Leveraging Thought Leadership
Thought Leadership Leverage
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Join Peter Winick and Bill Sherman as they host the Leveraging Thought Leadership podcast–a podcast devoted to the business of thought leadership.
Peter explores the world how independent thought leaders bring their ideas to scale within the business world. His guests include professional keynote speakers, business book authors, specialty consultants, and business-school academics.
Bill investigates the evolving world of organizational thought leadership. His guests include professionals who create, curate, and deploy thought leadership on their organization’s behalf.
Throughout the series, Peter and Bill uncover and discuss trends in thought leadership: strategy, technology, and modality. Listen in as they share best practices for creating value, impact, and revenue through thought leadership.
Available episodes
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2 days ago
Speak-Up Culture | Stephen "Shed" Shedletzky | 534
Before anyone shares their ideas, feedback, or concerns they tend to ask themselves two questions: Am I safe to speak? And is it worth it?
If the answer to either of these questions is no, odds are they will stay silent.
So how can leaders, teams, and organizations facilitate an environment where speaking up is celebrated and not ignored or punished?
Our guest today is Stephen "Shed" Shedletzky, a speaker, leadership coach and advisor who is using his new book Speak-Up Culture: When Leaders Truly Listen, People Step Up to help create a culture where people feel safe and supported to take part in and start conversations.
Shed shares how his work with Simon Sinek laid the groundwork for developing his own content that focused on two areas that stood out to him over his years of work: Psychological safety and living your message.
We examine what Psychological safety and Speak-Up Culture mean to Shed and how he is bringing these elements to individual’s, teams, and organizations. In addition we discuss how psychological safety still comes with accountability, which is best achieved by mutually established agreements that bring what is best for both employee and employer to the front.
Three Key Takeaways:
· Business books are written for two reasons. It's something you are so good at you want to share that knowledge. Or you are so bad at it that you need to write a book to fix it.
· Whatever you message is you have to live it inside and outside of your organization. If you talk the talk, but fail to walk the walk people will see right through you.
· When people don’t feel like speaking up will have an effect they become apathetic. When they don’t feel safe they stay silent. Creating an environment where employees can speak and be heard can create a happier and higher functioning atmosphere.
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6 days ago
Diving Into the World of Thought Leadership | Kon Apostolopoulos | 533
The journey of a thought leader often involves moving from being a subject matter expert inside the house, going from room to room sharpening various skills, to eventually leaving the house and applying all of those skills to the greater neighborhood you’ve always lived in.
Kon Apostolopoulos is the Founder and CEO of Fresh Biz Solutions. He's been helping businesses achieve strategic goals for more than 20 years by preparing people for the right leadership roles. In addition, Kon is the co-author of 7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis: A Practical Guide to Emotionally Dealing with Pandemics & Other Disasters, a guide to help readers through crisis both personal and global.
Kon takes us through a series of milestones, including publishing his first book, having to take that material to scale, and finding success that had his audience asking new questions — forcing him to continually expand his thinking and problem-solving.
We explore the way thought leadership needs to move the audience further along than they are. Kon explains how this often means having to speak in simplified terms that allow you to break through both ego and preconceived notions. We learn how this can only be accomplished by understanding your audience, where they are, and where they need you to take them.
Three Key Takeaways:
· There are two parts to thought leadership. The idea and thought part. And the action and external part. They are symbiotic and necessary to each other to create content that is actionable.
· Thought leadership needs to move the audience further along than they are. The conversation doesn't have to go from 1 - 100, but you have to move the audience at least from 1 to 2 and beyond.
· Sometimes the best way to break through adult egos and preconceived notions is to present complex ideas in simple ways.
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Nov 18, 2023
Threading the Needle of Thought Leadership | Nora DePalma | 532
Topics like climate change can be a hot button issue in discussions.
So how can you deliver thought leadership on controversial topics without disengaging various portions of your audience?
In order to thread that difficult needle, I’ve invited Nora DePalma to join me. Nora is the CEO of Dialogue, a modern PR firm that builds value for organizations seeking to advance climate solutions.
Nora starts the conversation by sharing how discussing climate solutions instead of climate change helps to shape the conversation, allowing them to start a dialogue without turning off certain parties that might be needed in order to meet their goals.
Once your audience is open to hearing what you have to say you’ll need to be prepared for what comes next. Nora explains how you need to tie activity to business outcomes and understand what action you want them to take next, moving them deeper into your content but not necessarily leading them into a sales funnel. She shares why not every call to action has to lead to sales and why education and relationship building can be as powerful and lead to sales in other ways.
Nora provides great advice and examples of how to deliver complex thought leadership that tactfully opens the door to deeper, more meaningful conversations.
Three Key Takeaways:
· In addition to understanding your audience and shaping the conversation you have to deliver your ideas with authenticity and passion. Otherwise, they are likely to tune out.
· Not all calls to action have to lead into the sales funnel. They can be a call to education, or to further a relationship.
· You have to earn people's attention. That is how you build trust and sustain relationships.
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Nov 15, 2023
Writing a Better Business Book | Josh Bernoff | 531
A lot of thought leaders have written books, eager to get their insights out into the world.
Yet many start the task without having a well-defined plan for what comes next!
Our guest today has literally written the book on writing thought leadership books! “Build a Better Business Book: How to Plan, Write and Promote a Book That Matters” is the work of the amazing Josh Bernoff, and we can’t think of a better person to help nonfiction authors succeed.
In order to help authors find success, they first have to understand what that means to them. Josh explains how success can look differently to each author and often is unrelated to the quantity of books sold. Success can take the form of launching a speaking career, generating leads, or purely having a book that makes you the authority in your field.
Once you know what sort of success you want, you’ll need to plan beyond the book. Josh shares how many authors don’t look beyond the launch of their book and become disappointed when nothing happens. However, those that properly promote their book, and have scalable plans in place for after the book is launched, can take their business to the next level.
If you have an idea for a book, but you're not sure if it checks the boxes of "big, right, and new," then this episode will guide you on your journey.
Three Key Takeaways:
· For authors the success of a book is typically not measured in sales but in the additional business generated from the book.
· Before you publish a book have a plan to define yourself beyond the book.
· Tradition, hybrid, and self-publishing all have pros and cons. You have to understand the needs of your book to find the right fit.
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Nov 8, 2023
Culture as a Strategic Tool | Clint Tripodi | 530
Could poor leadership have a direct impact on workers' insurance claims?
Today, we go outside the box by discussing insurance with Clint Tripodi. Clint is a National Practice Leader for The Liberty Company where they are changing the way business leaders look at and think about insurance - through the use of thought leadership.
While insurance is often thought of as "mundane," Clint shares what his company found when they tracked leadership's impact on workplace culture, and why they are looking to find the root issues, in order to mitigate risks downstream.
Through data analytics, Clint is able to see where claims have an impact, and then go directly to the root of the problem, which is often a lack of leadership. Clint uses data analytics to show the way poor leadership has an effect on workers' compensation claims as well as employee retention, and ultimately, ROI.
Clint helps us understand how the culture of wellness at Liberty is being spread to their clients through thought leadership that sets them apart from and above the competition!
Three Key Takeaways:
· Culture is a strategic tool and insurance can help you drive that strategy.
· When working in a highly commoditized market you have to position yourself as a business partner, not just a solution.
· Data analytics can help to identify problems so that you can go upstream and fix them at the source.
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Nov 4, 2023
The Democratization of Understanding| Mahan Tavakoli | 529
If Generative AI is fed all writing on the internet, then when you ask it a question, it can give you a good answer. Or at least an answer that is good enough.
For this reason, good enough is no longer good enough.
To discern the role Generative AI can play on the future of thought leadership I’ve invited Mahan Tavakoli to join me. Mahan is the CEO of Strategic Leadership Ventures which helps people become the sort of leader people want to follow. He is also the host of the Partnering Leadership where you can learn the leadership journeys of successful CEOs and the top global thought leaders.
Our conversation with Mahan starts with getting an understanding of both generative AI and what we would call good ideas. From there we explore how asking the right questions is the secret to getting useful knowledge out of either.
While asking the right questions of AI can allows us a great understanding of the vast amount of data in our organizations, the right questions of an idea can discover the power of differentiation and niches.
If you’re looking to expand your use or understanding of AI and how we can unlock the power of our ideas this is a great episode for you.
Three Key Takeaways:
· Part of thought leadership is marrying the ideas of others to see new patterns.
· When we think we know the answer, we don't ask the simple fundamental questions that can unveil new insights.
· The power comes from the differentiation and the niches. Rather than the belief that you need to go wide.
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Nov 1, 2023
Moving from Corporate to Solo Thought Leadership| Dan Pontefract | 528
Moving from internal thought leadership to being a solo act means having to take on a lot of new roles.
Marketing, research, and publishing all fall on your shoulders now.
Are you prepared?
