collins, the Managing Director, and Global Editor-in-Chief at EY. Luke has had a number of thought leadership roles at high profile companies with a background in journalism before that. Luke talks with us about thought leadership being at an inflection point where there is tension between the need to push users towards the products you are offering and the need to retain a sense of objectivity that engenders trust. We discuss how EY managed to reframe their thought leadership early in the year with the outbreak of COVID-19 and how they are using a Now, Next, Beyond framework to manage what type of content they publish as the world changes. Next Luke shares how he is using his journalistic sensibilities to help build content that is able to grab reader attention in the first 20 seconds and present short-form articles that deliver powerful and useful information. Plus we discuss how you can use the same content in different formats to reach the end-user where they are and not where you want them to be. If you want to make content that tells the user what they need to know in a manner they will actually consume it, this is an episode filled with advice for you. Three Key Takeaways: · Thought leaders need to deliver the information leaders want to know and the information they need to know. · The format of your thought leadership is critical. Breaking it down into bite-sized chunks is more effective than a 3000-word essay. · Creating thought leadership like a journalist would deliver a story can capture an audience and connect with them in an impactful way.

Today's guest is the "Dean of Innovation" Jeff DeGraff, is the founder of the Innovatrium an innovation consulting firm focusing on creating innovation culture, capability, and community. Jeff is also a business professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and bestselling author of The Creative Mindset. Jeff sits down with Peter to discuss how positive deviance is the driving force behind innovation and why bureaucracy both can stifle progress by attempting to pull everything into a more traditional standard. Jeff explains his business model, how it evolved, and how finding new applications for established schools of thought has allowed him to create hybrid schools that have become the key to innovation. Last Jeff tells us the four things you should think about in your life, why they are important, and why for better or worse you need to own them! If you are the creative type, feeling stifled by red tape this episode will give you the insight you need to charge forward! Three Key Takeaways: Cutting edge thought leadership will often feel deviant to the norms because it does not fit into the established standards. Thought leaders should surround themselves with other talented people that will challenge your thinking and force you to regularly evolve. Often there is no career for thought leaders. You'll need to create your own job and make it up as you go.

We are thrilled to have Kara Goldin join us again! Kara is the Founder and CEO of Hint Inc, the host of the podcast Unstoppable with Kara, a keynote speaker first-time author of the best-selling book Undaunted! Kara shares how the four-year process of writing the book played out, while she continued to run her company and host a podcast! She explains how continuous e-mails from customers who were influenced by her story of becoming an entrepreneur influenced the stories she shared and how the stories in the book were therapeutic to share. We discuss with Kara how the book has helped the business and how it can be used as a recruiting tool for attracting talent to the company. Many first time authors have different objectives for their book, Kara talks about what she wants from the book and what success would look like for her. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more about Kara and Hint Inc. check out episode 90! Three Key Takeaways: · Thought leaders can take the stories of their experiences and hardships and turn them into a book or larger content to help their audience. · A book about your thought leadership can be a good tool to attract people who will better understand you to want to work with you. · Thought leaders who keep an open means of communication with their audience can use that to determine what content would be useful to them.

Today's guest is Geoff Woods, the co-founder, and vice-president of The One Thing, a training and education company based on the best-selling book The One Thing. Geoff is also the host of the One Thing Podcast which is in the top 5% of podcasts in the world. Geoff shares how he had a successful job that lacked fulfillment and how he found his purpose after rushing to meet Jay Papasan when he came off stage at a conference. Geoff faced the uphill task of making a successful business based on the content of The One Thing without the ability to use either Jay or Gary Keller as the face. We dig deep into building content and IP from the book, the business model, and why thought leaders should distance themselves from their own work to ensure the content and assets can stand on their own. Geoff talks to us about the training they do, how they've found success in the virtual space by looking at what they can become and not getting hung up on what the company was in the past. If you want to be able to detach yourself from your product to have the freedom of being obsolete this is an episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders need to invest time in the creation of content that can stand without them in the room. As thought leaders move deeper into virtual events, you need to think hard about how to continue to build a sense of community in that space. A common problem thought leaders face is the inability to look forward. Don't get obsessed with what you used to be to the detriment of what you might become.

