Leveraging Thought Leadership

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.

Once you realize that your company needs a full-fledged thought leadership role, how do you make that vision a reality? What information should be included in your proposal? Who do you need to buy-in, and what would the role entail? These are some of the questions we explore in this episode. Our guest is Erica James, Director of Customer Marketing and Thought Leadership at Medallia. Medallia's award-winning SaaS platform, the Medallia Experience Cloud, leads the market in the understanding and management of experience for customers, employees, and citizens by utilizing a proprietary AI technology to turn personalized and predictive insights into tremendous business results. We explore the journey Erica has taken; from her instinctive talent for thought leadership, to pitching and developing her formal position as thought leader at Medallia. Erica describes how she knew the position would benefit the company, the way her personal love of thought leadership played a part in getting executive buy-in, and the way her new role increases employee satisfaction throughout the entire organization. Erica shares with us the way feedback from current clients is a source of inspiration, as she takes their requests for information and turns that into a drive that shapes content. She discusses the many people who have come out of the woodwork to work with her now that her position is formalized, and how she shines the spotlight on them (both internally and externally) to develop their brand. Finally, we discuss the methods of coaching Erica employs to move others along the thought leader road. By using an apprenticeship model she is able to make meaningful relationships and then by breaking down thought leadership into bite-sized chunks, she makes the task manageable and more comfortable for new practitioners to accomplish. This episode gives amazing insights and pathways toward standing up a new thought leadership role inside an organization, and will be useful to those looking to become thought leaders as well as to executives wanting to create a thought leadership function inside their organization. Be sure to listen in! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership is like a marching band. Everyone on the team has a unique role that adds to the harmony of the music. When adding a thought leadership function to an organization, start with the question, "What outcome are we trying to reach?" People are seeking thought leadership content that is authentic and approachable. The personal touch can carry you far!

Today's guest is Michelle Mellon, Thought Leadership Director at SalientMG, a strategic marketing firm that creates custom programs for clients seeking to spur new business, create awareness, or get recognition as an industry leader. Michelle is also an accomplished short-fiction author; her work can be found in compilations like The Year's Best African Speculative Fiction. She's an expert in using creative storytelling to drive insights and make thought leadership accessible and powerful. When writing a work of fiction, Michelle often starts with the question of "What if?" And, indeed, as she tells us today, that question also forms a powerful intersection between fiction and thought leadership. Michelle explains how her thought leadership goes deeper. She looks at trends, listens to her audience, and crafts stories that will both educate and entertain. In our conversation, Michelle explains the basics of storytelling, and how the elements of fiction can also empower good thought leadership content. Michelle walks us through the best practices of crafting and telling engaging stories about leadership, brand, and mission, and explains that by following and even sometimes breaking the rules of basic storytelling, one can capture and inspire an audience. Every author has to find their voice and stay true to it. Michelle explains why an authentic voice is necessary to craft good thought leadership. In addition, we discuss ways to develop the mind's ear, and how to use voice and language that is specific to every audience. Having a distinct voice will only carry you so far - if your audience doesn't understand or isn't interested in what you are talking about, your thought leadership won't stick! This is an insightful episode for creative writers entering the world of thought leadership, and for those seeking to breathe life into an idea and share it with others. Listen in! Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders should embrace the speculative and look into the future as they craft their content. Your ideas don't have to be 100% right; they just have to be engaging and enlightening. It's a fallacy to think that long-form content has more prestige. Convey your thought leadership in a variety of formats, and you'll reach a wider audience. Thought leadership needs to tell your personal story, share your experiences and your mission, but it must also inspire others - and to do that, you must share it in a way that they can understand.

There are two popular roads that can be taken when building a consulting firm. The first is intense specialization; becoming the gold standard in a particular domain. The other is to have a more general focus, relying on a broad variety of topics that can be combined and recombined to solve many different problems. But what happens when the truth of your brand lies on both roads? Niko Canner is the Founder of Incandescent, a firm which has many talents: it serves as a thought partner to leaders of large enterprises on strategy, organization and innovation; advises founders on the development of their ventures; and partners with foundations and non-profits engaged in systems change. Prior to founding Incandescent, Niko was co-founder and Managing Partner of the consulting firm Katzenbach Partners. In our conversation, he recalls his struggles to properly but concisely describe their firm to the market, and how many potential buyers walked away without properly understanding their value. Niko also shares how the term "Breakthrough Organizational Performance" was the key that let them go to market as both specialists and generalists, and find buyers competing for their attention. Niko shares the conversations that took place prior to that acquisition, how to find a good fit for both acquiring and acquired company, and explains the factors anyone hoping to see their firm acquired someday should be considering now. Three Key Takeaways: In order to successfully market your thought leadership, you need a platform that is succinct and resonates. If your thought leadership brand is too general, you can get lost in the crowd. Get too specific, and you could become irrelevant to most. Find the path between! When looking to have your thought leadership firm acquired, you need to establish a relationship and prove that you are a good strategic fit to your buyer.