Today our guest is Dan Pontefract, who, after a long prosperous career at companies like Telus, struck out on his own as a leadership strategist, change expert, keynote speaker, and award-winning author. His fifth book Work-Life Bloom: How to Nurture a Team that Flourishes will be released in November of 2023.
Dan shares his journey from working at Telus as Chief Learning Officer, using the company as a lab with the ability to real-time test ideas to teaching the models he helped create internally, to external companies guiding others through leadership development and culture change.
As an author much has changed over the ten years since his first book was published. Dan shares his experience both with untrustworthy and fantastic partners in publishing. In addition, he explains why you should be ready to market the book yourself, the big differences between self, hybrid, and traditional publishing!
If you are just getting started or about to break out from corporate thought leadership, Dan provides valuable advice for thought leaders at any stage!
Three Key Takeaways:
· When doing market research look at others in your sphere at your level. Then look at those above you and determine what sets them apart. What can you learn from what they are doing?
· Be continually and continuously adding to your body of work.
· Thought leadership can take a product that might not land you a meeting, and open the door to a more interesting conversation.
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Oct 28, 2023
Learning to Lose Powerfully | Don Schmincke | 527
What happens when the tools we use to analyze and take control of our environments become the cause of our destruction?
Is your company using the tools they have at their disposal?
Or are the tools using you?
Our guest today is Don Schmincke an explorer, researcher, and partner with The Pacific Institute. He is also the author of Winners and Losers: Entrepreneurial Lessons from 30,000 CEOs on How to Come Out on Top, which teaches entrepreneurs how to win powerfully!
Our conversation begins with Don telling us how he went from almost dropping out of high school, to learning technology and ultimately strategy and leadership. While working at Johns Hopkins he began to find an astonishingly high failure rate in management theory – and he knew he could help.
Don goes on to explain the seduction of tools. Why we believe they can save us, allowing us to analyze and control our environments. And how we can easily fall to letting the tools use us because without altering human decision making through true transition, the tools won’t change the choices we make.
With such a high failure rate many might think diving into the entrepreneurial pool would be foolhardy. However, Don gives us hope by telling us about losing powerfully – taking the loss and learning from it, picking ourselves up and becoming stronger from it.
Three Key Takeaways:
· It doesn't matter how good your theory is if it doesn't have a measurable impact.
· We get seduced by our tools because we think they will save us. But without changing how we think the tools won’t change the outcome.
· Formulation without execution is just a good idea on a shelf.
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Oct 21, 2023
Creating Engagement for Ideas| Scott Gould | 526
How does a thought leader get an audience to take notice, remember, and actively use the content you are putting out?
To get a firm grasp of exactly what engagement means and how to get your audience there, I’ve invited Scott Gould to join me. Scott is a consultant, speaker, and author of The Shape of Engagement: The Art of Building Enduring Connections with Your Customers, Employees, and Communities.
Our conversation begins with Scott not only defining what engagement is but how he has broken out into three types. Head, Hands, and Heart engagement – while each is very different, we learn how they act as building blocks on each other to create deeper connections between you, your idea, and your audience.
A big part of having an audience become engaged is presenting an idea that is easy to understand and remember. Scott shares his process for distilling an idea down to the essentials, which sometimes means blowing the idea up to something huge first!
In this episode Scott offers great insight for taking ideas from brainstorm to living at the heart of an audience!
Three Key Takeaways:
· Properly defining the topic you want your thought leadership to center around is one of the biggest jobs that you have.
· The name of an idea is incredibly important. People engage with ideas when it is easy to remember the essence of that idea.
· Sharpening ideas to the finest point often involves discarding ideas that you like but don’t connect with your audience.
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Oct 18, 2023
Taking Evergreen Content to New Heights | Christian " Boo" Boucousis | 525
The past few years have seen shake-ups in almost every aspect of thought leadership.
Big challenges can - and have - pushed a lot of people out of the field.
But what some call a "big challenge" is everyday fare to a fighter pilot.
Our guest today is Christian " Boo" Boucousis, a former fighter pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force. He's an inspirational keynote speaker, author, and CEO of Afterburner; an org that helps corporate teams execute with the same precision and accuracy as elite pilots.
After Boo’s Air Force career ended he reinvented himself numerous times by transforming his ways of thinking and working using the skills he acquired as a fighter pilot. This eventually led to the purchase of Afterburner a globally connected group of current and former fighter pilots, U.S. Navy Seals, and other elite military professionals that use the discipline and strategy developed in their previous careers to enable organizations to achieve new levels of success.
Much of the Afterburner experience came from in-person speaking, which instantly became impossible when COVID shut the world down. Boo, shares how he led his company through the turbulent time, moving to virtual mediums to deliver immersive movie-quality experiences.
As an author and speaker, Boo is keenly aware that audiences have a shrinking attention span. He shares advice for understanding the differences between information, knowledge, and wisdom – and how to walk your audience through those phases over various modalities using humor and emotion to keep the audience's attention.
If you are in need of advice for making your content soar, this episode is the one for you.
Three Key Takeaways:
· As a thought leader you should be infinitely curious. Not just about your domain but about how you communicate that information.
· You need to be versatile with your content. Delivering important and valuable information but also including humor and things that maintain the audience's attention.
· We remember what we feel more than we remember what we see or hear. That is why you have to evoke an emotion that is connected to the message.
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Oct 11, 2023
Advice for Life and Leadership | Mark Goulston | 524
Death is a natural part of life, but our ideas and dreams can live beyond us - and be an inspiration for generations to come.
Today, our guest is a dear friend and mentor, Dr. Mark Goulston. During his long career, Mark moved from being a psychiatrist and FBI hostage negotiator to being one of the most highly regarded coaches and keynote speakers in the business. He helps companies and individuals gain deeper self-awareness, and grow as leaders.
Now Mark is facing his most difficult challenge yet.
Having been diagnosed with a condition that leads to acute myeloid leukemia, Mark is learning not only to accept his diagnosis, but also, how to walk the road ahead with grace. More, Mark is sharing that knowledge, and the lessons he's learned through life experience, to help others.
Mark discusses how he is able to have a good death because he has lived a good life. But what does a good life look like? Mark shares how he is focusing on the things that really matter in life, the need to hire and connect with people that share compatible values, and how his life as a psychiatrist has translated to corporate leadership.
In this frank and open conversation Mark gives advice for life, death, and leadership. It's a must-experience episode that celebrates life, and how our journey can help others - even generations after we have passed on.
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Oct 7, 2023
Using Inclusive Language to Communicate More Effectively| Dr. Suzanne Wertheim | 523
Part of thought leadership is making the invisible, visible.
When that happens, it can challenge beliefs and make people uncomfortable and defensive.
So, how can you break through feelings, and make change deeply significant to that future?
Our guest today is Dr. Suzanne Wertheim, the Founder, and CEO of Worthwhile Research & Consulting, where she uses her expertise to improve hiring, organizational culture, engagement and retention. She is also the author of The Inclusive Language Field Guide: 6 Simple Principles for Avoiding Painful Mistakes and Communicating Respectfully, which is filled with real-world examples and exercise that can help boost your inclusive language skills.
As a linguistic anthropologist, Dr. Wertheim has been researching and studying the intersection of language, power and culture for decades. She shares how linguistics, like thought leadership, is about recognizing patterns. Accomplishing this can be a difficult task, as people realize they might not be a…
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Oct 4, 2023
Scaling Ideas for Impact | Jennifer Dulski | 522
Thought leaders are often torn between scale and depth.
Scale allows you to reach a large audience, while depth allows you to have massive impact.
So, where's the happy medium?
Today’s guest is Jennifer Dulski, the CEO and founder at Rising Team which blends experience and science to help leaders ensure people on their teams feel valued, motivated, and connected. In addition, she is the bestselling author of “Purposeful: Are You A Manager or A Movement Starter?” The book provides invaluable resources for leaders who want to step up and make a difference.
Jennifer has had a number of roles in her career from entrepreneur for a non-profit start-up, high school teacher, and executive leadership roles at Facebook, Google, and Yahoo. We learn how all of these roles have given her the experience to take her passion for creating a happy and successful high-performing team to scale using technology.
Often thought leaders believe they have to stick to a single domain, but Jennifer…
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Oct 2, 2023
Taking New Ideas to Market | Pete O'Heeron | 521
How do you get people to think about new ideas?
And then, how do you move your audience from thinking - to buying?
To examine how ideas go from brainstorming to industry-changing, I’ve invited Pete O'Heeron to join me for today's podcast. Pete is the Founder and CEO of FibroBiologics, a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing fibroblast cell-based therapies.
We kick the conversation off discussing how Fibroblast has gone from a few peer reviewed papers a year to dozens each week in the span of a mere eight years. Pete helps us understand exactly what fibroblast cells are and why the amount of interest and important research for them has spiked.
