Leveraging Thought Leadership

Today's guest is Scott Shute, the Head of Mindfulness and Compassion Programs at Linkedin and the author of the new release book The Full Body Yes. Compassion is the #1 thing you can do to be successful in business and life. That philosophy is something Scott shared with the CEO of Linkedin which allowed him to use his history in customer service combined with his passion for wellness to create a position to introduce mainstream mindfulness and operationalized compassion to the company. Scott explains how internal compassion involves a change from me to we thinking and how if employers care about their employees they need to have the tools and system in place to care for the mental well-being of their employees in the same manner, a gym helps to maintain and grow physical well-being. We discuss with Scott how his recent book The Full Body Yes benefits not only himself but the company he works for and the other employees there. If you have a passion for compassion, Scott suggests you find a way to introduce and practice that at your company, and should your organization not be receptive perhaps you need to find somewhere else that will embrace that passion. If you care for your employees this episode is a trove of information on how to add a gym of compassion and wellness to your company. Three Key Takeaways: Having a real human element of compassion to your thought leadership can help you connect with clients in a deep and meaningful way. Thought leadership bringing compassion to an organization needs to define how to care for employees while still meeting the demands of the job. If you care about your employees find ways to introduce thought leadership to care for the mental well-being of your employees.

Today's guest is Michael F. Schein, the author of The Hype Handbook, founder and CEO of MicroFame Media a company that turns consultants into celebrities. Very few people ever become worldwide famous, but is that really what you need to be a known entity in your field? Michael shares why micro fame is a better goal to seek when you are selling ideas. Michael and Peter discuss how hype is can be more effective than traditional marketing by relying on centuries-old psychological principles you can create a highly emotional reaction that will allow you to move people and create a sense of loyalty to your brand or idea. Last we wrap up by talking about Michael's recently launched book The Hype Handbook, how the book connects to the business, the effects it has had, and even what Charles Mason and Warren Buffet have in common! If you've been struggling to conquer your little corner of the universe this episode has some great advice for hyping your content! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders seeking to be known by everyone need to refocus on only being known by those who would be interested in your ideas. Using hype to work your followers into a frenzy can be a more effective tactic than traditional thought leadership marketing. If you thought leadership agrees with everyone else in your field, you need to rethink what you are bringing to the conversation.

Today's guest is Stephen G. Pope the founder and CEO of SGP Labs a creative marketing, media, and technology company with the goal of helping others grow their business faster. Creating video is as easy as hitting the record button, but once that is done what do you do with it? Stephen shares the importance of having a solid process in place that makes for an easy workflow for everyone involved in it. Stephen talks about how you can take existing video content such as zoom calls and repurposes them into shorter video clips for social media, transcribe them for consumption on your website, and even convert them into other blog posts to create a deep pool of content suitable for any platform. If you are thinking about adding video to your thought leadership arsenal or already have video sitting on a drive somewhere this episode is just what you need to turn that unused potential into a new content library! Three Key Takeaways: When creating thought leadership videos you should be mindful to highlight what your company is doing and what value you bring to the table. Thought leadership videos are a great way for people to meet you and remember your name. Don't let a thought leadership video stay in that one format. Reuse it in smaller clips, transcripts, or slide decks.

Today's guest is Justin Foster, the author of Oatmeal vs Bacon and co-author of Rooting Up. He is a speaker consultant and co-founder of Root + River a practice that specializes in branding for defiant leaders. Justin shares his path to thought leadership and the tricks he learned along the way, including a brilliant method for how to get in front of potential clients when they won't answer the phone for a sales call. Breaking through the noise to have your voice heard amongst an abundance of other consultants is tough enough, but how do you get heard without coming across annoying or worse like a jerk? Justin tells us how conviction and originality can be the key! Last we discuss methods of generating content, the pros and cons of going with the method you are comfortable with and have energy for versus the method that you audience might expect from you. This episode is filled with a ton of TLPM (Thought Leadership per Minute) so grab a pen and take notes! Three Key Takeaways: Being an expert in your clients business is just as important as being an expert in the thought leadership you look to delivery to the client. Your thought leadership cannot afford to be bland. You have to have an original take on an idea and the conviction to stand by it. It's okay if your thought leadership is heretical or counter-intuitive, so long as you can prove and defend your content.