Today's guest is Moshe Engelberg, the founder, and CEO of ResearchWorks and author of The Amare Wave. The Amare Wave is an incredible book about breaking away from the old warlike paradigm in business to introduce love and outperform the completion. Moshe explains the origin of the Amare Wave and the common things he found in a traditional business that made him realize the old ways were outdated. He explains how business tradition had a warlike paradigm of terms like "Crush the competition" and "Killing it" that we're creating a resentful environment for employees and clients. Moshe goes on to talk about how brands that are loved tend to build loyalty with their clients and loyalty can quickly turn to profits! Some might think love isn't a suitable word in business, but who doesn't want people to love their company? Join the Amare Wave and watch your profits soar! Three Key Takeaways: The paradigm of business is changing. Is your thought leadership changing with it? Thought leadership can often include words like love that make people uncomfortable, so sometimes you need to be able to use other words to get the same point across. If people come to love your thought leadership, they will be loyal to your brand, and that will result in increased profits.

Today's guest is Mark Victor Hansen, the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul franchise and best-selling author of The Power of Focus, The Aladdin Factor, and Dare to Win. Mark discusses how he shifted from a business going bankrupt to a best-selling author! He shares his years of experience about how the book business has changed from selling books at the back of the room to online, and how things are changing again due to COVID-19. Mark gives incredible insights into how he makes a licensed the Chicken Soup for the Soul books when no one had ever thought it was possible to license a book. We wrap up by disusing how you can keep your name relevant while travel restrictions remain in place by taking advantage of being a podcast guest and learning to speak without an audience in front of you. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders need to keep up with the changing environment of sales for books. Licensing your thought leadership might be the method you have not thought of to reach a huge audience. Thought Leaders should be seeking podcasts to appear on to spread the word about their content while our movement is restricted.

Today's guest is Mike Kleinemaß, Digital Marketing & Communications Expert at ThyssenKrupp, a company that deals with engineering and construction of plant technology. Mike discusses how he came to thought leadership while doing other research and how it fits into his role in digital marketing. Bill and Mike discuss the place of platforms like Linkedin in B2B sales and why building a following and creating truly useful content for your prospective clients is important. In addition, Mike talks about the importance of building a relationship in which you are open and available to answering questions, having conversations, and engaging with your followership instead of just pushing out a message. Mike helped create a task force at ThyssenKrupp and explains how that came to be, the purpose of it, and why those involved need to understand their value within the organization and the impact they have. As a digital marketing and growth expert Mike shares some incredible knowledge that can be applied to any company or organization seeking to understand how to be successful in the digital space. Three Key Takeaways: · As more digital transformations happen thought leaders need to understand the new journey their customers will undertake. · Thought leaders can gain a great deal of insight from examining the analytics of their social media and website. That information can be used to create targeted sales strategies. · Becoming a thought leader for your organization will mean understanding the purpose and goals of the company, then building a strategy to convey that to the right people.

Today's guest is David Hancock, the co-author of 16 books including Performance Driven Thinking, The Best of Guerrilla Marketing, and The Entrepreneurial Author. David is the Founder of Morgan James Publishing and Chairman of Guerrilla Marketing International. David sits down with Peter and immediately puts some commonly held myths regarding publishing to bed. During the course of their conversation, they explore the wants of a publisher and the needs of the author. They discuss the pros and cons of a book advance why it isn't just free money, and what you might want to negotiate for more than an advance. David shares what you'll want to look for in a publisher before finishing our conversation with advice for authors about to seek a publisher for their first or next book. Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders need to be aware that a publisher is not going to take care of everything for you during the publishing process. Many try to seek a book advance, but thought leaders would be better served to negotiate for higher royalists. When seeking a publisher for your book on thought leadership find a publisher who is going to give you the control you need over your content.

Today's guest is James Carbary, founder of Sweet Fish Media, the executive producer of the B2B Growth podcast, and the author of Content-Based Networking. James chats with us about how he is using podcasting in a much more thoughtful and strategic way to create a flywheel of content that can be used outside of the podcast itself. James talks about the questions he asks before an interview to prompt passionate replies that you can build an incredible episode around. We discuss using your podcast guests to do original research to gain powerful insights into the wants and needs of the very people you are looking to help and how you can use that research to fuel your content strategy for months to come. Finally, James shares how he is going beyond the podcast to create communities and achieve content-based networking to create meaningful relationships. If you have a podcast or are thinking of starting one this is the episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders can use a podcast to forge new relationships with guests that can lead to the guest becoming a client. During your podcast don't be afraid to ask the guest to do a short survey you can use to fuel your thought leadership. A podcast about your thought leadership should be named around being a useful resource to the client and not around yourself.