Not only is research into fibroblast cells new but the work Pete is doing at FibroBiologics is going in directions no one else is. Pete discusses why they are doing work no one else is and how the research and science are the mechanics that steer the direction of the company.
Working on such new and…
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Sep 23, 2023
Starting Thought Leadership Early | Vaishali Dialani | 520
An investment in thought leadership - for yourself or your org - compounds over time.
Starting earlier in your career will have a greater impact. So what's stopping you from getting started?
For today's episode, I've invited Vaishali Dialani to chat with us. Vaishali is a Senior Customer Experience Strategist at Konabos Consulting; a full-service, end-to-end, digital experience solutions agency.
Vaishali paints a picture of her earliest journey in thought leadership by participating in everything she could find, and every event possible – often leading events, even though it was early in her education and career. By taking these initiatives she was able to get speaking and presenting opportunities that strengthened her confidence and opened the door to networking prospects.
Meeting a connection at a conference is great but you need to follow up to foster that new relationship. Vaishali shares how she does active outreach, reaching out via LinkedIn to grow her network. She goes…
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Sep 20, 2023
Elevating the Event Space | Kraig Kleeman | 519
All right, thoughtleaders – be honest.
Have you ever nodded off a little during a presentation?
Now imagine a conference filled with rock and roll, choreographed numbers, and comedy. That’s a presentation you’d sit up and pay attention to!
Our guest today is Kraig Kleeman, the founder and Executive Producer for Rock the C-Suite a production company that brings electrifying original and relevant musical performances to corporate events. In addition, he is the author of The Must-React System: User's Guide to Prospecting C-Suite Executives which provides a strategy for winning meetings with senior executives.
Kraig shares where the inspiration for Rock the C-Suite came from and how corporate messaging is better received through the performing arts. He describes the high energy performances he produces that can be the main stage of a conference delivering an audience-focused show that provides researched topics that mean the most to those putting on the event.
Before Kraig w…
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Sep 16, 2023
Designing Data Governance | Lauren Maffeo | 518
Data Governance may not sound exciting - but it's critical!
It covers how your company produces, consumes, collects, and destroys data.
So, with businesses generating and using more data than ever,
why is this role so often forgotten?
Our guest today is Lauren Maffeo, Author of "Designing Data Governance from the Ground Up" and an adjunct Lecturer of Design at The George Washington University.
Lauren sets the tone for us by explaining what Data Governance is and how too much data is produced for one person or even a single team to own it all. Lauren lays out how you can create data points from subject matter experts around key areas of data your company produces or ingests, such as Sales, Marketing, and Customer Data; each of which can then have sub-sets to provide even more structure.
Lauren shares why you need to understand how data works in the subject matter expert’s day to day job and how data governance will help them do their job more effectively. In addition,…
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Sep 13, 2023
From Basketball to Books | Owen Sammarone | 517
The road to becoming a Thought Leader is never a straight one. So going from college basketball coach to book influencer might not seem that odd. Still, the map to get there is fascinating!
Our guest today is Owen Sammarone the Founder and CEO of Unleash the Knowledge, LLC; an online, educational community of lifelong learners and avid readers helping authors reach a larger audience.
Having a business based around books you might assume Owen has a background in publishing or marketing, but he was previously a graduate assistant with the UConn men’s basketball program. Owen shares that while he loved basketball his true passion came from the self-development habits of coaches.
Owen began to explore what his coach was reading and listening to, then sharing the takeaways he found on Instagram, nurturing a following of self-development junkies. After Owen was contacted by a heart doctor, seeking to pay for promotion of his new book to Owen’s followers he realized Unleash the Knowl…
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Sep 6, 2023
Straddling the Worlds of Front and Back of House | Curtis Bateman | 516
There are few thought leaders who work behind the scenes to create, develop, and deploy programs while simultaneously being the face of the brand.
What does it take to find success on both ends?
Today we’ve invited internationally recognized presenter, content developer, business leader and coach Curtis Bateman! He is currently the Vice President of International Direct Offices at FranklinCovey, and was previously the President and CEO of Red Tree Leadership before orchestrated a buyout to FranklinCovey.
With few thought leaders working both the back and front of the house, Curtis gives us some insights into what it takes to be successful doing both. He tells us about the passion and extra hours that are required to practice what you preach. However creating doesn’t have to be a solo job, in fact, Curtis shares how having Brain Buddies can help sharpen your skills. Having a knowledgeable team around you to help research stories and ideas as well as draft or polish content cre…
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Sep 2, 2023
From Product Offering to A-Ha!| Martha Orellana | 515
How do you get attention for a product that could be used by millions but few are aware of without having a massive marketing budget?
Thought leadership!
Our guest today is Martha Orellana, Vice President of Marketing for MrSteam, a company that converts regular showers into steam showers in personal residence as well as gyms and spas.
While most people have heard of a steam shower, few would imagine that you could have one in your home or that people have had them for decades. Martha shares the history of MrSteam and the challenges they faced getting people to know they could have such a product in their own home. By targeting and educating architects, plumbers, and designers MrSteam was able to create a chain that not only knew about their offerings but became champions of it!
When it came to educating the professionals that would be installing and selling their products Martha went beyond information sessions or bookwork, creating elegant invitations to Camp Feelgood, hos…
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Aug 30, 2023
Aligning the Goals of Publisher and Author | Katie Anderson | 514
Publishers often look at books as seasonal, but an author needs to look at their book as a long term investment.
What should you be thinking of a year before publishing, and how can your book help your business - even years after it was released?
I’ve invited Katie Anderson, internationally recognized leadership coach, consultant, speaker, and founder of Katie Anderson Consulting to join me. At the time of this recording, Katie was celebrating the three year anniversary of her book, Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn: Lessons from Toyota Leader Isao Yoshino on a Lifetime of Continuous Learning.
Katie’s journey into thought leadership literally took her around the world, from California to Australia and then to Japan, where she had the unique opportunity to partner with Isao Yoshino, a 40-year Toyota Motor Corporation leader. This time spent together became the fuel for her book, Learning to Lead, in which she weaves together Mr. Yoshino’s heartwarming and deeply reflective s…
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Aug 26, 2023
Elevating Thought Leadership in Any Size Organization | Dr. Karthik Nagendra
You need top talent to start a thought leadership function in your organization.
But what if that talent already exists in your org?
Whether you are responsible for starting a thought leadership function at a startup, or at a large company, you need to have the right talent, the right org support, and the right metrics to define success. In today's episode, we're chatting with Dr. Karthik Nagendra, Founder and CEO of ThoughtStarters, the first thought leadership marketing company in Asia. He's also the author of The Thought Leader Way: Leading Your Business with Thought Leadership in an Altered World, which details his experience and journey as a thought leader, and offers mental blueprints for helping new thought leaders and their teams excel.
Karthik takes us back to 2007, when he first started doing thought leadership at a startup in an emerging field. He shares how an assessment they created boosted the profile of the organization, and shaped the engineering industry as a…
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Aug 19, 2023
Building a Business from Book to Exit | Michael Bungay Stanier | 512
Thought leading is a busy life! You write books, travel for keynote speaking, network with other experts and create lots of content.
However, that means your business is limited to your personal time!
So, what can you do to help your content sell itself?
Our guest today has excelled at everything "thought leadership," including the ability to remove himself from the day to day of a business he built. Michael Bungay Stainer is the best-selling author of The Coaching Habit, a renowned keynote speaker, and Founder of Box of Crayons, a learning and development company that provides training to enterprise companies.
With Michael’s newest book How to Work with (Almost) Anyone: Five Questions for Building the Best Possible Relationships having just hit the shelf we start our conversation discussing the phases of a book launch and how marketing a book is more than marketing just the book. He shares how a book can become the gateway to your larger ecosystem. Michael give…
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Aug 16, 2023
Becoming a Legendary Podcast Guest | Dana Lindahl | 511
You've been invited as a guest on a podcast! How exciting!
But... what now? What should you say, and how do you use this opportunity to shine a spotlight on your best ideas?
Our guest today is Dana Lindahl, the Founder and CEO of Legendary Podcasts, an agency that helps clients get booked on podcasts, so they can increase their visibility, brand, and legacy!
Being a guest on a podcast can be of tremendous benefit to your thought leadership. Dana explains how most clients are seeking to increase their exposure, create brand awareness, and generate leads. Many believe being on a podcast with a larger audience is the way to do this but Dana clarifies why a smaller audience is the one that needs to hear your message the most can have more impact.
Getting booked on a podcast often means doing a quick call beforehand to ensure what the guest has to offer fits the needs of the host's show. We discover how a shockingly low number of potential guests have taken the time to list…
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Aug 12, 2023
Allies and Ambassadors | Morag Barrett, Kerry-Ann Stimpson, Jacqueline Jodl and Haylie Wrubel | 510
We’ve all heard the saying, "many hands make light work."