Today's guest is Everett Harper, the Founder and CEO of Truss. Truss is a software company that works with teams to design, build, and scale software and tech infrastructure to give them the tools they need to excel. Everett is also the author of Move to the Edge, and Declare it Center, a book that helps people lead organizations, solve problems, and sustain company growth with effective practices for complex, uncertain, and unpredictable environments. Many CEO's want to write a book about their experiences, but doing so can be an expensive and time-consuming process. How do you know it's the right time to write a book? What insights and experiences should you share? In Move to the Edge, and Declare it Center, Everett discusses a moment of disquiet in 2020 that compelled him to write - and how that moment has gone on to inspire others through his book. Everett also describes the process Truss uses with their clients, interviewing not only the leaders of a project but also software operators, end-users, and partners, in order to gain the widest view of complex problems. With that information in hand, they create an infrastructure to help the designers of a software system understand the needs of its end users, and keep both involved throughout the entire entire development cycle. Three Key Takeaways: Nobody knows everything, and not knowing can feel frustrating. Great thought leaders manage that feeling and find a way forward. Complex problems don't always have linear solutions. Thought Leaders can make amazing discoveries by keeping an experimental mindset. A good thought leadership book can get you recognized, and bring your insights respect - giving you an edge on the competition.

Have you ever had to onboard a new hire, or explain a complex task to a colleague not in your field? How can you get a novice up to speed without giving them a doctoral-level lecture? Today's guest is Ashley Faus, Content Strategy Lead for Software Teams at Atlassian. Atlassian is a software development company that creates tools which are used worldwide to unlock the potential of high-functioning teams in the workplace. We start our conversation by discussing frameworks for thought leadership, content, and broad ideas, and how building a content framework can make even complex ideas accessible to learners of all levels. Ashley goes on to share the four pillars of her framework: Credibility, Profile, Prolific, and Strong Depth of Ideas. She explains how frameworks can be a tool to assess areas of specific challenge or difficulty, and how to use them to create a stronger focus to improve. In addition to her four pillars, Ashley shares how she arrived at the idea of the "Content Playground," and how she builds on her experience in content marketing to turn ideas and inspiration into learning journeys. An audience can be engaged by allowing them to choose their own path through content, discover insights that speak to their personal perspective, and grow through the novelty of play. Ashley explains that trust is an essential quality of thought leadership, and that to be a great leader, you must be open, honest, and vulnerable. Organizations, too, need to manifest those traits, remaining consistent and authentic in their actions and messaging, so that audiences understand and believe in the brand'. Three Key Takeaways: A well-built framework can be a great way for others to more easily grasp the core of your thought leadership. Thought Leadership can be used for content marketing, but that should not be its main goal. Thought Leadership is a long-term play, unlike most marketing, and should be constructed and utilized to withstand the rigors of time.

When you can't gather in person, how do teams manage strategic planning, maintain role clarity, and build both alignment and consensus? Today's guest on our podcast is Dr. Sharon Lamm Hartman, the Founder and CEO of Inside-Out Learning. She talks to us about the content of her book, The Authenticity Code: The Art and Science of Success and Why You Can't Fake It to Make It, and how she helps clients, professionals, and leaders to be real and authentic no matter what communication obstacles they may face. Having a published book codifying your thoughts and processes can be a useful tool as a thought leader. Yet, in our present environment, buyers often have different expectations of virtual programs and how they will put forward the information and insights in the book. Sharon helps us understand those expectations, and talks about the ways thought leaders can both meet and exceed them, giving your thought leadership book even more staying power. Further, we explore the way relationships develop differently in a learning environment than in a typical working one, creating stronger teams and closer community. In addition to utilizing virtual programs to support her book, Sharon's also added the power of an easy-to-use app to her arsenal. The app guides readers through the 5 habits and 15 steps of her thought leadership, standing beside them every step of the way. It provides easy access to her content, and quick reminders that keep leaders on track. Buyers of the book unlock the app, and receive information about 1 habit and 3 steps for free. Then, the remainder of her content is accessible as an additional unlock, providing access to a community of leaders on the same journey. Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders need to be real and authentic in their work, both with clients and in content creation. If you are moving your thought leadership programs into a virtual model, you need to ensure they are engaging and interactive in order to meet buyer's expectation. Developing a companion app is an incredible value add to any thought leadership book.

We are assaulted by digital pollution on a daily basis: spam calls, fake e-mails, harassing chats, phishing scams, and worse. With all the noise, how can thought leaders create a message that our audience wants to hear? How do we make them understand that our outreach is important? To help answer these questions, we've turned to Ethan Beute, the Chief Evangelist at BombBomb; a company that uses video messaging to build better business relationships. Ethan is also the co-author of Human-Centered Communication: A Business Case Against Digital Pollution. This book is a great read for anyone who needs to generate attention, build trust, and create engagement online! Discover the pitfalls of "digital pollution," and how it negatively impacts our ability to reach potential customers. Listen in, as Ethan shares insights about Human-Centered Design, and how it breaks through the noise to reach customers, and make sure the message they hear is deeply relevant to their needs. He discusses his job as Chief Evangelist, telling us how he is a staunch advocate for Human Centered Design. Learn why boasting about your product instead of addressing people's needs, emotions, and challenges, can cause your audience to stop listening. Some content modalities come easily, while others require greater amounts of study and even coaching. Ethan explains how he began by using his strong command of short-form writing, and over time, has mastered the ability to host his successful podcast, The Customer Experience; communicate with his audience through a video format; and even take the stage for live events. This is a great episode for anyone struggling to ensure that their brand doesn't get lost in the noise. Three Key Takeaways: · Thought Leadership built on Human-Centered Design should focus on desirability, feasibility, and viability. · Spreading your Thought Leadership through short personal video messages can have greater results than mass e-mail blasts. · While evangelizing your Thought Leadership, focus on your client's problems, not the product you are trying to sell.

