Leveraging Thought Leadership

You've got big ideas that you know could help people. But it's hard to articulate that insight as an actionable plan for business partners, clients, and investors. So, how do you move forward? Today, we're sitting down with Tamsen Webster, a TedX speaker and author of the new book Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible. In her insightful text, Tamsen codifies her method, and helps others find the throughline that connects an idea to the hearts and minds of the audience. Many new authors suffer from the "curse of the expert," unable to put their methodology and processes on the page in a way that's accessable to beginners. For Tamsen, that was the easy part. In fact, she struggled with letting go of the book, unsure that the process she had been successfully using for the previous five years was enough to warrant publishing. As with any good business book, Tamsen has found that hers has drawn multiple new clients — without the usual 2 degrees of separation. Now, people are finding the book and reaching out to her on their own, and that's growing her business exponentially. She's also dipped a toe into licensing her IP, and creating an accreditation program to help other businesses share her Red Thread method with their clients. Lastly, we discuss the hard part of creating and licensing a properly… protecting it. In order to maintain your trademark, you have to defend it. This can mean awkward conversations about how and where your method can be used. Unfortunately, many people who are interested in thought leadership content are unaware that they are violating copyrights, but there are ways to handle such issues amicably, and to the advantage of both parties. This interview is a great example of a thought leadership book propelling your ideas to scale! Three Key Takeaways: * When writing a thought leadership book, remember to clearly convey what you do best. * Construct your chapter outline by ensuring that instructions before theoretical examples. This way the most useful part comes first. * When writing a thought leadership book, consider creating an accreditation program to give organizations a legitimate way to institute your trademarked ideas.

Imagine being 18, and standing on the doorstep of a monastery in the Himalayas, believing you are there to help the monks speak better English — to find out they do not speak any English at all. Could you teach the language, using only body language and tone of voice? This is the actual story of our guest Richard Newman, and the beginning of his fascinating journey into the lessons of non-verbal communication. Richard is the CEO and Founder of UK Body Talk, the global leader in evidence-based training on the psychology of communication, and the author of You Were Born to Speak, which is Richard's personal journey of discovering the secrets of communication and is filled with practical strategies that you can immediately apply to transform your success. Richard shares the story of his journey to a Tibetan monastery to spend six months teaching the monks English. During this time, he learned much about non-verbal communication, and how comfort and discomfort can impact our shared dialogue. During our conversation, Richard shares the insights that help people move out of their comfort zones, so that they can become aware of and change habits that stand in our way. He teaches ways to unlock communication, how to mentor others, and ways to inspire those around you through earnest communication. Moving people to change habits, or encouraging a business to make large changes, isn't as simple as providing evidence that the change is for the best. Richard explains how storytelling can be a great tool to connect with the emotional mind stagnant. Then, we can connect with the logical brain and share information that will support and maintain change. The insights Richard shares into communication are powerful, and can help move employees, companies, and executives forward! Three Key Takeaways: Moving people through change means taking them into an uncomfortable place. In order to be successful, your thought leadership will have to offer a safe space to listen and accept new ideas. Storytelling is a powerful tool that,if done correctly, can change people's beliefs and actions. In order to get people to accept your thought leadership insights, you have to help them feel a sense of ownership in that idea.