Can collaborating help thought leadership content reach scale and create greater impact?
In today’s episode, we discuss the critical impact of allies and ambassadors in thought leadership. We highlight valuable conversations from past guests that truly understand that collaboration with influencers and others can significantly elevate a brand or idea.
Morag Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Skye Team. She helps us define what allies and ambassadors are and how they can help take ideas to scale or even create a movement that would be unachievable alone.
Kerry-Ann Stimpson, Chief Marketing Officer at The JMMB Group shares how the influence of a corporate brand can be expanded by working in tandem to build personal brands of the employees. We learn how this creates new ways for the audience to interact with the brand while increasing confidence and trust in both brands.
Jacqueline Jodl, Senior Vice President of Global…
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Aug 11, 2023
Short Form vs Long From Reach and Impact | Henry Mintzberg | 509
If fewer people are buying and reading books, why should a thought leader write one?
Today we delve into the world of authorship and publishing with Henry Mintzberg. Henry is a Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University and the author of more than 20 books including Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development and Simply Managing: What Managers Do - and Can Do Better.
Our conversation starts by discussing where you find the value in writing a book. Whether it be the intrinsic value of codifying your thought leadership or the extrinsic value of higher engagement and client acquisition.
Henry shares with us his compulsion to write books, regardless of if they succeed or not. He discusses how a few newer books have not done as well as expected and how difficult topics like climate change might play a part in those results.
When publishing about important, but hard topics that many would rather not think about how do y…
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Aug 2, 2023
Building Capabilities for Change Management | Tim Creasey | 508
If you’re going to practice thought leadership, you need good instincts.
You’ve also got to ask good questions!
To discuss how thought leadership can be beneficial in change management I’ve invited The Chief Innovation Officer at Prosci, Tim Creasey to join me. In addition to his work helping individuals and organizations build their own capabilities in change management, Tim is the author of Change Management: The People Side of Change.
For Tim and Prosci, creating thought leadership starts with pattern recognition and identification. By asking questions of hundreds of people and documenting their answers you are able to start to see the patterns that already exist and get input on how to create impactful change. Only then can you synthesize the information into content that is actionable and accessible.
Creating content that can have a positive impact goes beyond research and a good idea. What you make has to be relevant to the audience and suited to their knowledge lev…
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Jul 29, 2023
Connecting Thought Leadership to Sales and Lead Generation | Dani Buckley | 507
Thought leadership is a great source for lead generation.
So how do you create content that a sales team can easily access and assess?
And how can you measure the success of it?
To discuss these topics I’ve invited Dani Buckley the Vice President and General Manager of LeadG2 to join me. LeadG2 is a sales performance agency helping businesses sell smarter and faster. Dani is also the host of the podcast Sell Smarter, Sell Faster where she offers insights, strategies, and real-world examples to help her audience take sales enablement to the next level.
Our conversation begins by establishing a baseline of how thought leadership and lead gen intersect. Dani talks about how powerful thought leadership can be and how it really needs to come from a philosophical belief in wanting to help people and your industry, even if you never get anything in return.
Next, we discuss reaching your audience and focusing on them. Dani shares how they have a created persona they keep in mind wh…
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Jul 26, 2023
Compassionate Accountability | Nate Regier | 506
Accountability and compassion are often thought of as two things that can’t go together. Yet they are not ideas that are in opposition to each other. In fact, when put together they can have a transformational effect on the employees, leaders, and culture of your organization.
In order to really understand how we can merge these two concepts I’ve invited Nate Regier to join me. He is the Founder and CEO of Next Element, a global leadership firm helping build cultures of compassionate accountability. And his newest book is Compassionate Accountability: How Leaders Build Connection and Get Results.
We start with Nate explaining exactly what Compassionate Accountability and why putting the two ideas together can create psychological safety and build trust that will ultimately lead to stronger relationships and increased performance.
Now that we know what Compassionate Accountability is, how can we practice it? Nate explains how he has developed a working definition of compassion…
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Jul 22, 2023
Why Good Ideas Alone Are Not Enough | Jessica Duffield | 505
Thought Leadership can be very complicated, with nuanced ideas and industry jargon.
Unfortunately, complex language and niche ideas won't catch your audience's attention!
To explore how to take big thought leadership ideas to market, I’ve invited Jessica Duffield to join me. Jessica is a Senior Consultant at Thought Leadership Leverage. She's worked with clients for nearly 10 years, helping them create content, find their best audience, and go to scale with unique ideas.
We discuss the most effective ways to take big ideas and turn them into bit-sized content, ensuring your audience will notice them - and easily remember the content. Jessica walks us through the process of finding the strongest core ideas of your thought leadership and focusing on those, creating a simplified vision of your content that can be easily grasped.
In addition to breaking your content down, you need to know your audience - who do you want to work with and for? Jessica gives valuable advice not o…
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Jul 19, 2023
Selling From Your Comfort Zone | Stacey Hall | 504
Summary:
Ever heard, "To be successful, you have to get out of your comfort zone!"
But if your "comfort zone" aligns with your core values, what then?
Can you find an alignment between those values and marketing that will allow you to stay in your comfort zone and find success?
Our guest today is the “Go for Yes Gal!” Stacey Hall! Stacey is the founder of Success with Stacey Hall, a well-known success strategist, TedX speaker, and best-selling author with her fifth book “Selling from Your Comfort Zone: The Power of Alignment Marketing”.
Our conversation starts by covering the 23 years between Stacey’s first and fifth books. She shares what has changed and what has stayed the same in the publishing industry and why she returned to BK Publishing for her newest book.
Stacey discusses the content of her book Selling from Your Comfort Zone explaining how people want to stay aligned with their core values and are no longer willing to let them go. She covers how the curr…
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Jul 15, 2023
How AI Can Augment Thought Leadership | Stephanie Grayson | 503
AI is a powerful tool that is growing at an astonishing rate, but can thought leaders trust the technology?
Or should a human be keeping an eye on the process - and importantly, the output?
Our guest today is Stephanie Grayson, a Content Marketing Leader and Thought Leadership Advisor with experience in the worlds of agency marketing, large consulting houses, and enterprise scale software. She is also an AI enthusiast with a creative view on how to best use this remarkable new technology.
We start the conversation by defining the difference between thought leadership and content marketing. Stephanie helps us understand how content marketing focuses on the now, while thought leadership focuses on the future.
Stephanie explains how the current limitations of AI make it unlikely to generate truly new ideas that could be considered genuine thought leadership. In addition, since AI can only learn from what we give it we have to be careful about introducing bias and be sure to f…
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Jul 12, 2023
Growing a Leadership Development Firm | Vaughn Sigmon | 502
Thought leaders have a passion for ideas, frameworks, and methodologies.
But many struggle with defining their brand, finding clients, and maintaining a stable revenue stream.
Don't worry - help is on the way!
Today, we're talking with Vaughn Sigmon, the co-founder of Results Driven Leadership which specializes in helping businesses unlock their full potential through transformative leadership practices. Vaughn is also the host of The Business Mechanic – where he shares his expertise to improve the impact of executives and managers by enhancing their knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Leaving a stable executive position to start his own leadership development business was a huge risk. We talk with Vaughn about the driving force behind his shift in career and why he chose the area he did.
Leadership development is a crowded space to enter. Vaughn shares what he did to stand out and win clients. Acquiring clients is the hardest part that few want to talk about. We learn how it re…
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Jul 5, 2023
How to Effectively Publish and Monetize Your Book | Michelle Gladieux | 501
Authors tend to be very proud of their books and believe what they've written can help anyone, anywhere! Although that might be correct, the hard truth is you are going to have to focus on the .001% of the population that is going to get the most out of your book and that will in turn get the most out of your content.
To discuss the ins and outs of marketing to your target audience we’ve invited first time author Michelle Gladieux to join us. Michelle is the president of Gladieux Consulting, which offers one-on-one executive and employee coaching and strategic plan facilitation. Michelle’s first book is Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome the Four Hidden Challenges.
Michelle shares how she spent four years writing her book to ensure it was ready for publication. Then, her editor suggested that she rewrite the book and focus on an overarching message that would better resonate and pull the reader in. That message would become the four hidden challenges that prevent…
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Jun 28, 2023
Leveraging Your Organization’s Thought Leadership | Peter Winick and Bill Sherman | 500
It's celebration time!
The Leveraging Thought Leadership podcast is celebrating our 500th episode with our co-hosts, Peter Winick and Bill Sherman.
In this special episode, Bill and Peter share news about their most recent white paper, "The OrgTL Canvas," and walk us through the deep insights they've gained by spending more than 20 years working with thought leaders, from Fortune 500 and Global 100 successes to new, single-shingle startups - all looking to get their remarkable insights out into the world.