Every day, we are berated with advertising for products and services trying to convince us to switch to their brand. What makes us take pause and pay attention is no longer the fear of missing out. Audiences want to find meaning in the products they buy and activities they take part in. So, how can you convey to your customer that your brand has meaning? Our guest today is Emmanuel Probst, Global Lead of Brand Thought Leadership at Ipsos, where they are passionately curious about society, markets, and providing a game changing understanding of the world to help clients make faster, smarter and bolder decisions. He is also the author of Brand Hacks: How to Build Brands by Fulfilling the Consumer Quest for Meaning. In this book, Emmanuel shows us how to use simple hacks to create and grow brands that deliver meaning — even with a limited budget. We ask Emmanuel, "What is the quest for meaning in branding? Why do people care about some brands and almost instantly forget others?" and his answers deliver! Emmanuel helps us understand why customers are seeking meaning and why companies need to focus on creating long term strategies that incorporate feelings of nostalgia, joy, and empathy. That's what makes people want to come back year after year. Next, we move to discuss how thought leadership connects to branding and how the thought leader needs to inject a level of self into their work regardless of where it can be found. We study how academics and practitioners often have a large gap between each other, when in fact they can learn a lot from each other. Emmanuel teaches us to bridge that gap and bring complex ideas to customers in simple, intuitive, and relevant ways. We round out the conversation with Emmanuel's thoughts on why thought leadership works at Ipsos, and how true leadership involves listening to what the market wants to learn, hear, and monetize. From there, they help the customer answer the questions of "So What?" and "What Now?" by giving them ideas that are relevant and actionable to the market. This is a great episode for everyone interested in brand-building. Listen in! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders need to help clients create a brand that has meaning, in order to create customer loyalty. The fear of missing out brings short term results, but creating a positive emotional connection with a brand will make consumers invest for the long term. Great thought leadership ideas shouldn't be complex! Find ways to make your concepts quick and easy to understand.

Working 40 hours has been accepted as the "standard work week" since Henry Ford implemented it almost 100 years ago. What would happen if we focused more on the outcomes that we wanted from our labor, instead of focusing on the time it takes to accomplish them? Could we learn to work less and do more? Our guest today is Joe Sanok, host of the popular The Practice of the Practice, the #1 Podcast for counselors in private practice and one of the top 50 podcasts worldwide! Joe has gone from working as a full time physiologist to teaching others how to structure their practice in a way that will increase ROI and reduce time spent working. Joe's also is the author of Thursday Is the New Friday: How to Work Fewer Hours, Make More Money, and Spend Time Doing What You Want. Today, Joe shares his story; from working at a Community College, to building a strong and profitable side practice that made more than his full time job. Learning how to leverage his gifts helped Joe make the journey to becoming a thought leader, starting a podcast, and helping others think differently about mental health in the workplace. In addition, Joe is helping counselors in private practice build their business and their brands. We discuss how to effectively use your time, why you should find clients that are the right fit for you, and ways to outsource the things you are not good at. It's possible to build healthy teams by asking the right questions! Finally, we wrap up by discussing Joe's book Thursday Is the New Friday, which offers exercise, tools, and training to help people create the work schedule they want — and the results they need: less work and greater income! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders can accomplish more by outsourcing less important tasks, or things they are not good at, in order to focus on important matters. By specializing your thought leadership, you can be a more effective help to your clients and outpace your competition. It's easier to convince clients to buy into your Thought Leadership when you can clearly explain the way your fee will save the client time and increase their ROI.

The word Redneck tends to conjure up a certain image in most people's minds. When you hear the word do you think Director of Radiology and author? Our guest James Harold Webb is a self-proclaimed redneck who despite the obstacles that stood in his way went to college became a radiology technologist, then Director of Radiology at a hospital in Dallas, and now is the author of Redneck Resilience: A Country Boy's Journey To Prosperity. James shares how his simple upbringing in Mississippi was actually the bedrock of his work ethic and resiliency, watching his parents overcome various challenges in their personal and professional lives implanted the idea that he too could always find a way to overcome and rise up. We discuss the origin of his book Redneck Resilience and what exactly is the meaning of resilience. After many telling him he should write a book he started jotting down notes and stories realizing that he wanted the lessons he learned to be able to be passed onto his children and others that would benefit from them. James has faced a large amount of personal strife, from a brain tumor to a cancer diagnosis for both him and his wife. These personal experiences have changed how James views problems and stress as well as how he works, closing the door to business at the end of the day to focus on what really matters in life: family. James shares personal stories of resilience and shows how regardless of your origin you too can get back up after being knocked down and find a new path forward. Three Key Takeaways: Writing a book for your Thought Leadership does not have to be part of a business plan. It can be to leave a legacy. If you are being told to put your Thought Leadership into a book, start by writing your thoughts and stories for 30 - 60 minutes a day and see if it meshes together. Resiliency in Thought Leadership means finding an alternative path when the road gets blocked.

