Leveraging Thought Leadership

What does it take to become a game-changer in your industry? We are constantly bombarded with products and brands seeking our attention and money. How can thought leadership help your brand stand out? Today, we are joined by Karen Hold, the founder of Experience Labs and co-author of Experiencing Design: The Innovator's Journey. Karen's mission is to build creative capacity in individuals, organizations, and cities, using the language of design thinking. The trick is to turn abstract thought into concrete ideas, and to visualize those ideas in a way that captures your audience's attention. Karen takes us back to the early days of her career, at Procter & Gamble, where her focus was on the Folgers Coffee brand. At the time, as Starbucks was starting to emerge, and Folgers needed a way to stand out in order to keep its share of the market. Karen shares how Folgers studied the Starbucks experience, and - due to flawed assessment - decided that the newcomer wasn't a threat to Folgers' market dominance. Fast-forward to 2022, and Starbucks has a major market share - a share that could have belonged to Folgers', if they'd determined the market need and used it to their own advantage. Determined not to miss the next big opportunity, Karen explains how she changed her thinking. As media changed and people's needs evolved, Karen realized that brands needed better tools to assess market needs - and step forward, staying ahead of the curve by visualizing the future and being ready for the next change. By preparing content with the right approach, you make sure that your thought leadership is there when the audience is ready to receive it. Karen shares even more insights in her book, and discusses the amazing experience she had working with Jeanne Liedtka and Jessica Eldridge to complete and publish her thought leadership. In addition, we learn about the digital tool for creating personal development plans that was recently launched as an add-on, giving even more value to the text and its content. Three Key Takeaways: * Don't blindly follow data. Use your instinct, experiment, and create thought leadership that sees around corners and tries new things. * Ensure that your thought leadership is available in a variety of modalities. This allows you to connect with an audience, regardless of their preferred method of communication. * Adding development tools to a thought leadership book is a method to continue the research you've begun, and expand your insights.

Your org's thought leadership illuminates a highly technical field. So how do you make it accessible to a broad audience? In technical fields like A.I., it can be hard to clearly communicate your organizational insights in a manner that your audience can grasp. In order to make technical insights accessible, you have to get out of your bubble and into the mindset of your audience! Our guest today is Amelia Ross, Director of Content Strategy at Primer AI, a company dedicated to helping organizations make the best use of their investment in data. They do this by using best-in-class machine learning and natural language processing technologies, to help their customers scale and optimize intelligence workflows. We discuss how an organizational thought leader determines the right target audience for their insights. Amelia tells us that it isn't just about reaching the economic buyer, but also spreading your content to the influencers that surround such a buyer. It's important to create content that shows your company as empathetic, leading edge, and knowledgeable — and to take an informed stand on emerging technology, trends, and social issues. The modern world is moving fast, and thought leadership must be timely and relevant in order to have impact. Ameila shares how timely events shaped the course of Primer AI's thought leadership. The Russian invasion of Ukraine sparked Primer AI to use their product, Command, to create content that illuminated events in real time. That thought leadership gave decision-makers under time constraints a complete and accurate view of the information faster than ever before. In addition to reaching your audience in a timely manner, you also have to ensure that your content is presented in a way your clients will easily understand. Amelia explains the need for educational content in thought leadership, and the challenges of creating content at various levels in order to connect with everyone — from the average audience member to industry experts. This conversation is an enlightening look at creating thought leadership that illuminates complex ideas, and doing it in a way that connects with a broad audience. Three Key Takeaways: * When creating Thought Leadership content for complex topics, consider other influences that might support your insights with your economic buyer. * Thought Leadership that connects to trends and social issues needs an immediacy that keeps pace with the news cycle. * Don't assume your audience understands the jargon, terms, and acronyms of your thought leadership. Create content that reaches and enlightens consumers at all levels.

What does a successful entrepreneur do for their second act? Most entrepreneurs work hard to create a prosperous business, perhaps even with the intent of selling it and making an exit. For those who succeed, the next question is — now, what? Do you start a new business and begin the cycle again? And how do you give back to those who helped you reach success? Today, I sit down with Jay Steinfeld, a world-renowned entrepreneur and early ecommerce adopter who took his small blinds business online in the early days of the internet, and the story of how blinds.com became the largest online blinds retailer in the world. He is also the author of Lead from the Core: The 4 Principles for Profit and Prosperity, which lays out the "Four Es" — a set of guiding principles that can help overcome any obstacle to your organization's success. Jay takes us back to 1993, and tells us how he experimented with online sales to supplement his brick-and-mortar store. While it was slow at first, the online channel grew so large they chose to sell the physical business and concentrate on online sales. In 2014, Jay sold blinds.com to Home Depot. Unlike many entrepreneurs, Jay chose to stay with Home Depot for 7 years, leading their online leadership team. Jay explains that his vision was not complete, and he seized upon the opportunity to see it through to the end. He moved his knowledge of online sales into adjacent categories, and found even greater success. Now, Jay tells us about his book, Lead from the Core, which teaches the four 4's E's: Evolve, Experiment, Express, and Enjoy. He uses the book, and it's lessons, to elevate others and help their businesses rise and grow - giving back to the communities and people who supported him in his initial ventures. Our conversation is packed with powerful advice for entrepreneurs at any stage of business! Three Key Takeaways: * When you have a compelling vision for your entrepreneurial efforts, share it with others - it will improve everyone's success, and move the world forward. * Don't be afraid to take chances and experiment with the way your business operates. You might discover new opportunities. * A compelling vision and positive culture is crucial to retaining key employees through any transition. Be transparent with the 'why' as well as the 'how,' and you'll see people lean in!

A single keynote won't incite change, but it can start the ball rolling. Companies are starting to demand programs that take a keynote's lessons deeper, investing resources in building long term relationships with thought leadership. To discuss the way keynote speaking has changed since the onset of COVID-19, I've invited two of the best speakers in the business to share their insights and talk about how they've navigated this new era of thought leadership speaking. David Burkus is a best-selling author of Lead From Anywhere: The Essential Guide to Managing Remote Teams and internationally renowned keynote speaker, using forward thinking ideas to help leaders and teams do their best work. Stephen Shapiro is the author of Invisible Solutions: 25 Lenses that Reframe and Help Solve Difficult Business Problems, and a Hall of Fame Speaker helping organizations keep up with the increasing pace of change. David and Stephen share how they've changed their keynote services to meet the needs of a remote clientele, and what it's like to have their business moving to more than 50% non-speaking generated revenue. They share how they are creating webinars, master classes, and certification programs, that take the ideas in their keynote and make them have a longer lasting effect. We discuss the benefits of virtual speaking, such as no longer being restricted by travel and time zones, as well as being able to offer bookended solutions that make a good keynote serve as an introduction to an ongoing engagement - instead of the end of one. In addition, we look at the drawbacks of being remote, such as difficulties networking and building community. Our guests offer great insight into how to create long lasting relationships through gamification, competition, and other online tools. This conversation offers incredible information on pushing your keynote beyond a single transaction, and into a long-lasting relationship! Three Key Takeaways: * Build your keynote as a bookended experience, using speaking as a lead-in to a multiple-week challenge, and adding a debrief at the end in order to create greater engagement. * Companies want more than an inspiring keynote. They want thought leadership that will take your insights and ideas and make them actionable for every employee. * You can create networking and community in virtual thought leadership events by providing tools that allow the audience to engage with the content, and each other both during and after the event.

While many things in Thought Leadership have changed over the years, one constant is the appreciation of a great subject matter expert. But how do we find those experts? To examine modern methods of developing a reputation and gaining the trust of your audience, we've invited Kevin Eikenberry, Chief Potential Officer at The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a leadership and learning consulting company. He's also the best-selling author of Remarkable Leadership: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill at a Time and The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for a Remarkable Remote Leadership. When Kevin started as a speaker and consultant, thought leaders had far less options for building a platform. You could make a website, start blogging, or pay a PR firm to get your name out there - but those methods are outdated, and lack greater appeal. Modern social media offers an almost overwhelming number of options, and it's smart to utilize many different platforms to get the word out about your content. Kevin discusses the platforms he prefers, and why he's open to experimenting on new platforms. Not every platform will be the right fit, and Kevin explains how he repurposes content during his platform experiments to keep both the time and financial cost relatively low. Being on a new platform only has value if your ideal audience can be found there, and if you give them content specific to their needs. Although every thought leader has their preferred method of producing content, it's important to be able to discern whether your standard method isn't your audience's preferred medium. Kevin discusses his methods of finding out what the audience wants, and valuing the consumer's interests and needs - even if they aren't currently ready to buy. If you want a better understanding of the way a strong platform can elevate your mission and create commercial success, this conversation has tons of insights for you! Three Key Takeaways: * In order to make experiments with new platforms have value, be certain that your audience spends time there and will see your content. * Repurposing content for different platforms and mediums is a great way to save time and money. * In order to find success, you have to manage some level of commercial expertise. Your audience needs to keep your content top-of-mind!

In rural communities, there are many would-be entrepreneurs with big ideas. Can you imagine how much change for good would happen if every entrepreneur could bring their dreams to life? In order to better understand the role thought leadership can play in reaching entrepreneurs, we're sitting down with Andrew Button, Founder and CEO of Mashup Labs. He's helping rural entrepreneurs grow their ideas, their businesses, and their communities. Today, we're talking about thought leadership, nonprofit startups, and how creative ideas and insights can make a real difference to communities that need a boost. Andrew discusses the difficulties in getting a big idea off the ground, finding people who share your perspective and curiosities, and those who are willing to lend a hand to help things grow. There's a critical mass challenge, finding enough interested people to make an entrepreneur's dream a reality — and Andrew knows how to make it happen. Finally, we discuss how Andrew is stepping into the role of a thought leader and the courage it takes to stand up and make your voice heard. Andrew shares why people should not be so concerned with the aspect of failure but more on getting your ideas out there, testing the theories and sharing what you've learned, right or wrong. While Andrew specializes in activating people in rural communities his advice is solid for any landscape and we hope you'll take the time to listen to this episode. Three Key Takeaways: * In order to find those who share your thought leadership views, you'll have to be courageous about your viewpoint -- even if it doesn't align with the norm. * Thought Leadership allows you to connect with people in places and roles you might not otherwise access. * Don't wait to 'perfect' your thought leadership. Put it into the world, test it in real situations, and share what you learn with others.