Over the past four years, Peter and Bill have spoken with more than 250 heads of thought leadership, many of them on this very podcast. Those conversations have given them incredible insight into the pain points that organizations face when creating, curating, and sustaining thought leadership initiatives. The OrgTL Canvas synthesizes their acumen into actionable steps that help organizations use thought leadership to gain higher visibility, greater success, and a stron…
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Jun 24, 2023
Formalizing Thought Leadership within an Organization | Stacey Flax and Carlos Williams | 499
Many organizations want to formalize their thought leadership efforts and take it to the next level.
But how do you turn a "casual thought leadership presence" into something more?
Today, we discuss ways to harness a "casual" message and turn it into powerful thought leadership that you can take to scale.
Our guests are Stacey Flax, Thought Leadership Communication Manager and Carlos Williams, Applications Development Manager from Hach, an organization that focuses on water analysis.
Stacey and Carlos share how people at Hach had been doing thought leadership on their own, before Hach chose to formalize it and amplify the expertise the organization had to offer. Carlos explains how part of the job of a thought leader is to convey your message in relatable terms but also somehow make it fun, through story or anecdotes.
Stacey further explains the need to take a step back and think about your message. Who are you trying to reach? What's the core essence of your insights? They…
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Jun 17, 2023
Creating a Thought Leadership Engine | Will Milano | 498
Executives often feel they need to be the ones creating thought leadership, but true thought leadership needs to move beyond a single person. That's how insights goes the distance; it needs to be elevated by others while you are not in the room.
In order to fully understand how organizations build their thought leadership teams, I’ve invited Will Milano to join me. Will is the Chief Marketing Officer for Integrity Solutions, which focuses on sales training for organizations. He is also the host of the podcast “Mental Selling”.
Early in Will’s career, he found that content and insights could drive conversations, increase credibility, and create strong brand affinity. Since then, he has been encouraging organizations to move their thought leadership beyond the C-Suite, bringing senior consultants into the game and allowing clients to see the full extent of what your organization has to offer. While many fear saying too much or “giving away the magic,” it actual…
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Jun 14, 2023
Marketing and Product Roadmaps for Entrepreneurs | Stephanie Chandler | 497
Ever thought about writing a book to support your thought leadership?
Or maybe you have already written a book - and now you're trying to get the word out!
Either way, a book can be an incredible investment for an entrepreneur, but to get the full return on that investment, you’ll need a marketing plan and a product roadmap.
Today, we’ve invited Stephanie Chandler to be our guest. Stephanie is an experienced consultant, specializing in content marketing, internet marketing, social media, search engine optimization, and publishing. She is also the founder and CEO of Stephanie Chandler Enterprises, and the author of The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan and The Nonfiction Book Marketing Plan.
We start our conversation by discussing the huge changes in the publishing industry during the last few years. Stephanie shares that physical books are still being read (as well as a surge in e-books), but sales of audiobooks are rising, and expected to grow exponentially through 2030. I…
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Jun 7, 2023
Finding the Truth in the Topic | Mark Miller | 496
When you start a new thought leadership project, what's the first question you ask?
Do you look at who the project is for? What does it mean to your organization? What the ROI could be?
Today's guest asks the question, “What is universally true about this topic?”
Our guest today is Mark Miller, Vice President of High Performance Leadership, Chick-fil-A Inc. and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do and his newest book Culture Rules: The Leader's Guide to Creating the Ultimate Competitive Advantage.
Mark takes us back to his first book and how it was born out of necessity: Chick-fil-A wanted stronger leadership, and took it upon themselves to do the research to find out what that takes. During the process, Ken Blanchard realized the work being done not only articulated what great leaders do at Chick-fil-A, but more, it touched on the things that distinguished great leaders throughout history. And thus, Mark created T…
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Jun 3, 2023
Storytelling with Thought Leadership | Adam Zuckerman, Mary J. Cronin, Michelle Mellon, and Christopher Brace | 495
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 experi…
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May 31, 2023
The Innovation Mindset | Jennifer Kenny | 494
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…
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May 27, 2023
Comfortable Corners of Thought Leadership | Bill Sherman | 493
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 whe…
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May 20, 2023
Organizational Thought Leadership for Healthcare | Jean Accius, Traci Conley, Craig Joseph, and Jerome Pagani
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 restrictio…
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May 17, 2023
Marketing for Artist | Miriam Schulman | 491
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, in…
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May 10, 2023
Women in Corporate Leadership | Jenna Fisher - 490
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 s…
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May 6, 2023
Storytelling for Business | David Hutchens | 489
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 Dec…
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May 3, 2023
Being a Human Venn Diagram. | Christina Wallace| 488
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 mediu…
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Apr 26, 2023
Courage in Thought Leadership | CB Bowman | 487
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 h…
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Apr 22, 2023
Thought Leadership and Adult Learning | Manja Horner | 486
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…
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Apr 19, 2023
Thought Leadership for Future Thinking | Joseph Press | 485
"Office shock" is the term for an abrupt, unsettling change in where, when, how, and even why we work.
Over the last few years, we have seen an abnormally large number of these events, So how are thought leaders working to be prepared for an uncertain future?
To get a better understanding of how to thrive in unpredictable times, I’ve invited Joseph Press to join me. Joseph is the Co-Founder of Make Our Future, a global consulting cooperative dedicated to transitioning organizations to more sustainable and equitable practices.
Joseph takes us inside the pages of his new book Office Shock: Creating Better Futures for Working and Living, which focuses on leaders in organizations that have a need to contribute and change both their business practices and culture.
The success of Office Shock hinges on it touching a nerve with those leaders, helping them to realize they have an opportunity to make the changes that are needed to build a better future for everyone. Once they do,…
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Apr 15, 2023
Building Your Own Thought Leadership Brand | Scott Jeffery Miller | 484
When you’ve spent decades behind the curtain, building brands and platforms for other thought leaders -
what does it take to step into the spotlight and create your own?
Our guest today is Scott Jeffrey Miller, Senior Advisor, Thought Leadership at FranklinCovey, as well as a best-selling author, and host of the hit podcast On Leadership with Scott Miller.
Scott discusses the ups and downs of his journey into thought leadership, and what it’s like to be on both sides of the fence. Scott has unique insight into what it takes to create a thought leadership platform - both for others, and for yourself! While you can hire talented people to help get your thought leadership off the ground, ultimately you are responsible for your own elevation, through social media, productization, research, and everything else - and that means you need a strong strategy to get your insights recognized.
To be successful, you must have a deep understanding of your audience; what they need, wh…
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Apr 12, 2023
Simplifying Complex Ideas Using Thought Leadership | Jeffrey Wheatman
Cyber risk and cyber security are very important, and the field is filled with experts.
So how can thought leadership elevate your work in a way that connects with a larger audience?
Today our guest is Jeffrey Wheatman, Cyber Risk Evangelist for Black Kite, a company that is disrupting traditional third party risk management practices worldwide by providing cyber security experts with greater visibility.
While the topics that Jeffrey talks about are of the utmost importance, many people just don’t have the technical knowledge to understand the details - and risks. Jeffrey explains that through thought leadership, he is able to convey complex ideas in a language that helps people connect the dots, and puts the material into a context they can clearly understand.
Part of his thought leadership includes speaking at conferences and other events. Jeffrey shares why he speaks about topics such as executives who don’t understand IT and understanding risk in 3rd party ecosystem…
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Apr 5, 2023
Strengthening a Brand with a Book | Michael Tuggle | 482
If you had nearly 30 years of experience building brands like American Airlines and Pepsi,
wouldn't you want to share all the great insights you'd developed?
Our guest today is Michael Tuggle, the President of Tuggle Creative Inc, Chief Creative Officer of Something Else Strategies, and co-author of The Voice Of The Underdog: How Challenger Brands Create Distinction By Thinking Culture First.
After having worked with Mike Sullivan (President and CEO of LOOMIS), bringing a strategic advantage to challenger brands for over 10 years, Michael knew that it was time to share his insights with others. Michael discusses what it was like working with his partner for more than 6 months of writing, and another 12 months of editing, in order to bring their book to life.
We learn the process used to create the architecture of the book, how the chapters were decided and ordered, and their process: writing notes before letting the creative impulse take over. He also discusses the…
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Apr 1, 2023
Thought Leadership, Research, and Getting Your Data Right | Mike Ilecki | 481
You're doing research for your thought leadership? Great!
But how do you know that you're asking the right questions?
Today, we sit down with Mike Ilecki, Vice President of Public Opinion Research and Thought Leadership at Ipsos, a multinational research and consulting firm that delivers reliable information and true understanding of society, markets, and people.
People’s perception is often their reality and how perception of the world is constantly changing. With that in mind Mike helps us understand how organizations need to invest in multi-year longitudinal research that tracks not only what the audience thinks and feels now but over time as it changes. Big businesses cannot hope to take the right stand on issues if they are only asking the important questions once.