An interview with Waldo Waldman & Freddie Ravel that originally aired on November 3rd, 2021, as part of Leveraging Thought Leadership Live on LinkedIn. In March of 2020, the keynote speaking business came to a grinding halt. Before Covid-19, many speakers were predicting a record-breaking year for events and conventions. During the pandemic's height, speakers and live workshops went on hiatus, hoping the shutdown wouldn't last long. But a few visionaries forged new ways forward, using technology and innovation to help them deliver their message. To discuss how keynote speaking changed during the pandemic and where keynote speaking is going in the future, I invited two of the best in the business to join me. Waldo "The Wingman" Waldman is the bestselling author of Never Fly Solo: Lead with Courage, Build Trusting Partnerships, and Reach New Heights in Business, and a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame. He speaks around the world on the topics of trust and teamwork. Freddie Ravel is a Grammy Award-winning musician who delivers dynamic multimedia "keynote concerts" on leadership, sales, and performance. In this episode, we explore how each of our guests has pivoted their innovative style of keynote speaking to a virtual platform, using video and technology to connect with clients and audiences. Even with huge advancements in technology, speakers will still be faced with the difficulty of proving their value in a virtual setting, in order to maintain price integrity. Waldo warns that speakers who are not adept with (or willing to learn) new technology are going to be shot down. Freddie explains how he created a custom home setup that allows him to bring messages and music to audiences in a dozen time zones — all at once. We further discuss the way additional products and solutions can give your virtual keynote an advantage, and create momentum that sustains change and creates actionable items for anyone who attends. This is an insightful conversation into the ways that keynoters have sustained and grown their businesses using hybrid models, technology, and innovation. Come and listen — this information is sure to be useful to anyone operating in a speakers' arena. Three Key Takeaways: * When speaking virtually, you need a clear picture of your audience's needs and interests, and an understanding of their pain points, in order to connect with them emotionally. * Regardless of how you deliver your thought leadership speaking, content is king. * Be ready to offer follow-up products and solutions that will ensure your message goes further.

How soon should a startup start thinking about using thought leadership? Startups usually focus on customer acquisition, building their brand, and traditional marketing, believing that thought leadership is something that would be nice to have down the road —but not a must-have out of the gate. Turns out, that's not the best way to forge a business. Investing in thought leadership early can propel a brand to great heights. To explore the concept, we've invited Jody Padar to join us. Jody is known as "The Radical CPA," and is one of the few CPAs that has built a personal brand. She is currently the Head of Tax Strategy and Evangelism at April, a new tax program going to market through banks. We explore how Jody built The Radical CPA brand, starting 15 years ago when accounting, as a field, was going through major changes. She felt the tools she needed were not available, so she started blogging and writing to try to understand the changes taking place. She quickly gained a following that agreed with her thinking, accepting her non-standard methods and innovative techniques. Plus, Jody shares her difficulties with criticism, and how being open-minded allowed her ideas to sharpen and grow. Now that Jody is with April, we learn how her personal brand works to bring a deeper level of authority and expertise to April, defying all the expectations of a startup. In addition, her high profile plays well with potential investors, who trust Jody as the face of a new brand. This is an excellent conversation that illuminates personal thought leadership brands, and the power they can have when they partner with new (or experienced!) organizations. Three Key Takeaways: • It is never too early to share your opinion, take a unique stance, and start creating your own thought leadership. • Having an established thought leadership brand can allow you to justify higher fees and the ability to demand a premium when being acquired. • Thought leadership practitioners need tough skin when it comes to critics, and it is in their benefit to be open-minded and use criticism to refine their ideas.

Why do so many business owners spend time creating strategy, only to put it on the shelf? Strategies can't help your business grow unless they've been fully integrated into the decision-making process, and are part of the daily running of the business. Without a strategy, time is wasted, teams are out of alignment, and vital revenue is lost or misspent. So what's happening? Today we sit down with Simon Severino, the Founder of the Strategy Sprints Method and author of Strategy Sprints: 12 Ways to Accelerate Growth for an Agile Business. This method focuses on three strategies, three habits, and three numbers to double the revenue of B2B businesses with 90 days of coaching. We start with the origin of The Strategy Sprints Method as Simon shares how his 17 years working as a strategy advisor left him feeling like there was something missing. Only after he started his own business did he become frustrated and see what the market needed. As many entrepreneurs do he looked back into his career to find the tools that worked and started to build the Strategy Sprints Method. Simon explains how his method of three strategies, three habits, 3 numbers and 274 prebuild modules gives clients the tools they need to deploy a strategy in a manner that can move the company forward faster, bring teams into alignment on a single sheet of paper, and help them learn faster than the competition. In addition, we learn how Simon uses his own strategy within his company to avoid the many pitfalls that take executives off track and allow them to get overwhelmed, which often leads to burnout. He shares how having hard checks in place can save you from jumping into new trends that everyone else is doing but won't actually have a positive impact on your business. If you're seeking a strategy for your B2B business and want to increase revenue this might just be what you need. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leadership strategies need to offer clients a way to move forward that they can understand and buy into. * Thought Leadership tools need to be accompanied by a strategy to deploy them. A good tool without an instruction manual will not be used. * Don't fall into the trap of excitement around new technology and trends. Analyze their usefulness, before committing time or money.