Today's guest is Ali Ahmed, the director of thought leadership at Fidelity. We discuss with Ali the work he is doing at Fidelity leading a team of thought leaders, two of the audiences they focus on, and the modalities used to help people along their financial journey that is often not a straight line. Ali has a strong background in experience design that he incorporates into the content they create. We discuss the techniques that carry over, how to put the user at the center of the journey, and ways to avoid overwhelming the user. Three Key Takeaways: When creating thought leadership makes it impactful in a way that will inspire people to action. Thought leadership that focuses on the experience of the user is better than content that overwhelms the user with data. Thought leaders need to understand when and where to insert themselves into the conversation.

Today's guest Tendayi Viki, author of Pirates in the Navy and the Corporate Startup and associate partner at Strategyzer, the global leader in enterprise growth & innovation services. Tendayi shares how his path to thought leadership involved leaving Zimbabwe for the UK and teaching forensic psychology before transitioning to social psychology. We discuss how Alexander Osterwalder created Strategyzer and how the platform was designed to deliver consistent results for clients by well-trained consultants allowing the model to be scalable and consultants to create plug-ins that add to and modify the platform. Tendayi and Peter discuss the danger of the personality of a thought leader is a cliff that can be hard to climb and how if used properly you can instead be a platform to raise up others. We wrap up our conversation discussing the changes Strategyzer went through to flourish during the COVID-19 pandemic. After the initial panic that everyone felt they quickly transitioned their offerings to digital formats, creating high-level engaging content that presented the same value. Three Key Takeaways: When creating a platform for your thought leadership is sure the content is scalable and deliverable by others. If your thought leadership is only based on your personality you risk overshadowing your own content. When creating virtual content you need to find ways for your thought leadership to deliver the same value you present in person.

Today's guest is Dr. Troy Hall Chief Strategy Officer for South Carolina Federal Credit Union, and the lead consultant for SCF Solutions, LLC. He is the best-selling author of Cohesion Culture and his newest release Fanny Rules. Troy shares the heartwarming story of his mother's leadership that makes up the lessons that in his book Fanny Rules and how these lessons are suitable for both the home and office. We discuss how Troy has developed the consulting and executive coaching division for South Carolina Federal Credit Union and how that position allows him to work with leaders who want to grow, advance, and develop while focusing on the internal culture of their organization. Finally, Troy gives advice for burgeoning thought leaders. He shares how if you believe something you have to speak it and become your truth now not someday. Three Key Takeaways: The earliest lessons in our life can become the basis for our thought leadership. Developing thought leadership for an organization requires trust that both sides are working towards the same goals. Transformational leadership involves focusing on the needs of others before yourself.

Today's guest is Karen Leland, CEO at Sterling Marketing Group, the best-selling author of No Nonsense and The Brand Mapping Strategy, and a lifelong artist. With a lifelong commitment to the arts, before moving into thought leadership Karen shares how the skills learned in music, theater, and improv have given her the ability to handle rejection, think on her feet and be fearless in her knowledge that she can face any obstacle that might present itself. We continue our conversation by looking at the increased speed at which the industry was forced to move to digital events. Karen shares her thoughts on the hybrid world that she sees evolving from the COVID-19 pandemic and what the new normal might be once we are on the other side of it. Finally, Karen shares two passion projects she is looking at developing and how many professionals are seeking side businesses that support their passion more than their pocketbook. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought leaders with a background in the arts are often capable of thinking on their feet and being more agile. * With the world forcing thought leaders to change how they deliver content you have to be willing to figure out a way forward or face extinction. * Thought leaders should be seeking to find a way to apply their domain of thought leadership to the way the world has changed.

Today we make a small departure from our usual format of interviewing a guest. Instead, we shed a light on the series of short videos Bill Sherman has been producing over the last year that focus on specific issues related to Organizational Thought Leadership. First, we look at the many varied paths that professionals travel to land in a thought leadership role. Second, we examine the skills thought leaders need to be successful. While there are many that are useful we discuss the three key ones: analytical thinking, storytelling, and empathy. Third, we look at the four primary ways that ideas emerge in thought leadership: forge, sharpen, weld, and transport. Fourth, we discuss the benefits of narrowcasting, which might seem counterintuitive given the constant hype we hear around clicks, likes, and shares. But do those metrics really hold value? Three Key Takeaways: · Thought leaders with empathy are able to break through the distractions of what interests themselves to focus on what their clients truly need. · Many believe new ideas in thought leadership are brand new, but in fact, most are rooted in evolving and combing existing ideas. · Narrowcasting allows thought leaders to speak more directly to the audience that is most important to them.