Just as perception changes so too does how people communicate. The method used to capture the data is as important as the questions asked. Mike takes us into the various methods of conducting research and why t…
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Mar 29, 2023
From Concept to Cash Flow | Michael McFall | 480
Do you think that all you need to be successful is a great idea?
Well, think again.
The million-dollar idea is a myth. Even with a great insight in hand, you still have to take it to market and prove it has value.
To discuss what it takes to become a success, we’ve invited Michael McFall, the co-Founder and co-CEO of BIGGBY Coffee. He is also the author of Grind: A No-Bullshit Approach to Take Your Business from Concept to Cash Flow and has a second book coming soon, entitled: Grow: Take Your Business from Chaos to Calm. Together, these books cover what you’ll need to know to go from startup to steady cash flow.
Michael talks about his start as a minimum wage barista working in his partner’s coffee shop, and how that relationship grew to a partnership. That partnership launched a company that now has 340 locations with more than 100 more, coming in the next twelve months!
Having spent the last 27 years helping others launch businesses, Michael felt it was time to…
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Mar 25, 2023
It’s Not a White Paper, It’s a Platform. | Kasey Lobaugh | 479
If you are just closing your eyes and hoping your white paper will go to scale…
You might be going about it the wrong way!
Our guest today is Kasey Lobaugh, the Chief Futurist for the Consumer Industry and Principal at Deloitte Consulting, LLP. As a senior leader, Kasey is working to get people to embrace their ideas and shape the future of their company and industry as a whole.
To gain a profound understanding of the future of their industry, Deloitte spent a year speaking with more than 800 people in the industry – including experts of all ages, Deloitte's customers, and even their competition. The culmination of this work is a white paper titled Buying Into Better. Kasey takes us deep into the process of the research, who they spoke to and why.
While the information found in the white paper is profound, Kasey helps us understand that the paper is only a derivative of the platform they’ve created which will act as a long lived capability investment and objective that…
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Mar 23, 2023
The Value of Friendship at Work | Morag Barrett | 478
Statistics have shown that productivity and results go up when you work with friends.
If you feel you don’t have a friend at work, ask yourself the question, “Am I being a friend to others?”
Today, I’ve invited Morag Barrett to discuss why we need friends at work and how her book, You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) is helping people not only make friends but learn to be one as well. In addition, Morag is the Founder and CEO of SkyeTeam, an award-winning global leadership development firm.
Writing a book by yourself is a hard task - but, does having co-authors make it any easier? Morag’s newest book is co-authored by Eric Spencer and Ruby Vesely. Morag shares how working with them for eight years shaping the philosophy and thinking turned the book from a piece of work into a true craft - and they made writing together an easy choice and an enjoyable task.
You, Me, We discusses the three points you need to be aware of in…
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Mar 18, 2023
Creating a Structure for Thought Leadership| Lynette Jackson | 477
In an organization with a large C-suite, dozens of departments, and hundreds of experts,
How could you possibly hope to create a unified direction?
To better understand how to achieve this feat, I’ve invited Lynette Jackson, the Head of Communications at Siemens, to join me. Lynette has a background in journalism, communication, and branding making her the perfect person to help us explore the topic.
Lynette explains how thought leadership can become an umbrella for the brands of your organization. It can give a safe space for the different disciplines across communication and marketing to come together and move forward in the same direction.
Lynette describes how content creates credibility, but it doesn’t have to be high level content only experts would understand. In fact, it is better to have a variety of content that draws in an audience that is new to the topic as well as having deeper pieces that allow experts to explore the bleeding edge of the idea.
In addition,…
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Mar 15, 2023
Taking a Book to Scale | Nick Gray | 476
It's hard to create a successful strategy to take a book beyond the consumer market.
What can you do to ensure the success of your work?
Our guest today is Nick Gray, the Founder and Owner of Museum Hack and the author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party: How to Build Big Relationships with Small Gatherings, which is the ultimate guide for hosting the perfect party to make friends and network.
While The 2-Hour Cocktail Party is full of excellent insights and has hundreds of 5-star reviews, Nick still struggles to get his book into the hands of those for whom it would have the most impact. Using Nick’s book as an example, Peter walks through the process of taking a book from shelf to scale.
Nick has seen real-estate agents and financial advisors have great success using the content of his book, together he and Peter dive deeper into those clients to develop a clear avatar, where to find them, and how to take the content to scale by approaching associations and parent companies to licen…
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Mar 11, 2023
Experiences of a New Author| Jeremy Utley | 475
Writing a book can take a year or more, followed by months of planning, strategizing, and launching.
Once the book hits the shelves — What's left?
Jeremy Utley is the Director of Executive Educational at Stanford D.school and adjunct professor at Stanford's School of Engineering. Recently Jeremy worked with co-author Perry Klebahn to put their experience into their first book call titled “Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters.”
At the time of this recording, Jeremy’s book had been on shelves for eight days! Jeremy expresses the gratitude he feels toward those that have come forward to thank him for the book, and the actionable ideas it contains. In addition, he shares surprises he has experienced during recording the audio version of the book.
Marketing a book takes a tremendous amount of coordination, even with the resources a publisher offers. The bulk of the work lands on the author's shoulders. Jeremy talks about having to get over being self-conscious about t…
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Mar 8, 2023
Authors and Community | Jeremy Madsen | 474
Unless you are writing a book with a co-author or ghostwriter, it probably feels like a very lonely task.
But what if you could find a fellowship that provided encouragement and advice?
Our guest today is Jeremy Madsen, Operations Manager for BK Authors an author group affiliated with the award–winning publisher Berrett-Koehler. This group helps authors and publishers bridge the gap to bring better books to market.
Jeremy starts by helping us understand what an author’s group is all about. He explains that these communities, especially when supported by a publisher, can give authors a better awareness of the market and industry. In addition, mentoring is a sharing process that works best when all sides open up. Authors further down the path share advice from experience, while newer authors share information about new skills and tools that didn’t exist five years ago.
Finally, we discuss the timeline of publishers versus authors. Publishers have limited resources, and n…
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Mar 4, 2023
Thought Leadership and Artificial Intelligence | Spencer Ante | 473
How does the world of thought leadership intersect with the growing technology of AI?
A lot of news stories lately have focused on the use of AI "bots" to answer questions, generate images, or create entire dissertations on a topic.
As the technology grows closer and closer to replicating actual human thinking, we have to ask, “How will AI be used in thought leadership?”
To help better understand the field we are joined by Spencer Ante. Spencer has a background in business journalism, investigative reporting and was most recently the Head of Insights at Meta.
We begin the discussion by looking back at the origins of thought leadership which has been around far longer than most people assume. Spencer lays out the three phases of thought leadership he has seen from company blogs in the early days of the internet, to more sophisticated uses blending owned content with earned, paid, and social media.
The through threads of all of these are honesty and trust. Spencer…
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Mar 1, 2023
CEO Branding | Raoul Davis | 472
It is important for CEOs to have a personal brand that supports their organizational brand.
That's why smart CEOs build their personal thought leadership early on, and maintain it throughout their careers.
Today we are joined by Raoul Davis, the Founder, and CEO of Ascendant Group Branding one of the first and most integrated CEO branding firms. In addition Raoul is the author of Firestarters: How Innovators, Instigators, and Initiators Can Inspire You to Ignite Your Own Life which is based on interviews with entrepreneurs and leaders in many walks of life, this self-help book gives readers the tools for finding success in their careers, businesses, organizations, and private lives.
Raoul starts by laying out the various types of branding you can build, such as personal and organizational. We learn how a CEO with a strong personal brand can create a sense of connection and commonality with customers, making them trust and want to interact with the company as an extensi…
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Feb 25, 2023
Building and Maintaining Consistent Thought Leadership | Verity Craft | 471
Producing consistent thought leadership is hard work!
Thought leaders have to be deeply insightful in addition to a full plate of work, social life, and everything else.
But as the best TL's know, consistent content is the only way to make sure your message gets out there and sticks.
To discuss building and maintaining the momentum of thought leadership content, I’ve invited Verity Craft to join me for today's podcast. Verity is General Manager and Storyteller for Intelligent Ink where she helps purpose-driven experts become thought leaders that have a greater impact.
Verity explains how thought leadership is like investing; it works best when you start early and stay consistent, even if you start small. Starting out you’ll need to use modest resources and grow, but you’ll also want to start as early in your career as possible, to maximize your returns down the road.
Next, we discuss some common traps that people fall into that become a barrier to entry and consistenc…
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Feb 22, 2023
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Deconstructed | Lily Zheng | 470
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are problems that require long term work in order to provide long term impact.
So, why do companies keep seeking "quick fixes" and flashy solutions that just won’t work?
To understand the issues the industry is facing in DEI, and the hard work needed to change organizations, we’ve invited Lily Zheng to join us.