Today's guest is Roger Connors, chairman and co-founder of Zero to Ten, best-selling author of Fix It, Change the Culture, Change the Game, and his upcoming book Get a Coach, Be a Coach. Roger was a co-found of Partners in Leadership before having a successful exit and is one of the top organizational cultural professionals in the world. Roger shares with us how his first book turned into a tipping point for his business to be a break out success. We discuss the lessons learned while building Partners in Leadership and the steps it took for him to successfully exit the company. Roger talks about his new book Get a Coach, Be a Coach, and how the average person has ten coach ready skills. We get into how to get the best out of those skills and coaches as well as the technology needed. If your organization is seeking coaches, you might be surrounded by them and not even know it! This is a great episode for anyone looking for or looking to become a coach for their organization. Three Key Takeaways: If a thought leader wants to be able to exit their business, then it needs to be based around models and not your name and charisma. The average person has ten coach ready skills and most skills take fifteen minutes or less! Thought Leaders using digital solutions need to help organizations adopt a culture that can use it, not just teach them the ins and outs of the software.

Today's guest is Larry English, president, and co-founder of Centric Consulting, a management consulting firm that guides organizations through complex digital business and technology problems. Larry has also recently written Office Optional, a timely book about moving from the office to remote working. Larry explains how his book was in the works before COVID-19, how his company has been working virtually for 20 years, how they have cultivated a positive work culture, and how they are teaching others to do the same. We discuss the issues employees face when starting to work remotely, like finding a work/life balance, managing the freedom of not being in an office, and avoiding having your team feel disconnected from each other and the organization. We end the conversation talking about understanding how a book can play into your business, why something's that are important to do won't have a measurable ROI, and why producing content can give you an edge on your competition. This is a great episode for anyone working in or managing a company dealing with the hardships of moving your teams to work virtually. Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership will play a huge part in maintaining the culture of an organization during the move to remote working. Not all thought leadership will have a hard ROI, yet the importance of your content will be immense. Thought Leaders should consider the breadth of their content and how it will play into the future of how people work and live.

Today's guest is Trond Arne Undheim, author of Pandemic Aftermath and Disruption Games, host of Futurized Podcast, speaker, and futurist. Trond joins us to share how it can be tricky being a thought leader on a blend of topics and how there is an underlying common thread that connects it all together. We discuss why Trond writes books, how he monetizes them, and why sales of the book aren't where your focus should be. Trond explains what a Futurist is and how he has grown into that title. Plus we look at the future of thought leadership post COVID-19 and why Trond believes the role is going to come roaring back! Three Key Takeaways: Networking in thought leadership isn't just about connecting people, it also involves making knowledge connections. Writing a book on your thought leadership can create a gateway to paid speaking. Thought Leaders need to have actionable content instead of motivational speeches. There is no alternative to a knowledge-based view of the future.

Today's guest is Elizabeth Bachman, Presentation Skills Trainer at Strategic Speaking for Results, host of Speakers Who Get Results podcast, and former founder and artistic director of the Tyrolean Opera Program. Elizabeth shares how she helps professionals find their voice, get on the stage and elevate their profile within their organization. We discuss building credibility, overcoming stage fright, and ways to find opportunities to get on the stage Elizabeth discusses how her incredible talents as an opera director have allowed her to shape the way an audience takes in what speakers are sending out and how you can tailor your message to the different audiences without having to change the meaning of your content. We wrap up the conversation talking about Elizabeth's passion for working with women to break the gender stereotypes that exist. She shares valuable advice for women looking to break into the speaking scene and why allies could be the difference-maker. The advice in this episode can take young speakers out from behind their computer to the stage and beyond! Three Key Takeaways: If you want to be recognized for your Thought Leadership you have to stand up and be noticed. Having a poor speaking engagement doesn't have to be the end of your Thought Leadership. It is simply a moment to learn, go back to the basics, and continue to practice. Thought Leaders should seek allies who believe in you to keep you going when you doubt yourself.

Today's guest is Mark Hunter, author of best-selling books High Profit Prospecting, High Profit Sales, and his newest book A Mind for Sales, Mark is a Certified Speaking Professional, and one of the top 50 sales and marketing leaders in the world. Mark shares with us how the role of sales has changed over the years as technology has evolved and how it is changing again in the face of COVID-19. We discuss how to modify sales training to deliver it online with the same efficiency as in person. Mark talks about the need to protect your fee, regardless of the method your content is delivered because your fee should be based on the outcome of your content. This episode is full of amazing sales tips from one of the world's best! If you want to keep up with the changing landscape you'll want to tune in to this episode. Three Key Takeaways: Sell your thought leadership is less about education and more about helping a client to see what they did not think was possible. If you need to take your sales training online you'll need to break your thought leadership into smaller bit-sized chunks then you would for a two day event. The price of your thought leadership needs to be based on the outcomes you deliver and not the method of delivery.