Working with a ghostwriter can be confusing and complex. In this episode, we are joined by an expert in each of these fields, to help thought leadership practitioners get a better grasp of the possibilities. Dan Gerstein is the founder and CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, where he uses his talents to connect authors with speakers looking for help, focusing on matching both people's needs and personality. Jesse Finkelstein is the co-founder and Principal of Page Two, a publishing agency helping non-fiction authors navigate the full range of options while providing high-level support for a wide variety of organizational publishing activities. We start the conversation by discussing the concept of ghostwriting, and the tasks available to those who perform that function. Dan helps us understand that ghostwriters can write every word of a book, or work as a developmental editor— or anything in between! All the while, their duty is to maintain focus on the expertise, reputation, and authority of the client. With a firm grasp of the writer in hand, we move to the publishing side. Jesse clarifies the mysterious business of publishing. We learn about the various methods of publishing, the need for an established platform, and why authors want to retain the rights to their book — as they do with their other intellectual property. This episode takes us from page to print and everything in between! Three Key Takeaways: * It's easier than ever to publish a thought leadership book, the task a ghostwriter can help you accomplish is standing out and making an impact. * Before starting a thought leadership book, you need to know your unique value proposition and how it fits into the world. · Publishers look at more than the content of your book. They want to see that you have a strategy, and that the book aligns with your larger business model.

To celebrate our 400th episode, our two hosts Peter Winick and Bill Sherman disperse insights they've gained having spoken to hundreds of thought leaders over decades of working in the field. We start with a look at the widely varied paths to thought leadership. There are no schools, no set career path to follow to become a thought leader. Unlike becoming a doctor or lawyer, thought leadership is often the second act of a career. People branch into it once they've become a subject matter expert, have conquered many challenges of their own, and have developed a unique voice that needs to be heard. With no set route, thought leadership practitioners are often faced with experimentation as they create content and sharpen their message. Bill talks about the need to simply get content out and not be afraid of failure. Ideas need to take root, and you need defined goals in order to measure its success. Thought leadership practitioners need to shepherd their ideas, constantly look for new ways to present them, and find their best audience. Looking around the corner, Bill and Peter discuss the drivers that will change thought leadership over the next few years. We examine how publishing will continue to shift its place in a thought leader's toolbox, and the bar for quality content is only going to get higher as publishing becomes a simple, even easy, task. In addition, we learn why a visible digital footprint adds glue to business proposals and engagements, and why lack of visibility will be a major career impediment in the next few years. We want to thank all of our listeners for joining us over the last 400 episodes, and we look forward to bringing you more great content and exciting guests in the future. Three Key Takeaways: * Don't wait for your thought leadership to be perfect. Put it out there, and if it falls short, use that as a learning opportunity. * Your message needs to be independent of the modality. Build a strong foundation of ideas instead of focusing on how to "hack the algorithm" of the platform. * The cost and ease of publishing is allowing a flood of new ideas to enter the milieu. This signal-to-noise ratio can only be overcome with high-quality content and good marketing.