Lily is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion speaker, strategist, and organizational consultant. Recently, they wrote DEI Deconstructed: Your No-Nonsense Guide to Doing the Work and Doing It Right, a definitive foundational text for critically analyzing and applying actionable DEI techniques and strategies.
DEI is an ongoing issue for most organizations, so it’s baffling to think of it as a subject that ebbs and flows with trends. Lily explains why this continues to happen, and the dangers it poses to the long term success of DEI in the workplace. We learn that there are no short term fixes or hacks to solving the problem. It's…
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Feb 18, 2023
Publishing, Marketing and the Platform for Thought Leadership| Lee J. Colan and Julie Davis-Colan | 469
If you expect your book publisher to handle your marketing strategy, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.
So what are your other options?
Today, we have a pair of authors who have written 16 books between them, and they're here to help our audience better understand the world of publishing and marketing, and how to create a well-rounded platform for add-on offerings.
Lee J. Colan is an Organizational Psychologist, CEO Advisor, Leadership Author, and Co-Founder of the L Group, Inc.
Julie Davis-Colan is a CEO Advisor, Corporate Health Strategist, Leadership Author, Executive Coach, and Co-Founder of the L Group, Inc.
Lee shares how they used the mid-size publisher Cornerstone Leadership Institute to publish their newest book Healthy Leadership: How to Thrive in the New World of Work. This publisher offers both publishing and marketing allowing them to get large quantities of the book cheaply and via their direct mail sampling method put the book on the desk of the rig…
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Feb 15, 2023
Merging Behavioral Science and Design Thinking | Luke Battye | 468
The best and biggest ventures start by having a dream, and taking risks.
Knowing when to keep your feet on the ground, and when to make a leap of faith, is a critical skill.
But how do you know when it's time to jump?
Our guest on today's podcast is Luke Battye, the founder of Sprint Valley, a change consultancy that helps teams enact their vision, navigate risks, and make bolder moves!
In a bold move, Luke starts our conversation off with a fascinating thought experiment he has never done in an audio medium, in order to help us understand how people make decisions under uncertainty. In our conversation, Luke tells us more about human brain functions, and how the choices we make are based on system 1 and system 2 responses and those are what Luke targets to create change.
Luke explains how Sprint Valley is merging the science of behavior change with the art of design thinking, to find ways to help people work hand in hand in order to solve complex problems. The amazing…
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Feb 11, 2023
The Four Elements of Thought Leadership | Bill Sherman | 467
As a consultant, Bill Sherman has had the privilege of working with countless incredible thought leaders over the past twenty years, helping them elevate their ideas.
That work has given him the insight to create the Four Elements, a framework for thought leadership that helps sharpen thinking and communicate ideas effectively.
The first element is Ideas. Ideas are the building blocks of thought leadership. An idea is a short, provocative statement that catches the attention of your target audience and gets them invested in learning more.
Our next element is Content. Content encompasses the stories, data, anecdotes, case studies, and examples that support your ideas. Ideas provoke discussion; Content offers persuasive support. A content library should be well organized and well documented, so that it can support your thought leadership in reaching scale.
The third element is Offerings. Offerings turn your insights into a deliverable package, leading with value and s…
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Feb 8, 2023
Introverted Leadership | Marcel Wijermars | 466
How do you take a personality trait that many might consider a setback, and turn it into a multi-faceted business?
My guest today is Marcel Wijermars, the founder of Introverted Leadership and keynote speaker for the well-known speech, "The Introvert Way to Create a Life of Abundance."
Years ago, Marcel realized his introverted nature was having a negative impact on his professional life. He had difficulties meeting people and networking, and those challenges were holding him back in business. Through self-experimentation, Marcel created models and frameworks to help himself overcome these challenges, and now shares those insights, helping thousands of others understand and appreciate their introverted nature.
Being an introvert doesn’t mean you are shy or have poor social skills. Introversion means that you don't get energy from social interaction. Marcel shares why fellow introverts need to be more strategic around which connections give them inspiration and are most benefici…
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Feb 4, 2023
Transformation During Crisis | Simon Leslie | 465
Imagine running a $100,000,000 company that produces airline magazines. Great, right? But then came the Covid era in 2020.
When the world literally brings your company to a standstill, how do you move forward?
Today, I'm talking with Simon Leslie, the co-founder and CEO of Ink Global, a media company that connects brands with global audiences. Simon is also the author of several books, including, There is No F in Sales: A Book About Selling in Every Market Condition and Equanimity: The Diary of a CEO in Crisis.
We start our conversation by talking about Simon's first book, There is No F in Sales, which shines a light on his years of sales experience. Publishing the book brought a new level of credibility to his thought leadership, allowing Simon to take bigger steps in telling the story of his business to wider audiences.
As if the world wanted to put his book to the ultimate test, the pandemic ground his business to a halt. Still, that didn’t stop Simon. He shares how a s…
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Feb 1, 2023
Communication for Powerful Thought Leadership | Jane Hanson | 464
Your main goal as a thought leader is to get your insights into the world.
But if your communication doesn't live up to its message, then your thought leadership will gather dust on a shelf
To offer insights that elevate your communication, I’ve invited Emmy Award winning Journalist Jane Hanson to join me for today's podcast. In addition to being a journalist, Jane is a coach with thirty years of helping people communicate more clearly, more efficiently, and with greater panache.
Jane shares a recent study that revealed the average American has an eight second attention span. Eight seconds! That means thought leaders have to be able to take advantage of a tiny flicker of time to communicate ideas quickly and clearly. Often, thought leaders are better at communicating in a single medium. However, to be successful, you'll need to master many different mediums - because different audiences have different preferences! Jane shares great advice for learning new mediums, and of…
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Jan 28, 2023
Creating Frameworks and Models from Expert Insights. | Dr. A.J. Marsden | 463
What is a model? How can you make one? How do you know if it is useful and what is a validated model?
Statistician George P. Box once said, "All models are wrong, but some of them are useful."
Models give us ways to depict how our insights relate to one another, and create structure that can be supported by statistical data – validating and confirming your ideas. Today, we take a deep dive into the process that turns insights into validated models. We will explore the topic with Dr. A.J. Marsden, Associate Professor at Boston College's Psychology and Human Services Department; she's also Thought Leadership Leverage's resident Organizational Psychologist.
A.J. clearly defines models, and describes where they come from and how they function. We learn the basic components of a model, and why models need to be clean, simple, and free from anything that isn’t essential.
A.J goes on to explain why a good model needs structure and well defined dimensions, and breaks down how…
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Jan 27, 2023
Writing a Book As an Extension of Your Business | Becky Robinson | 462
Have you ever thought about writing a book to codify what your business does, and what it stands for?
And once you do, how long should you work to promote that book after it hits the shelves?
To discuss these questions and more, I've invited Becky Robinson to join me for this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership. Becky is the Founder and CEO of Weaving Influence where she works with business book authors to build their platform and grow the reach of their work. Additionally, Becky has become her own client having authored Reach: Create the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book or Cause.
Our conversation begins with the difficult topic of measuring the ROI of a business book. Becky shares how that equation held her back from starting a book - until the pandemic hit. With some extra time, she started the journey, seeking to have her book launch coincide with the ten year anniversary of her business.
Launching a book and running a company that specializes in the…
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Jan 21, 2023
Connecting Insight to Action | Kathy Risch | 461
Why do people buy? Does it come down to price and features, or are our purchasing habits driven by deeper needs?
To better understand consumers, and how to successfully influence their purchasings, I’ve invited Kathy Risch to join me on our podcast. Kathy is the Senior Vice President, Shopper Insights & Thought Leadership at Acosta, where they provide sales, marketing, and commercial solutions to help lift businesses to success.
We begin by examining the similarities and differences between purchasing physical things versus buying intangible ideas. Kathy explains that while data is black and white, people are not. Purchasing habits are based on emotions and needs; therefore, selling a product is easier when you speak to the problems that the product solves for the buyer.
Selling ideas can take many forms; speaking on stage, running webinars for hundreds, or working one-on-one. Regardless of medium, Kathy says, you must always set the tone, remaining clear, organized, and strai…
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Jan 18, 2023
Elevating your brand with a book | Stacy Mayer | 460
Can your insights literally change people's lives? That's great!
But how do you make sure everyone hears what you have to say?
My guest today is Stacy Mayer, a consultant and coach who works with women seeking to get promoted into higher level leadership positions. Stacy talks about her book, Promotions Made Easy: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Executive Suite, from the process of writing, to the effect the book has had on her business and her life.
Stacy shares her writing journey, and talks about the impact the book has had since its publishing, elevating her credibility and ability to leverage her thought leadership. Even more, it's had a profound influence on her, personally, as people echo back the importance of her ideas. Now she sees how much deeper she can take her work, helping more women move up the ranks in big business.
