Leveraging Thought Leadership

Today, we sit down with the incredibly insightful Jon Levy! Jon is a behavioral scientist and social engineer best known for his work on human connection and decision making. Jon is the founder of the Influencers Dinner, a secret dining experience started in New York in 2009. Twelve thought leaders, tastemakers, and influencers from various industries attend, but do not discuss their professional career, or share their last name - in order to guess, at the end of the dinner, what the other attendees do professionally. What started as an experiment has turned into a world class experience that brings guests from a broad spectrum of fields together to share insights, camaraderie, and a great meal. In addition to being a TED speaker, Jon also has a new book: You're Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence. We start today's conversation with a discussion about the way humans, as a whole, possess a desire to experience something different and unique. Jon explains a bit about the SN/VTA part of the brain, which governs reward cognition, associative learning, and positively-valenced emotions. The SN/VTA engages during unusual experiences, and that response can be used to inspire curiosity and get an audience to authentically engage with your ideas. Behavioral science for the win! The traditional methods for networking have become stagnant and overblown. People "turn off" when they're bored, so how can we create a stronger connection? Jon shares tips about bringing people together for a mutual, unique experience, and how that can create relationships that are stronger than plain ol' humdrum networking. John talks about the enigmas of connection, and helps thought leaders understand why people do the things we do. This is a great lesson on how to tap into those responses by using a little bit of social engineering! Don't miss it! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders can create more interest in their products and ideas by adding a little uniqueness and novelty; raising people's curiosity makes them engage more fully. When designing Thought Leadership courses, think about the frequency of communication, not just the depth of ideas. Trust is a must-have in Thought Leadership, but to gain trust you must be willing to show a level of vulnerability.

Today's guest is Mandy McEwen, the CEO of Mod Girl Marketing, a firm that helps their clients increase brand presence and stand out from the crowd by offering innovative content marketing & social media strategies, and by leveraging the organization's best asset – their people. Many companies are asking employees to engage on the org's behalf through social media, but not everyone really understands LinkedIn's power to increase brand presence. Mandy shares common reasons people struggle to support their company through posts, likes, and comments, and why there's a lot of social anxiety around the topic. Mandy gives advice on ways that managers and leaders can empower their teams, methods for starting or joining appropriate conversations, and ultimately, how your workforce can generate their own content all as part of a daily routine! Getting the most out of any social media platform will mean becoming comfortable with experimentation; employees need support and flexibility with the type of content they provide and how it's presented. Best of all, Mandy explains why even social media "failures" can be successes in disguise - if both employees and the organization are committed to learning from mistakes. Mandy has a great point: Every interaction can be a source of Thought Leadership content! Building content is as simple as having great conversations. You can do it, and your employees can, too! Three Key Takeaways: Getting started with Thought Leadership on Linkedin can be as easy as leaving meaningful comments in industry-related conversations. It might be tempting to use bots or direct messages to blast your Thought Leadership as broadly as possible, but be warned: Such tactics can backfire, driving people away. When developing teams to use Linkedin on an organization's behalf, you have to empower them to share their ideas, coach them on how to get engaged, and give them the thoughtful support they'll need to create great Thought Leadership content.

Today's guest is Adam Bryant, Managing Director at The ExCo Group (formerly Merryck & Co. Americas). The Exco Group specializes in helping boards, executives, and teams unlock their full leadership potential and deliver high-impact performance for their enterprises. Adam is also the author of The CEO Test: Master the Challenges That Make or Break All Leaders; a book that focuses on the seven most critical reasons leaders succeed or fail. Adam hasn't always been a Thought Leader. For 30 years, he had a successful career as a journalist, editor, and columnist, primarily at The New York Times. As he honed his communication skills and learned the ins-and-outs of complex teams, Adam focused on the question: "What if we interviewed a CEO for an article and didn't discuss their business background?" Instead, he focused the conversation around the lessons of leadership, culture, hiring, and talent, to see what made high-powered leaders flourish and grow. Over 10 years, Adam interviewed 525 CEOs. Those lessons eventually became a book: The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed. In it, he presented the insights and advice he gleaned through those interviews in order to to help others master the steep learning curve of leadership. In today's episode, Adam discusses his skills as a journalist, and how they positioned him to elevate others through the practice of thought leadership. He credits that background with his impressive ability to see patterns, focus on the essence of an issue, and find insights in both challenges and success - and share those gifts with others. If you're feeling blocked, this is the episode that can show you how to find your strengths and bring them into the game! Three Key Takeaways: Non-traditional questions can be a great way for Thought Leaders to gain new insight. Thought Leaders can find strong, accessible examples of leadership lessons in TV and movies. Thought Leadership might start out as a "side-hustle," but if nurtured properly, can take on a life of its own!