Today's guest is William Arruda, a personal branding pioneer, speaker, and coach. William is the author of Digital You and Career Distinction and creator of 360 Reach a web-based personal branding survey that has helped more than 1.8 million people! William tells us how in 2001 he went from a comfortable job at IBM to having no income for 18 months after reading Tom Peter's The Brand Called You. The hard 18 months helped him develop this thought leadership and methodology that he uses to this day! Peter and William discuss the importance of constructing methodologies and frameworks that can be repeated and explained in meaningful ways, which allow you to stand out from the competition. Those frameworks build the foundation that you can spread your thought leadership in endless ways. William shares the three C's for branding: Clarity, Consistency, and Constancy. He explains how to properly deploy them and the importance of each for building a brand that has meaning and is unforgettable. We wrap up our conversation with William giving advice to anyone looking to establish or expand their brand. Three Key Takeaways: · Your thought leadership needs to have solid processes and frameworks to ensure it is repeatable with the same outcome each time. · Thought leaders should consider the external view of their personal brand. Seek external feedback to verify how your brand is held in the hearts and minds of your clients. · Every day we are overwhelmed with information. You need to be consistent and constant with delivering thought leadership to your audience.

Today's guest is Jeff Kavanaugh, the Global Head at Infosys Knowledge Institute, the research and thought leadership arm of Infosys diversified technology and digital firm. Earlier this year Jeff published his second book The Live Enterprise. Jeff explains how the institute isn't just a place for people to have a platform but a place for teaching others to build communication and extend their voice. We look at the three audiences that the institute serves best. Jeff and Bill spend some time discussing the transformation of the digital age and the concept of the invisible brain, an evolution of the invisible hand. We examine the knowledge graph and how it connects data to people and things. Plus we look at how the digital brain can take rules-based information that has become digitized, then automate and optimize it. Together, the digital brain and the knowledge graph set the tone for the curation of knowledge in a company. We wrap up with Jeff giving some valuable advice for anyone who might want to turn their ideas into a book for their organization, from where to start to actually publish the project. Three Key Takeaways: · Branding you thought leadership is a long game. You have to be comfortable with giving value with no expectations of something in return. · Your thought leadership needs to have its own edge. If you are saying the same thing as everyone else you are invisible. · When making the choice to write a book start with a four thousand word keystone, then determine if there is still enough depth to write a full book that others will want to read.

Today our dueling hosts Peter Winick and Bill Sherman sit down together to give an overview of the thought leadership world. They start with the topic of Organizational Thought Leadership, which TLL has had a heavy focus on. We examine why more and more companies are investing in dedicated thought leaders, how those companies are struggling to define what it means to them, where it falls in the company, and how to measure its success. Peter and Bill discuss to find the right audience for both organizational and standalone thought leadership can be a challenge. The old method of broadcasting to as many people as you can isn't as effective anymore. They give us some insights into how narrowcasting small chunks of information can have a greater impact. We wrap up our one on one discussing the transformations that have happened over the last year due to COVID-19. With most in-person events canceled people are missing the community aspect of conferences. How can you build a successful community online and have members become engaged and excited? The lack of travel to events has given many thought leaders far more free time which has caused creative renaissances, but when the world fully re-opens will that come to an end? How will thought leaders protect that time they've gained for deep thought and development? Three Key Takeaways: · If an organization is going to invest money into thought leadership they need to have a firm grasp on what that means to them and how to scale it through the organization and beyond. · Measuring the success of thought leadership isn't a simple metric. It has to be measured over a long period of time and the precise ROI often cannot be calculated. · The so many events being digital the barrier to entry has dropped. This allows thought leaders to attend more events and still save time and money.

