Leveraging Thought Leadership

How do you get attention for a product that could be used by millions but few are aware of without having a massive marketing budget? Thought leadership! Our guest today is Martha Orellana, Vice President of Marketing for MrSteam, a company that converts regular showers into steam showers in personal residence as well as gyms and spas. While most people have heard of a steam shower, few would imagine that you could have one in your home or that people have had them for decades. Martha shares the history of MrSteam and the challenges they faced getting people to know they could have such a product in their own home. By targeting and educating architects, plumbers, and designers MrSteam was able to create a chain that not only knew about their offerings but became champions of it! When it came to educating the professionals that would be installing and selling their products Martha went beyond information sessions or bookwork, creating elegant invitations to Camp Feelgood, hosted at high end hotels where they would not only explain the health benefits of steam showers, but spend time in them providing a luxury experience they could then speak directly to when answering questions of future clients. Martha offers great insights into reaching new audiences and differentiating yourself from the pack by using interesting, dramatic, and meaningful tactics. Three Key Takeaways: · When you don't have a massive marketing budget, solid thought leadership can allow you to punch above your weight class. · When getting the message about your offering out you have to target the right audience. By going after the professionals between you and your product you can educate the supply chain and create champions. · Theatric and dramatic visuals can often help grab the audience's attention and allow you to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Publishers often look at books as seasonal, but an author needs to look at their book as a long term investment. What should you be thinking of a year before publishing, and how can your book help your business - even years after it was released? I've invited Katie Anderson, internationally recognized leadership coach, consultant, speaker, and founder of Katie Anderson Consulting to join me. At the time of this recording, Katie was celebrating the three year anniversary of her book, Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn: Lessons from Toyota Leader Isao Yoshino on a Lifetime of Continuous Learning. Katie's journey into thought leadership literally took her around the world, from California to Australia and then to Japan, where she had the unique opportunity to partner with Isao Yoshino, a 40-year Toyota Motor Corporation leader. This time spent together became the fuel for her book, Learning to Lead, in which she weaves together Mr. Yoshino's heartwarming and deeply reflective stories of personal discovery and organizational history, and offers her own unique perspective, with the intention of helping others learn to lead and lead to learn. In the year leading up to publishing the book, Katie had a lot of big decisions to make. Katie shares how she was introduced to traditional publishers both big and small, but ultimately chose to self-publish. We learn the importance of having the goals of the publisher align with those of the author, and how an author can maintain control over the message and look of the book. Now, three years after publishing, Katie shares the impact the book has had on her business and what she did to ensure it found its way into the right hands. She talks about sharing stories from the book and doing so from the heart, without a focus on selling units, but with a passion for the lessons that can be learned and the impact and value the book can have for others. Three Key Takeaways: * You need to have a full understanding of the purpose of your book. Allow that purpose to influence the choices around publishing, look, and feel. * There needs to be complete alignment between a publisher and author. If you can't find that perhaps another publishing method would better suit you. * When self-publishing it is still important to hire professionals to do the work you are not good at. This will ensure a polished end product.

You need top talent to start a thought leadership function in your organization. But what if that talent already exists in your org? Whether you are responsible for starting a thought leadership function at a startup, or at a large company, you need to have the right talent, the right org support, and the right metrics to define success. In today's episode, we're chatting with Dr. Karthik Nagendra, Founder and CEO of ThoughtStarters, the first thought leadership marketing company in Asia. He's also the author of The Thought Leader Way: Leading Your Business with Thought Leadership in an Altered World, which details his experience and journey as a thought leader, and offers mental blueprints for helping new thought leaders and their teams excel. Karthik takes us back to 2007, when he first started doing thought leadership at a startup in an emerging field. He shares how an assessment they created boosted the profile of the organization, and shaped the engineering industry as a whole. Moving onto larger corporate thought leadership roles, Karthik shares how he helped stand up thought leadership as a research wing. He worked to identify internal subject matter experts and help them "come out of the shadows" and share their knowledge and passion. This partnership led to co-created white papers and other content that elevated organizational awareness while increasing their credibility. We also discuss category creation and the need to continue to look forward, finding new ways to solve old problems. Karthik discusses how we often keep doing things the same old way, even if that way might not be as effective as it once was. He explains how he's helped take salespeople down a journey of exploration and experimentation, to a point where it influences their peers to seek newer methods as well. This episode tackles thought leadership from both a large and small scale, and offers advice for leaders, sales teams, marketing, and researchers alike! Three Key Takeaways: * When starting a thought leadership function look internally for experts who are eager to share their knowledge and passion. Then give them a platform to do so. * The buy-in from senior leadership is key when starting thought leadership. If they don't believe in working for the long game, then thought leadership won't be effective. * If you are asking poor questions you are going to get poor answers. And if you are creating thought leadership from those answers, people are going to think you're a poor thought leader.