Today's guest is Bennie Fowler, former Group Vice President, Global Quality and New Model Launch at the Ford Motor Company. Bennie has taken his 40 years of executive experience and is now President and CEO of Bennie Fowler LLC where he is helping clients with their most challenging and complex business problems. Bennie shares where his passion for thought leadership comes from and how his decades of experience in the C-Suite have played a big role in his ability to help others now. We discuss how teams can deliver quality and productivity at the same time when good leadership is in place. Bennie talks about how he wrote down and documented the various processes he was involved with at Ford and how those practices have helped in creating content for his new venture. If you are an executive thinking about making the jump to thought leadership, this episode has some great advice on what you'll need to do to create a road map to success in a new career. Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders can use the years of experience in a previous role to develop new content. Thought Leaders need to be able to adjust and adapt to the needs of their clients. When transitioning from executive to Thought Leader you'll want to have a road map of where you want to go and who you want to help.

Today's guest is Brandon Steiner, the founder of the Steiner Agency and Collectible Exchange, host of Unplugged Podcast, and author of You Gotta Have Balls and The Business Playbook. Brandon is a sports marketer, renowned motivational speaker, and creator of the Everything Bagel! Brandon shares how he actually created the Everything Bagel in 1973 before starting Steiner Sports where he represented athletes for speaking engagements and corporate appearances. Brandon talks about how the blog he started opened the door to become a speaker and author. He explains how he is open and honest, which might not always be pretty but creates a close connection with the audience. We also discuss how Brandon branched out from his sports crowd to join the McKay Group to grow as a speaker and author. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders need to create content for their audience to get to know them and trust their voice. Thought Leadership should be truthful and transparent, even when it shows the hardships of your journey. If you thought leadership encourages others to grow and change, you need to be able to grow and change as well.

Today's guest is Nora Super, the Executive Director at Milken Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that helps people build meaningful lives. She is also the Executive Director of the Alliance to Improve Dementia Care at the Milken Institute. Nora explains the power of Convening Authority and how it helps in thought leadership to make high-level changes to global problems. We chat about the need to get the right people in the room and how to get others to understand the importance of your issue. We also discuss the creation of the Alliance to Improve Dementia Care, the white paper that started it, and the types of members that are included to create a community through a shared passion to find clarity around the mission and purpose. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders need to get the right people in the room to find the right solutions. A topic might be important to you, but unless your thought leadership makes it important to others it will fall on deaf ears. If your thought leadership duplicates work that is already being done it might be best to join forces with them to elevate the conversation.

Today's guest is Terry Jones, founder of Kayak and Travelocity, author of Disruption Off and Innovation On. Terry is a digital disruptor, and venture capitalist with a deep knowledge of what it takes to change and thrive in a changing industry. We discuss with Terry what thought leaders and keynote speakers who have been disrupted by COVID-19 should be thinking about. We explore methods to continue delivering content, examine why price should be protected even when delivering digital content, and what types of speakers might be hardest hit. If you are a speaker and thought leader wondering how to continue working, worrying about the future of large scale meetings, and the communities that host them this is a conversation you won't want to miss. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders need to find a way to deliver quality digital productions from home. If the content of your thought leadership has not changed then the price should not be deeply slashed, even while delivering it remotely. Corporations will still want thought leadership, but you'll have to be clear about the value you offer.

Today's guest is Vince Molinaro, founder, and CEO of Leadership Contract Inc, former Managing Director - Leadership Solutions at Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions, author of the best-selling book The Leadership Contract and Accountable Leaders. Vince shares his experience working at Knightsbridge helping to establish the brand and creating differentiated intellectual property. We explore how the new knowledge he created was used to help grow the business and expand from Canada into the US market. Vince shares how different selling thought leadership can be from other products and the difficulties sales teams can have with it and the methods he has used to bring the marketing and sales team together to create a more effective pipeline. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders can use writing articles and creating other content to help establish their brand. Targeting areas with a similar culture can help thought leaders take their content across borders and into new markets. Thought leaders should have their sales team take the program they are having them sell to ensure they fully understand the product they are selling.

Today's guest is Todd Cherches, the founder of Big Blue Gumball, a consulting firm specializing in leadership development, management training, team building, public speaking, and coaching. Todd is a TEDx speaker and the author of VisuaLeadership! Todd shares his story of the winding road that took him from his dream of working at TV studios to becoming a thought leader. We explore the challenges introverts face and how to grow as a speaker and trainer. Todd explains how his book was born from ten years of notes and 2000 pages of content. He shares valuable advice for getting your idea on the page and hitting a deadline. Three Key Takeaways: When opportunities present themselves, thought leaders need to jump on them even if they feel out of their comfort zone. Introverted thought leaders can be excellent speakers with time and practice. Getting a book written on your thought leadership will require dedicated time to write without distraction.