Over the past three years, Peter and Bill have interviewed hundreds of guests learning their stories, sharing advice, and expanding each other's understandings of the various facets of the thought leadership market. Today we celebrate our landmark 300th episode by looking back at a few of the many great guests that we've had the pleasure of interviewing. We start with Scott Miller, Executive Vice President of Thought Leadership at Franklin Covey, the host of On Leadership with Scott Miller and co-author of Everyone Deserves a Great Manager. Scott explains how he helps clients get up to speed on mixed platforms, why you need to have one established before publishers will seriously look at you and the art and science of speaking. Next from the best-selling franchise Chicken Soup for the Soul and author of other best sellers such as The Power of Focus, The Aladdin Factor, and Dare to Win we sit down with Mark Victor Hansen. Mark shares how he has harnessed the power of licensing for books and beyond. Up next is the "Dean of Innovation" Jeff DeGraff, Jeff is the founder of the Innovatrium, a professor and bestselling author of The Creative Mindset. We discuss forging your own path as a thought leader and how creativity and innovation come from positive deviance. Finally, Peter talks with one of the Top 50 Thinkers in the world Dorie Clark. She is the author of Entrepreneurial You and Reinventing You as well as a business professor at Duke and Columbia University. Dorie shares how she has transformed her standard offerings to the digital world during COVID-19 and how she continues to deliver value in this new medium. Next, we shift gears to our Organizational Thought Leadership series where Bill interviews Melanie Huet, the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Serta Simmons Bedding. Melanie shares how she helped transform a hundred-year-old company by understanding the culture, building trust, and helping others realize their role in the change. We wrap up this great compilation episode with Mike Kleinemaß, Digital Marketing & Communications Expert at ThyssenKrupp, a company that deals with engineering and construction of plant technology. Mike explains why building and maintaining a relationship on Linkedin means having two-way conversations that help others solve their problems and provide value. We want to thank all of our guests and especially our listeners for being part of our podcast journey. We hope you'll continue to listen, share, and learn for years to come.

Today's guest is Susan Scott, the founder of Fierce, a TedX speaker, author of best-selling books Fierce Conversations and Fierce Leadership. Most people understand the importance of having good conversations but most are unaware of how lousy they actually are at having them. Susan explains how her system to have fierce conversations facilitates increased productivity, problem solving, and builds relationships and trust. Susan shares how she codified her content to make it teachable with consistent outcomes regardless of if it is taught by an internal or external facilitator. During the last year of the pandemic Susan has had unprecedented digital innovation! She shares how her team has developed a client facing app, realistic 3d simulations that can be customized to specific scenarios, and soon a digital version of the training that will not require a facilitator. If you struggle to have real conversations, productive meetings, and helpful feedback this episode might be the eye opener you need. Three Key Takeaways: · Thought Leaders need to ensure their conversations are impactful. The topic, the manner it is discussed, and who is invited to the conversation can all affect the outcome for better or worse. · When creating thought leadership consider that organizations might want you to train their trainers and not have you send in a facilitator. · Being able to scale your thought leadership to a digital platform is a must.

Today's guest is Jonathan Raveh, the head of Thought Leadership at AppsFlyer a company with a mission to help marketers succeed by being committed to accurate data, unmatched privacy and security, open tech-stack innovation, and an unbiased, customer-obsessed approach. Jonathan shares how he spends his days work with 80+ people going over multiple documents helping them write, edit, and develop their thought leadership content. Jonathan walks with them from the first step of coming up with the idea, through helping them establish their voice and values, getting the post onto Linkedin, and even tracking the performance of it after it goes live. Often thought leadership comes from the top down but Jonathan explains why he feels that employees at all levels can have a valuable impact on both the company and the brand. We discuss the top three things that keep people from becoming involved in thought leadership development and why those are excuses that can be overcome. We wrap up the conversation with some advice for up-and-coming thought leaders who might get tapped to develop or lead a team in their own organization. If you want to develop successful content and broaden the scope of the team creating it this episode is full of insightful information you'll not want to miss. Three Key Takeaways: · The difference between thought leadership and content marketing is not mentioning the company. · Every day you have conversations that could be used for thought leadership content. When discussing problems with others remember to think that others are probably having the same issue. · Posting your thought leadership to a platform isn't enough to develop a community. You have to be engaged on both your posts and the posts of others.

Today's guest is Dan Lier a best-selling author of The 10 Minute Coach and Is Your Child Wired for Success, sales and leadership expert, and internationally recognized motivational speaker with the experience of presenting over 3,500 customized talks to companies around the globe. Selling your service as a speaker means serving two masters. Dan explains why you need to satisfy both the event planner that hired you and the attendees of the event. We discuss the competitive market, the things you need to provide to stand out, and why having video content is of the utmost importance. Over the last year, speakers have had to make incredible changes to the way they sell, attend, and deliver keynotes. Peter and Dan discuss how pricing has changed, the skills you need for success on camera, and what you can do to add value to your virtual speaking. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders must be aware of the needs of both the buyer and attendee of keynote speeches in order to truly be successful. Delivering thought leadership digitally means having to be charismatic in a box, and that takes practice. You can add value to virtual speaking engagements by adding on additional training of your thought leadership in workshops after the event.

