Leveraging Thought Leadership

Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways you can elevate your thought leadership. It can create an emotional connection, convey the need for change, or provide a vision of the future. In this episode, we collect advice from our experts on the various ways a thought leader can utilize the storytelling skill to elevate their content. Adam Zuckerman is Product Leader, Employee Engagement Software at Willis Towers Watson. Adam shares how his personal approach of sharing experiences in storytelling can help connect the research and data you provide with your audience in meaningful ways. Mary Cronin is a Research Professor at the Carroll School of Management, Boston College. She teaches about entrepreneurship, and explains to us how storytelling is a vital component of the success of both thought leaders and startups. At the time of publication, Michelle Mellon was the Thought Leadership Director of SalientMG. She is also a published fiction author. Michelle takes her experience writing stories and applies those same principles to writing thought leadership explaining how the fundamentals of storytelling need to be followed, as well as how they can be broken to create engaging narratives. Our final guest is Christopher Brace, Adjunct Professor of Marketing at MICA. Christopher helps us understand how storytelling can be used in marketing to build brands. He explains how, by employing a listening ear, you can discover the emotional territories of your audience that will help you know what resonates most with them. Three Key Takeaways: * Storytelling is a component of the success of entrepreneurs and thought leaders; yet storytelling is often neglected. * Don't be afraid to provide predictions for the future in your thought leadership. Your speculation doesn't have to be 100% right it just has to provide a glimpse of what could be around the corner. * When starting a narrative look at the questions of "What if" but ensure the basic elements of storytelling are not forgotten.

Consultants often approach clients seeking to answer the question, "How can I help you?" What would happen if you instead asked, "What can you and I create together, to solve the problem?" Our guest today is Jennifer Kenny. Jennifer is a speaker, technology leader, strategic advisor, and bestselling author of "The Innovation Mindset: A Proven Method to Fuel Performance and Results" Jennifer shares with us how her career started out in geology, where she delved into the depths of systems thinking. Those practices, built to support her scientific hypotheses, led her to consulting and developing her own content. Jennifer's innovative attitude to solving problems by using a mastery of coordination, communication, and co-creation of solutions elevated her approach, and allowed her and her clients to overcome complex challenges. One problem that was not easily solved was writing her bestselling book, The Innovation Mindset. Jennifer tells us how the book started with an entirely different focus before getting scrapped for a second iteration… which she also discarded! Through conversation with Page Two Publishing, Jennifer realized that she should be focusing on innovation and collaborative ideas - and thus, her book was born. In addition, Jennifer talks about the huge learning curve that exists in the publishing industry, and how she worked with her daughter to enhance her own capabilities and create an incredible book! Three Key Takeaways: * If you are going to share your mastery of a complex field or system, you need to make it easy for your audience to understand your insights. * Aspiring authors should find a good editor that can elevate a manuscript to its full potential. * If you are going to write with a partner, you need to understand the intricacies of collaboration - and communication!

Some thought leaders focus on long form content, like research papers or books. Others prefer short form media, such as videos and infographics. It's simple: audiences gravitate to formats they prefer. If you know your audience, you can use this information to get your content in front of them - but what happens when your ideas run into modality barriers? Today, Bill Sherman, host of the Leveraging Thought Leadership podcast and the COO of Thought Leadership Leverage, goes solo to discuss the "Comfortable Corners of Thought Leadership" Framework. Bill takes us through each of the four corners helping us understand as content creators how there is a difference between being comfortable with our idea and being comfortable with a modality. We learn that exploring a new modality while working through an idea can spell disaster while sticking with a modality you are most comfortable with while discussing a well-polished idea can allow you to shine! However, what happens when your favorite medium is not one the audience is comfortable with? Bill explains that on average the majority of your audience is going to have a low to mid-level of comfort with your idea, so leaning into a modality they are more comfortable with can help keep them engaged. During this episode, Bill helps us to understand the nuances of using various modalities, from both the perspective of the content creator and the intended audience. Three Key Takeaways: * Where is your comfort zone? Do you stretch yourself to new modalities? Is your comfort zone the same as your audience's? * When looking at the four corners, remember to consider them from the audience's point-of-view. * Avoid "sitting in the opposite corner" (no matter how comfortable it is there!) from your audience.