You've got big ideas that you know could help people. But it's hard to articulate that insight as an actionable plan for business partners, clients, and investors. So, how do you move forward? Today, we're sitting down with Tamsen Webster, a TedX speaker and author of the new book Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible. In her insightful text, Tamsen codifies her method, and helps others find the throughline that connects an idea to the hearts and minds of the audience. Many new authors suffer from the "curse of the expert," unable to put their methodology and processes on the page in a way that's accessable to beginners. For Tamsen, that was the easy part. In fact, she struggled with letting go of the book, unsure that the process she had been successfully using for the previous five years was enough to warrant publishing. As with any good business book, Tamsen has found that hers has drawn multiple new clients — without the usual 2 degrees of separation. Now, people are finding the book and reaching out to her on their own, and that's growing her business exponentially. She's also dipped a toe into licensing her IP, and creating an accreditation program to help other businesses share her Red Thread method with their clients. Lastly, we discuss the hard part of creating and licensing a properly… protecting it. In order to maintain your trademark, you have to defend it. This can mean awkward conversations about how and where your method can be used. Unfortunately, many people who are interested in thought leadership content are unaware that they are violating copyrights, but there are ways to handle such issues amicably, and to the advantage of both parties. This interview is a great example of a thought leadership book propelling your ideas to scale! Three Key Takeaways: * When writing a thought leadership book, remember to clearly convey what you do best. * Construct your chapter outline by ensuring that instructions before theoretical examples. This way the most useful part comes first. * When writing a thought leadership book, consider creating an accreditation program to give organizations a legitimate way to institute your trademarked ideas.

Imagine being 18, and standing on the doorstep of a monastery in the Himalayas, believing you are there to help the monks speak better English — to find out they do not speak any English at all. Could you teach the language, using only body language and tone of voice? This is the actual story of our guest Richard Newman, and the beginning of his fascinating journey into the lessons of non-verbal communication. Richard is the CEO and Founder of UK Body Talk, the global leader in evidence-based training on the psychology of communication, and the author of You Were Born to Speak, which is Richard's personal journey of discovering the secrets of communication and is filled with practical strategies that you can immediately apply to transform your success. Richard shares the story of his journey to a Tibetan monastery to spend six months teaching the monks English. During this time, he learned much about non-verbal communication, and how comfort and discomfort can impact our shared dialogue. During our conversation, Richard shares the insights that help people move out of their comfort zones, so that they can become aware of and change habits that stand in our way. He teaches ways to unlock communication, how to mentor others, and ways to inspire those around you through earnest communication. Moving people to change habits, or encouraging a business to make large changes, isn't as simple as providing evidence that the change is for the best. Richard explains how storytelling can be a great tool to connect with the emotional mind stagnant. Then, we can connect with the logical brain and share information that will support and maintain change. The insights Richard shares into communication are powerful, and can help move employees, companies, and executives forward! Three Key Takeaways: Moving people through change means taking them into an uncomfortable place. In order to be successful, your thought leadership will have to offer a safe space to listen and accept new ideas. Storytelling is a powerful tool that,if done correctly, can change people's beliefs and actions. In order to get people to accept your thought leadership insights, you have to help them feel a sense of ownership in that idea.

An interview with Waldo Waldman & Freddie Ravel that originally aired on November 3rd, 2021, as part of Leveraging Thought Leadership Live on LinkedIn. In March of 2020, the keynote speaking business came to a grinding halt. Before Covid-19, many speakers were predicting a record-breaking year for events and conventions. During the pandemic's height, speakers and live workshops went on hiatus, hoping the shutdown wouldn't last long. But a few visionaries forged new ways forward, using technology and innovation to help them deliver their message. To discuss how keynote speaking changed during the pandemic and where keynote speaking is going in the future, I invited two of the best in the business to join me. Waldo "The Wingman" Waldman is the bestselling author of Never Fly Solo: Lead with Courage, Build Trusting Partnerships, and Reach New Heights in Business, and a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame. He speaks around the world on the topics of trust and teamwork. Freddie Ravel is a Grammy Award-winning musician who delivers dynamic multimedia "keynote concerts" on leadership, sales, and performance. In this episode, we explore how each of our guests has pivoted their innovative style of keynote speaking to a virtual platform, using video and technology to connect with clients and audiences. Even with huge advancements in technology, speakers will still be faced with the difficulty of proving their value in a virtual setting, in order to maintain price integrity. Waldo warns that speakers who are not adept with (or willing to learn) new technology are going to be shot down. Freddie explains how he created a custom home setup that allows him to bring messages and music to audiences in a dozen time zones — all at once. We further discuss the way additional products and solutions can give your virtual keynote an advantage, and create momentum that sustains change and creates actionable items for anyone who attends. This is an insightful conversation into the ways that keynoters have sustained and grown their businesses using hybrid models, technology, and innovation. Come and listen — this information is sure to be useful to anyone operating in a speakers' arena. Three Key Takeaways: * When speaking virtually, you need a clear picture of your audience's needs and interests, and an understanding of their pain points, in order to connect with them emotionally. * Regardless of how you deliver your thought leadership speaking, content is king. * Be ready to offer follow-up products and solutions that will ensure your message goes further.

How soon should a startup start thinking about using thought leadership? Startups usually focus on customer acquisition, building their brand, and traditional marketing, believing that thought leadership is something that would be nice to have down the road —but not a must-have out of the gate. Turns out, that's not the best way to forge a business. Investing in thought leadership early can propel a brand to great heights. To explore the concept, we've invited Jody Padar to join us. Jody is known as "The Radical CPA," and is one of the few CPAs that has built a personal brand. She is currently the Head of Tax Strategy and Evangelism at April, a new tax program going to market through banks. We explore how Jody built The Radical CPA brand, starting 15 years ago when accounting, as a field, was going through major changes. She felt the tools she needed were not available, so she started blogging and writing to try to understand the changes taking place. She quickly gained a following that agreed with her thinking, accepting her non-standard methods and innovative techniques. Plus, Jody shares her difficulties with criticism, and how being open-minded allowed her ideas to sharpen and grow. Now that Jody is with April, we learn how her personal brand works to bring a deeper level of authority and expertise to April, defying all the expectations of a startup. In addition, her high profile plays well with potential investors, who trust Jody as the face of a new brand. This is an excellent conversation that illuminates personal thought leadership brands, and the power they can have when they partner with new (or experienced!) organizations. Three Key Takeaways: • It is never too early to share your opinion, take a unique stance, and start creating your own thought leadership. • Having an established thought leadership brand can allow you to justify higher fees and the ability to demand a premium when being acquired. • Thought leadership practitioners need tough skin when it comes to critics, and it is in their benefit to be open-minded and use criticism to refine their ideas.

Why do so many business owners spend time creating strategy, only to put it on the shelf? Strategies can't help your business grow unless they've been fully integrated into the decision-making process, and are part of the daily running of the business. Without a strategy, time is wasted, teams are out of alignment, and vital revenue is lost or misspent. So what's happening? Today we sit down with Simon Severino, the Founder of the Strategy Sprints Method and author of Strategy Sprints: 12 Ways to Accelerate Growth for an Agile Business. This method focuses on three strategies, three habits, and three numbers to double the revenue of B2B businesses with 90 days of coaching. We start with the origin of The Strategy Sprints Method as Simon shares how his 17 years working as a strategy advisor left him feeling like there was something missing. Only after he started his own business did he become frustrated and see what the market needed. As many entrepreneurs do he looked back into his career to find the tools that worked and started to build the Strategy Sprints Method. Simon explains how his method of three strategies, three habits, 3 numbers and 274 prebuild modules gives clients the tools they need to deploy a strategy in a manner that can move the company forward faster, bring teams into alignment on a single sheet of paper, and help them learn faster than the competition. In addition, we learn how Simon uses his own strategy within his company to avoid the many pitfalls that take executives off track and allow them to get overwhelmed, which often leads to burnout. He shares how having hard checks in place can save you from jumping into new trends that everyone else is doing but won't actually have a positive impact on your business. If you're seeking a strategy for your B2B business and want to increase revenue this might just be what you need. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leadership strategies need to offer clients a way to move forward that they can understand and buy into. * Thought Leadership tools need to be accompanied by a strategy to deploy them. A good tool without an instruction manual will not be used. * Don't fall into the trap of excitement around new technology and trends. Analyze their usefulness, before committing time or money.

Working with a ghostwriter can be confusing and complex. In this episode, we are joined by an expert in each of these fields, to help thought leadership practitioners get a better grasp of the possibilities. Dan Gerstein is the founder and CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, where he uses his talents to connect authors with speakers looking for help, focusing on matching both people's needs and personality. Jesse Finkelstein is the co-founder and Principal of Page Two, a publishing agency helping non-fiction authors navigate the full range of options while providing high-level support for a wide variety of organizational publishing activities. We start the conversation by discussing the concept of ghostwriting, and the tasks available to those who perform that function. Dan helps us understand that ghostwriters can write every word of a book, or work as a developmental editor— or anything in between! All the while, their duty is to maintain focus on the expertise, reputation, and authority of the client. With a firm grasp of the writer in hand, we move to the publishing side. Jesse clarifies the mysterious business of publishing. We learn about the various methods of publishing, the need for an established platform, and why authors want to retain the rights to their book — as they do with their other intellectual property. This episode takes us from page to print and everything in between! Three Key Takeaways: * It's easier than ever to publish a thought leadership book, the task a ghostwriter can help you accomplish is standing out and making an impact. * Before starting a thought leadership book, you need to know your unique value proposition and how it fits into the world. · Publishers look at more than the content of your book. They want to see that you have a strategy, and that the book aligns with your larger business model.

