Leveraging Thought Leadership

Is it possible to transform the world of sales through thought leadership? And if we could, how would we change and improve sales culture? While many industries and positions change and evolve at high speed, the world of sales is often seen as foundational. Companies educate their salespeople about their product or service, and send them to sell as many units as possible. That's the way the game is played, right? But what if things could be different? Our guest today is Kelly Wright, Founder of Culture Driven Sales, an organization on a mission to help companies create exceptional cultures. Kelly helps orgs drive sales by bringing all levels of the company together around a unified purpose, creating a healthier, more aligned culture. She is also the President and COO of Gong, a company that analyses customer-facing interactions to deliver the insights needed to close more deals. We start our conversation by discussing how thought leadership and sales connect. Kelly shares her experiences, noting that many salespeople don't realize how powerful thought leadership can be in selling and what a game-changer it can be! The competitive market no longer wants vendors who are just "going through the motions." They want a partner that will challenge them, help them keep up with modernization, and work with them to create a better environment for sales. Kelly is on a mission to transform the sales world. When companies spend more time educating salespeople on the why as well as the what (knowing the product, but also how it helps their clients), they can create a true partnership between sales and customer. Through storytelling, salespeople can connect with their customers, creating a unified mission and vision that can spur success and create growth for both sides. If you want to transform the sales culture in your company this is the episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership creates, persuades, and "sells" a vision of the future. Many thought leaders have a gut feeling about how things work, but choices need to be based on research and data. Your thought leadership is not for everyone. Don't spend time on people who aren't interested in learning more about your core insights.

What's the best way for a speaker to help their audience connect with their ideas? Many organizations have brilliant employees with a great depth of knowledge, but when it comes time for them to share that knowledge, they have trouble finding their voice. How does a speaker connect with their audience? How do you evoke emotion, and gain the investment of your listeners? Our guest today is Dr. Nick Morgan, one of America's top communication theorists and coaches. He is also the President of Public Words, coaching speakers and business leaders in methods of connection, helping them develop their ideas, and bringing their insights to life with powerful language that will move people to action. We discuss why it's best for thought leaders to focus on their insights, narrowing their area of expertise and making their ideas accessible to learners. Nick explains that speakers should share stories that are relevant to their audience, otherwise it won't hold interest. In addition, your story should identify a specific problem that the audience understands, and illustrate concrete solutions. That's how a speaker connects emotionally with their listeners. One method of establishing an emotional connection is by telling stories of conflict or failure. While many have difficulty sharing such personal stories, Nick describes why these are exactly the stories your audience most needs to hear. They want to understand the stumbling blocks you faced, and how to overcome those challenges and reach success.As a coach of some of the world's top speakers, Nick shares great advice for breaking through the primal fear of public speaking. He discusses why speakers should establish a clear narrative, and how to gain confidence through repetition of those stories. If over the last two years you've felt disconnected or misunderstood during virtual conversations please check out Nick's book Can You Hear Me?: How to Connect with People in a Virtual World. If you are planning to add speaking to your repertoire, or even if you're an experienced speaker, this episode is a trove of wisdom. Listen in! Three Key Takeaways: To make an emotional connection with your audience, you need to find the intersection between thought leadership and listener relevance. Share your thought leadership expertise in a narrow band, and seek out an audience that needs your insights. Be passionate about your thought leadership. The audience can only be excited if you're excited, too!