Today's guests are from S3 - Strategic Speaker Services: Lori Zetlin (Rosmarin), the Founder, and Managing Principal, and Eric Zetlin Managing Director. S3 builds world-class executive visibility programs for global brands and dynamic startups - delivering the right speaking opportunities and the most desirable audiences to our clients. Eric and Lori explain the concept of Earned Speaking and how executives can go about gaining speaking engagements at conferences without having to pay to be a sponsor. They shed some light on what those earned speaking opportunities look like, the matchmaking process they through to line their clients up with the right conference. For the last year, speakers have had their careers turned upside down by COVID-19, Lori and Eric share their experience taking things virtually, why many conferences are getting larger turn outs virtually than they ever did in person and the benefits of not having to travel beyond just the time savings. If you are a speaker looking to increase your visibility and stay thriving in this virtual setting this episode is tailor-made for you! Three Key Takeaways: · Becoming an earned speaker as a thought leader means landing an engagement based on the content of your message and not the size of your wallet. · It can be best to pass on speaking at some conferences. You want to ensure your thought leadership is delivered to the right audience and not simply the widest one. · Virtual conferences are allowing thought leaders to attend conventions nationally and globally that would have been difficult to attend in the past due to time and travel.

Today's guest Becca Bycott, the Director of Thought Leadership and Engagement at FiscalNote, a technology and media company that provides information services and software that connects the world to their governments. Becca started her role at FiscalNote during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic working remotely and developing programs that would be offered virtually. Those programs are tailored to give executives an exclusive and interesting experience driving by thought leadership that allows them to interact with others across various roles and industries to identify what issues they are facing and solve problems. We discuss the challenges of creating virtual communities that have the same meaning and sense of togetherness that face-to-face meetings do. Becca shares she gets participants to go beyond attending a meeting to making them active participants in a personal way that will build solid relationships for years to come. This conversation tackles common issues like Zoom fatigue and how to move your social media away from being a one-way street of information into meaningful conversations. Plus Becca shares some great advice for anyone looking to develop thought leadership for their company or organization. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leadership aimed at executives needs to help them put the current news into a larger context of how they can be more proactive in their leadership. Building virtual communities for thought leadership needs to create a sense of belonging for people to share the ideas and problems that mean the most to them. Using social media to spread thought leadership is great but you need to be engaged in conversations and not just talking at your audience.

Today's guest is Francis Cholle, Founder and CEO of The Human Company, which designs, teaches, and implements unique ways to innovate and outperform competitors and achieve accelerated growth. Additionally, he is the Founder and CEO of the SQUIRCLE Academy and author of SQUIRCLE which is teaching a revolutionary method to make better, deeper, and more important decisions. Francis shares how he is helping clients bring their instincts into business to change the way we look at and solve problems. His unique system of gamification that mirrors business allows people to relax and stop overthinking, thus giving better access to the instinctual part of our brain. Having started his career in his 20s in publishing Francis shares his unique view of being an author having experience on both sides of the table. If you want to dig deeper into SQUIRCLE you can discover your SQUIRCLE score by taking this self-assessment. Just text SQUIRCLE to 484848 Three Key Takeaways: · Sometimes to solve unique problems your thought leadership will have to abandon the traditional and rely on your gut instincts. · The gamification of your thought leadership can be a new way for clients to relax and learn your content in memorable ways. · Thought Leadership needs to include concrete data but how you interpret it is what can make all the difference.

Today's guest is John Warrillow, the Founder of the Value Builder System and Best-selling author of Built to Sell and The Automatic Customer. John explains how the Value Builder system was inspired by the IP in his book Built to Sell and the errors they made trying to take the software directly to the consumer and why going for a niche audience was a better choice. We explore how a blend of traditional coaching and software tools can be merged together for powerful results and how John is supporting and training his coaches to ensure they are comfortable with both the product and working in this blended world where we cannot always be face-to-face. If you are planning to use technology to aid in delivering your coaching this episode might just help save you time and money by avoiding costly mistakes. Three Key Takeaways: · Taking thought leadership directly to the consumer can be expensive. · Thought leaders need to be able to break their content down into the smallest steps or work with an outside partner who can aid them in breaking it down. · When creating thought leader content to be delivered by others never underestimate the importance of training your advisors.