To celebrate our 400th episode, our two hosts Peter Winick and Bill Sherman disperse insights they've gained having spoken to hundreds of thought leaders over decades of working in the field. We start with a look at the widely varied paths to thought leadership. There are no schools, no set career path to follow to become a thought leader. Unlike becoming a doctor or lawyer, thought leadership is often the second act of a career. People branch into it once they've become a subject matter expert, have conquered many challenges of their own, and have developed a unique voice that needs to be heard. With no set route, thought leadership practitioners are often faced with experimentation as they create content and sharpen their message. Bill talks about the need to simply get content out and not be afraid of failure. Ideas need to take root, and you need defined goals in order to measure its success. Thought leadership practitioners need to shepherd their ideas, constantly look for new ways to present them, and find their best audience. Looking around the corner, Bill and Peter discuss the drivers that will change thought leadership over the next few years. We examine how publishing will continue to shift its place in a thought leader's toolbox, and the bar for quality content is only going to get higher as publishing becomes a simple, even easy, task. In addition, we learn why a visible digital footprint adds glue to business proposals and engagements, and why lack of visibility will be a major career impediment in the next few years. We want to thank all of our listeners for joining us over the last 400 episodes, and we look forward to bringing you more great content and exciting guests in the future. Three Key Takeaways: * Don't wait for your thought leadership to be perfect. Put it out there, and if it falls short, use that as a learning opportunity. * Your message needs to be independent of the modality. Build a strong foundation of ideas instead of focusing on how to "hack the algorithm" of the platform. * The cost and ease of publishing is allowing a flood of new ideas to enter the milieu. This signal-to-noise ratio can only be overcome with high-quality content and good marketing.

How do you bring thought leadership online in a quickly growing organization? It's a task that can be easily over-complicated, adding more spinning plates to employees who already have their hands full. So how do you make it work? We've invited Eric Dates, the Director, Growth Marketing at Ncontracts, a software firm providing risk management and compliance to a rapidly expanding customer base of financial institutes. Eric's voice adds to the conversation as someone who is currently adding and expanding the role thought leadership plays at his company. Eric shares how he kick-started thought leadership at Ncontracts by finding people inside the organization who are interested in becoming the face of the brand. He's found that people get excited at the prospect of being offered the space to share their voice on behalf of the org. Getting people interested in thought leadership might be easier than the task of creating it. Eric explains how he helps people break down the large task of thought leadership creation into smaller chunks, to avoid employees feeling overwhelmed. We also discuss how to integrate a high-profile employee into the thought leadership program without overshadowing others or taking away from the many voices that are involved. If you want to understand how to better shine the spotlight on the amazing talent in your company, as well as share great ideas, this episode will move you in the right direction. Three Key Takeaways: * By showcasing a variety of the talented people in your organization, they gain credibility and create a level of trust for the entire org. Credibility that can be relied on, and will pay off in every future interaction. * Getting subject matter experts to move into thought leadership involves giving them the space and confidence to share their ideas. * Understanding the full potential of employees contributing to the org's thought leadership can help marketers move the needle.

A short video has 3-5 seconds to get the viewers' attention, and 30 seconds to get them to stay. Are you up to the challenge? Creating videos, catching attention, and the ability to speak well on camera are acquired skills - and today's guest, Lynn Smith, knows how to master them all. Lynn is a journalist and former news anchor with NBC News, MSNBC, and CNN Headline News. With 15 years of experience in headline news, Lynn knows how to take complex stories and boil them down to a single, strong core. Lynn is now using that experience as Founder and CEO of Rylan Media, helping clients tackle their biggest branding and communication challenges. We start by asking Lynn about her insights on taking a complicated story and communicating it to the audience in a clear, succinct manner. Lynn explains how she breaks it down to the headline to grab attention,fills out the story with compelling details, and finally, adds "the chill factor" to leave her audience with a thoughtful takeaway. While many thought leaders can command attention and be charismatic on stage and in person, video meetings, online conferences, and video content creation have changed the game. Lynn shares tips on ways to overcome your awkwardness and connect with the lens in the same way you would a close friend. Her years of experience provide many tips and clear insight that you simply won't want to miss! If you want to create compelling videos that get a ton of hits, this episode is for you! Three Key Takeaways: * Thought leadership videos need to be short. You must connect with the audience in the first five seconds. * Many people experience Zoom fatigue, but we should also embrace the change that has facilitated simple global communication. * Budding thought leaders need to be resilient and keep going. Failure is just a lesson, a minor obstacle on the path to success.

Modern marketing means using popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. But how can organizations make sure such marketing is effective, when it's hard to reach or measure the results? Behind the scenes of social media are a million private messages, e-mails, and other chatter that has as much effect on a brand as public announcements. How can that be measured, harnessed, and addressed? To help us navigate the "Dark Social" parts of the net, we've invited Kerry-Ann Stimpson, Chief Marketing Officer at The JMMB Group, an integrated financial service provider who values and promotes heart-to-heart connections and authentic, caring relationships through online media. Kerry-Ann is also the host of The Internal Marketing Podcast, where she gives tips and insights about ways companies can supercharge their brand by focusing on their employees. First, we define the idea of the "Dark Social" connection, and the important role it plays in the way brands are viewed. Kerry-Ann shares ways to educate your employees so they can play important roles in building the company's brand - along with their own! This is best accomplished by giving employees the freedom and trust to use their voices, and follow their passions. Kerry-Ann further gives insights about the ways she's been helping employees step out of the shadow of their company's brand, and share their personal experiences. An employee's personal experiences have great value to a company's reputation, helping organizations create communities that allow budding brand ambassadors to connect, learn, and inspire each other. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought leaders should embrace the idea of "dark social" connections, and build trustworthy allies to carry the conversation in those places. * A customer will never be more excited about your brand than your employees. Thought leadership helps employees get charged up and eager to share those ideas. * You may never have the resources to accomplish all of your marketing goals, but if you create an army of advocates, they'll help take your ideas further than any marketing budget ever could.

This was originally a LinkedIn Live recorded on October 6th, 2021 In our first Leveraging Thought Leadership Live session, we invited two amazing guests to speak with us about challenges and the grit it takes to overcome them. Jan Rutherford is a former Green Beret, and the founder of Self-Reliant Leadership. He's also the author of The Littlest Green Beret: On Self-Reliant Leadership. Shanon Huffman-Polson is one of the first female Apache helicopter pilots, and also the founder of The Grit Institute and author of The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience, and Leadership in the Most Male Dominated Organization in the World. Together, these two brilliant leaders, vets, and authors, discuss with us the importance of laying down a strategic plan early in your thought leadership journey. We discuss how they found ways to convey their leadership experience in methods that help others learn from it, and developing avatars to help reach the audience who needs you the most. The conversation covers the need to iterate in order to stay on top of your game, and how to listen to the market in order to keep your business growing with today's needs. Jan and Shannon share why they chose to become authors, and their reasons for wanting to write a book about their personal experience. Both created books that focused on making their personal stories a delivery mechanism for inspiration, insight, and ideas that others can use to improve their lives. If you missed this episode when it was live, this is the perfect opportunity to get caught up. Three Key Takeaways: * Understand your thought leadership's deeper purpose, identify the people you want it to serve, and reach out to them early in your career. * The market will tell you what it values — which might be different than what you want! Be open and willing to listen, and change course toward success. * It can be easy to create thought leadership based on our experiences, but it shouldn't be about you. Make sure you are giving your audience something they can use.

Traditionally, great marketing requires a big budget, a great deal of manpower, and broad advertising. When your organization isn't able to compete in those arenas, what can you do to punch above your weight class? To help us level up, we've invited Heather Donids, the Director of Thought Leadership and Insight at Harbor Capital Advisors to join us for a chat. Harbor Capital Advisors is an investment company that specializes in helping clients achieve the financial security they deserve. Together, we explore the ways thought leadership sits outside of the traditional streams of marketing. When done properly, thought leadership allows companies and individuals to compete on a higher level — but only if they have something to say, and the conviction to broadcast and shepherd that idea. Once your organization has zeroed in on the message they want to share, you'll need to get it to the right audience. Heather explains how she views thought leadership as an asset, comparing it to human capital. If you develop a content strategy and program, you can create a strategic asset that can be measured, compounded, and guided. The goal is to use many voices and mediums to reach your audience where they naturally spend their time; both in terms of what they are thinking about, and where they are, physically. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought leadership needs to be in perfect alignment with your company's business strategy and values. * If you have someone in your organization with something valuable to say, equip them with the tools they need to take that message to scale. * Proper curation of thought leadership will cut through the clutter and put the spotlight on important ideas.

Have you ever thought about publishing a book? Be careful! There are a lot of misconceptions and bad information about publishing. If you want to publish successfully, and see your work reach it's best audience, you might need to do a little research — and our guest on this episode is a treasure-trove of information. To clear up the misinformation and get our listeners started on the right foot, we've invited Matt Holt, Editor-in-Chief of Matt Holt Books (a BenBella Books imprint) to join us. Matt was previously Senior Vice President and Executive Publisher at John Wiley & Sons, where he oversaw a team of 85 staff. Over his 27-year career, he's acquired over 1,000 titles and published 10,000 titles! We start with the questions you need to answer before you set pen to paper. Matt believes you need to know your book's goal; why you are writing it, and for what audience? Once you have those answers, you can start thinking about the publishing model that will best suit your authorship. Having had literally thousands of proposals cross his desk, Matt can tell in only 30 minutes whether a manuscript merits further exploration. During our conversation, he shares what he is looking for in a proposal, and the methods he uses to look into each potential author's background and qualifications. Lastly, we discuss the tension that often exists between author and publisher. The author is making a long-term, multi-year connection ,while the publisher is looking to get in, publish the manuscript, and move quickly onto the next project. Matt explains what both sides can do to provide the transparency needed for everyone to achieve their goals. If you want to ensure that your manuscript proposal doesn't get tossed into the "pass" pile, you've got to listen to this episode! Three Key Takeaways: * You can get a book done quickly and cheaply, or you can get it done right. * Thought Leaders who are also practitioners often have an advantage in promoting their books as they already are in direct contact with their audience. * A book is a mass-market tool, you'll need methods of taking your content to scale if you want to fully capitalize on your book launch.