Ten years ago, the term "thought leadership" did not exist. Yet, the principles of thought leadership were being practiced, shaped, and refined by pioneers in the field; people whose great ideas literally shaped the road for all others. Our guest today is Amelia Folkes, Senior Manager of External Relations at Workiva. Previous to that, she worked at Emerson Automation Solutions and State Farm, where she worked to implement changes that made the world a safer place - through practices and insights that we now recognize as true thought leadership. Changing an organization's culture can take years of effort. Amelia explains how she did it: by positioning brands as more than just vendors. She taught her companies to become solutions providers and partners to their customers, and level up the organization's voice. In this way, she created earnest relationships, and helped her brands gain the trust and loyalty of their audience. Relationships are important, but the hardest work of thought leadership is finding a way to take those values to scale. Amelia discusses the use of both broad and narrowcasting, and the ways she works to position Workiva at the front of the ESG (Environmental Social Governance) frontier. Through her work, their clients themselves become integral thought leaders on the topics of sustainability and diversity. We finish our conversation by discussing the importance of establishing your voice, and creating key messages. Amelia explains that it's important to maintain consistent messages across multiple platforms, from social media to personal relationships. This helps create an echo chamber that, over time, will move into broader and broader audiences. This episode is an exploration of the way thought leadership has changed over a decade. Listen in, to learn some of the fascinating history, and to discover ways to define your voice, stay on message, and grow your reach for the next decade of thought leadership! Three Key Takeaways: Thought leadership needs to create trust in the things you are doing or selling. In order for thought leadership to take your client's voice to the next level, you must focus on storytelling and influence. It takes time for thought leadership to become part of the mind of your audience. Repetition and consistency are crucial.

Being a working mother means juggling a lot of balls. Stress, overload, and exhaustion can make work a nightmare and in turn create an unhealthy home environment. Is it possible to simply let go and focus on the important things one at a time? Today, we sit down with Dr. Whitney Casares, a private practice pediatrician and mother. It was the combination of these two life paths that led her to write The New Baby Blueprint: Caring for You and Your Little One and her newest book The Working Mom Blueprint: Winning at Parenting Without Losing Yourself. Whitney discusses the significant changes to the pediatric approach that have occurred in the last decade, and how doctors are becoming more involved in the physical health of parents as well as the mental health of both parent and child. Whitney shares her experiences as a working mother trying to manage a time consuming career while figuring out how to care for a colicky newborn. She touches on her challenges with postpartum, and later, anxiety for both mommy and daughter. She created revolutionary ways to overcome these experiences, so much so that the American Academy of Pediatrics approached her about writing books to give advice to the large population that struggles with similar issues. We wrap up by exploring the way Whitney uses her books as credentials; allowing her access to organizations and corporations. There, she talks health, strategy, and awareness about the working mothers' needs, and how businesses can make simple changes that will save them time and money - and improve their working mothers' lives. If you are concerned about your company's approach to mental and physical health, this podcast is an eye-opener. Listen in, and learn about simple changes you can make to retain working mothers and help them flourish. Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership that comes from personal experience can be incredibly powerful. Thought Leadership needs to help organizations be proactive about creating a happy and healthy workplace. Using thought leadership to make small changes that accommodate working mothers can shape both careers and organizations.

When you can no longer meet face to face, how do you update vital information with medical professionals and the at-risk patients they serve? Our guest today is Traci Conley, the Thought Leadership Manager for Standard Imaging, Inc., a company that has become the leading supplier of calibration and quality assurance instruments for healthcare, including a broad range of solutions and support for radiation therapy. Traci is also the host of Out of the Gray, a podcast that looks at the world of Radiation Oncology. Traci started her role as Manager of Thought Leadership around the same time as the COVID-19 outbreak, which made the traditional means of communications with healthcare professionals and patients nearly impossible. In today's conversation, we discuss new methods being used by thought leaders in the healthcare field to maintain the spread of crucial information while keeping everyone safe. Before moving into the role of thought leadership practitioner, Traci worked as a radiation therapist. She shares how her work in the field gives her a unique view of medical processes and communication; a viewpoint that now allows her to help develop practical and effective solutions. This includes building communities to provide open communication, allowing the flow of questions and answers to better the whole. If you are struggling to find new ways to maintain communication, or want to build communities for your industry, this conversation will give you insight about practical steps toward success. Three Key Takeaways: When unable to meet in person, being able to deliver Thought Leadership through webinars and e-training is essential. Podcasts can provide a much-needed space for experts to share experiences. This is a great way to expand your Thought Leadership presence. When building communities of thought leadership, be careful to share the spotlight, and make sure everyone has a voice.