Today's guest is Anthony Vade, the Experience Architect at FMAV an audiovisual and event technology company that is helping event planners and thought leaders transform how events are produced. Anthony starts by explaining what an experience architect does and how he is helping to transform the events industry to be more than just a box of gear. We discuss the Event Design Collective and the Events Canvas, what the core principles are and how this powerful tool is helping uncover what the needs are and how to get everyone in alignment with what the event should be. Anthony gives some excellent advice for speakers seeking to find a solution in our COVID-19 world where digital presentation is the only available avenue. We get some insight into the technology available and what the future of events might look like using VR, AR, XR, or a mix of these exciting technologies. You can find a sample of the uses of technology Anthony spoke of here. Three Key Takeaways: When planning a digital event thought leaders need to consider timeframe and intimacy. Thought leaders will want to ensure everyone involved in an event and on the same page about what they want the event to accomplish. If thought leaders are going to produce digital content you have to ensure your audio quality is good or risk losing your audience.

Today's guest is Scott Miller, Executive Vice President of Thought Leadership at Franklin Covey, the host of On Leadership with Scott Miller and co-author of Everyone Deserves a Great Manager. This conversation focuses on how both Scott and Peter both work to develop and launch new thought leaders, they compare methods and tactics. We explore why defining your audience is the biggest challenge thought leaders face, how social media plays a massive role when looking to publish a book, and why you need to know and understand who your competition is. This episode is chalked full of insight from two people with decades of knowledge on helping thought leaders find success. If you want a jump-start on your thought leadership career this episode is for you. Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders need to find and understand their audience. Your content can not be for everyone. Social media has become a very important platform thought leaders need to cultivate if they want to get a book published. Your content doesn't have to be 100% new ideas. It is okay to stand on the shoulders of other thought leaders and expand the conversation.

Today's guest is Al Shalloway, Director of Thought Leadership for Agile at Scale Programs and Founder and former CEO of Netobjectives. Al joins us to talk about how he is using thought leadership at the Project Management Institute to help teams and entire businesses learn to become more agile. We discuss how to scale an idea into a movement, the importance of understanding value stream management, and why leaders need to be in the middle of the pack, not out in front of it. Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders need to help teams to become more agile to help create a business that is agile. Sometimes it is better for you thought leadership to focus on the part that the client needs to know and not overwhelm them with trying to take over everything. Thought Leaders need to step back and seek the big picture to see the problem or they might find themselves solving a symptom and not the real problem.

Today we are joined by JD Gershbein, the Founder and CEO of Owlish Communications, a company that helps clients build a strong online presence to achieve a distinctive and competitive edge. JD is a TEDx speaker, LinkedIn expert on personal branding, and at one time a member of the Second City Improv group in Chicago! JD takes us down his unusual path towards becoming the digital branding expert he has become and how his improv skills are still at use every day. We discuss LinkedIn as a platform that has evolved from a job seeker site to possibly the most important document you'll build in all of business. With the evolution of LinkedIn, we have seen video become a prominent source of content, JD shares with us what you need to keep in mind when doing video and why your brand could be on the line. This is an insightful conversation for anyone looking to expand their LinkedIn profile or exploring video as a means of delivering their content. Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders can use LinkedIn as a flexible platform that can change and grow with them. Delivering your thought leadership by video requires a certain level of authenticity and production value. Improvisation isn't just a skill for the stage, thought leaders can develop it to have better conversations.

Today's guest is Mike Mansfield, the Program Director for the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement. We talk with Mike about the research that goes into creating thought leadership for retirement planning and how Aegon is helping people think about more than just finances for their later stages of life. Mike shares how Aegon is finding their audience and reaching them by partnering with other organizations, the methods they use to measure success, and how thought leadership is serving both the organization and its clients. Plus we explore how the preparation and deployment of their retirement readiness survey have changed post-COVID-19. Three Key Takeaways: · How the previous experience Thought Leaders have can elevate their message. · Thought Leadership is as much of a people game as it is a knowledge game. · Use short targeted content to reach specific groups with your thought leadership that might not spend the time to read a full survey or report.

Today we have the lovely Juliet Funt joining us! Juliet is a keynote speaker, the CEO of White Space at Work, a business that for the last decade has helped businesses gain back thousands of hours of lost productivity by helping employees find more time to pause and think. In 2021 Juliet's first business book being published by HarperCollins will hit the market. We take a retrospective of Juliet's work starting with her time as a youth and education speaker, how her speaking advanced to helping at the university level, and finally turned into a message that corporations could use. Juliet explains exactly what her platform White Space is, where the idea came from, and how her content has evolved over the years and across modalities. This is a great conversation that shows how thought leadership can go from a single page with three words written on it to advise for Fortune 500 companies. Three Key Takeaways: · Thought Leaders should keep a notepad or voice recorded to jot down ideas as they come to them regardless of when or where inspiration strikes. · Thought leaders need to document stories of client success using their content. It can be useful in many ways in the future. · Locking yourself in a room with other creative types for a long period of time can create more impactful thought leadership than what will come out of several hour-long conversations.

