Leveraging Thought Leadership

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 e...

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 add...

This was originally a LinkedIn Live recorded on October 6th, 2021 In our first Leveraging Thought Leadership Live session, we invited two amazing guests to speak with us about challenges and the grit it takes to overcome them.    Jan Rutherford is a former Green Beret, and the founder of   Self-Reliant Leadership . He's also the author of  The Littlest Green Beret: On Self-Reliant Leadership .   S...

Traditionally, great marketing requires a big budget, a great deal of manpower, and broad advertising.  When your organization isn't able to compete in those arenas, what can you do to punch above your weight class? To help us level up, we've invited Heather Donids , the Director of Thought Leadership and Insight at  Harbor Capital Advisors  to join us for a chat.  Harbor Capital Advisors  is an i...

Have you ever thought about publishing a book? Be careful! There are a lot of misconceptions and bad information about publishing. If you want to publish successfully, and see your work reach it's best audience, you might need to do a little research — and our guest on this episode is a treasure-trove of information.  To clear up the misinformation and get our listeners started on the right foot,...

Thought leadership is all about unconventional ideas. But unconventional ideas can be intimidating. How does a thought leadership practitioner stir curiosity, draw in an audience, and make potential clients want to engage? Does giving the client agency draw them in or push them away?  In seeking answers, I've turned to an unconventional guest, Vince Kadlubek . Vince is the founder and director of ...

Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) often think in terms of campaigns, responses, and calls to action. Everything is about selling a product or service. So, when it comes to using thought leadership for marketing, how do you thread the needle? How do you show CMOs that thought leadership can develop a brand, bring in new clients, and not look like just another advertisement? To tackle this tough questi...

Many organizations deploy assessment tools, only to have the results ignored because of a lack of understanding or motivation. What do we do with them, now? What do the numbers really mean?    Our guest today will help us understand not only what it takes to build a valid assessment, but how to use one to drive measurable behavior change.  Meredith Bell is the co-founder and president of  Grow Str...

How can you tell — in an instant — whether an in-person event will be a success or failure? Are there key items that can predict an event's outcome? In-person events are returning, and with them, questions of their utility and ability to really change the behaviors of those who attend. How can a thought leadership practitioner speak about their insights on stage in a way that brings about lasting...

Advertising and innovation are perhaps the two most important components of a company, and both are changing faster than ever before. So, how can advertisers better understand and harness the influence of social media content creators? Our guest on this episode is Geoffrey Colon , Head of Brand Studio at Microsoft Advertising and the author of  Marketing: What Growth Hackers, Data Punks, and Other...

76% of people say networking is the top driver for attending an event, but the amount that have a plan to achieve that goal is much smaller. With many events having moved to a digital platform, networking has become harder - and yet, even more critical to success. To help understand the problem, and find some answers, we've invited Robbie Samuels to join us. Robbie is a networking expert, consulta...

Few children say,  " I want to be a thought leader when I grow up."  So, when did you realize this was what you wanted to do with your life?   Every thought leadership practitioner  comes from a unique background . Most began in other  role s, following twisted paths  that unexpectedly  led them   into thought leadership . When your organization needs a formal thought leader ship  position ,  how ...

Ever thought you'd found the best solution - only to discover in a few years (or a few months!) that the solution was unsustainable? The truth is that management solutions are complex, and sometimes our answers only complicate the original challenge. We've turned to one of the grandfathers of thought leadership, Art Kleiner , to address this difficult issue. Art is a recognized expert on managemen...

Many thought leaders start with speaking, consulting, and creating content. They love their insights, and want to share them - but they don't always stop and think about their business model. What products will you offer? How will you market them? What kind of ROI, KPI and other metrics will you use? What would it be like to start on the business side, before stepping out with your thought leaders...

Is the thought leadership of your organization integrated with other teams? Or it is something you do on your own time, without broad company support? To explore how thought leadership is about the effective deployment of great ideas, we sit down with Mike Zimmerman . Mike is the managing editor of  The Thought Leadership Hub and Newsroom  at  Hitachi Vantara , a company helping mission-critical o...

How do you go from "outsider" to "pro"? Through recognizing your unique perspective - and sharing it, with great thought leadership. Many thought leaders initially feel like "outsiders" in their industry. They have niche interests, new and potentially counterintuitive perspectives, and they think  so far ahead of the game that it might seem outrageous to those more comfortable working "inside the...

Anyone with the right academic training can understand research materials and data points. The struggle comes when we try to use that knowledge to move people to act. How can we fuse personal experiences with statistical information, to connect with people and get them excited about the future? Our guest today is Adam Zuckerman , Product Leader, Employee Engagement Software at Willis Towers  Watso...

While thought leadership has been around for a long time, it's only recently started popping up as a topic of discussion in major boardrooms. Company executives and board members want to know the ROI and KPI of a thought leadership investment. So how do you quantify thought leadership's impact and worth? To help me add up the numbers, I've invited Kimberly Ellison-Taylor to join us in this episode...

What if you could change fields - without losing the relationships you'd made at your current organization? Many thought leaders start their careers working for an organization or company. Some begin by writing about culture, leadership, and developing content for the organization, or, thought leadership may be a passion that they follow on their own time. But what do you do when you're ready to t...

When you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing nobody! It can be a hard pill to swallow, but 99.9% of the world isn't interested in your thought leadership. Focusing on a vast, wide audience only ends up wasting your time - and might cause you to miss the people who really need your content. When you figure out what the 0.1% needs from you, and how you can serve them, that's when the magic h...

How can you identify allies and ambassadors for your thought leadership, and what can you do to cultivate a relationship with them? When trying to expand the reach of your thought leadership, having allies and ambassadors is essential. You need people who can amplify your ideas when you are not in the room, and who will help to take them to heights you could not have reached on your own. Morag Bar...

Most authors spend, on average, three and a half years from the time they decide they want to write a book until the time the book hits store shelves. That is a massive investment of time that thought leaders and executives could be using to increase other revenue streams. What if you could speed the process up, without sacrificing quality? Today's guest, Aurora Winter , has a method for doing exa...

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 i...

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. Nic...

There are a lot of myths that first-time authors have about publishing: Having a  literary  agent guarantees you a book deal; b ook contracts are too complicated for a normal person to understand;a uthors 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 H...