Thought leadership is all about unconventional ideas. But unconventional ideas can be intimidating. How does a thought leadership practitioner stir curiosity, draw in an audience, and make potential clients want to engage? Does giving the client agency draw them in or push them away? In seeking answers, I've turned to an unconventional guest, Vince Kadlubek. Vince is the founder and director of Meow Wolf, an art studio creating massive, world-class experiences that weave art, space, and narrative into one inspirational adventure. To start things off, Vince explains Meow Wolf's purpose and design, and talks about the three major Meow Wolf experience spaces. These huge art installations provide an environment to explore the unknown, something essential to an authentic, visceral experience. That's the kind of place, Vince says, where real transformation happens. Bringing these massive events to life takes many iterations of prototyping, and many artisans working towards a unified vision. Vince explains how Meow Wolf creates the theme, seeks artists, and builds both teamwork and autonomy, creating a collaborative effort built on trust. This episode takes many concepts and ideas used in the arts, and shows how they can be applied to thought leadership advancements in any industry, to make dreams come true. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leadership needs to marry art and adventure, leading their audience into the unknown - where transformation happens. * True collaboration means each side provides 50% of the work toward a result; it's the merging of both that creates something richer and more meaningful. * Prompt your audience to participate in your thought leadership instead of simply being a spectator.

Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) often think in terms of campaigns, responses, and calls to action. Everything is about selling a product or service. So, when it comes to using thought leadership for marketing, how do you thread the needle? How do you show CMOs that thought leadership can develop a brand, bring in new clients, and not look like just another advertisement? To tackle this tough question, we've invited Drew Neisser, the Founder of Renegade, a B2B marketing agency that helps their clients do the heavy lifting of brand strategy, market research, content, and social media. Drew is also the author of Renegade Marketing: 12 Steps to Building Unbeatable B2B Brands, helping readers remove the complications of B2B marketing. For thought leadership to be successful, you need to be clear about what you are trying to accomplish. Drew discusses the way CMOs should be focusing their efforts, and ways to express how thought leadership differs from traditional marketing. Once you have a clear purpose, you need a clear vision. Drew explains that thought leadership needs to be developed from the viewpoint of the customers, creating content that encourages them to think more deeply about problems in order to find solutions. Drew's CATS (Courageous, Artful, Thoughtful, and Scientific) method is one such framework. It can be used as a guiding light to ensure your content hits all the right targets. We conclude the conversation by examining Drew's goals Drew in writing his book. He set out to make B2B marketing easier by creating a 12-step program that he used in the field to gain real-life feedback and viscerally improve the book. Drew shares how the pandemic affected the release schedule of the book, and how he stripped it back to a massive blog post — which then exploded in popularity, proving that he was on the right track. B2B marketing has never been more complicated. If you are struggling to find your share of the market, this episode might just have the advice you need to find your audience. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leadership content should be created with the focus of helping clients solve problems by looking at challenges from a different perspective. * Low or mid-level marketers should consider creating thought leadership content early in their career, as a means of building a reputation for the long run. * Make sure you've considered the three C's when creating thought leadership: Content, Connection, and Community!

Many organizations deploy assessment tools, only to have the results ignored because of a lack of understanding or motivation. What do we do with them, now? What do the numbers really mean? Our guest today will help us understand not only what it takes to build a valid assessment, but how to use one to drive measurable behavior change. Meredith Bell is the co-founder and president of Grow Strong Leaders, where they help individuals discover key areas for development, and implement strategies for achieving higher levels of performance. She is also the co-author of Connect with Your Team: Mastering the Top 10 Communication Skills and Peer Coaching Made Simple: How to Do the 6 Things That Matter Most When Helping Someone Improve a Skill. Meredith started her journey into the assessment tool space in the 90s, when she became frustrated at the lack of customizable tools at her disposal as a consultant. Before long, she had made the pivot from consulting to software creation. Her original product, 20/20 Insight, is still in use today. In addition to having been a consultant and creating assessment tools, Meredith is also an author, speaker, and thought leader. With so many plates spinning, she knows well how each label factor creates multiple touchpoints for potential clients to utilize her expertise. From those touchpoints, she helps companies and organizations discover which of her offerings will have the most impact for their needs. If you're looking for an in-depth understanding of assessment functionality, and why peer-to-peer coaching can be the most cost and time-effective method for moving the performance needle, you'll want to listen to this episode. Three Key Takeaways: * When creating assessments, keep your questions indirect. Indirect questions create more connection between behaviors and other elements. * Helping people reach their full potential is all about changing the habits that are standing in their own way. * Effective communication often means having to ask, "Who do I need to be, in this moment, in order to connect with my audience?"

How can you tell — in an instant — whether an in-person event will be a success or failure? Are there key items that can predict an event's outcome? In-person events are returning, and with them, questions of their utility and ability to really change the behaviors of those who attend. How can a thought leadership practitioner speak about their insights on stage in a way that brings about lasting and sustainable change? In order to better understand the challenges and pitfalls of organizing an event, we've invited Ruud Janssen, the Managing Director and Co-Founder of The Event Design Collective to join us. The Event Design Collective is a group of event designers who train and consult with event owners to elevate events using the Event Canvas model. As the co-creator of The Design Canvas, Ruud shares how they altered Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas to suit the event space, creating a model that any event owner could use under the creative commons license. Taking an idea and making it shine on stage isn't as simple as it sounds. Ruud helps us grasp the key elements that events need to create value through behavior change. While many concentrate heavily on the look or feel of an event, smart show-runners know that the real selling point is an event's outcome — and how it shapes ideas and habits for those who attend. The most successful events begin by taking notice of the event stakeholders; who they are, what they want from the event, and how they hope it will unfold. Ruud explains why we need to keep in mind those critical elements, and how to both manage expectations and surpass them. He also shares his thoughts on articulating thought leadership on stage, and what we can do to create behavior change from entry to exit. In addition, we learn how his business grew from offering a better understanding of The Design Canvas, to the creation of the Event Design Certificate program, and the creation of the Event Design Handbook — all to help empower event organizers to create amazing, impactful gatherings. If you want to learn more about The Event Canvas, you can get it free along with the first 100 pages of the Event Design Handbook HERE. Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership isn't just about insights. It needs to shape those insights and focus them in ways that deliver behavior change. Thought Leaders should spend at least 1% of their total attendance time thinking about the event they are hosting, and how to best reach attending stakeholders. You don't have to have a Hollywood budget for a Thought Leadership event! The production quality simply needs to elevate the conversation taking place.

Advertising and innovation are perhaps the two most important components of a company, and both are changing faster than ever before. So, how can advertisers better understand and harness the influence of social media content creators? Our guest on this episode is Geoffrey Colon, Head of Brand Studio at Microsoft Advertising and the author of Marketing: What Growth Hackers, Data Punks, and Other Hybrid Thinkers Can Teach Us About Navigating the New Normal. Geoffrey is well qualified to discuss how individual creators and organizations are being challenged to think about accountability, and how their message and actions affect their reputation. We start off the conversation by discussing how every action taken by your company and its employees is a marketing action, even if you don't intend it to be. Geoffrey explains why companies need to consider how they are seen - from interactions with customer service, to social media, to advertising campaigns and thought leadership. Are you presenting a clear and consistent message? Content creators on TikTok and Instagram are capable of massive reach and influence. With that in mind, what can be learned from their methods? Geoffrey talks to us about the changing world of public relations, and how companies can team up with like-minded influencers to create unique campaigns that are mutually beneficial. We round out the conversation by discussing how thought leadership can help build a brand's reputation. Geoffrey goes on to explain how this can only be done when an organization's thought leadership matches the actions being taken by the company. Trust is immediately lost when the audience sees a company speak about something they clearly don't understand, or worse, when the organization's actions are contrary to their thought leadership message. If you want a better picture of how to bet on the future of your company's public relations and reputation you'll want to listen to this episode! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership should stay true to the actions of the company. Don't tell others about customer service practices if your company is known for having bad customer service. Brands can reach new audiences by teaming up with content creators to spread the thought leadership message of their company. It is important for thought leaders to understand not only the financial standing of the company they are working for but the ethical standing as well.

76% of people say networking is the top driver for attending an event, but the amount that have a plan to achieve that goal is much smaller. With many events having moved to a digital platform, networking has become harder - and yet, even more critical to success. To help understand the problem, and find some answers, we've invited Robbie Samuels to join us. Robbie is a networking expert, consultant, and advisor. He is also the author of Croissants vs. Bagels: Strategic, Effective, and Inclusive Networking at Conferences and Small List, Big Results: Launch a Successful Offer No Matter the Size of Your Email List, plus, he is the host of the podcast On The Schmooze. The arrival of the pandemic meant the end of in-person conferences, but as restrictions are loosening, we are starting to see these events return. We discuss what the post-pandemic conference scene will look like. Robbie explains that there is still great importance for in-person events, but they will have to be more thoughtful and meaningful than ever before. We also discuss the undeniable value of virtual events. Robbie explains that many of the tricks of the trade used by keynote speakers in person simply don't work on a small screen. He compares in-person speaking to a theatrical performance, and virtual events to a television show, where production and delivery is very different. Robbie gives examples to help speakers make changes to their delivery and connect with the audience in either style. Lastly, we discuss how the virtual environment has changed business models. No longer can keynote speakers rely solely on big conference gigs. Robbie discusses the diverse platform you need to deliver content, and how you can continue to provide in-person value - digitally! Robbie has a special offer for our listeners! Click HERE to get The Big Results Toolkit for Free! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders need to have a clear plan to achieve networking goals at both in-person and virtual events. When delivering thought leadership content virtually, consider changing the pace every seven minutes to keep the audience engaged. Don't rely too much on one method of income for thought leadership. By diversifying your business model, you'll increase revenue and protect yourself from future disruptions.