Today's guest is Helio Fred Gracia, the CEO of Logos Institute for Crisis Management and Executive, teacher of crisis communications and crisis management at the Stern School of Business and ethics at Columbia. In addition, he is the author of Reputation Management and Words on Fire. We start our conversation by discussing how trust is built, lost, and restored. Then how patterns that arise in these actions can be studied to help give us a predictive power to help anticipate how the outcome can change when we intervene in a minor or major way. Helio discusses his work in crisis management and why we need to prepare for a disaster before it happens to ensure a proper response. We wrap up with a deeply philosophical discussion on the works of Aristotle and how his three essentials elements for a speaker to influence an audience remain true more than a thousand years later. Learn what Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are, and why they are the cornerstone and the origin of the name of his company. Three Key Takeaways: · Thought Leaders can learn from studying the patterns that cause us to gain or lose trust, so we can make adjustments and avoid negative outcomes in the future. · The works of thought leaders from more than a thousand years ago are still relevant today. · Thought Leaders need to make plans to deal with disaster before they strike to avoid reacting with an emotional response instead of a well thought out one.

Today's guest is Rod Robertson, Managing Partner of Briggs Capital, guest speaker at forums ranging from the Harvard Business School and the Babson MBA program, and author of two books The Human Vector and Winning at Entrepreneurship. We start the conversation with Rod discussing how he uses thought leadership and authorship to drive business. Why having a published book can be important for clarifying your thoughts. We continue our discussion on authoring and publishing by talking about how a ghostwriter can help you put your thoughts to paper in a more timely fashion than a first-time author. Rod explains why the table of contents of a book is not only a forcing mechanism to give your book structure but as a marketing tool to draw in potential readers. In addition, Rod shares how he used an agency for his second book and why there were more capable of driving the book to the market for him. Our conversation concludes with Rod giving some great advice to the potential first-time author that might be listening. Three Key Takeaways: · Having a book is a great way to solidify your thought leadership and drive business. · Working with a ghostwriter can allow a thought leader to take their book to market much faster than writing it alone. · Books on thought leadership need to have a strong table of contents at least 30% of the chapters speaking to the potential reader.

Today's guest is Ron Crabtree, CEO of Meta Ops Inc | Meta Experts. Meta Experts is a global network of OpEx development experts ready to take on interim roles as advisors and executives to solve operational problems in fast-paced industries. Ron shares how he got his start in thought leadership at Disney in the late 70s creating training materials for complex problems so they could be understood by everyone. Over his thirty plus year career, he has worked for automotive supply chains, implanted Lean Six, Sigma and continues to be a lifelong learner. As we continue down Ron's career path we learn about his company Meta Experts. We learn what happens when an expertise gap occurs in a company and why their network of experts might be the best route to fill that gap. Ensuring any knowledge gaps you have are filled can be critical but how do you know when there is a gap that needs to be filled? What does that gap look like? Ron gives great examples for identifying the gaps and the process they use for vetting the talent you can hire to fill those gaps. Three Key Takeaways: · Thought leaders can find success with content that identifies a market that needs new solutions to ongoing problems. · When time is money, your thought leadership needs to help clients avoid days of lost profit. · People skills are almost as important as your knowledge. If you can't get your thought leadership to connect with people, it will all be for naught.

Today's guest is Melanie Huet Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Serta Simmons Bedding. We discuss with Melanie taking Serta Simmons, a 100-year-old brand, and transforming it for modern-day operations. How she came to understand the culture of the company, built trust and had clear communication to ensure everyone understood where the company was heading and what their role was. Melanie talks about separating the Simmons brand and repositioning it to be appealing to the Gen Z market, including having a hugely successful launch on Tik-Tok with Snoozapalooza. She shares the task of pitching such a new idea and platform to the board and how she got them on board. The success of the Tik-Tok launch wouldn't have been possible without proper research and creativity. Melanie gives us an overview of the work that went into ensuring marketing was in the right place with the right message to guarantee the campaign didn't come off force or fake. We conclude this great interview discussing where thought leadership fits into the Serta Simmons brand, how they find new ideas and ways you can measure the success of those ideas. If you are working with a well-established brand that is looking to update itself or find a new audience, get your pen and paper ready because this episode is full of great information Three Key Takeaways: · If you want your thought leadership to be effective you'll need to understand the culture of the brand you are working with. · Deep research is a must if you want your thought leadership to move your audience to action. · When developing content thought leaders should listen to ideas from anywhere, not just from the top of an organization.