Thought Leadership means peering around corners to predict changes, innovations, and challenges in your field. How far into the future is far enough? 5, 10, 20 years? Is it possible plan for 50 years down the road? We answer these questions with the help of today's guest, Peter Griffiths. Peter is the City Strategist at ING Media, and an Urban Content Consultant specializing in building cities that will thrive and grow. We discuss how he is using thought leadership to get ahead of the curve, and develop the cities that will embrace and support humanity's future. Looking into the future means asking the right questions about the impact of today's choices, and how we can affect tomorrow's dreams and solve challenges before they arise. Peter finds the right questions thanks to a background in journalism; he looks for right answers by understanding that a unique view of the world is valuable, but so is the strength of collaboration. By being willing to merge his vision with the expertise of others, Peter makes the world better for us all. This conversation is an intriguing look into how thought leadership can help cities evolve, and also the ways that thought leadership can be used to predict - and plan for - humanity's future. Three Key Takeaways: Your thought leadership should allow others to get ahead of the curve and plan for tomorrow. Allow your thought leadership to take into account the experience and expertise of others, to benefit everyone. Thought leadership should be transactional, focusing on two-way conversations and an open exchange of ideas.

Today's guest is Leslie Ehm, Swagger Coach, Amazon #1 best-selling author of Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want, speaker, and Chief Fire Starter at Combustion Training: a creativity-fueled training company that transforms people so that they can transform organizations. In today's conversation, Leslie tells us her story; from working as a TV host, script editor, and advertising creative director, she found her true voice and started her own training company, building creative companies through a foundation of support for creative and inspirational people. We discuss the slow growth of Combustion Training due to the need for trainers to be subject-matter experts in order to avoid the sub-par training experiences that she has seen in the past. From this realization came the origin and process of Leslie's book, Swagger. Leslie shares the hard choices she made to keep her authentic voice, the methods she used to keep the words of others out of her mind, and how she connected her unique story to thought leadership. Plus, she shares the favors she called in to generate word-of-mouth for the book, and why paying back those favors is an important part of her publishing process. Three Key Takeaways: When bringing others onboard to spread your thought leadership, be picky. Only work with those who are the right fit for you. It is crucial to write your thought leadership book in your authentic, individual voice. If you ask others to promote your thought leadership, pay it back (and pay it forward).

We all have personal stories of triumph and growth. Our history, our experiences, shape us and drive the most insightful parts of our thought leadership. So why is it so hard for us to share those stories? Aliza Hughes is the Director of Thought Leadership at Zoecial Media, a company that provides social media management with the aim of growing the client's audience and credibility through brand storytelling. We start our conversation by discussing how uncomfortable it can be to share personal stories in our thought leadership - the very stories that best illuminate our insights, strengths, and growth! Aliza shares her thoughts on telling personal stories, and how even tales of failure can connect you to your audience, and connect you as humans in search of growth. Aliza also explains that LinkedIn is important - get that first post out! While a certain level of professional polish needs to be present, perfection isn't required, and seeking it is just another method of procrastination. We discuss getting comfortable with yourself, and growing your audience by taking part in comments - on your own posts, and on posts made by others - as well as how to turn those comments into full fledged posts of their own. This is a wonderful conversation for anyone looking to add a personal touch to their Linkedin and make audiences take notice! Three Key Takeaways: Don't be afraid to have a more personal voice in your Thought Leadership content. Passion plus expertise = Successful Thought Leadership. Don't compare likes and comments to other thought leadership posts; everyone is at a different place in their journey. Instead, focus on beating your own personal best.

Not that long ago, books about emotions, vulnerability, and transparency would have been found in the self-help section. Now, business books about those same "soft skills" top best-seller lists. What has changed and why have these skills become so important? Our guest on this episode is David Wood, a former consulting actuary to Fortune 100 companies and founder of the world's largest coaching business, serving an audience of 150,000 coaches across 12 countries. He also hosts the Tough Conversations podcast, and is the author of Get Paid For Who You Are as well as an upcoming book titled Name that Mouse. David shares his journey, from developing his intellect while shutting down his emotional side, to his realization that there is a great need for emotional intelligence, vulnerability, and transparency on the path to excellence as a leader. We also discuss the change in the way these necessary soft-skills have been perceived in the last decade, and how they moved out of the self-help section and onto every major executive's must-have list of proficiencies. Further, David shares news about his upcoming book, Name That Mouse. Much like the "elephant in the room," there are often other smaller, more subtle problems in any workplace that are not discussed - "mice" that everyone ignores. David explains why simply naming "the mouse" and addressing it can alleviate anxiety, create transparency, and avoid negative feelings that are easily avoided. This conversation is a fascinating look at soft skills in the business world, and why they are essential for success. Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership needs to support emotional intelligence, communication, and authenticity within the corporate world. Thought Leadership can be used to enrich both career and our home life, giving us skills that are universal. Naming a problem can give it less power. Thought Leadership should help to bring these small, necessary issues into the light.

Decades of economic principles have been written in stone, followed blindly by leaders and scholars alike. But, as with all things, stone erodes over time. Our guest today is ready to shatter the rock, and set minds free. Listen in! Today, we're honored to speak with David Weitzner, author of Connected Capitalism and Fifteen Paths. David primarily identifies as a philosopher, but has spent time as a music industry executive, a professor of management, and has spent nearly two decades studying the philosophies that make our economic principals work. Now, he teaches at York University, where he advocates for co-creation, not management. David shares with us some of his deep thoughts, explaining the meaning of the term "Connected Capitalism,"and how it differs from Conscience Capitalism or ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance). David also explains how Connected Capitalism offers a deeper sense of spiritualism and harmony; two traits which are often thought of as taboo in the modern business world - but traits that are helping today's leaders break old boundaries and forge new paths.. In this episode, we discuss the generational shift in business, and how employees are concerned about staying true to their values as well as finding success in their careers. This move away from the old mindset of "chasing the dollar" will, over time, change many of the financial models and practices that have stood for decades. This episode is full of philosophical, economical, and socially responsible advice that leaders and employees of any generation can put to use. It's the cutting edge of financial thought leadership - and it's all right here! Three Key Takeaways: People want Thought Leadership that answers big questions; ideas that will help them reopen, rebuild, or pivot their business for the pandemic and post-pandemic age. Thought Leadership can be the key to helping decision-makers open their process to new voices - without creating chaos. Can your thought leadership help employees find meaning in their work? Does it connect them into a society, and help them find a sense of wonder in their job?