There are a lot of myths that first-time authors have about publishing: Having a literary agent guarantees you a book deal; book contracts are too complicated for a normal person to understand;authors need huge social media numbers to get published. Getting published can be a complicated process, but it doesn't have to be a confusing one! To help us debunk these myths, we invited Lucinda Halpern to join us for a conversation. Linda is the president of Lucinda Literary LLC, a literary management firm that champions leading thinkers and emerging voices. As President of the organization, Lucinda relies on her deep knowledge of the industry, and decades of experience guiding authors to break-out success and long-lasting careers. We start our myth-busting by talking about book agents, and what happens during the lead time before a book hits the shelf. Lucinda explains that engaging a literary agent can help understand publishers' needs, and add an additional level of polish to your manuscript - but it doesn't guarantee you'll find a publishing deal. While thought leaders often want their book published immediately, Lucinda explains that it can take 12 to 18 months for the publishing process, even after your manuscript is written. Next, we shine a light on the myths of platform and marketing. While publishers still require fantastic content, Lucinda shares the importance of creating a visible author presence. We get a brief overview of ways that publishers review a potential author's platform and reach, and where an aspiring author might focus in order to improve their chances of becoming published. In addition to publishing their manuscript, authors need to think about the long-term business plan for their book. Lucinda gives us insights into the long-view of business books, why lower than expected sales do not equate to failure, and how lead generation is the place to make real profit. We wrap up our conversation by discussing the frustrations that can arise when dealing with publicists. Lucinda helps us understand the steps an author should take to screen a potential PR company, the questions that need to be asked, and the routes you can take - depending on your budget. This conversation is a deep dive into what authors need to know and understand - from the moment they seek an agent, to the years following the publication of their book. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leaders should work with a literary agent, to polish their manuscript and shop it to publishers. * Authors need to look at publishing a book as a long-term investment in their thought leadership; books are best thought of as lead generation tools for speaking and workshops. * If you are not interested in being part of marketing your thought leadership book, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. Find a platform that allows you to shine.

Is kindness a mindset, culture, or capability? What is the cost of empowering your employees to be kind to their co-workers, customers, and themselves? To get a deeper understanding of where kindness fits into the workplace, we've turned to The Kindness Catalyst, Linda Cohen. Linda is a nationally recognized kindness expert and keynote speaker with over a decade of experience. Her new book, The Economy of Kindness: How Kindness Transforms Your Bottom Line, provides real-life examples of companies that have employed kindness as a secret weapon to build and maintain their organizations. We start our conversation by discussing how Linda started her kindness movement by writing her first book, 1,000 Mitzvahs: How Small Acts of Kindness Can Heal, Inspire, and Change Your Life, as a project to honor her father. As she began to deliver keynotes on the topic, she truly realized her passion for the subject. Linda discusses the concept of an "economy of kindness," and how kindness is a soft skill that businesses rarely emphasize. Yet, the ROI of kindness in your business is undeniable. Linda has had to use her agility and willingness to learn in the last two years, overcoming massive changes to the keynote speaking industry caused by our current workplace situation. Linda shares tips on transitioning to virtual events, including the skills she had to learn and the changes she made to her delivery in order to ensure she still connects with her audience on an emotional level. Kindness is essential in today's business world. Times are changing, and thought leadership delivery methods have to change with them. Discover ways to effectively connect and deliver your message, no matter the circumstances.. Three Key Takeaways: * Growth is possible when kindness is part of your DNA. Does your thought leadership encourage people to be kind? * Delivering a thought leadership keynote virtually requires additional means of interactivity to avoid the risk of losing the audience. * After delivering a virtual keynote it is important to seek feedback to ensure your thought leadership was delivered in the way you intended.

How do you help people see new truths, change their behaviors, and rekindle the spark of insight in their everyday life? Through thought leadership! At its best, thought leadership is incredibly empowering. By sharing our experiences, great thought leadership practitioners can help their audiences elevate their lives - day by day. Our guest on today's podcast understands that process better than anyone. Amanda Morin is the Director of Thought Leadership and Expertise at Understood, a nonprofit organization that is a leader in the fields of education and disability inclusion. Amanda helps those who learn and think differently discover their potential, take control of their education, and find community. Amanda explains Understood's mission, and explains how she leads the org's efforts to build knowledge about learning and thinking differences. Amanda walks us through Understood's humble beginnings in 2014, focusing on empowering school-age children and their teachers. Through the years, the strategy shifted to include helping individuals take charge of their lives and find strength in their differences. We discuss the various modalities used to reach a broad audience. Amanda discusses the need for a diverse team, and adapting her thought leadership to be used with websites, the mobile app Wunder, and the podcast she co-hosts, In It, where Amanda gives advice for parents, teachers, and even kids who are "in it" with those who learn and think differently. We also discuss other social media platforms she's used for her thought leadership, and the types of content that work best on each (and why!). Amanda draws from a full team of researchers, experts, and content creators, to create the perfect team for any task. By maintaining a pool of talented people, she's sure to have the right skills for any project. She explains why her job isn't simply to lead the team, but also to help team members find their distinct voices, lift them up so their ideas are heard, and know when to help them change direction when a project isn't hitting the mark. This is a wonderful conversation about deploying thought leadership to help those who might otherwise never be given the chance to unlock their full potential. Three Key Takeaways: * When deploying thought leadership, you need to find your audience - and put your insights where they already spend their time. * Not everyone will have the same entry point (or end goal) for thought leadership. It is important for your audience to have different points of entry, and to consider their disparate objectives. * When leading a thought leadership team, ensure you are giving a platform to each distinct voice. By raising them up, you elevate the whole team.