Few children say, " I want to be a thought leader when I grow up." So, when did you realize this was what you wanted to do with your life? Every thought leadership practitioner comes from a unique background. Most began in other roles, following twisted paths that unexpectedly led them into thought leadership. When your organization needs a formal thought leadership position, how do you take people from disparate backgrounds and successfully stand up that new function? To better explore this transition, we've invited Mark Smith. Mark is Director, HR Thought Leadership at the Society for Human Resource Management (also known as SHRM). Mark's background includes a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and years of consulting in Human Resources, so he's got the right background to help us answer this question! Mark started his career at SHRM by leading a team to develop certification exams for HR. This research led Mark off the beaten path into marketing, social media, and sales - all the while continuing to lead his team. Eventually, Mark's boss recognized that Mark was doing incredible work outside of the scope of his position, and created the title of Director, HR Thought Leadership that Mark holds today. As the first official thought leadership role in the company, Mark was tasked with creating the responsibilities, roles, and tasks that the position would require, and building it into a meaningful part of the organization. He had to discover ways to bridge the gap between their important research and the audience he hoped to reach. Mark further shares his ideas about white papers. He tells us that they're not a great medium for the average audience, but those papers, infographics, sound bites, and more, can be shared on social media to offer people simple ways to take action toward more complex ideas. This is a wonderful conversation about standing up a thought leadership position. From the first steps of writing a vision for the role, to seeking mutually beneficial partners to collaborate with and reach larger audiences, Mark's got amazing insights that can help you do the same. Three Key Takeaways: Research often sits to the side of business goals. Thought Leaders need to bring that research to their audience in an actionable way. Organizational Thought Leaders need to navigate the complexity of silo'ed teams, develop buy-in, and get everyone on the same page. A fast way to grow your thought leadership reach is to collaborate with complementary partners - especially those whose work doesn't share the same audience.

Ever thought you'd found the best solution - only to discover in a few years (or a few months!) that the solution was unsustainable? The truth is that management solutions are complex, and sometimes our answers only complicate the original challenge. We've turned to one of the grandfathers of thought leadership, Art Kleiner, to address this difficult issue. Art is a recognized expert on management thinking, thought leadership, organizational learning, and scenario planning. He's the Principal Consultant at Kleiner Powell International (KPI), and the author of a number of books including Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege and Success and The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management. Art shares stories of a time when business knowledge was universally applied, leading to a range of difficulties with every new application. Leaders wanted "the one right way" to run a business, not realizing that business isn't a one-size-fits-all scenario. Eventually, thousands of people started offering simpler solutions to complex problems, each expressing the way they'd addressed the challenges. This created a new problemL hundreds of answers, and no way to tell which would be the right fit for any individual organization. Management problems have become more complex than ever, and leaders now face the difficulties of employees who struggle to deal with the global pandemic, radical changes to the workplace, and a much higher standard of responsibility. All of this adds up to the need for thought leaders who can be part of the community and who speak directly to employees with open eyes and empathetic understanding. We wrap up the conversation by discussing why it is much harder to build an audience today. The technology to reach thousands of people actually causes part of the challenge, creating fragmented audiences scattered across various platforms. In order to build your audience, you have to show up on a regular basis, find a way to connect with them, and share simple ideas that bring about complex changes. This conversation is filled with great advice for managers and leaders seeking to better understand the complications of their position. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders get a lot of return from being an active part of the community they wish to serve. Clients are seeking a connection that feels real. They want someone who speaks from experience, and doesn't just peddle a quick solution. Different audiences prefer different media. Some might want to read short blurbs, others listen to a podcast, and a third group might prefer video. Thought leaders must connect with audiences in the manner they prefer.

Many thought leaders start with speaking, consulting, and creating content. They love their insights, and want to share them - but they don't always stop and think about their business model. What products will you offer? How will you market them? What kind of ROI, KPI and other metrics will you use? What would it be like to start on the business side, before stepping out with your thought leadership? We are thrilled to have Stephen M. R. Covey join us again on our podcast. Stephen is the co-founder of Covey Link and Franklin Covey, the bestselling author of The Speed of Trust, and a global authority on trust, leadership, and culture. Stephens's incredible career can be divided into two acts: first, as a leader on the business side of operations, he was charged with figuring out how to scale and leverage the work of his father Stephen R Covey; then, he stepped forward to share his own thought leadership alongside the gold standard his company achieves. Stephen explains his realization that thought leadership practitioners don't have to choose between impact and income. By aligning the two, and focusing on the audience that would benefit most from your insights, you can have great ideas and make money Over the years, Stephen has watched the industry move from analog to digital and has continued to be at the forefront of change. We discuss the forward-thinking ideas he had during the analog years (creation of certifications and train-the-trainer), and talk about the challenges and successes involved with staying at the top in this digital world. Stephen also shares his reasons to believe that intellectual property will always be the underlying engine of any platform or medium. We wrap our conversation by discussing Stephen's new book, Trust and Inspire. Stephen enlightens us about how little leadership has changed from the industrial age. While we have polished and refined the system of "Command and Control," today's environment requires more. Stephen gives us a rundown of his new system, what "Trust and Inspire" looks like, and why it's more complete and robust way of leading is more relevant in today's workplace. Three Key Takeaways: * The primary goal of thought leadership should always be the mission. Balance the scales between margin and reach, and don't lose sight of the mission. * Even if you believe that your insights are for everyone, don't overreach. Focus on your most integral audience, and create a profitable core before reaching out to a broader field. * When the market wants something - give it to them!

Is the thought leadership of your organization integrated with other teams? Or it is something you do on your own time, without broad company support? To explore how thought leadership is about the effective deployment of great ideas, we sit down with Mike Zimmerman. Mike is the managing editor of The Thought Leadership Hub and Newsroom at Hitachi Vantara, a company helping mission-critical organizations get from data-rich to data-driven! Purchasers for businesses now spend 83% of their buying cycle educating themselves on the products and services they seek. Mike helps us understand how thought leadership can get you on that shortlist, by helping those purchasers understand what your product is – and more importantly, why they need it. Thought Leadership takes a different position inside every company. We examine where it sits within Hitachi Vantara, as well as the investments they are making in it. They integrate thought leadership on a top-down basis, and their "Insights" platform provides a home for stories about innovation, and perspectives on everything from supply chain to sustainability. In order to have a successful thought leadership platform, you need a fertile source of new content. Mike takes us through the steps he used to identify and recruit his subject matter experts and the various skills they contribute to the platform. This episode provides critical information for listeners seeking to develop a curatorial role for thought leadership in their organization. Three Key Takeaways: Your commitment to thought leadership shows in the frequency of the content you produce. When your thought leadership gets published, it is as important to clarify where you stand on each issue, both for and against. When developing your company's thought leadership, make the org's manifesto of ethics and values is the anchor for your thoughts.

How do you go from "outsider" to "pro"? Through recognizing your unique perspective - and sharing it, with great thought leadership. Many thought leaders initially feel like "outsiders" in their industry. They have niche interests, new and potentially counterintuitive perspectives, and they think so far ahead of the game that it might seem outrageous to those more comfortable working "inside the box." Monique Maley is the Founder and President of Articulate Persuasion, working at the intersection of leadership and language. She is equipped with the belief that engaged, articulate, and persuasive leaders and teams can scale faster, build dynamic cultures, and impact those around them for the better. Monique is also the author of Turbulence, where she shares her insights about the way explosive challenges affect an organization. In it, she provides tools and strategies to overcome turbulence and build stronger organizational cultures. Monique grew up feeling like an outsider due to her bi-cultural background. Her life changed when she realized that she could be more authentic in work and with conversations, and that her background gave her a unique and insightful perspective. Being an outsider has given her a strong advantage when it comes to consulting and advising, and Monique uses that advantage to help her clients and encourage those with similar situations. She tells us how an "outsider's" perspective allows you to see things more clearly, and be more direct, while overcoming internal politics that might try to hold you back just for being different. As "outsiders," thought leaders must develop tools that put the spotlight on their perspective and hold the attention of their audience. Monique has a rich background in acting and theatre. She shares methods to help those without such a background become comfortable in the spotlight, and shares the real reasons that you need to be authentic in order to build trust. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders should embrace their unique backgrounds and be authentic. Those strengths bring a unique outlook to your content. Thought Leadership that comes from outside an organization can provide a different and important point of view to those whose information has been isolated. Thought leaders need to be able to present themselves in a manner that keeps an audience engaged. Don't copy someone else's performance; stay true to yourself, or you risk losing the trust of the audience.

Anyone with the right academic training can understand research materials and data points. The struggle comes when we try to use that knowledge to move people to act. How can we fuse personal experiences with statistical information, to connect with people and get them excited about the future? Our guest today is Adam Zuckerman, Product Leader, Employee Engagement Software at Willis Towers Watson, a company offering data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk, and capital. They work to make organizations more resilient, more motivated, and capable of amazing things. Adam shares insights about crafting a unique voice for your thought leadership. He used a personal approach, sharing his narrative and using storytelling skill to add emotion to cold, academic numbers. Through this approach, he connects thought leadership to business development - and enhance employee performance. When it comes to employee experience, WTW has a host of technological tools at its disposal. Adam knows that technology has become increasingly important to employee satisfaction and engagement. However, he firmly believes that a smart organization's focus needs to remain on people. He tells us how he uses technological data to identify employee needs, and then spur action to address and solve those problems. That's what sets orgs apart from their competition. We also explore Adam's growing love for social media, particularly Linkedin, a platform he had previously all but written off. At the suggestion of a co-worker, he started to use Linkedin as a platform to share his ideas, and quickly realized it is a powerful tool for sharpening content, building your network, and discovering new ideas. This conversation is a delightful exploration that ranges from crafting your thought leadership voice to integrating technology into employee performance. Be sure to listen in! Three Key Takeaways:· * Leaders who encourage their employees to believe in themselves create a stronger work environment. * Customer and employee experience are deeply related. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers.· * Posting thought leadership content on social media is a great way to sharpen the content and see what resonates!.