Today we are excited to sit down with Lisa Bodell. Lisa is the CEO of FutureThink, an award-winning learning company that is transforming the way teams work in organizations. She helps leaders guide teams to build skills that are radically simple and immediately impactful. Lisa defines herself as a "futurist," and is an expert on the topic of innovation. She's been named one of the Top 50 speakers in the world by Thinkers 50, and is the best-selling author of Kill the Company and Why Simple Wins. Lisa explains what it means to be a futurist, and how she brings a compelling message of simplification and innovation to over 100,000 people each year. Lisa also discusses manufacturing strategic luck, and ways to teach others to recognize potential and capitalize on opportunity. It's not ESP - it's science! Teaching these powerful skills is no small task. It may take work before mastery becomes instinctive, but Lisa's innovative process breaks the challenge into many small steps. Through studying these steps and integrating them one by one, a leader can change behavior, overcome difficulties, and move toward greater success. Don't waste your time looking into a crystal ball! Learn how to be a futurist, and predict tomorrow's opportunities - today! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders need foresight as well as insight. Learn how to see the potential in opportunities, and act. Thought Leaders often suffer "the curse of the expert." Breaking down complex knowledge into simple steps can help others master difficult skills. If you are seeking to change behavior with Thought Leadership, simplify the changes you want to see, create small challenges that teach fundamental skills, and build on those skills to achieve high-level success.

Welcome to the Leveraging Thought Leadership podcast! Our guest in this episode is Dan Sanchez. Dan is the Director of Audience Growth for Sweet Fish Media, a full service podcast agency focused on B2B brands. Dan is also the co-host of the go-to podcast for marketers seeking to grow: B2B Growth. Many businesses have thought leaders producing content and drawing attention to the company, but how many take the next step and create a program that evangelizes thought leadership within the org? That's the way to create a body of thought leaders, so that everyone in the company takes part in elevating and sharing those insights. Today, Dan talks about the way he started such an evangelist program, kicking off elevated leadership and organically taking Dan's Linkedin connections from 1000 to 10,000 in just 5 months! Dan describes how everyone at his organization was offered a chance to invest in and create thought leadership, so long as they committed themselves to the work for a period of time. Join us as Dan talks about his insights and elevates the conversation, sharing his experiences around developing methods of engaging employees to develop the organization's brand. If you want everyone to join in, you need to find the topics they identify with, and help them share their passion for their organization's insights and good work - though thought leadership! If you want to jumpstart your Linkedin brand, be sure to sign up for the 3-part Sweet Fish video series - it's free! Three Key Takeaways: When creating an interactive group of Thought Leaders, your first step is to engage your employees. Give them reasons to be excited, and they will start acting like thought leaders, too! Learning a pyramid. There may be people above you, but remember, a lot more are looking up at you and could benefit from your thought leadership. Preach! The best way to engage B2B accounts and gain a larger following is by creating and maintaining a thought leadership podcast.