Thought leading is a busy life! You write books, travel for keynote speaking, network with other experts and create lots of content. However, that means your business is limited to your personal time! So, what can you do to help your content sell itself? Our guest today has excelled at everything "thought leadership," including the ability to remove himself from the day to day of a business he built. Michael Bungay Stainer is the best-selling author of The Coaching Habit, a renowned keynote speaker, and Founder of Box of Crayons, a learning and development company that provides training to enterprise companies. With Michael's newest book How to Work with (Almost) Anyone: Five Questions for Building the Best Possible Relationships having just hit the shelf we start our conversation discussing the phases of a book launch and how marketing a book is more than marketing just the book. He shares how a book can become the gateway to your larger ecosystem. Michael gives the pros and cons of traditional and hybrid publishing as well as why you need to treat your book like starting a business, giving it at least 2 – 3 years to flourish and grow. In addition to being an author Michael knows the keynote speaking side of the business sharing how at the best of times focusing on speaking can be lucrative, ending with standing ovations and nice hotel rooms. However it can also mean hundreds of days on the road, airport delays, and fatigue. We learn the criteria Michael uses for saying Yes to a possible gig and how speaking can fit into your business model. Books and speaking are powerful tools for spreading thought leadership but how can your business go on without you writing and speaking? As the Founder of Box of Crayons, Michael ensured the company benefitted from his best-selling books and reputation, but also ensured the sales training could stand without him. He shares both the B2B and B2C strategy that is allowing him to work 1 hour a month for Box of Crayons without the company falling apart in his absence. This episode is a master class on everything a thought leader needs to know to ensure not only the success of their personal brand, but the company they someday will leave behind. Three Key Takeaways: · It is really hard to write a book. Except compared to marketing a book. It's really hard to market a book... except compared to getting people to read a book. · Hybrid publishing means you are the executive editor of your book. You get to call it what you want and give it the look and feel you want. · As time goes on you need to watch the market and see if your target avatars have changed. When they do you may need to update your content and offers to accommodate their growing needs.

You've been invited as a guest on a podcast! How exciting! But... what now? What should you say, and how do you use this opportunity to shine a spotlight on your best ideas? Our guest today is Dana Lindahl, the Founder and CEO of Legendary Podcasts, an agency that helps clients get booked on podcasts, so they can increase their visibility, brand, and legacy! Being a guest on a podcast can be of tremendous benefit to your thought leadership. Dana explains how most clients are seeking to increase their exposure, create brand awareness, and generate leads. Many believe being on a podcast with a larger audience is the way to do this but Dana clarifies why a smaller audience is the one that needs to hear your message the most can have more impact. Getting booked on a podcast often means doing a quick call beforehand to ensure what the guest has to offer fits the needs of the host's show. We discover how a shockingly low number of potential guests have taken the time to listen to the show they are seeking to be on. Dana tells us why this is a critical mistake that can lead to the guest being passed over. The host/guest relationship needs to be a mutual one where the guest is providing valuable information to the host's audience. If both ends are not getting something out of the interview it might not be the right fit. Finally, Dana takes us beyond the podcast interview to the benefits that can blossom afterward. A guest appearance is more than a way to reach a larger audience it is a unique networking opportunity where the host and guest can find further ways to work together, share their network, and help each other. However, if only one side is doing the work the relationship will fail leading to missed opportunities. If you are looking to be a guest on podcasts, you'll want to check out this link where Dana has collected valuable information you can put to use in your quest to become a legendary guest! Three Key Takeaways: * A podcast that directly speaks to the audience you want to reach most is more powerful than a larger more general audience. * When seeking to be a guest on a podcast research both the show and the host. Listen to the previous episode to identify how you can provide value to their audience. * The value of a podcast doesn't have to be one-and-done. The episode can be repurposed into blog posts, infographics, and sound bites continuing to provide content for weeks.

We've all heard the saying, "many hands make light work." Can collaborating help thought leadership content reach scale and create greater impact? In today's episode, we discuss the critical impact of allies and ambassadors in thought leadership. We highlight valuable conversations from past guests that truly understand that collaboration with influencers and others can significantly elevate a brand or idea. Morag Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Skye Team. She helps us define what allies and ambassadors are and how they can help take ideas to scale or even create a movement that would be unachievable alone. Kerry-Ann Stimpson, Chief Marketing Officer at The JMMB Group shares how the influence of a corporate brand can be expanded by working in tandem to build personal brands of the employees. We learn how this creates new ways for the audience to interact with the brand while increasing confidence and trust in both brands. Jacqueline Jodl, Senior Vice President of Global Youth & Education, and Haylie Wrubel, Director of Global Unified Champion Schools discuss the importance of allies and ambassadors to the Special Olympics. They share how they seek out thought leaders that are sharing message which run parallel to their own, then co-create content to reach a larger audience with the message. Three Key Takeaways: * Personal brands can be good for corporate brands. Don't feel the need to micro-manage employees who are building their own brand. Instead, work with them to align the goals of the individual with the organization. * Allies and ambassadors often create a greater level of trust in a brand. People trust individuals faster than organizations. * Having brand ambassadors is a great way to be better in tune with what is being said about your brand.