With a seemingly endless supply of options for any service or product, how do you make sure that yours rises above the noise? Better yet, as a buyer, how can you know which product or service is right for you? Today we are joined by Howard Brown, the Founder and CEO of ringDNA (now known as Revenue.io), an AI-powered platform that helps clients unlock revenue growth. Howard has also been listed as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs, and a top CEO according to Comparably. With a strong background in clinical psychology, Howard's position on thought leadership comes from a deep understanding of the way people work and think. Howard shares his insights on thought leadership, how using TL internally can help your employees find strength, realize opportunities, and improve, so that they can deliver their best performance. As a CEO, Howard shares great advice for those who are just starting on the leadership journey. He delves into the how's and why's of using thought leadership internally and externally at your company, and what it means to be a CEO who understands thought leadership's purpose. In addition, we discuss "finding your superpower," and why being hyper-personalized with your message will better connect with a specific audience. Make sure they know you are speaking directly to them, and taking into account their individual needs! If you want to use thought leadership to tell a story and deliver value for your entire organization, this is a great episode for you. Three Key Takeaways: * As digital conversations replace more and more face-to-face ones, we need Thought Leadership to build those connections. Listen to your audience, pay attention to their needs, and create a sense of insight and vision. * When starting down the path of thought leadership, start by doing your research! It's important to truly understand what thought leadership is… and what it is not. * It can be tempting to create thought leadership for "everyone" because it's easy. Narrowcasting is much harder, but the ROI is greater - especially if you crack the code and reach the right audience for your insights.

How do great thought leaders successfully connect their content to their business objectives in a way that causes real impact? It's all about strategy. Strategy is the most overlooked piece of thought leadership. Even with compelling stories, brilliant insights, and a drive to share with their audience, some thought leaders fail simply because they didn't know how to craft a winning strategy to deploy their content. Our guest today is Trevor Merriden, Founder and CEO of Merriborn Media Ltd, a company that puts businesses on the fast track to content competency. Trevor started his thought leadership journey as an economist, finding the stories in numerical data. He took those insights and became a business journalist, helping Human Resources (or, in UK terms, the Personnel Department) find more strategic approaches to telling those stories - and delivering them with impact. After taking the role of editor as far as he could, Trevor started his own company. Now, he helps business clients deploy their thought leadership content with comprehensive, successful strategies. Trevor discusses the future of thought leadership, and how the field might grow and change as it evolves. Trevor also shares the three C's: Curiosity, Clarity, and Collaboration; when used effectively as a strategy, these can give your insights the impact and reach necessary for success. In addition, we discuss how the pandemic has had an impact on thought leadership, encouraging people to make better use of time and technology and allowing ideas to move faster than ever before. We also discuss the pitfalls of the virtual world, and how quiet voices can be lost amid the noise - unless they possess a strategy to help draw attention to their insights. Our conversation covers how a thought leader can grow from any role where a passion for curiosity and storytelling exists. Three Key Takeaways: If you have a driving curiosity to find answers and share insights, you need to be part of an organization that will support your creation of thought leadership content. Organizational thought leadership content needs to keep the strategic goals of the company in mind. Thought Leadership doesn't have to be a solo mission. The world's largest problems will require collaborative efforts.