Today's guest is Maura Barclay, a transformational leadership consultant. In addition to being the author of Unbreakable Women, her previous occupations range from firefighter to fitness trainer to military consultant! In this conversation, she shares the ways that her wide variety of previous experiences make her an incredible consultant and coach. Maura has always been interested in building and relying on proven methodologies that can be repeated for reliable outcomes. Learning is only the beginning; a great leader needs to continue to upgrade and iterate their knowledge into stronger, even more functional methods. In her work, she often utilizes check-lists, setting goals and building methods to achieve more Creating a solid list will anchor the methods in your brain, teaching the instinctive left-brain to perform tasks automatically - and guiding you to greater success. Maura uses her powerful and proven neurofacilitation system to help people build new mindset pathways. Armed with this tool, a leader can trust their well-trained instincts, and recognize good intuition, thus breaking bad habits and learning productive ones! If you are tired of second guessing yourself, and want to train your mind to fire all cylinders toward success, this episode has the best tips for you! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership should use a methodology that is reliable, duplicable, and effective. Intuition often comes from past experience. Thought leaders can build intuition by creating habits that recognize good instinct, and build on it. If you want to sharpen your thought leadership content, spend time ruling out the things on which you don't focus. What's left will be your passion!

Welcome to Leveraging Thought Leadership! Today's guest is Stu Manewith, Director of Advocacy and Thought Leadership at Omatic Software. Omatic Software deals in data integration for non-profits, helping them maintain and grow donors and donations. His thought leadership changes lives! Before joining the team at Omatic Software, Stu worked as a fundraising director for non-profits for 16 years. His deep experience gives him an exceptional view of the sector, and taught him to understand the needs of both software vendors and fundraisers. By marrying those two interests, Stu was able to create incredible insights. His work became a turning point, helping non-profits achieve even greater mission impact though using cleaner, more integrated data and finding effective pressure points. Stu talks about the epiphany that made him realize that non-profits could better serve their customers by studying past stories, tracking data points, and comparing the outcomes. Utilizing this process, he's been able to better deploy software into non-profits, helping them create case-studies, assess previous assumptions, and create new, stronger methods of fundraising. In turn, those case studies have shaped informational blogs, webinars, and internal training documents to raise awareness both inside and outside non-profit fields. Thought leadership practitioners often debate the advantages and challenges of top-down versus bottom-up approaches to organizational education. Stu chimes in with his thoughts on why bottom-up has worked better for him and his clients. He uses that approach to learn about customers and their problems, taking those issues to heart. In this manner, he helps non-profits place the customer's needs first, allowing the organization's success to grow naturally from that good work. If you deal often with non-profits, or if you seek to understand the importance of data integration to thought leadership, this conversation offers clarity and inspiration. Stu offers a ton of valuable insights, so you might want to listen to this one twice! Three Key Takeaways: If you want people to listen to your thought leadership insights, be sure to present yourself as a trusted subject matter and domain expert. Never undervalue the importance of listening! Through understanding a client or customer's needs, you gain an intimate knowledge of their problems, making it easier to create custom solutions. Get out those case studies! Study them, challenge the outcomes, and turn that content into blogs, webinars, and other great learning tools.

Today's guest on our podcast is Jayshree Seth, Chief Science Advocate at 3M. Jayshree works to raise awareness and appreciation of science and how it aids us in our everyday life. Her first book, The Heart of Science: Engineering Footprints, Fingerprints, & Imprints furthers conversation around science advocacy, thought leadership, and inclusive progress. In one of our most fascinating conversations to date, Jayshree shares the process she uses in the lab, and talks about the similarities between that process and the ones great thought leaders use. Through analytical thinking and empathy, she determines what people think about science, where the gaps and barriers are, and ultimately, how to overcome them. One challenge of working in a scientific field is overcoming the stereotype that scientists are elitists; unrelatable and hard to understand. Changing people's perspectives on science is a huge task, and one that Jayshree is tackling on multiple fronts. Today, she talks about how her podcast series, Science Champions, speaks to educators and young students about science - in terms everyone can understand. She was also featured with other scientists in the documentary Not the Science Type, shattering stereotypes and inspiring young women and minorities to get involved in STEM. Jayshree fights "science apathy" by focusing on science's relevance to everyday life. By giving her work a human context, she is able to inspire, inform, and influence those around her to action. Today's chat is a great one, and we hope all of you are inspired to listen in! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership needs to identify people's problems, find the gaps, and develop methods to solve those issues. If you are going to advocate with thought leadership, you need to be passionate as well as informed. Mentoring is an important part of thought leadership. Our experience and hindsight can help others avoid or overcome essential challenges.