How do you bring thought leadership online in a quickly growing organization? It's a task that can be easily over-complicated, adding more spinning plates to employees who already have their hands full. So how do you make it work? We've invited Eric Dates, the Director, Growth Marketing at Ncontracts, a software firm providing risk management and compliance to a rapidly expanding customer base of financial institutes. Eric's voice adds to the conversation as someone who is currently adding and expanding the role thought leadership plays at his company. Eric shares how he kick-started thought leadership at Ncontracts by finding people inside the organization who are interested in becoming the face of the brand. He's found that people get excited at the prospect of being offered the space to share their voice on behalf of the org. Getting people interested in thought leadership might be easier than the task of creating it. Eric explains how he helps people break down the large task of thought leadership creation into smaller chunks, to avoid employees feeling overwhelmed. We also discuss how to integrate a high-profile employee into the thought leadership program without overshadowing others or taking away from the many voices that are involved. If you want to understand how to better shine the spotlight on the amazing talent in your company, as well as share great ideas, this episode will move you in the right direction. Three Key Takeaways: * By showcasing a variety of the talented people in your organization, they gain credibility and create a level of trust for the entire org. Credibility that can be relied on, and will pay off in every future interaction. * Getting subject matter experts to move into thought leadership involves giving them the space and confidence to share their ideas. * Understanding the full potential of employees contributing to the org's thought leadership can help marketers move the needle.

A short video has 3-5 seconds to get the viewers' attention, and 30 seconds to get them to stay. Are you up to the challenge? Creating videos, catching attention, and the ability to speak well on camera are acquired skills - and today's guest, Lynn Smith, knows how to master them all. Lynn is a journalist and former news anchor with NBC News, MSNBC, and CNN Headline News. With 15 years of experience in headline news, Lynn knows how to take complex stories and boil them down to a single, strong core. Lynn is now using that experience as Founder and CEO of Rylan Media, helping clients tackle their biggest branding and communication challenges. We start by asking Lynn about her insights on taking a complicated story and communicating it to the audience in a clear, succinct manner. Lynn explains how she breaks it down to the headline to grab attention,fills out the story with compelling details, and finally, adds "the chill factor" to leave her audience with a thoughtful takeaway. While many thought leaders can command attention and be charismatic on stage and in person, video meetings, online conferences, and video content creation have changed the game. Lynn shares tips on ways to overcome your awkwardness and connect with the lens in the same way you would a close friend. Her years of experience provide many tips and clear insight that you simply won't want to miss! If you want to create compelling videos that get a ton of hits, this episode is for you! Three Key Takeaways: * Thought leadership videos need to be short. You must connect with the audience in the first five seconds. * Many people experience Zoom fatigue, but we should also embrace the change that has facilitated simple global communication. * Budding thought leaders need to be resilient and keep going. Failure is just a lesson, a minor obstacle on the path to success.

Modern marketing means using popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. But how can organizations make sure such marketing is effective, when it's hard to reach or measure the results? Behind the scenes of social media are a million private messages, e-mails, and other chatter that has as much effect on a brand as public announcements. How can that be measured, harnessed, and addressed? To help us navigate the "Dark Social" parts of the net, we've invited Kerry-Ann Stimpson, Chief Marketing Officer at The JMMB Group, an integrated financial service provider who values and promotes heart-to-heart connections and authentic, caring relationships through online media. Kerry-Ann is also the host of The Internal Marketing Podcast, where she gives tips and insights about ways companies can supercharge their brand by focusing on their employees. First, we define the idea of the "Dark Social" connection, and the important role it plays in the way brands are viewed. Kerry-Ann shares ways to educate your employees so they can play important roles in building the company's brand - along with their own! This is best accomplished by giving employees the freedom and trust to use their voices, and follow their passions. Kerry-Ann further gives insights about the ways she's been helping employees step out of the shadow of their company's brand, and share their personal experiences. An employee's personal experiences have great value to a company's reputation, helping organizations create communities that allow budding brand ambassadors to connect, learn, and inspire each other. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought leaders should embrace the idea of "dark social" connections, and build trustworthy allies to carry the conversation in those places. * A customer will never be more excited about your brand than your employees. Thought leadership helps employees get charged up and eager to share those ideas. * You may never have the resources to accomplish all of your marketing goals, but if you create an army of advocates, they'll help take your ideas further than any marketing budget ever could.