While thought leadership has been around for a long time, it's only recently started popping up as a topic of discussion in major boardrooms. Company executives and board members want to know the ROI and KPI of a thought leadership investment. So how do you quantify thought leadership's impact and worth? To help me add up the numbers, I've invited Kimberly Ellison-Taylor to join us in this episode of our podcast. Kimberly is a thought leadership practitioner, an experienced accountant, an active board member and the CEO of KET Solutions. She has the perfect balance of knowledge to assess the usefulness and impact of thought leadership at the highest levels. We discuss thought leadership's impact within the executive suite, and how it can help prepare someone for a board position. Find out what the executive team of any organization should be thinking about when they begin a thought leadership journey; from roll out to measuring impact on a wide scale. Kimberly shares the reasons that an organizational thought leadership role is critical to the client-value proposition, and how great thought leadership can set your organization apart and push it toward greater levels of success. Kimberly understands the need to include diverse groups of people in your organization's thought leadership, to ask the questions that might otherwise be missed. She also celebrates the next generation of thought leaders, and talks about drawing attention to the time and focus that people put into attaining their professional goals. This is an exciting conversation for board members, executives, and thought leaders, focused on truly understanding how the power of thought leadership goes beyond the spreadsheet and into the core values of an organization. Three Key Takeaways: · Don't assume executives have a lot of bandwidth for research. Be sure to discuss with them, rather than asking them to investigate on their own. · Thought leadership is about peering around the corner into the future. Investing in thought leadership ensures that your organization is at the forefront of change. · You need a network of leaders and executives you can rely on, to help answer questions, solve problems, and discuss current topics of thought leadership.

What if you could change fields - without losing the relationships you'd made at your current organization? Many thought leaders start their careers working for an organization or company. Some begin by writing about culture, leadership, and developing content for the organization, or, thought leadership may be a passion that they follow on their own time. But what do you do when you're ready to take on thought leadership as a full-time practice? Do you have to abandon the relationships you've made in your career? Our guest in today's episode is Dan Pontefract. Dan is a TedX speaker, and author of two really special books; Lead Care Win: How to Become a Leader Who Matters, and Open to Think: Slow Down, Think Creatively, and Make Better Decisions. He is also the Founder and CEO of the Pontefract Group, a firm that aims to improve the state of leadership and organizational culture. Dan talks about what it was like to start his thought leadership career as the Chief Learning Officer at Telus, while writing a personal blog on culture, leadership and learning. From there, he began writing for the leadership channel at Forbes, and sharing his ideas through keynote speaking. When Dan felt his role as CLO had reached its natural peak, he proposed a partnership with Telus. He created an external consulting business, focusing on sharing the same culture changes he'd achieved with Telus - and his thought leadership took off! Dan shares how he navigated being a public thought leader while working at an organization; how he navigated that relationship; and how he worked with Telus when he was ready to expand beyond their interests. He kept the relationships he made at Telus, and expanded beyond them - while not losing the connections he'd already made. If you're a thought leader who wants to move from working in an organization to developing your own firm, Dan's insights will prove invaluable. Be sure to listen in! Three Key Takeaways: It is possible for a thought leader of a company to have a public profile. However, you should ensure that the public persona does not develop at the expense of your internal work. If you have a good working relationship with a company, there is no need to separate as your career advances. Find ways to keep the relationship mutually beneficial. Writing thought leadership for a personal blog can be a gateway to writing for larger publications, or even getting a publishing deal.

When you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing nobody! It can be a hard pill to swallow, but 99.9% of the world isn't interested in your thought leadership. Focusing on a vast, wide audience only ends up wasting your time - and might cause you to miss the people who really need your content. When you figure out what the 0.1% needs from you, and how you can serve them, that's when the magic happens. Today's guest is Sean M Doyle, Sean is a speaker and advisor helping small-business owners improve their marketing so that they can increase sales and work with more profitable customers. He is also the author of Shift: 19 Practical, Business-Driven Ideas for an Executive in Charge of Marketing but Not Trained for the Task We talk with Sean about what a thought leadership practitioner can do when great ideas just don't get traction, and what to do to boost them. He also discusses how thought leaders are their own harshest critics, and why content needs to be bespoke if it is really going to reach and connect with a target audience. Over the last two years, we've seen massive changes in the speaking industry. Sean shares insights into the changes speakers have had to make in order to thrive in this new environment. No longer are generic speeches acceptable, nor can speakers rely on choreographed music, lights, or entrance to create energy. To succeed, speakers must have strong content, clear talking points, and shining authenticity. If you want insight into ways that thought leadership practitioners can raise consciousness, uplift ideas that haven't reached their pinnacle, and make a difference to clients, you'll want to listen to this episode. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders are often the worst judge of their own content, due to stubbornness or ego. Thought leadership should be bespoke and feel personal to your audience. Once you recognize and understand patterns in people, you can use thought leadership to reach them and create long-lasting culture change.

How can you identify allies and ambassadors for your thought leadership, and what can you do to cultivate a relationship with them? When trying to expand the reach of your thought leadership, having allies and ambassadors is essential. You need people who can amplify your ideas when you are not in the room, and who will help to take them to heights you could not have reached on your own. Morag Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Skye Team, an international leadership development firm. She is also the author of The Future Proof Workplace: Six Strategies to Accelerate Talent Development, Reshape Your Culture, and Succeed with Purpose. In this episode, we discuss allies and ambassadors – people who evangelize and help grow your thought leadership reach. What makes a person an ally or an ambassador? What are the differences between the two? Morag not only helps us define their traits, but also helps us understand how to identify these amazing resources. Next, we talk about building relationships. Morag shares her insights about the conversations that are critical to creating allies and ambassadors, and how sharing the spotlight can get you further. She cautions against engaging in "transactional relationships," preferring to look at the long game – be generous with your time and energy, and buy in to the relationship at first, in order to get the returns you hope to achieve. Three Key Takeaways: A thought leadership ally can be a sparring partner as well as a spokesperson for your ideas. When seeking allies, don't just look at your current circle. Reach out to past circles and reconnect. When starting to build a relationship with an ally, avoid asking favors. Concentrate on getting to know them, and find out how you can help each other.

Most authors spend, on average, three and a half years from the time they decide they want to write a book until the time the book hits store shelves. That is a massive investment of time that thought leaders and executives could be using to increase other revenue streams. What if you could speed the process up, without sacrificing quality? Today's guest, Aurora Winter, has a method for doing exactly that. Aurora is the Founder of Same Page Publishing and creator of the Spoke Author Method. Both help authors get their ideas on the page faster and on track to having a final product they can be proud of that will impact the lives of others and the author's business. Aurora is also the best-selling author of Turn Words Into Wealth: Blueprint for Your Business, Brand, and Book to Create Multiple Streams of Income & Impact (Turn Your Words Into Wealth). Having started as a television writer and producer, she grew frustrated with the financial restraints and turned to books. As a first-time author, Aurora faced many problems. However, in solving those problems, she found a passion for helping other authors, too. Today, Aurora shares some of the common hardships authors face, and gives suggestions to help those problems be overcome. Many authors forget they will have to promote the book themselves. While the publisher is a partner, they will publish the book and then quickly move on to the next book in their lineup. We discuss with Aurora the pros and cons of traditional vs self-publishing, why you need a clear business goal for your book, and how you should be looking at your book as a long term legacy piece. As we wrap up, Aurora gives us the perfect example of how a solid business plan can create more revenue than book sales. She gave her book Marketing Fastrack: The Little Book That Launched A New Business: $250,000 in 90 Days (which you can download for free) away to interested readers for just the price of shipping. She followed that book with a video series, and offered "business breakthrough" sessions. After 90 days, Aurora had generated $250,000 in sales from a book she was literally giving away. If you want to better understand how your book can amortize over the years and gain a huge ROI, you'll want to listen to this episode! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders don't have to be constantly at the keyboard. Many successful books are dictated to a team who can shape those ideas into magic. Once your thought leadership book is done, the real work starts. You have to put in a lot of effort to promote your book, as the publisher will only do so for a relatively short period of time. A book is a mass-market product, but you must have a solid strategy if you want to use that book to increase your thought leadership business.

Is it possible to transform the world of sales through thought leadership? And if we could, how would we change and improve sales culture? While many industries and positions change and evolve at high speed, the world of sales is often seen as foundational. Companies educate their salespeople about their product or service, and send them to sell as many units as possible. That's the way the game is played, right? But what if things could be different? Our guest today is Kelly Wright, Founder of Culture Driven Sales, an organization on a mission to help companies create exceptional cultures. Kelly helps orgs drive sales by bringing all levels of the company together around a unified purpose, creating a healthier, more aligned culture. She is also the President and COO of Gong, a company that analyses customer-facing interactions to deliver the insights needed to close more deals. We start our conversation by discussing how thought leadership and sales connect. Kelly shares her experiences, noting that many salespeople don't realize how powerful thought leadership can be in selling and what a game-changer it can be! The competitive market no longer wants vendors who are just "going through the motions." They want a partner that will challenge them, help them keep up with modernization, and work with them to create a better environment for sales. Kelly is on a mission to transform the sales world. When companies spend more time educating salespeople on the why as well as the what (knowing the product, but also how it helps their clients), they can create a true partnership between sales and customer. Through storytelling, salespeople can connect with their customers, creating a unified mission and vision that can spur success and create growth for both sides. If you want to transform the sales culture in your company this is the episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership creates, persuades, and "sells" a vision of the future. Many thought leaders have a gut feeling about how things work, but choices need to be based on research and data. Your thought leadership is not for everyone. Don't spend time on people who aren't interested in learning more about your core insights.