Is there a difference between activity and productivity? Both make you busy, but only one makes you fulfilled!. Our guest on today's episode is Garland Vance, the co-founder of Advance Leadership, a firm that helps leaders accomplish more and stress less. Garland is also the author of Getting' (un)Busy, a book that takes you through the 5 steps to overcome "busyness" and live with purpose, productivity, and peace. The conversation is an insightful and active one, with Garland sharing how his own "busyness" caused him significant health problems. This sparked his initial research, hoping to discover ways that he (and others) could accomplish more while doing less. He discovered ways to identify and focus on important tasks, and how a positive "ripple effect" could elevate everything else. Garland's business mode, delivering content through coaching and keynote speaking, was upended over the last year by COVID-19. Like many others, he needed to retool his content to reach a virtual audience. Always an innovator, Garland doesn't simply talk for an hour and then disappear; he has found ways to make a 500-person Zoom call feel like a personal learning event, and he knows how to make each guest feel like the center of attention. Garland also talks about the fact that "busyness" doesn't qualify speed or skill. He assesses the 20 best practices of highly productive people, and why they aren't overwhelmed with "busyness" - because they practice habits that make real differences! Combined with the 5 steps in his book, Gettin' (un)Busy, he shares insights and ways you, too, can deconstruct bad habits and design the life you want to live! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders are easily overwhelmed with "busyness," which can affect personal life and even health. Focus on the tasks that matter, and accept that you can't do everything all at once. Productivity and activity are not the same thing. Garland's thought leadership helps focus on productivity, and ways to fulfill life's greater purposes. Taking a Thought Leadership keynote into a virtual presentation requires additional work, and there are simple ways to make the experience personal and create genuine connection with your audience.

Today's guest on our podcast is Dolores Hirschmann. Dolores is well known for organizing TEDx conferences, and is also the author of Clarity First, a recently published book that helps people find the clarity they need to grow their business. She has deep experience in marketing, and has blended coaching into her unique approach for helping businesses scale. We are so excited to spend some time talking to her! Dolores uses her time as a TEDx organizer to delve into the way many brilliant minds lack the succinctness needed to deliver their message. Too often, great leaders get tangled in the details, and can't connect in a way that gets others to lean forward and buy-in. By applying her knowledge of coaching skills to marketing tactics, she has enabled countless leaders to read between the lines of conversation - and strike upon the best ways to share the parts of their leadership that really matter most. However, clarity isn't the only struggle. Even leaders who instinctively grasp clarity often still struggle to make an impact. Some fight the fear of failure, and others find themselves facing fear of success and "what-happens-next?" Dolores discusses the way these fears are two sides of the same coin, and how to overcome them. In today's conversation, we explore self-worth, self-doubt, and how to change your mindset. You can create a new way forward, build your confidence and assuredness, and give yourself the permission to succeed. If you have ever had the nagging fear that you weren't enough, or that you were just muddling through when you could be winning, this episode can help you realize and accept your full potential. You can do it, and Dolores Hirschmann's Clarity First can get you there! Three Key Takeaways: If your Thought Leadership lacks clarity, the greatest potential of your insights will be hidden behind a messy message. Once you find clarity in your Thought Leadership, you need to take action to create impact. Even things you consider failures can drive success! Take a moment to study challenges, learn from them, and use those lessons to shape a better way forward.