Healthcare is a serious topic, and it needs great thought leadership to disseminate information swiftly and clearly to those that need it most. In today's episode, we revisit our conversations with three guests who focus on thought leadership for healthcare organizations. * Our first guest is Jean Accius, who at the time of airing was the Senior Vice-President, Global Thought Leadership and International Affairs for AARP. Jean helps us understand how thought leadership can position an organization at the forefront of the issues, challenge the status quo, and engage new audiences. * Next, we turn to a conversation with Traci Conley, Thought Leadership Manager for Standard Imaging, Inc. Traci understands the importance of being able to get valuable information to healthcare professionals and patients. We discuss what you have to do when traditional mediums of communication break down, and how you can continue to provide high quality knowledge and care in the face of restrictions. * Finally, we catch up with Craig Joseph, Chief Medical Officer at Nordic Consulting and Jerome Pagani, the Vice President, Head of Thought Leadership at Nordic Consulting. While healthcare is a serious topic, Craig and Jerome share how they inject a bit of humor into their message in a way that allows them to grab their audience's attention and build trust. Three Key Takeaways: * Knowledge is the world's most important currency! * Carefully crafted humor can make serious topics more relatable and easier to discuss. * Well-thought out virtual experiences can deliver the same information and impact as an in person event.

Our guest today is Miriam Schulman, a portrait painter who has had her work displayed in galleries and collected internationally. While this might seem like an unlikely guest for a thought leadership podcast, she is also the author of Artpreneur: The Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Sustainable Living from Your Creativity, host of the Inspiration Place podcast and creator of the popular online art class site, the Inspiration Place. Lots of people have incredible talent. Unfortunately, most creative talent goes overlooked and underappreciated. Miriam shares how the same creativity that feeds your talent can be turned into a survival strategy - through clever marketing. The ability to try new things and be creative can trump a lack of experience (even in marketing!), if you are willing to do a little hard work. Miram discusses her book launch, and how she is marketing her book using the same advice she offers others. In addition, she shares strategies that her book launch team uses, including pre-order bonuses, social network campaigns, and other incentives that help her get reviews and buzz - before the book even hits store shelves. Whether you are an artist seeking advice on making your passion profitable, or a traditional thought leader trying to spread the word about your content, this conversation has some incredibly useful advice you can put into action right away! Three Key Takeaways: * Cheaper is not always easier to sell. Regardless of price, your audience must understand how your offerings will benefit them. * Friends, family, and co-workers will be happy to share your works, but you can make it easy for them and increase the odds of them sharing by writing a blurb for them. * Book reviews are an important part of a launch strategy. They create social validation for those who are not familiar with your work.

Corporate progress for women is historically slow and filled with systemic biases that have stood for generations. So how can we raise up a new generation of female leaders capable of overcoming those challenges? Today I'm pleased to be joined by Jenna Fisher – Co-lead of Global Financial Officer Practice at Russell Reynolds Associates, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author with a new book To the Top: How Women in Corporate Leadership Are Rewriting the Rules for Success. Jenna's amazing book was 8 years in the making, and it took the pause of COVID to provide the free hours she needed to dedicate to the project in order to see it through. In February of 2022 she began interviewing amazing women in various roles and industries all over the world to learn their stories, struggles, and successes. Through these conversations, she learned how women can seize the opportunity in front of them. In addition to the traditional biases that women have to deal with, Jenna learned some of the things that women do that set them back, such as not applying for roles because they don't tick every box in the job description, while men will traditionally apply even if they only check a few of the boxes. Jenna shares some tips for how women can overcome this hurdle and why they need to put themselves out there with confidence. Finally we discuss how age and focusing on family can set women back in the workplace. Jenna explains that women often focus on being the best in their position, and changing that focus to the family means taking a risk that your career could fall to the wayside. Peter and Jenna share advice for maintaining and growing those aspects that can make a real difference in climbing the ladder, even while you're taking time for your family. This is a wonderful conversation where women at any stage of their career can gain valuable advice on moving to the top! Three Key Takeaways: * Writing a book is like having a baby. Labor is hard, but the real work begins after the child is in the world. * Women who pause their careers to focus on family need to find ways to maintain their network until they are ready to return. * Age does not define the heights that people can go. Give people the grace to run at their own pace.

People don't easily connect to abstract ideas, we connect to other human beings. With that in mind, how can a thought leader tell stories that bring your ideas to life? To answer that question I've invited David Hutchens to join me. David is the CEO of Mythos Global, the home of the Storytelling Leader program. He is also the author of Story Dash: Find, Develop, & Activate Your Most Valuable Business Stories… In Just a Few Hours! David has built his career around storytelling for business, and he's come on our show to share some of those insights with our audience. Our conversation starts with David's story; going from copywriter at advertising agencies, to attending the ASTD Expo with his portfolio, seeking an opportunity to write about the things he really cares about – innovation and leadership. David's story gives us an immediate connection to his ideas, and helps him illuminate how others can use tools he's created (like the Taxonomy of Stories and Story Deck) to find the stories they should be telling. These tools were crafted through many years of conversation, hearing the stories of business leaders all over the world. David realized many of those stories had common themes, and could be organized into categories that would give sales, strategy, innovation, thought leaders and more the ability to share stories that motivate and illuminate their audience - stories that they need to tell. While storytelling is important, David also cautions that a leader must also use other tools as well. He shares how his research into highly successful leaders indicates that 30% of a leader's communication should be story-based, while the other 70% can encompass slides, data, didactic lecturing, and other modes of rhetoric and persuasion. David has powerful insights, and keen advice into how leaders and entrepreneurs can use storytelling to break through the noise and reach your audience! Three Key Takeaways: * Build a team. If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, take people with you. * Brilliant ideas don't spread on their own. They need advertising. * Attention is the new precious resource. You have to be thoughtful about how you'll break through the noise and keep the attention of your audience.