What's the best way for a speaker to help their audience connect with their ideas? Many organizations have brilliant employees with a great depth of knowledge, but when it comes time for them to share that knowledge, they have trouble finding their voice. How does a speaker connect with their audience? How do you evoke emotion, and gain the investment of your listeners? Our guest today is Dr. Nick Morgan, one of America's top communication theorists and coaches. He is also the President of Public Words, coaching speakers and business leaders in methods of connection, helping them develop their ideas, and bringing their insights to life with powerful language that will move people to action. We discuss why it's best for thought leaders to focus on their insights, narrowing their area of expertise and making their ideas accessible to learners. Nick explains that speakers should share stories that are relevant to their audience, otherwise it won't hold interest. In addition, your story should identify a specific problem that the audience understands, and illustrate concrete solutions. That's how a speaker connects emotionally with their listeners. One method of establishing an emotional connection is by telling stories of conflict or failure. While many have difficulty sharing such personal stories, Nick describes why these are exactly the stories your audience most needs to hear. They want to understand the stumbling blocks you faced, and how to overcome those challenges and reach success.As a coach of some of the world's top speakers, Nick shares great advice for breaking through the primal fear of public speaking. He discusses why speakers should establish a clear narrative, and how to gain confidence through repetition of those stories. If over the last two years you've felt disconnected or misunderstood during virtual conversations please check out Nick's book Can You Hear Me?: How to Connect with People in a Virtual World. If you are planning to add speaking to your repertoire, or even if you're an experienced speaker, this episode is a trove of wisdom. Listen in! Three Key Takeaways: To make an emotional connection with your audience, you need to find the intersection between thought leadership and listener relevance. Share your thought leadership expertise in a narrow band, and seek out an audience that needs your insights. Be passionate about your thought leadership. The audience can only be excited if you're excited, too!

There are a lot of myths that first-time authors have about publishing: Having a literary agent guarantees you a book deal; book contracts are too complicated for a normal person to understand;authors need huge social media numbers to get published. Getting published can be a complicated process, but it doesn't have to be a confusing one! To help us debunk these myths, we invited Lucinda Halpern to join us for a conversation. Linda is the president of Lucinda Literary LLC, a literary management firm that champions leading thinkers and emerging voices. As President of the organization, Lucinda relies on her deep knowledge of the industry, and decades of experience guiding authors to break-out success and long-lasting careers. We start our myth-busting by talking about book agents, and what happens during the lead time before a book hits the shelf. Lucinda explains that engaging a literary agent can help understand publishers' needs, and add an additional level of polish to your manuscript - but it doesn't guarantee you'll find a publishing deal. While thought leaders often want their book published immediately, Lucinda explains that it can take 12 to 18 months for the publishing process, even after your manuscript is written. Next, we shine a light on the myths of platform and marketing. While publishers still require fantastic content, Lucinda shares the importance of creating a visible author presence. We get a brief overview of ways that publishers review a potential author's platform and reach, and where an aspiring author might focus in order to improve their chances of becoming published. In addition to publishing their manuscript, authors need to think about the long-term business plan for their book. Lucinda gives us insights into the long-view of business books, why lower than expected sales do not equate to failure, and how lead generation is the place to make real profit. We wrap up our conversation by discussing the frustrations that can arise when dealing with publicists. Lucinda helps us understand the steps an author should take to screen a potential PR company, the questions that need to be asked, and the routes you can take - depending on your budget. This conversation is a deep dive into what authors need to know and understand - from the moment they seek an agent, to the years following the publication of their book. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leaders should work with a literary agent, to polish their manuscript and shop it to publishers. * Authors need to look at publishing a book as a long-term investment in their thought leadership; books are best thought of as lead generation tools for speaking and workshops. * If you are not interested in being part of marketing your thought leadership book, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. Find a platform that allows you to shine.

Is kindness a mindset, culture, or capability? What is the cost of empowering your employees to be kind to their co-workers, customers, and themselves? To get a deeper understanding of where kindness fits into the workplace, we've turned to The Kindness Catalyst, Linda Cohen. Linda is a nationally recognized kindness expert and keynote speaker with over a decade of experience. Her new book, The Economy of Kindness: How Kindness Transforms Your Bottom Line, provides real-life examples of companies that have employed kindness as a secret weapon to build and maintain their organizations. We start our conversation by discussing how Linda started her kindness movement by writing her first book, 1,000 Mitzvahs: How Small Acts of Kindness Can Heal, Inspire, and Change Your Life, as a project to honor her father. As she began to deliver keynotes on the topic, she truly realized her passion for the subject. Linda discusses the concept of an "economy of kindness," and how kindness is a soft skill that businesses rarely emphasize. Yet, the ROI of kindness in your business is undeniable. Linda has had to use her agility and willingness to learn in the last two years, overcoming massive changes to the keynote speaking industry caused by our current workplace situation. Linda shares tips on transitioning to virtual events, including the skills she had to learn and the changes she made to her delivery in order to ensure she still connects with her audience on an emotional level. Kindness is essential in today's business world. Times are changing, and thought leadership delivery methods have to change with them. Discover ways to effectively connect and deliver your message, no matter the circumstances.. Three Key Takeaways: * Growth is possible when kindness is part of your DNA. Does your thought leadership encourage people to be kind? * Delivering a thought leadership keynote virtually requires additional means of interactivity to avoid the risk of losing the audience. * After delivering a virtual keynote it is important to seek feedback to ensure your thought leadership was delivered in the way you intended.

How do you help people see new truths, change their behaviors, and rekindle the spark of insight in their everyday life? Through thought leadership! At its best, thought leadership is incredibly empowering. By sharing our experiences, great thought leadership practitioners can help their audiences elevate their lives - day by day. Our guest on today's podcast understands that process better than anyone. Amanda Morin is the Director of Thought Leadership and Expertise at Understood, a nonprofit organization that is a leader in the fields of education and disability inclusion. Amanda helps those who learn and think differently discover their potential, take control of their education, and find community. Amanda explains Understood's mission, and explains how she leads the org's efforts to build knowledge about learning and thinking differences. Amanda walks us through Understood's humble beginnings in 2014, focusing on empowering school-age children and their teachers. Through the years, the strategy shifted to include helping individuals take charge of their lives and find strength in their differences. We discuss the various modalities used to reach a broad audience. Amanda discusses the need for a diverse team, and adapting her thought leadership to be used with websites, the mobile app Wunder, and the podcast she co-hosts, In It, where Amanda gives advice for parents, teachers, and even kids who are "in it" with those who learn and think differently. We also discuss other social media platforms she's used for her thought leadership, and the types of content that work best on each (and why!). Amanda draws from a full team of researchers, experts, and content creators, to create the perfect team for any task. By maintaining a pool of talented people, she's sure to have the right skills for any project. She explains why her job isn't simply to lead the team, but also to help team members find their distinct voices, lift them up so their ideas are heard, and know when to help them change direction when a project isn't hitting the mark. This is a wonderful conversation about deploying thought leadership to help those who might otherwise never be given the chance to unlock their full potential. Three Key Takeaways: * When deploying thought leadership, you need to find your audience - and put your insights where they already spend their time. * Not everyone will have the same entry point (or end goal) for thought leadership. It is important for your audience to have different points of entry, and to consider their disparate objectives. * When leading a thought leadership team, ensure you are giving a platform to each distinct voice. By raising them up, you elevate the whole team.

With a seemingly endless supply of options for any service or product, how do you make sure that yours rises above the noise? Better yet, as a buyer, how can you know which product or service is right for you? Today we are joined by Howard Brown, the Founder and CEO of ringDNA (now known as Revenue.io), an AI-powered platform that helps clients unlock revenue growth. Howard has also been listed as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs, and a top CEO according to Comparably. With a strong background in clinical psychology, Howard's position on thought leadership comes from a deep understanding of the way people work and think. Howard shares his insights on thought leadership, how using TL internally can help your employees find strength, realize opportunities, and improve, so that they can deliver their best performance. As a CEO, Howard shares great advice for those who are just starting on the leadership journey. He delves into the how's and why's of using thought leadership internally and externally at your company, and what it means to be a CEO who understands thought leadership's purpose. In addition, we discuss "finding your superpower," and why being hyper-personalized with your message will better connect with a specific audience. Make sure they know you are speaking directly to them, and taking into account their individual needs! If you want to use thought leadership to tell a story and deliver value for your entire organization, this is a great episode for you. Three Key Takeaways: * As digital conversations replace more and more face-to-face ones, we need Thought Leadership to build those connections. Listen to your audience, pay attention to their needs, and create a sense of insight and vision. * When starting down the path of thought leadership, start by doing your research! It's important to truly understand what thought leadership is… and what it is not. * It can be tempting to create thought leadership for "everyone" because it's easy. Narrowcasting is much harder, but the ROI is greater - especially if you crack the code and reach the right audience for your insights.

How do great thought leaders successfully connect their content to their business objectives in a way that causes real impact? It's all about strategy. Strategy is the most overlooked piece of thought leadership. Even with compelling stories, brilliant insights, and a drive to share with their audience, some thought leaders fail simply because they didn't know how to craft a winning strategy to deploy their content. Our guest today is Trevor Merriden, Founder and CEO of Merriborn Media Ltd, a company that puts businesses on the fast track to content competency. Trevor started his thought leadership journey as an economist, finding the stories in numerical data. He took those insights and became a business journalist, helping Human Resources (or, in UK terms, the Personnel Department) find more strategic approaches to telling those stories - and delivering them with impact. After taking the role of editor as far as he could, Trevor started his own company. Now, he helps business clients deploy their thought leadership content with comprehensive, successful strategies. Trevor discusses the future of thought leadership, and how the field might grow and change as it evolves. Trevor also shares the three C's: Curiosity, Clarity, and Collaboration; when used effectively as a strategy, these can give your insights the impact and reach necessary for success. In addition, we discuss how the pandemic has had an impact on thought leadership, encouraging people to make better use of time and technology and allowing ideas to move faster than ever before. We also discuss the pitfalls of the virtual world, and how quiet voices can be lost amid the noise - unless they possess a strategy to help draw attention to their insights. Our conversation covers how a thought leader can grow from any role where a passion for curiosity and storytelling exists. Three Key Takeaways: If you have a driving curiosity to find answers and share insights, you need to be part of an organization that will support your creation of thought leadership content. Organizational thought leadership content needs to keep the strategic goals of the company in mind. Thought Leadership doesn't have to be a solo mission. The world's largest problems will require collaborative efforts.