If one voice can reach a wide audience, what about a hundred voices in unison? Think that would get some attention? You'd be right! Our guest on today's episode is Joe Sullivan, the co-founder of Gorilla 76: a firm that specializes in helping mid-sized B2B manufacturers modernize their marketing programs. Joe is also is also the host of The Manufacturing Executive Podcast, celebrating a year's worth of content helping manufacturing leaders find the right growth strategy for their organizations.. In our conversation, Joe shares how Gorilla 76 helps their clients find the right audience. He discusses having a focus on clients that can be helped efficiently, profitably, and with expertise in their challenges. By developing a deep understanding of the decisions involved in purchasing, manufacturers can create and capitalize on the strongest opportunities for growth. Amazingly, Joe isn't the only thought leader at Gorilla 76. Along with his partner, Jon Franko, Gorilla 76 is striking out in a new direction - encouraging and supporting thought leadership created by everyone in the company! Joe details how the skills and experience of many like-minded voices help them create content that proves the company has varied, deep expertise in many subjects - and they're eager to share that knowledge in order to help others! Measuring the success of thought leadership in marketing and sales is a difficult task, even with great analytical tools. Joe helps leaders avoid getting caught up in the routine of "counting likes and shares" without stopping to fully understand what the data is saying. It's easy to be overwhelmed by statistics, and great leaders need to focus on the most important information, and weed out the rest. Thought Leadership is a long game that feeds your sales pipeline, but first, a leader needs to build trust and become established as an expert in their domain. If you want to add thought leadership to your B2B company, or grow innovation across your entire organization, this episode is full of great advice for you. Three Key Takeaways:· Be sure that your thought leadership is tailored to your audience, and addresses their specific challenges and needs. Don't allow metrics and stats to rule your actions. Thought Leadership that connects with a narrow, but well-researched focus will have a higher return than broadcasting to a wide, but uninterested, audience. Podcasts and blogs are a perfect way to give your thought leadership a voice and build community. Just remember, these methods require focus, time, and commitment. They are not a magic wand to bring short-term sales.

Our guest today is internationally renowned business leader, Doug Conant. Doug is the best-selling author of The Blueprint, an eminently smart and practical guide to leadership that contains 6 content-rich steps to creating a richer, fuller, more elevated professional life. With more than 40 years of leadership experience at first-class companies like Campbell Soup and Nabisco, Doug now focuses on Thought Leadership as the Founder and CEO of Conant Leadership. In today's episode, Doug shares his passion about his life's work in Thought Leadership, and how he implemented positive, meaningful change at Campbell Soup Company. Years after he began, he chose to leave the corporate world and move into Thought Leadership full-time, using his experience and expertise to help leaders world-wide. Doug tells us about his legacy of contribution, and the ways in which he is inspired to transcend the ordinary and elevate new, innovative ideas. Doug talks to us about his book, The Blueprint, and how following a few simple steps can help leaders "up their game" by focusing on ways to constantly elevate their interactions. Doug and Peter discuss the need to take time for reflection and study; how to know what matters most; and how to change small things to get big impact. Great leaders are pragmatic about where they spend their time, focusing on the things that matter the most in order to see the biggest - and best - return for their efforts! If you've been looking for ways to increase your focus and bring innovative ideas about leadership into your life, this is the episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: Leadership is "sacred ground," where you affect people's lives and livelihoods, and great Thought Leadership should improve the quality of leaders in order to change a myriad of lives. Thought Leaders need to be meditative about their time and their goals, focusing on the things that matter the most! When seeking to improve as a Thought Leader, seek out role models, pay attention to those who had a profound positive impact on you, and actively follow the leadership they've shown - as you develop your own path!