What does it take to write a book? Or host a podcast? Or to get speaking engagements based on your content? Being a thought leader can be hectic - if you know how to find the audience that needs you most! Today, we've invited the "Human Venn Diagram," Christina Wallace, to share her insights with our listeners. Christina has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is a Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School, an angel investor, speaker, and author of "The Portfolio Life: How to Future Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card." We start our conversation by learning how Christina got started, writing bits and pieces about her best ideas and sharing them with readers and listeners. These small bits led to a column at Forbes.com, and eventually, Christina became the co-host of The Limit Does Not Exist podcast. Christina shares how each different medium helped her see different facets of her audience's needs, and gave her real-time feedback from her audience. Those details made writing her book easier - and more suited to her audience's needs! Christina explains how each chapter in her book had roots in a podcast episode, and how her written posts acted as the first draft for material that then came to full maturity in the book. Not only did her previous content shape her forward motion, it also proved her talent and value to literary agents and publishers worldwide. Not only had she established a strong audience for her insights - they were actively seeking more! Three Key Takeaways: * You can get lucky by being in the right place at the right time. It takes courage to say yes to the opportunity presented. * Having a library of online content is like leaving an everlasting trail of breadcrumbs that lead back to your services. * Thought Leaders need to proactively tell the story of why they are the expert on the topics they discuss.

Leaders often think about their legacy, from how they will build it to how it will change the industry for the better. But if others are critical of your great works - when should you consider changing lanes? Today we are joined by CB Bowman, the CEO of Courage Consulting, keynote speaker, host of the podcast Courage to Leap & Lead and now author of Courage to Leap & to Lead: A Roadmap for Redefining Failure into Success. Having a business, podcast, and book with the word Courage in the title would make you think that CB has spent her career following that path - but that simply isn't true! It was only after a conversation with Marshall Goldsmith and other thought leaders that she came to realize everything she had accomplished in her career was due to courage - her own! Courage to Leap & Lead is CB's first solo book authorship, and it's been incredibly well-received. CB shares how others told her that she was courageous, leading her to consider the major events in her life and ask herself, "How did I get here?" By answering that question, she was able to break down her strategies into a teachable 7-step process. If you are not sure about the legacy you're building, or you can't find focus among your ideas, this conversation might give you the courage to make a powerful change! Three Key Takeaways: * A thought leader must be able to pivot, build on their ideas, and recognize the strengths and challenges of their approach. * If you identify with a concept - such as courage - then you need to live with deep respect and adherence to your teachings. * Sometimes, the key to getting the answers you need is to ask the right question.

As a thought leader, you want to see your content actively helping people, not just sitting on a shelf. But how do you move insight to action? Today, we're going to talk about the intersection of thought leadership and adult learning. My guest is Manja Horner, the founder of Boost Learning Design, where she helps other big-hearted entrepreneurs make a difference - while growing their businesses. Manja tells us how she took her ideas from imagination to actualization, by presenting her insights in ways that showed they were relevant to her audience's needs. In order to do that, thought leaders have to take a step back and put themselves in their audience's shoes. What do they need to know? What problems are they trying to solve? And, most importantly, how does your content address and resolve those challenges? Creating learning that will enhance learning and skills is a difficult task, but creating thought leadership that changes mindsets and behaviors is even tougher! Manja explains why you have to ask questions, and how to encourage your audience to think in larger terms about possible solutions. Furthermore, by helping them develop empathy through role-play, she helps those who are "stuck" to develop a real growth mindset. Additional Resources: During the conversation, Bill and Manja discuss the Wired 5 Levels series; a textbook example of tailoring your ideas to various audiences. In addition Blooms Taxonomy is discussed; you can read more about it here! Three Key Takeaways: * Adults learn by doing. The faster you can take someone from information to application, the better. * When you have even 10 minutes of a learner's time, think about getting them to apply new knowledge to their situation. * There is a fine balance to knowing your audience because it can be easy to create content that is too complex or even too simple and lose them either way.