Today's guest is Matias Obludzyner, a leadership and communications consultant with years of experience at the International Finance Corporation and author of Expanding Circle. Matias shares his experience working at the IFC helping leaders with communication and change management. He explains how his time working with incredible leaders there was a key influence in writing his book. We discuss how Matias has struck out on his own to help the leaders of other organizations with how they position themselves externally and how they influence others. Plus we chat about finding the first clients, developing price and scope without a known brand behind you. Finally, Matias shares the journey of writing the book which started before he left IFC and what the book brings to the table in the next phase of his career, how he uses it to his advantage, and how he promoted it. If you want to take your Thought Leadership out of a corporation and go it alone this episode is filled with great advice. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leaders can learn from the experience of the others they've worked with and include it in their own content. * If you are to successfully market your thought leadership you'll need to know who you are solving problems for and what the problems are. * Adding a book to your Thought leadership toolbox is a great way to start conversations with potential clients.

Our guest today is Sue Yasav, CEO and Founder at Marquette Marketing LLC. Previously she was the Vice President, Thought Leadership and Content Strategy at Synchrony Financial. Sue discusses her early work at GE Captial building value proposition for credit card brands and the processes she developed that she would later apply to many other topics. She discusses moving to Synchrony and having to build value for a brand that wasn't instantly recognizable. In addition to building processes, Sue was involved in developing content and talent to speak about the brand so customers would understand what the company stood for, who they were speaking to, and why a customer would want to be involved with the brand. We discuss what successful thought leadership means to Sue, how to measure it, and how to identify when something isn't working and adjust the course. We wrap up with Sue giving some critical advice for anyone seeking to move into a thought leadership role at some point in their career. This is a great episode for anyone seeking to better understand and build value in their brand. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leaders need to understand what a brand stands for and how to portray those ideals in order to successfully build brand value. * The manner in which content is ingested has changed and thought leaders need to do the proper research to connect with their audience where they are, not where you want them to be. * The measurement of successful thought leadership is often gauged by being asked to speak in the media, be part of a panel, or being quoted.

Jim Kerr is the founder of Indispensable Consulting, author of The Executive Checklist, and his newest book INDISPENSABLE. Jim is one of the foremost authorities on leadership and community culture and we are excited to have him as our guest today. Jim discusses the frustrations that led him to write his first book and we explore the changes and challenges that have taken place over the years as publishing methods have transformed, leaving authors to be the main promoter of their books. Jim shares the successful methods he has used to promote his books, gain name recognition, and build credibility with his peers and audience. Having successfully exited two previous companies Jim has a keen knowledge of the topic, he tells us why having models, frameworks, and mythologies to your IP is the key to a successful handoff. Finally, we wrap up talking about the power of networking with other thought leaders to promote each other, problem-solve, and perhaps most importantly come together in what can be a very lonely profession. This is an insightful episode for thought leaders and authors at any stage of their career! Be sure to tune in and take notes! Three Key Takeaways: · If you are seeking to write a book, it should be about a topic of thought leadership that you are passionate about and is lacking in the market. · Building towards being able to exit a thought leadership business means building in systems that will eventually make you irrelevant. · Networking with other thought leaders is a great way to share ideas, brainstorm, and meet other generous and smart professionals.

We continue to look back at 2020 this time with a focus on some of our favorite guests from our Organizational Thought Leadership series. We kick things off with Surya Kolluri, the managing director at Bank of America leading Thought Leadership efforts for retirement and personal wealth business services. Surya shares how they are helping people lead better richer financial lives by training advisors on the financial challenges that various life stages present. Next, Nora Super joins us. Nora is the Executive Director at Milken Institute, and the Executive Director of the Alliance to Improve Dementia Care at the Milken Institute. Nora discusses how convening authority helps thought leadership and why bringing people from different areas and industries together to tackle a problem can have a huge impact. Finally, we wrap up with Luke Collins, the Managing Director, and Global Editor-in-Chief at EY. Luke explains how EY is changing the modalities in which they deliver content to ensure they are reaching their customers in the method that will connect with them best and how the first twenty seconds of your content is the most important.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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