When an issue is too important and too big for a single leader or team member to own? How can massive organizations tackle challenging issues in a manner that is beneficial to society? Our three guests in this episode are Surya Kolluri, Jeanne de Cervens, and Brian Forbes. They join us to discuss their critically important study: The Pandemic's Perfect Storm. This study examines COVID-19's impact on Gen Z and Millennials, and delivers some surprising results. Surya Kolluri is the Managing Director at Bank of America, where he structures and leads their Thought Leadership, with a focus on retirement, longevity and social impact. Jeanne de Cervens is a public policy strategist and advocate, with a deep understanding of complex legislation and regulations. In the past, she has worked at both Transamerica and Georgetown University. Brian Forbes is the current Director of Thought Leadership and Strategy at Transamerica. He oversees that organization's research and sales enablement programs, and focuses on healthcare costs, caregiving, and retirement. Our three guests recall how they crossed paths within various research groups and institutions before coming together to examine the impact of the pandemic. They discuss the population groups that are most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and give us their insights about ways to position thought leadership to better serve the people who are most affected. Our guests explain why large corporations are collaborating on these issues, and why society's interests outweigh the need for prestige or monetary gains. Previously established relationships between organizations allow for broader teamwork, and create more leverage for the message. We shed light on the ways Bank of America and Transamerica sponsored the work being done at Georgetown University. This study, and its success, would not have been possible if our guests had not previously established a relationship between themselves. Further, we discuss the importance of building relationships with individuals from other industries who share our passions. This can bring a myriad of viewpoints to the table, benefitting society as a whole. Collaboration can increase the credibility of a project, allowing it to reach a wider audience. If you want your organization to be more collaborative, this episode is for you! We chat about how to find solid, inter-corporational partners, ways to create mutually beneficial engagements, and how to make an impact on topics too big for one person to take on alone. Three Key Takeaways:· How Thought Leadership collaboration can create solutions that reach beyond a single organization. Successful Thought Leadership needs to include establishing and nurturing relationships outside your organization. Ways that thought leaders can go beyond research, and bring effective, meaningful results to your constituents.

If you've ever felt creatively "stuck in a rut," and innovation seems out of reach, this is the episode to cure your woes! Our guest today is Dr. Chitra Anand, an award-winning Communications & Marketing executive with over 20 years in the technology industry. She's an extraordinary leader, and has spent time as the head of Communications for Microsoft Canada, Director of Marketing at TELUS Corporation, and Director of Operations at Open Tex. She is also the author of The Green House Approach, a book filled with insights about innovation, creating compelling storytelling in business, and fighting complacency in the workplace. The Green House Approach is a mindset shift; a change in the way we approach thinking, and gives strong advice about "breaking out" and challenging current structural norms. Bill and Chitra reminisce about her career in various tech companies, and discuss the way she implemented thought leadership to educate customers about new trends - long before "thought leadership" was a commonly used term! Plus, Chitra illuminates the many contrasts between content marketing and thought leadership, and how your organization needs both if you're going to thrive. Chitra is leading a new movement in the workplace: Intrapreneurship! Today, she tells us what the term means, and how Intrapreneurship can drive innovative thinking and build new, better ways of conducting business. Chitra gives thoughtful advice for those looking to include "Intrapreneurship" in their organization. This is a great episode, sure to change your mindset and leave you with great ideas. Give it a listen! Three Key Takeaways Thought leadership means building new ideas and concepts; content marketing means leveraging an existing product or service. Thought leadership that forces clients to question old, staid habits, and identify behavioral shifts that can move an organization forward. Good thought leadership creates trust, and trust builds business.

Today's guest is Jim Kouzes the coauthor with Barry Posner of the award-winning and best-selling book, The Leadership Challenge. He's also the Dean's Executive Fellow of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. Jim tells us about his first meeting with Barry and how they quickly became best friends. That friendship and their complementary skills and interests led to writing The Leadership Challenge which has sold more than two million copies worldwide! Jim's focus on the applied and Barry's emphasis on research has allowed them to develop the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) a standard 360 leadership assessment. Jim explains the process of creating LPI and how real-life examples play heavily into the ability of clients to grasp the concepts. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way many people work and think. Jim discusses the changes in leaders and what employees look for in leadership due to the pandemic and whether we can expect these changes to subside as we move forward or if some of them will become the new norm. If you want a deep understanding of how evidence-based research can become applied skills you can use in daily life this is a great episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: When collaborating on Thought Leadership try to work with those who have complementary skills and not competing interests. Your Thought Leadership should not include anything you cannot factually demonstrate. Real-life stories of how your Thought Leadership has worked can help others understand the principles of your content.