Wow— It's been 2 and a half years of doing the podcast and I'm honored to have had the privilege of interviewing so many world-renowned thought leaders. I'm proud to present to you our 250th episode today featuring none other than Tom Peters. Thanks to all of my guests and listeners for making the podcast a success. I hope that many thought leaders, authors, academics speakers, and organizational thought leaders continue to achieve the impact and leverage they wish from their work. - Peter Winick Tom Peters is the co-author of In Search of Excellence—the book that changed the way the world does business, in addition to seventeen other books that have sold more than 10 million copies combined and recipient of the Thinkers50 Lifetime Achievement Award. Tom shares candid stories of his time writing In Search of Excellence, and how it found success amongst an audience that no one was targeting at the time, despite many expecting the book to be a failure. We discuss his article The Brand Called You, how it changed the way people market themselves, and how many who've read it have actually missed the true meaning. Don't miss this fascinating conversation with one of the most prolific business authors and speakers in the world. Three Key Takeaways: · How timing can play a big part in the success of your thought leadership. · Why you can't be mad at others when they misinterpret your thought leadership. · What you need to do to make your thought leadership invaluable to your organization.

Today's guest is Brian Smith, the Founder of UGG a company started on shores of Southern California that would become a globally recognized brand. He is the author of The Birth of a Brand, and one of the most sought after speakers and business leaders in the country. Brian tells the tale of starting UGG and eventually selling it in the late 90s, writing The Birth of a Brand during the recession from years of notes on building UGG, and how he became a keynote speaker using many of the themes from the book. We discuss the speaking business as it existed prior to the global pandemic and how speakers are continuing to work without being able to travel. If you are a speaker concerned about the future of your industry this episode has great insights into speaking during COVID-19, what the future of speaking might look like, and why being social will always be a key to successful speaking. Three Key Takeaways: How thought leaders can take one modality and use it in different formats. What stages a thought leader can expect their business go to through and how they compare to stages of life. What keynote speaking for thought leaders looks like now and might look like in the future.

Today's guest is Steve Markman, who has headed the conference divisions for Comdex and The Conference Board before launching his own firm Markman Speaker Management in 1994 where he provides executive visibility and speaker bureau services. Steve gives us some insight into the free-speaking circuit and how executives and organizations can get raise visibility, gain credibility, and get their thought leadership message out to large audiences. We discuss what conference organizers look for when speakers submit proposals, who you want your audience to be, and why COVID-19 isn't the end of the speaking industry. If you are a speaker waiting for COVID-19 to pass, you need to hear this episode and learn how you can get speaking from the comfort of your home. Three Key Takeaways: Why thought leaders should consider speaking for free. What thought leaders should absolutely avoid doing when pitching to conferences for speaking gigs. What thought leader speaks should be doing to be prosperous in a COVID-19 workplace.

Today's guest is Jessica Rhodes the leading expert on how to leverage podcast guesting for increased brand awareness, generation of more leads, and how to gain higher profits. She created the podcast booking industry in 2013 when she founded Interview Connections, the first and leading agency of its kind. Plus she is the host of Rock the Podcast, a podcast where you will learn all about podcast guesting and how to leverage podcast interviews to grow your brand awareness. Jessica shares the benefits of committing long term to be a podcast guest and why trying it short term will not have the desired effect. We discuss finding the podcasts that are right for you, narrowing your audience, and perhaps most importantly having systems in place to leverage your episodes after they go live. This is an incredible episode packed with a ton of great advice for anyone looking to increase their positioning by being a guest on podcasts. Three Key Takeaways: · The length of time thought leaders need to commit to being involved in the podcast guest circuit. · Why thought leaders need to be specific about the type of podcast they appear on. · How being a guest as a thought leader can be more than an interview and why you need to take the opportunity to build a relationship.