When did you first realize you were creating and deploying thought leadership? Many thought leadership practitioners were unknowingly performing the function before they stepped up to the title. However, adding the words "Thought Leader" to your title shines a particular spotlight on your talents. The title often comes with high expectations — and a need for clear metrics to show that your work makes sense. To explore how a new thought leadership role can be developed, and how to help it evolve and move forward, we turn to Clarinda Cerejo, Senior Director of Thought Leadership at Cactus Communications, a technology company that is accelerating scientific advancement by making research available to communities around the world. Clarinda tells us how Cactus Communications supported her work developing a formal thought leadership role, from the earliest days of research to the expansive plan of building communities. She also discusses what it meant to both her and her organization when she finally included the words "thought leadership" in her formal title. Determining what success looks like for thought leadership can be challenging. Clarinda gives clear examples of metrics you can use, why you need to celebrate the small victories, and how success is cumulative. Thought leadership means being invested in the long haul, and watching trends, not fads. We examine the work Clarinda is doing, and the challenges she has faced in moving from scientific research to content marketing. She carries the scientific method into her work doing community building, helping others get their work published, and navigating the difficult peer-review process. This conversation is a perfect example of the arc a career can take, from subtly doing thought leadership to steering the ship for your company. Listen in, and get insights from one of the most insightful new thought leaders in the business! Three Key Takeaways: * Remember that the external perception of your role is more important than any title. Do the work - recognition will come! * Success in Thought Leadership often looks different than success in marketing or sales. Celebrate the small victories, because they will add up to big changes. * Focusing Thought Leadership on community lets you create content that gives voices to those who have been most impacted.

Many believe that being a great leader in the business world means you're automatically going to be a great leadership coach. If you can do it, you can teach it, right? Wrong! Teaching is a difficult skill, one that must be learned and developed like any other. Many brilliant leaders fail to achieve success as a coach simply because they don't prepare for "Teacherhood." They face difficulties translating their insights, as well as discussing premium fees, or maintaining networks. So how do you make the leap? For our answer, we turn to Lance Tanaka, Founder and Managing Director of the Lance Tanaka Group, an organization focusing on coaching the best of the best around the world. Lance shares how he went from the general manager of Pepsi Tokyo to being a renowned executive coach, accumulating over 17,000 hours helping executives around the world since the Lance Tanaka Group's inception in 2001. He expresses the importance of self-discovery as an aid in coaching, and explains why more CEOs need to take time out for their own self-reflection. We examine the three things Lance looks at when hiring coaches to work at his company, and ways that new coaches can avoid falling prey to common problems. He explains why it's critical to keep an updated and relevant network, secure referrals, and be steadfast in your fees - and how many new coaches struggle with these issues. Lance lists the critical strengths a coach needs to bring to the table - and specific industry knowledge isn't at the top of the list! If you are starting to think about your future moving from the corporate space into coaching, or have struggled as a new coach, this is a great episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders seeking to coach need a passion for helping people change, and a strong ability to connect and empathize with their clients. It is imperative that Thought Leaders keep in touch with their network as their career path evolves, to ensure your connections know about your current offerings. When it comes to fees for Thought Leadership, don't be afraid to stand your ground. Offer smaller scope for a limited budget instead of discounts on your rates.

Over the holidays, we took a look back at the conversations that have stood out from 2021. We were honored to speak with some amazing thought leadership practitioners, but a few really stood out, and we wanted to share them again: Jayshree Seth, Chief Science Advocate at , shares the way she is turning the scientific methods and processes used in the lab to also promote science advocacy. She talks about how to create a clear picture of goals, raise awareness, and break down the barriers and boundaries that impede scientific progress. Jeff Kavanaugh is the Global Head of the Infosys Knowledge Institute, the research and thought leadership arm of the Infosys diversified technology and digital firm. Jeff helps us understand the idea of "Quantum Organization," his method of doing many things at once, and challenges us to see how even small changes can bring about drastic impact. Melanie Huet is the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Serta Simmons Bedding. She provides critical insights about using modern marketing tools like TikTok to elevate awareness and spark conversations, and the challenges of transforming a long-established brand into a modern must-have. Thomas Kolditz is the author of Leadership Reckoning and Director of The Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. Thomas shares The Institute's two-fold mission: to create a powerful and widely available leader development experience, and to improve the quality of leader development in higher education everywhere. These were inspirational guests, with meaningful messages. We're thrilled to be able to shine a spotlight on them once more, and wish all of you the very best in 2022!