Tom Schwab is the Chief Evangelist Officer and Founder of Interview Valet, which helps hosts find great guests for their podcast. He is also the author of PODCAST GUEST PROFIT which gives step-by-step systems from taking your podcast from obscure to acclaimed! With more than 2.1 million podcasts out there you are probably curious as to how to get yours heard. Tom gives us strategies for getting the most out of your podcast, how to hit the right audience, and why big numbers don't need to be a priority. In addition, we discuss the pros of being a guest on the bevy of podcasts that exist. Tom explains why you should try being a guest 20 or 30 times before starting your own. Then he breaks down why being a guest might be better for some than putting in the time and money to become a host of their own show. If you chose to be a guest you'll want to hear the advice Tom has for ensuring you maximize the potential of your appearance. Tom compares being a podcast guest to being invited to the host's home for dinner. If you have a podcast this episode will help you reach new heights. If you want to be a guest it will make sure you don't arrive empty-handed. Three Key Takeaways: When producing a thought leadership podcast hitting the right audience is more important than hitting a large audience. If you are going to be a guest on a thought leadership podcast ensure you research the host and their audiences before you sign on. The greatest benefit of being a host or guest of a thought leadership podcast is the relationship you can build.

Our guest is Tom Kolditz, the author of Leadership Reckoning and Director of The Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. The Institute's two-fold mission is to create a powerful and widely available leader development experience and improve the quality of leader development in higher education everywhere. Tom shares how many universities include the development of leaders in their mission statement. However, he explains that few have any focused programs to bring about that mission. Many focus on what Tom calls "leadertainment" which has no lasting benefit. We discuss Tom's book Leadership Reckoning, which outlines the failure of higher education. In addition Tom defines leadertainment and reveals how to measure outcomes and design programs to improve leadership development. Tom informs us about the upcoming classification system from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching that is compelling Universities to listen to the problems being presented. Afterwards, he gives insight into how it will aid them in moving towards better programs for leadership development. If you want to understand how Universities can develop better leaders and why they are currently struggling to achieve that, you'll want to listen to this episode! Three Key Takeaways: Thought leadership needs to include methods of measuring outcomes. In addition, you should be tracking goals in order to truly understand its effectiveness. Thought Leaders often have big ideas, but you have to cultivate the right conditions for the ideas to take root and grow. Your thought leadership should include a system of checks to ensure that a client is progressing. These checks should also account for movement backward.

Today's guest is Melissa Davies, Founder, and CEO of Wieseways Consulting, author of How Not to Act Like a BLEEP at Work, and founding member of the Global Institute for Thought Leadership. Melissa is a Dynamic Facilitator, Educator & Executive Coach with a global perspective. Melissa walks us through the path she took to become a thought leader having first had a career as an educator in Canada and The Middle East before landing in the States to use her global insights to understand people, gain their trust, and provide a unique perspective to complex problems. When seeking to improve leadership or teams we often seek to introduce change. Melissa talks about being intentional with those changes, using performance management, and being mindful of the culture you are intending to introduce and the possible negative implications of those changes. Our conversation concludes with a look at how COVID-19 has affected training. We will no doubt return to in-person training on some level, the virtual method is here to stay. Melissa shares how the structure of presentations should change to keep the attention of an at-home audience. Three Key Takeaways: When seeking to introduce thought leadership, find what your audience has in common at their core and understand why they do things the way they do. When using thought leadership to build new processes analyze the positives but also what negative impacts these changes might have. When delivering thought leadership online keep your presentations to 20 – 25 minutes before moving to discussion and activities.

Today's guest is Jim Adler Founder and Managing Director of Toyota AI Ventures, a standalone early-stage venture capital fund that invests in startups working on A.I., robotics, mobility, and more. We start the conversation with Jim describing what Toyota AI Ventures does and what its mission is. From we get into how they help startups take their idea to scale when to introduce processes and how to find a balance that allows creativity and growth. Jim shares how Toyota AI Ventures bridges the gap between global enterprise and startup, which is an important step. If an investor is too involved it can stifle innovation that happens early, but if they are not involved enough the startup could end up lacking the ability to recruit, build company culture, or find clients that see the value in their idea. Next Jim shares the success story of Joby Aviation, his first meeting in a canyon to see their air taxi in flight, going to bat for them, and their goal of saving one billion people an hour each day! We wrap up discussing the qualities Jim looks for in a startup, separating signal from noise, and how to take advantage of the hype cycle! If you have a startup and are seeking knowledge on how to attract investors this is a must-listen episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: It is important to build thought leadership processes around the areas you are weak in, not just your strengths. When working with a startup your thought leadership should add value to the areas they need help with but not overshadow their creative energy. All leaders should be thought leaders. Thought Leadership is a team sport.