Today's guest is Scott Ambler, Project Management Institute Vice President and Chief Scientist of Disciplined Agile. Scott is the co-creator of the Disciplined Agile Toolkit, author of Introduction to Disciplined Agile Delivery, and Choose Your WoW. Scott talks with us about the creation and evolution of the Disciplined Agile Toolkit and how businesses can use it to create agile teams capable of responding to various situations properly regardless of their skillset, then adjust in the future as they learn and grow. We discuss the position of Disciplined Agile at PMI and how the two work and learn together to be a stronger single organization and how PMI has allowed stronger creation of communities that include chapters all over the world helping people learn and expand their knowledge. Three Key Takeaways: · How thought leaders can use Agile Discipline to better adjust to any situation. · Why thought leaders should not get stuck in a "best practice" might not be for the best. · Why thought leaders need to focus on creating communities and what can be gained from them.

Today's guest is Bea Wray! Bea has been a speaker for 20 years on the topics of entrepreneurship, leadership, and women in business. She is the co-founder of the Millennial Women Network and author of the upcoming book What an MBA Taught Me…: But My Kids Made Me Learn which is available for pre-order! Bea and Peter dig deep to explore the questions many business authors never ask themselves and why 1/3 of authors writing business books never actually finish them. Bea tells us the Who, What, and Why questions you need to ask before you put pen to paper. Plus we examine not only the financial cost of publishing a book but the opportunity cost which many overlook. Don't miss this incredibly insightful conversation for anyone looking to publish a business book from two people with a ton of real-life experience on the topics. Three Key Takeaways: What questions thought leaders should be asking themselves before starting a book. How can thought leaders figure out the real cost of a book and what can you expect as a return on that investment? What thought leaders can expect from publishers and how to ensure the long term success of your book.

Today we have two guests from FLSmidth, a company that provides global cement and mining industries with factories, machinery, and knowhow. William Leahy is a Senior Marketing/Communications Manager & Strategist for the mining industry. Morten Fløe Knudsen leads Thought Leadership Communication for the cement industry. Together William and Morten explain how they use thought leadership to carry on conversations with customers and make their brand known as the go-to people for an industry with a long buying cycle. They share how FLSmidth is focused on sustainability and how digitization plays a big role in making scarce resources go further than ever before. In this episode, William and Morten give invaluable advice for any thought leader who works in an industry with a sales cycle that measures in years, not months or weeks. Three Key Takeaways: · How thought leadership can be used to influence long sales cycles and keep you relevant. · Why digitization is playing a big part of their thought leadership. · What audience and issues thought leaders need to keep in mind when dealing with long sales cycles.

Today's guest is Lindy Greer, an associate professor of management and organization at the University of Michigan and Faculty Director of the Sanger Leadership Center. She focuses on how to design and lead effective organizational teams, with specific interests in intra-group hierarchy, conflict, diversity, leadership, and emotion. Lindy introduces us to what is being taught to leaders and how science and data are playing a bigger role in the instruction than ever before. We explore what companies are looking for in leadership both from the perspective of older audiences and in the digital world. Lindy spends some time sharing her experience publishing her content beyond the world of academia, how to gain credibility and tips for co-authoring! We wrap the episode up discussing distance working and learning, as well as the best practices being used to create a more efficient and productive workforce for remote working Three Key Takeaways: What traits thought leaders need to consider for good leadership. How thought leaders can gain credibility and get published in various mediums. What thought leaders can do to create a strong team working remotely.

Today's guest is Surya Kolluri, the managing director at Bank of America leading Thought Leadership efforts for retirement and personal wealth business services with a deep strategy background. Surya chats with Bill about how Bank of America is forming partnerships with groups you might not typically associate with banking to create valuable thought leadership to help their clients through various life stages. Surya shares how he is leading the team to act as a bridge between their researchers and the clients looking for solutions to complicated problems. Plus we discuss best practices for delivering your thought leadership so that is not only remembered but used. Three Key Takeaways: · Why organizational thought leaders should seek to form partnerships with other groups to leverage leading thinkers outside of their own company. · How thought leaders can create deeper and emotional connections to their clients. · What methods thought leaders should consider for the delivery of their message to colleagues, associates, and the outside world.

Today's guest is Merit Kahn, the founder of Merit-based Business, co-host of The Smarter Sales Show podcast, author of Myth Shift: Challenging The Truths That Sabotage Success, Certified Professional Speaker, entrepreneur, educator, and even stand-up comedian! Merit explains how she started her sales training business after leaving a radio station as an ad salesperson. She used free speaking as a marketing tool for her sales program but loved speaking so much she started to explore how to make that the business. Merit and Peter discuss the tools used for training and which fall into the professional or personal development bucket and why many methods that were once considered personal are a hard part of the business world now. We wrap up talking about the need to have systems in place to ensure every speaking engagement has the highest possibility of a follow-up conversation and why you can't leave that responsibility to the audience. Three Key Takeaways: How doing thought leaders speaking for free can lead to higher-paying paid gigs. Why thought leaders need to have emotional intelligence and why it is now a business skill. What steps thought leaders can take to follow up with their audience after a speaking engagement.