Great leaders have to handle tough situations. Inevitably, the time will come when you have to make a hard choice or deal with a crisis. Will you be prepared? Our guest today is Thomas Lahnthaler, Founder and CEO of The Crisis Compass, an organization which teaches leaders and companies innovative and resource-based crisis management. We start our conversation by discussing the concept of risk and how it relates to Thought Leadership. Thomas explains that "crisis points" are inevitable, and the future is always unknown. We get through crisis points by being prepared, stepping up, and making choices, not by ignoring possible difficulties. These crisis points are often a source of fear and tunnel vision, even for the best leaders. We tend to rely on assumptions, or feel as if a leader needs to take full responsibility and solve the problem alone. Thomas shares reasons why these assumptions can be dangerous, adding to the feeling of risk. He also addresses the way tunnel vision can be an advantage when specific insights are shared with others, adding a variety of focuses to your own point of view. Preparing your organization to handle crises means teaching them to share ideas, have empathy, and work in teams that are deeply diverse. These are only a few of the ways Thomas suggests a great leader keep themselves ready for any crisis, and be in the best position to deal with difficulties as they arise. Three Key Takeaways: When aiding others through a crisis, your thought leadership needs to create comfort, establish solid choices, and avoid feeling overwhelmed by risk. Exchanging ideas and perspectives is a great way to create thought leadership for crisis preparedness. Thought Leadership helps others have smart conversations and create positive teamwork skills, and those habits can carry you through any crisis.

Can creating a brand make your brand distinct, and give you a competitive advantage? Today, we dive into the deep end with a true shark of brand creation. We'll answer that question - and more! Kevin Harrington is an entrepreneur, business executive, and one of the most well-known hosts of the investment reality show Shark Tank. Kevin has decades of experience helping people like George Foreman and Tony Little build their brands, and generate billions of dollars in sales. And today, he's our guest! Kevin created his first infomercial in 1985, identifying an opportunity to fill late night and early morning dead air on cable networks. He's seen the rise and fall of many brands, and has become one of the foremost thought leaders in the sphere of productization. Today, he explains how he noticed the change in trends and habits surrounding television, and why he chose to sell millions of assets to move away from broadcast television and toward the internet. While Kevin has not been on Shark Tank for a few years, he still gets thousands of investment pitches per year. Now, he shares with us the checklist he uses to examine proposals, and why finding a "problem solver" is top of the list. Finally, we discuss ways to use a book to elevate your brand. Kevin uses examples from his own books, Key Person of Influence and Mentor to Millions, to illustrate how he elevated his brand by writing books, creating content, and being a guest on great podcasts! Three Key Takeaways: Creating a top-shelf thought leadership brand can set you apart, and give you an advantage. Don't be afraid to surround yourself with experts outside of your area of thought leadership, or to get a mentor that can help you find traction. Being a guest on podcasts can open new relationships and build broader audiences for your thought leadership.

Trying to get your thought leadership to the employees of your company is never an easy task but attempting to reach 250000 employees in your organization can feel like trying to climb Everest. Making the tools to climb that mountain is what today's guest excels at. Vishwas Anand is part of the Infosys Knowledge Institute which helps industry leaders develop a deeper understanding of business and technology trends through compelling insights. Vishwas shares how he aided in the creation of the Infosys Insight Store -- a platform people can use to access hundreds of articles, podcasts, and video. It is meticulously cataloged to make finding the right content simple without having to take a deep dive into it. Many companies are still trying to understand how to measure the success of thought leadership. Vishwas explains why vanity metrics such as likes and shares may not be as important as many think, in fact, they can end up being more of a distraction to the brand in the long run. If you have thought leadership content that needs to get out to your organization but struggle to make it accessible or reach those that need it most this is the perfect episode for you. Three Key Takeaways: The key to making a library of thought leadership content useful is creating a system that allows users to find the content they need with speed and ease. When creating thought leadership for a sub-brand you need to ensure it has synergy with the parent brand to avoid confusion. Authenticity, Accuracy, and Agility are the three As of thought leadership.