Today's guest is Jody Grunden, a visionary accountant with over 20 years of experience that has helped pioneer innovative changes to his industry. Jody is the co-founder and CEO of Summit CPA Group, author of Digital Dollars and Cents. Jody takes us back to 2013 when he arrived at a conference to speak only to have a series of events go wrong that ended with him giving his presentation off the cuff while wearing a Hawaiian shirt and becoming a huge success! Since that fateful event the Summit CPA Group has undergone a lot of changes. We discuss why they've moved to focusing on creative agencies and how thought leadership has become their only form of marketing, and how they are teaching other firms their methods. Getting your thought leadership off the ground is often time consuming and expensive. Jody shares his experience getting things off the ground, what it took to find success, and how he got his business partner on board with his ideas. If you are looking to develop your own thought leadership or are struggling to find your audience this is a wonderful episode filled with excellent advice! Three Key Takeaways: When delivering thought leadership don't use jargon the audience might not understand. Speak in the vernacular of your audience. Even if your thought leadership might be useful to a wide audience, find a space to become a specialist in. Become a resource to that market so clients come to you for advice. No one will ever care more about your thought leadership than you. You have to have passion and conviction in your delivery to get clients to see you.

Today's guest is Sandra Smith, Founder, and President of Smith Publicity a marketing company that focuses on authors and expert promotions. Many things have changed in the last ten years and publicity is no different. Sandra walks us through some of the big changes authors should be conscious of and why their social media presence and what they share are more imperative now than ever before. When it comes to success for an author, selling books seems like the logical focus. We discuss why selling books is great but getting the attention of your industry is even better. Sandra explains why authors don't need to be overly concerned with metrics and how the shelf life of business books is much longer than it used to be. Sandra goes on to explain why authors should start a conversation with a publicist before they start writing. Getting a firm grasp on why you want a narrow audience, how your release date isn't that important and the benefits of hiring a publicist outside of your publisher can save time and money down the road. If you are thinking about writing a business book and want to ensure success this episode is a great place to start! Three Key Takeaways: You need to be sharing your thought leadership content and cultivate your social media presence all the time not just when you have a book coming out. Authors often get fixated with the metrics around the publication date of their book but thought leadership books often do better in their second year than their first. Getting media attention for your thought leadership is good but you have to make sure you have content and systems in place to monetize the spotlight.

Today's guest is Christopher Brace, a global executive successful at building highly effective integrated marketing teams across complex organizations to drive awareness and product sales. We start our conversation off by discussing how you can emotionally bond customers to a brand of consumer product and how these same techniques can be used to create an emotional connection to an idea. Christopher shares how he gets his customers to tell the stories that connect them to a brand, how he is able to fast track focus groups to get to the emotional core, and how that information can be used to tell a story that can inspire and ultimately alter behavior. It takes more than simply getting people emotional to create loyalty, you first have to dislodge customers from old ideas before they'll accept the new ones. Christopher walks us through that process and why you have to be careful to not attempt to change too many behaviors at one time or you risk people digging in and not budging at all. This episode is a fascinating look at how emotion can rule our choices over rational thinking and how thought leaders can use that for a positive change! Three Key Takeaways: Thought leadership that connects on an emotional level allows you to engage people in your brand's story and inspire them to action. Research into what clients like or dislike about your thought leadership content has to move beyond rational thinking and into the emotional realm in which we often make choices. The average person is only capable of changing three behaviors at a time. To avoid clients resisting change ensure your thought leadership does not attempt to change many habits too quickly.

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.