Today's guest is Cynthia O'Neal, the thought Leadership and content strategist for the intelligent networking division at Verizon professional services with 20 years' experience leading change across marketing, sales, and technology in both the corporate and government sectors. Cynthia walks us through what Intelligent Networking is and how Version is using it to maintain a cutting edge in their industry. Cynthia discussed how she is helping subject matter experts develop and implement thought leadership for use on the marketing side. She shares how they are creating their methodology for use internally before taking it externally, the challenges they've faced and the incredible success they've achieved. Three Key Takeaways: How thought leadership connects to intelligent networking. How to develop organizational thought leadership methodologies and strategies. Why you need to equip people with the right thought leadership tools to ensure they are comfortable talking about the subject.

Today we have a special episode with two guests! Richard Citrin is the president of Citrin Consulting, author of The Resilience Advantage, an international consultant, leadership coach, and organizational psychologist. Michael Couch is the president of Michael Couch and Associates with 30 years of experience as an internal organization effectiveness consultant combined with Business Unit P&L and Operations Management experience. Together they co-authored the book Strategy Driven Leadership. Richard and Michael tell us how they came together to write the book to find matching their background and experience was beneficial to their clients and each other. We learn how they divided the writing duties, had multiple publishers interested, and why they chose their publisher they did. During the interview, we explore their goals, expectations, and the effects of getting their book on the market had on their consulting. Three Key Takeaways: How thought leaders can come together to co-author a book. What thought leaders should ask their publisher before signing with them. What thought leaders can expect from a publisher in terms of marketing and sales support.

Today's guest is Sean Davis, Information Security Advisor, DevSecOps at TransUnion, and former Chief Transformation Evangelist at Equifax. Sean sits down with us to explain the role of an evangelist, the challenges they face, methods of engaging with clients, and how to build trust. We discuss how connecting with employees and helping them understand their value to the mission and vision of the company can increase happiness and uncap the potential client satisfaction. Sean goes into detail on connecting the evangelism in the field to the leadership and management of the company to help define how the overall vision comes to life. We finish off with Sean sharing some great tips for anyone entering the role of evangelist for their organization. Three Key Takeaways: · How to evangelize your thought leadership to build trust. · How thought leaders can improve employee satisfaction by helping them understand their importance to the overall mission. · What hardships thought leaders will face when trying to spread the message of the company.

Today's guest Elizabeth McCourt, Global Leadership Executive Coach for McCourt Leadership Group, TEDx speaker, consultant, and author of the fiction novel Sin in the Big Easy and soon to be the author of her first business book. Elizabeth has had many roles during her career and she highlights how going from lawyer to headhunter to consultant and coach makes perfect sense! She explores how she gave a TEDx talk, how the creativity used to write her fiction novel has come around to help her clients, and why failure isn't bad it can be the non-linear path to success! Three Key Takeaways: · How thought leaders can use all the experience from previous careers to excel. · Why creativity that isn't part of your billable thought leader hours can be beneficial to your clients. · Why thought leaders should consider the purpose of their book before picking a publishing option.

Today's guest is Matthijs Van den Broek, head of thought leadership and the energy industry at WUA!; a digital research consultancy in Amsterdam that focused on digital experience benchmarking and the customer journey. Matthijs discusses how his work at WUA! moves thought leadership from the role of a small team to the duty for every employee at the organization. We discuss the methods they've used to form guidelines for involvement and the hurdles they face getting people involved. Matthijs shares how they used their thought leadership in 2016 to write the book The Digital Excellent Challenge, what success looks like, and how they are connecting their thought leadership to sales and marketing to fill the sales pipeline while building trust with their clients. Three Key Takeaways: · How thought leadership can be created by an entire organization. · What the biggest obstacles are that prevent people from getting involved in creating thought leadership. · Why connecting your thought leadership with your marketing team can prevent your assets from sitting idle.

Today's guest is Srinivas Rao, the founder of Unmistakable Creative, host of the long-running hugely popular Unmistakable Creative podcast. He is also the author of a number of books such as An Audience of One and The Small Army Strategy. Srinivas has a candid conversation with us about the world of podcasts. We decrypt the imperfect information that is out there regarding podcasting and how it isn't a get rich quick scheme. Srinivas and Peter discuss the levels of digital intimacy that can be created with an audience, and how a scripted conversation can actually be more stilted than a candid one that flows naturally. Three Key Takeaways: Why thought leaders might want a podcast and why it might not be the medium for you. How thought leaders can create a higher level of digital intimacy with their audience. Why telling a great story is the key for thought leaders to grab their audience.