Can thought leadership help organize people towards a common goal? The answer is yes! Our guest in this episode is Royal O'Brien, General Manager of Digital Media and Games at Open 3D Engine, an important facet of the Linux Foundation. Open 3D Engine (O3DE) is an Apache 2.0-licensed multi-platform 3D engine. This engine enables developers and content creators to build AAA games, cinema-quality 3D worlds, and high-fidelity simulations. And, because it's "open source," creators can use the engine without fees or commercial obligations. Open source projects create base code and make that code available to everyone. This allows the audience to modify and innovate that code for their own projects, continually updating and adding to the base. Motivating, coordinating, and moving people towards a common goal can be a challenge. Yet, organizing large groups of creative people without restricting or stifling them is the key to Royal's success, and he's managed to do it time and time again. Today, Royal shares the thought leadership that guides his path, shaping the questions he asks about his audience: Who will use this product? How will they use it? How will they change it? and, most importantly, What kind of impact will it make? From those questions, he creates a "flywheel effect," aligning short- and long-term goals, and focusing his attention on creating products that will move his organization into new financial markets. He even discusses how tools like Discord and Game Jams bring people together and unleash their creativity, allowing him to watch for direction and advancements in real-time as his engine is shaped by the community. Royal's advice about community-building can be applied to many communities and industries; anything that encourages creative individuals to work in concert towards a common goal. If that sounds like your org, don't miss this episode! Three Key Takeaways: Thought leadership can be the key to ensuring that communication between creative, innovative individuals or teams is clear and productive. When building a community, you can use thought leadership to increase inclusivity and make sure everyone's voice is heard. Once you've started a movement, you need to nurture it (both short- and long-term) in order for it to succeed.

Savvy authors know that public relations can be more unpredictable than marketing. So, how do you navigate those treacherous waters and find success? Today's guest is Mark Fortier, founder of Fortier Public Relations. Mark has spent 30 years publicizing hundreds of important books, including 140 bestsellers! Now, he's here to share tips and tricks with us that are essential for making your thought leadership book a success. When taking a book to market, authors often only look at big wins. It's important to get coverage in large media outlets, but what most don't realize is that it's often small, incremental goals that really move the needle. Mark explains how and why it is important to manage expectations, and why you should work to create close relationships in order to help your book's audience grow. He also discusses the ways PR has changed over the years, and how online interviews and podcasts have become an important part of any successful author's portfolio. One of the ways that authors and publishers support a book is by focusing on an existing platform. Mark discusses the importance of creating a pre-established, strong social network (and potential audience) before your book gets published, and offers alternatives if you don't have one in place. It's important to live up to your publisher's expectations, but Mark shares his hard-won wisdom on the things an author should look for and expect from their publisher as well. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders publishing their first (or fifth!) book can benefit from the knowledge and experience of public relations firms. Social media is a long term strategy. Thought leaders publishing a book need to start building a large, connected network as early as possible. Thought leaders should seek out a publisher they can work with, and ensure that their publisher truly understands the material's message.

Today's guest is Raj De Datta, Co-Founder and CEO of Bloomreach, a company bringing solutions that are uniquely built to serve digital commerce and marketing professionals. Their mission is to deliver meaningful moments to customers; moments that result in organizational growth. Raj shares Bloomreach's goal to use AI and machine learning for delivering exactly what a customer is seeking. Moment to moment, a customer's needs change — and so should an organization's digital response. With Bloomreach powering roughly 1/4th of e-commerce in the United States and the UK, Raj is often asked "What helps organizations succeed in the digital arena?" In an effort to answer that question, Raj wrote The Digital Seeker: A Guide for Digital Teams to Build Winning Experiences, published by Columbia Business School Publishing. Raj explains that his book is more than a rendition of the typical CEO experience. He discusses the reasons for his research, shares insights, and talks about how organizations can succeed in a digital arena. The academic point of view brings new details to light, and powers a sharper understanding of the fundamentals of success. Raj shares his hopes for the future of the book, and talks about ways the industry could prosper from these understanding. He's got a long-term view on measuring success, and the book is a critical part of elevating his position as CEO as well as Bloomreach's expertise with eCommerce. Three Key Takeaways: Authoring a thought leadership book from the perspective of an academic could open additional publishing options. Having your CEO write a Thought Leadership book is a great way to elevate the profile of a company. Many Thought Leaders underestimate the difficulty of marketing a book. There are complex nuances in getting it published, and you need to think ahead!

Ever wondered what it was like to be the Director of Thought Leadership for a major corporation? Many organizations don't define their thought leadership role at creation, leaving the shaping of those responsibilities up to the first person to take the position. That's a tough job! To better understand the first few months in such a role, we turn to Tammy Ammon, Senior Director of Thought Leadership at Acxiom. Acxiom is a corporation that strives to ethically use data and technology to fuel meaningful connections between brands and the people who love them. Like many thought leaders, Tammy had already pursued a long career in product development and marketing. Senior Director of Thought Leadership was the perfect position to blend her passion for storytelling with her deep knowledge of client needs. Even so, her first few weeks in the role were spent defining the position , mapping existing pieces of content, and aiding with branding, marketing, and innovation at the highest levels of the organization. Over time, Tammy realized that content creation, a big component of thought leadership, quickly evolves storytelling and strategy at the highest levels. She explains how she learned to define a brand's story, and find the specific themes that will be helpful to support a compelling rendition. By moving through the organization at all levels, she's learned to maintain a broad view of the company and carry that perspective to her audience. Tammy ends our conversation with advice for those who are new to the role of thought leader in their organization; sharing tips, best practices, and inspiration she learned along the way. Three Key Takeaways: Organizational thought leadership is about making time to learn your industry and understand your audience. Thought Leaders can draw insight by listening in on a wide variety of meetings, networking on Linkedin, and taking part in strategy discussions. As you grow in the role of director of thought leadership, you will need to learn which topics require your time, and which to pass on to your team.