If fewer people are buying and reading books, why should a thought leader write one? Today we delve into the world of authorship and publishing with Henry Mintzberg. Henry is a Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University and the author of more than 20 books including Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development and Simply Managing: What Managers Do - and Can Do Better. Our conversation starts by discussing where you find the value in writing a book. Whether it be the intrinsic value of codifying your thought leadership or the extrinsic value of higher engagement and client acquisition. Henry shares with us his compulsion to write books, regardless of if they succeed or not. He discusses how a few newer books have not done as well as expected and how difficult topics like climate change might play a part in those results. When publishing about important, but hard topics that many would rather not think about how do you get your message out? Henry talks about expanding into new modalities to capture the audience's attention and how hard it is to get uninterrupted attention for your topic. He explains how interruption is just one of the reasons a book can have a bigger impact than articles, even if the book reaches only a fraction of the audience a short-form piece might. Three Key Takeaways: · Reaching ten thousand people with a book can be far more influential than reaching one hundred thousand people with an article. · A publication date is not a measurement of value. Many books continue to be relevant years after their publication. · Do what is in your heart. Don't let anyone talk you into something else because you will end up doing it badly.

Tim Creasey, Chief Innovation Officer at Prosci and author of 'Change Management: The People Side of Change', shares insights on effective change management. He discusses the importance of asking nuanced questions to recognize patterns and create impactful content. Tim emphasizes tailoring communication to diverse audiences using various modalities to enhance engagement. He also highlights the evolving role of thought leadership in the context of current trends like the pandemic and AI, urging continuous learning and collaboration for successful change initiatives.

Thought leadership is a great source for lead generation. So how do you create content that a sales team can easily access and assess? And how can you measure the success of it? To discuss these topics I've invited Dani Buckley the Vice President and General Manager of LeadG2 to join me. LeadG2 is a sales performance agency helping businesses sell smarter and faster. Dani is also the host of the podcast Sell Smarter, Sell Faster where she offers insights, strategies, and real-world examples to help her audience take sales enablement to the next level. Our conversation begins by establishing a baseline of how thought leadership and lead gen intersect. Dani talks about how powerful thought leadership can be and how it really needs to come from a philosophical belief in wanting to help people and your industry, even if you never get anything in return. Next, we discuss reaching your audience and focusing on them. Dani shares how they have a created persona they keep in mind while creating content, but also how a few times a year they look at who their largest clients are. Discuss what their needs and problems are, even reaching out to them to gain greater insights into what they are looking for. Then incorporate that real-world information into the content they create. Often the bridge between sales and thought leadership can be a tough one to cross. Dani tells us why it doesn't have to be. Having a sales background she offers examples of what sales team love to see from thought leaders, from the time of content they seek, how technology can make it accessible, and even help evaluate how popular or useful content is. Three Key Takeaways: · When creating thought leadership for sales teams take the time to understand their role. Listen to sales calls, and get to know what they do, and what sales conversations sound like. · Thought leadership has a compounding effect year over year. Start making content early and be consistent in sticking with it. · Thought leadership needs to be created with a very specific audience in mind. Look at the clients you've had success with and use them as a template of who you should be speaking to.

Accountability and compassion are often thought of as two things that can't go together. Yet they are not ideas that are in opposition to each other. In fact, when put together they can have a transformational effect on the employees, leaders, and culture of your organization. In order to really understand how we can merge these two concepts I've invited Nate Regier to join me. He is the Founder and CEO of Next Element, a global leadership firm helping build cultures of compassionate accountability. And his newest book is Compassionate Accountability: How Leaders Build Connection and Get Results. We start with Nate explaining exactly what Compassionate Accountability and why putting the two ideas together can create psychological safety and build trust that will ultimately lead to stronger relationships and increased performance. Now that we know what Compassionate Accountability is, how can we practice it? Nate explains how he has developed a working definition of compassion that helps to shift our mindsets. This mindset is about more than simply getting along it is about being an active participant in solving problems and being in the trenches together. Not only does Nate help us understand how to practice this mindset he shares how you can deploy it across your entire organization! In order to do that you have to be clear about what the behaviors norms are. Nate lays out the six areas of organizational life where you can apply this new lens, how you can identify critical behaviors being manifested, where the gaps are, and where the opportunities for improvement are. If you want to see revolutionary change in yourself and your organization you'll want to listen to this episode and immediately pick up Nate's book! Three Key Takeaways: · Leaders that hold people accountable without also treating them as valuable and capable will not have employees for long. · Compassion is a teachable and learning capability. And it can have a dramatic positive impact on people's lives. · If we struggle together and bring more compassion to the world then everyone wins.