Leveraging Thought Leadership

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.