How do you plan for something you can't predict? Today's guest is Lance Mortlock, a Strategy Partner at EY (Ernst & Young) Canada, where he manages a team tasked to drive growth for clients in the oil, power, and mining industries. Earlier this year, Lance authored his first book, Disaster Proof: Scenario Planning for a Post-Pandemic Future. Disaster Proof is a practical and accessible guide for identifying risks, facing unpredictable challenges, and planning for the future. Lance discusses the process of writing an in-depth thought leadership book while also working a demanding day job. Getting the book across the finish line required long hours, the support of his family, and surprisingly, the support of his employers at EY. Employers might be quick to think that writing a book would take away from an employee's daily focus. Not always true! Lance explains why elevating his personal brand elevated his employer, as well. Lance had many years of articles, papers, and industry experience that give business leaders the tools they need to understand a volatile, rapidly changing world. Organizations with long-term thinking will excel in competition, and their leaders will be prepared to handle unexpected challenges. He discusses why business leaders need a wide view, to predict and understand long-term forces that will affect their organization. We wrap up by discussing the difficult and often uncomfortable task of marketing a thought leadership book. Many writers and thought leaders are not used to having to push sales, but it's important to get your text in the right hands. This means shepherding a consistent present on social media, and understanding that increasing book sales requires a slow but continual effort. If you are currently working on your first book, and trying to navigate balancing your day job and marketing your finished text, this episode has a wealth of helpful information. Think long-term - and be consistent! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders don't have to leave their current organization to develop their own brand. Enriching your personal brand can be beneficial to both parties. A book based on your Thought Leadership can stem from the articles and materials you've published in the past, combined with an expanded viewpoint for the future. If you want your Thought Leadership book to be a success, you'll need to create a flourishing social media platform to announce, elevate, and enhance publication.

Does your thought leadership solve global issues? How do you draw attention to a multinational crisis, on a personal scale? Our guest in today's episode is Reilly Brock, the Associate Creative Director at Imperfect Foods. Imperfect Foods is a weekly grocery delivery service on a mission to build a better, less wasteful food system. Through their efforts, they help people save time, money, and the planet. As Associate Creative Director, Reilly has a passion for making the average person aware of the global food waste problem, and giving them options to waste less food. Through his work, he educates customers on ways to increase and improve regional sourcing, utilize food that would otherwise be squandered, and make empowered decisions. They pay attention to wide-scale problems (like the reason Imperfect Foods doesn't sell bananas), so their customers can feel assured that their choices are having a positive impact on the world. Reilly has been delivering his message in long form writing, infographics, and even a podcast, in order to engage different audiences through the mediums they prefer. He, and Imperfect Foods, seek to spread the message that even multinational problems can be solved by individual action. By creating a sense of agency for their customers, Reilly creates excitement, so his audience will further share the ideas. That way, he can create an even broader movement. We close with useful advice for those just starting out in a thought leadership role. Reilly explains why you should determine who your audience is, and just as importantly, who your audience is not. Don't water down your content to reach a wider audience. Focus your efforts where you can have the most impact, and your audience will carry the message forward for you. Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership has the power to shine a light on invisible problems, and provide tangible ways the audience can get involved in solving them. Don't dilute your Thought Leadership message! Instead, use different mediums and types of content to reach a wider audience. When creating powerful Thought Leadership, make sure you have evergreen content that draws your audience back — time and time again.

Welcome to this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership! Today's guest is our very own Peter Winick, Founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage, a firm that helps thought leaders of all kinds develop strategies for branding, marketing, technology, and sales. The episode begins with Peter outlining the similarities and differences between marketing and thought leadership, particularly as it pertains to sales. While some comparisons can be made, thought leadership targets a small, very selective audience, giving timeless advice directed toward specific challenges. Sales, on the other hand, commonly relies on wide reaching, less focused tactics, marketing consumer products to a broad audience and relying on wide appeal. Peter tells us that the true art of thought leadership means your offerings are unrelated to 99.9% of business problems, but laser-focused on solving the issues of a sharply defined target audience. In that space, your insights and products can deliver solutions that change the client's world. Peter and Bill outline the reasons that seeking a "necessary minority" is important: people who truly need your solutions get maximum benefit from applying your thought leadership. Plus, they discuss reasons that thought leadership practitioners should create touchpoints, low time commitments that display the benefit of their insights, before expecting a potential client to spend valuable time reading a white paper or book. We wrap up our conversation with some great advice for those just starting a thought leadership journey. From reintroducing yourself, to expanding critical relationships, from asking for help, to finding the right cadence for publishing your content, Peter and Bill share a vast amount of experience on thought leadership and sales. This episode is a beginner's guide — and an expert's handbook, all in one! Three Key Takeaways: · Thought Leadership needs to be focused on a small and specific audience where it can truly shine. · Thought Leadership ideas should be introduced in small chunks, leaving discussion of larger offerings for after the audience leans in. · New Thought Leaders should reach out to their network and reconnect, explaining their new venture, their offerings, and the solutions they offer.