When did you first realize you were creating and deploying thought leadership? Many thought leadership practitioners were unknowingly performing the function before they stepped up to the title. However, adding the words "Thought Leader" to your title shines a particular spotlight on your talents. The title often comes with high expectations — and a need for clear metrics to show that your work makes sense. To explore how a new thought leadership role can be developed, and how to help it evolve and move forward, we turn to Clarinda Cerejo, Senior Director of Thought Leadership at Cactus Communications, a technology company that is accelerating scientific advancement by making research available to communities around the world. Clarinda tells us how Cactus Communications supported her work developing a formal thought leadership role, from the earliest days of research to the expansive plan of building communities. She also discusses what it meant to both her and her organization when she finally included the words "thought leadership" in her formal title. Determining what success looks like for thought leadership can be challenging. Clarinda gives clear examples of metrics you can use, why you need to celebrate the small victories, and how success is cumulative. Thought leadership means being invested in the long haul, and watching trends, not fads. We examine the work Clarinda is doing, and the challenges she has faced in moving from scientific research to content marketing. She carries the scientific method into her work doing community building, helping others get their work published, and navigating the difficult peer-review process. This conversation is a perfect example of the arc a career can take, from subtly doing thought leadership to steering the ship for your company. Listen in, and get insights from one of the most insightful new thought leaders in the business! Three Key Takeaways: * Remember that the external perception of your role is more important than any title. Do the work - recognition will come! * Success in Thought Leadership often looks different than success in marketing or sales. Celebrate the small victories, because they will add up to big changes. * Focusing Thought Leadership on community lets you create content that gives voices to those who have been most impacted.

Many believe that being a great leader in the business world means you're automatically going to be a great leadership coach. If you can do it, you can teach it, right? Wrong! Teaching is a difficult skill, one that must be learned and developed like any other. Many brilliant leaders fail to achieve success as a coach simply because they don't prepare for "Teacherhood." They face difficulties translating their insights, as well as discussing premium fees, or maintaining networks. So how do you make the leap? For our answer, we turn to Lance Tanaka, Founder and Managing Director of the Lance Tanaka Group, an organization focusing on coaching the best of the best around the world. Lance shares how he went from the general manager of Pepsi Tokyo to being a renowned executive coach, accumulating over 17,000 hours helping executives around the world since the Lance Tanaka Group's inception in 2001. He expresses the importance of self-discovery as an aid in coaching, and explains why more CEOs need to take time out for their own self-reflection. We examine the three things Lance looks at when hiring coaches to work at his company, and ways that new coaches can avoid falling prey to common problems. He explains why it's critical to keep an updated and relevant network, secure referrals, and be steadfast in your fees - and how many new coaches struggle with these issues. Lance lists the critical strengths a coach needs to bring to the table - and specific industry knowledge isn't at the top of the list! If you are starting to think about your future moving from the corporate space into coaching, or have struggled as a new coach, this is a great episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders seeking to coach need a passion for helping people change, and a strong ability to connect and empathize with their clients. It is imperative that Thought Leaders keep in touch with their network as their career path evolves, to ensure your connections know about your current offerings. When it comes to fees for Thought Leadership, don't be afraid to stand your ground. Offer smaller scope for a limited budget instead of discounts on your rates.

Over the holidays, we took a look back at the conversations that have stood out from 2021. We were honored to speak with some amazing thought leadership practitioners, but a few really stood out, and we wanted to share them again: Jayshree Seth, Chief Science Advocate at , shares the way she is turning the scientific methods and processes used in the lab to also promote science advocacy. She talks about how to create a clear picture of goals, raise awareness, and break down the barriers and boundaries that impede scientific progress. Jeff Kavanaugh is the Global Head of the Infosys Knowledge Institute, the research and thought leadership arm of the Infosys diversified technology and digital firm. Jeff helps us understand the idea of "Quantum Organization," his method of doing many things at once, and challenges us to see how even small changes can bring about drastic impact. Melanie Huet is the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Serta Simmons Bedding. She provides critical insights about using modern marketing tools like TikTok to elevate awareness and spark conversations, and the challenges of transforming a long-established brand into a modern must-have. Thomas Kolditz is the author of Leadership Reckoning and Director of The Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. Thomas shares The Institute's two-fold mission: to create a powerful and widely available leader development experience, and to improve the quality of leader development in higher education everywhere. These were inspirational guests, with meaningful messages. We're thrilled to be able to shine a spotlight on them once more, and wish all of you the very best in 2022!

What role can yoga and meditation play in the business world? Can leaders use these unconventional methods as an epic spiritual guide? How do you use empowering techniques to coach executives and corporations toward greater success? Today our guest is Kristoffer "KC" Carter, author of Permission to Glow: A Spiritual Guide to Epic Leadership, which outlines the first of four permissions that will create a long-term framework for Kristofer's works. He's the author of Permission to Glow: A Spiritual Guide to Epic Leadership, as well as an international speaker and retreat leader who teaches at the intersection of consciousness and business. We begin our conversation by exploring what KC means by "spiritual leader," and how meditation connects to business and thought leadership. Techniques like yoga and Transcendental Meditation are being used by high-profile CEOs around the world, and KC's methods bring those insights into the business world. KC discusses the ways that spirituality and meditation are critical to business leadership, and how he's pushing past the barriers of skepticism to bring deep insights to leaders from the Fortune 100 as well as newly-minted start-ups. He uses mindset to help leaders find clarity, and commit to the things that energize, inspire, and ignite them. KC's deep knowledge of instructional design is being put to good use, creating a strong thought leadership IP that is teachable, and requires only 15 minutes a day for leaders to change their lives. He shares details on his coaching certification program, allowing others to manage relationships within their organization and take back control of their lives. If you are curious about how spiritually can give your business a boost, KC's insights and thought leadership are a great place to start. Listen in, and it might just make your life epic, too! Three Key Takeaways: · Help organizations justify the expense of bringing in your thought leadership by providing benchmarks, methods for measuring success, and hard data to back up your content. · Creating a program of certified coaches to deliver your Thought Leadership is a great way to take your message to scale. · Without proper instructional design, your thought leadership programs could feel like nothing more than speaking notes. Take some time, and prepare for success!

It has become a tradition to start the new year off with a look back at a few of the great episodes and most inspiring guests of our previous year's podcast. For 2021, we hope you'll enjoy great advice from: Doug Conant, best-selling author of The Blueprint and CEO of Conant Leadership. Doug shares insights about balancing his time as a thought leader and a CEO, and ways to make time for self-reflection. It's important to ensure that the things which matter most are never forgotten in the press of less-important burdens. John Warrillow is the Founder of the Value Builder System and Best-selling author of Built to Sell. John talks about the best parts of coaching, and opens up about the psychology of selling to entrepreneurs vs. enterprise, and the need to find the niche that works best for you. Lisa Bodell is the CEO of FutureThink and author of the best-selling book Kill the Company. In our conversation, we explore the meaning of her term "futurist," and how Lisa found a way to guide people to their potential and teach change through a structured format. Tom Schwab is the founder of Interview Valet and the author of PODCAST GUEST PROFITS. Tom sheds light on proper etiquette as a podcast guest, and talks about ways to turn guest speaking on an episode into a relationship that can help you attract and keep engaged customers.

How do you grow a movement from a backyard enterprise to a global mission reaching hundreds of thousands of people each day? Today, we discuss the ongoing 50+-year mission of the Special Olympics with Jacqueline Jodl, Senior Vice President of Global Youth & Education and Haylie Wrubel, Director of Global Unified Champion Schools. We start our conversation by discussing the way Special Olympics is bringing together people with and without intellectual disabilities to share experiences and build a common language. Their goal: create an understanding of the value of social and academic inclusion. One of the methods by which they achieve this goal is through creating Unified Champion Schools, a worldwide network of schools with inclusive programs, both sport and academic. Together, they bring people with differences together to build friendship and create leadership. Taking a grassroots idea to scale is never easy, but is exactly what the Special Olympics has done. Jackie and Haylie share some of the methods they've used to create an impact on a global level. We discover how thought leadership resides at the intersection of research, policy, and practice, and how creating that thought leadership is at the heart of their work. In addition, we learn how a focus on storytelling and sharing the real-life stories of individuals and schools can resonate with policymakers and move the needle on a global scale. In addition, Jackie and Haylie discuss how they go about cultivating allies and ambassadors for their movement. They explain why you shouldn't be too narrow while identifying allies, how you can co-create content, and how you can turn followers into allies and ambassadors. This is a fascinating look at how the Special Olympics has grown, and continues to grow, across the world - creating a positive social impact for everyone. Three Key Takeaways: Scaling thought leadership can be done by using a policy that works in one area and modifying it to suit another. Thought leadership is more authentic when you give voice to those it is intended to impact. Creating thought leadership for a global movement involves having an infrastructure with staff and volunteers in the communities they are intending to work with.

With so many brands in the marketplace, how can you elevate yours? And how do you stay unique, eye-catching, and authentic to your vision? To help address these questions, we turn to Denise Blasevick, CEO and Founding Partner of The S3 Agency. The S3 Agency provides advertising, marketing, and PR for companies seeking stronger strategy and an authentic voice that differentiates your brand from all others. Denise shares how thought leadership can make your business stand out, and earn trust. She was the on-air marketing make-over expert for an MSNBC program for nearly a decade, and that exposure allowed her company to compete with larger firms and punch above their level. She offers tips she learned staying true to her vision in a sea of competition, and how she found people that shared her breakthrough point of view. In today's society, your brand must be authentic. Some choose to lean into (or away from) certain political issues, but Denise used her unique perspective to guide her brand's voice. Today, she walks us through the reasons how and why a brand should engage in the conversation about difficult topics. Further, she reminds us that leaning into a cause means more than giving lip service to your views; you must act on them, or your audience will call your authenticity into question. The S3 Agency has helped clients, from BMW Motorcycles to Tetley Tea, develop their brands. Denise explains the Brand Elevation Process used to collaborate with clients and help them reach the next level. She explains how she broke years of gut instinct down into small, measurable parts, then used her insights to build a codified process that allows brands to scale their business. Whether your brand is big or small, this conversation can help you find clarity and meaning - and find success! Three Key Takeaways: When codifying your thought leadership, break it down into its most basic pieces. Then, of each part, ask "Does this really matter?" For thought leadership to change the world, it must do more than talk about it. You must stand for something, take action, and be the change you want to see in the world. The only way to scale thought leadership effectively is to create a process that allows others to replicate your results.