The effects of the book don’t stop there. The book has also increased her offerings as a coach! Previously, she offered a six-week group training p…
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Jan 14, 2023
Discovering the best medium for your ideas.| Dan Pink | 459
At one time the undisputed best embodiment of a set of ideas was a book. It was the clear winner, but is that still true?
To explore today's best mediums for written media, we’ve turned to five-time New York Times bestselling author Dan Pink. Dan has worked as a writer for politicians and the government before going out on his own to write seven books about business, work, creativity, and behavior.
Dan shares why you need to be "medium-agnostic," capable of publishing on many different mediums of media. He shares ways to test your ideas in various mediums, from books to Instagram, from TikTok to long-form articles. Once you've spread your wings a bit, you can build upon a broader foundation, leaning in on the ideas with depth and staying power.
While much has changed in the publishing industry over the last twenty years, the need for robust, insightful ideas remains paramount. We discuss the need for thought leaders to produce quality content that engages your audience - and spa…
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Jan 11, 2023
Thought Leader Publishing | Richard Safeer | 458
What does it take to put a great idea out into the world - and see it grow?
When you have an idea that can potentially help millions, you have to be ready for the challenges that come along with trying to spread the word.
Our guest today is Dr. Richard Safeer, the Chief Medical Director, Employee Health and Well-Being at Johns Hopkins Medicine. On January 19th, 2023 his first book, Cure for the Common Company: A Well-Being Prescription for a Happier, Healthier, and More Resilient Workforce hits the market, providing practical tips on creating a culture of well-being.
When we think of health and well-being we rarely think of it as a team activity, but we need to have supportive people and supportive environments, including at our workplace. Richard shares how management and HR professionals can be a positive force for workers both in the office and while working remotely.
He tells us about his time working at Johns Hopkins, putting the pieces together to develop an employe…
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Jan 7, 2023
Best of Organizational Thought Leadership 2022 | Kelly Wright, Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, Mark Smith, and Adam Zuckerman
Happy New Year! This episode showcases the best of our 2022 podcast. Listen in to hear some great insights from four amazing guests:
Kelly Wright is the Founder of Culture Driven Sales which helps companies create exceptional cultures. 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. Kelly helps us connect thought leadership and sales. We learn why companies want to work with thought leadership partners that will challenge them and create a better environment for sales. Kelly shares what sales can do to aid in that goal and the tools they’ll need to succeed.
Kimberly Ellison-Taylor is an experienced accountant and active member and CEO of KET Solutions, a consulting firm focused on business growth, innovation, strategy, transformation and inclusive leadership. Kimberly has served on a number of boards and shares how thought leadership can help you prepare for such a position. Being…
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Jan 4, 2023
Best of 2022 | Art Kleiner, Dan Pontefract, and Stephen M. R. Covey | 456
As we move into the New Year, we like to stop and look back at a few of the wonderful guests we’ve had the pleasure of talking with during the year.
We hope you’ll take a moment to really internalize their great advice!
Art Kleiner is the Editor in Chief and Principal at Kleiner Powell International (KPI). In addition, he's an author and editorial consultant for influential thought leadership. Art starts our New Year's podcast off right by discussing difficulties one faces in building an audience. While technology has increased our reach, it also causes us to gather an audience that's fragmented across various platforms. Art shares the keys to building a sustainable audience: showing up consistently, finding ways to connect, and meeting your audience on their turf.
Dan Pontefract is the Founder of the Pontefract Group, leadership strategist, author and keynote speaker. Dan discussed navigating being a public thought leader while working for an organization. This can often b…
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Dec 28, 2022
Thought Leadership for the Long Game | Dorie Clark | 455
Thought leadership creates real results - but measuring them can be difficult, especially in the short-term.
But smart thought leaders know: it's the long-term results that really change the game!
Dorie Clark has been twice named one of the Top 50 Business Thinkers in the World by Thinkers50, and the #1 Communication Coach in the World by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards. She’s a consultant, keynote speaker, and author of multiple books including her newest: The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World. She knows that lasting success takes persistence, effort, and day-by-day advancement, completing a thousand small goals along the way.
Our conversation begins on the topic of personal branding. How do you differentiate branding from thought leadership? Dorie explains how thought leadership can create trust and even put you ahead of the competition, by giving potential clients a sneak peek into who you are and where you specialize.
Stil…
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Dec 21, 2022
Trust & Inspire through Thought Leadership | Stephen M.R. Covey| 454
For decades, businesses have used a "command and control" method of leadership, a top-down authoritative approach that gives privilege and power only to senior management.
Today, finding and retaining talent is harder than ever.
So why do so many businesses continue to use this outdated style?
To examine the changing landscape of leadership I’ve invited one of the foremost experts on trust and leadership to join me.
Stephen M. R. Covey is the CEO of CoveyLink, Global Practice Leader at Franklin Covey and a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Trust and Inspire.
Stephen’s newest book Trust and Inspire, offers a new way to lead that is based on today’s workers and workplace. He shares with us why updating our style of leadership is so critical right now and what can be accomplished by having a high trust culture.
Trust can be complicated to manage and manifest. Stephen explains how to build trust at scale (both in person and remotely);…
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Dec 17, 2022
Understanding and Creating Sustainable Thought Leadership| Christopher Fox | 453
Our world is filled with a massive amount of content that demands attention.
How do you package your thought leadership in a way that is worthy of your audience’s time?
In order to explore ways to create sustainable thought leadership I’ve invited Christopher Fox to join me. Chris is the founder and managing partner of Syncresis, which focuses on thought leadership for financial innovators: banks, financial service providers, and fintechs.
A lot of brilliant ideas die on the shelf because no one heard them. Chris helps us understand what it takes to get your ideas heard and have the audience embrace them. His method of creating a Content Hive involves using all the mediums available to reach the several audiences and deliver various facets of your thought leadership to them in meaningful ways that actually change perceptions.
While some might think this means blasting your thought leadership out to as many people as possible Chris explains why drilling down to the spec…
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Dec 14, 2022
Thought Leadership and the Creative Hustle | Sam Seidel & Olatunde Sobomehin | 452
Many professionals end up in a career that might not represent their passion or the bigger purpose they might want out of life.
So what do you do then?
To explore how to discover your purpose and find the ambition to go from idea to reality, I’ve invited Sam Seidel and Olatunde Sobomehin to share their thoughts with us.
Sam Seidel is the Director of Strategy and Research at the Stanford d.school and author of Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education, which introduces an iteration of hip-hop education that goes far beyond studying music as classroom content.
Olatunde Sobomehin is the CEO and Co-Founder of StreetCode Academy, a nonprofit that helps bridge the digital divide, empowering communities of color to achieve their full potential by teaching the mindset, skills, and strategies they need to embrace tech and innovation.
Earlier this year, Sam and Olatunde co-authored Creative Hustle: Blaze Your Own Path and Make Work That Matters.
We begin our conversatio…
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Dec 10, 2022
Creating Alignment between Marketing and Sales | Winston Henderson | 451
Are your marketing and sales teams aligned to the overall business goals of your company, or is each team focused on their own success?
In this episode, we sit down with Winston Henderson, Founder of ICAD Marketing and ICAD Equip. Winston has worked in both sales and marketing in the past, and now focuses on revenue alignment, and using thought leadership to bring sales and marketing together as a single, unified force.
Our conversation starts with Winston's definition of "revenue alignment," and what it looks like when done successfully. Winston shapes our understanding of the power that content marketing and sales have when working together, and how they can define the customer journey - driving revenue for the entire organization. When this happens, neither department is focused on their own metrics or wins. Instead, they unify their efforts, understanding when to take the lead role and when to hand it off, and building a partnership that has exponentially more strength togeth…
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Dec 7, 2022
The evolving role of design and thought leadership. | Charlotte Burgess-Auburn | 450
Creativity. Invention. Collaboration. Three skills that are at the heart of design, and the center of great thought leadership.
Many people narrowly define "designing," whittling it down to simple artistic talent; drawing, painting, or other traditional crafts. But design is a huge world of possibility, covering thousands of mediums and a fantastic variety of skills that drive creativity, spark invention, create authentic connection, and encourage collaboration.
Charlotte Burgess-Auburn is a self-described artist, educator, and extroverted introvert. She's also the Director of Community at the Stanford d.school, where she teaches the role of self-awareness in creativity and design. Her book, You Need a Manifesto: How to Craft Your Convictions and Put Them to Work, is an essential "how-to" for crafting a guiding document that establishes your intentions, increases your creativity, and helps you maintain focus and conviction as you push toward your goals.
Charlotte’s ro…
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Dec 3, 2022
Measuring the ROI of Thought Leadership | Cindy Anderson and Anthony Marshall | 449
It's certain that thought leadership brings great value to an organization, but how do you calculate the actual ROI of your thought leadership investment?
To demystify the ROI of thought leadership, I’ve invited Cindy Anderson and Anthony Marshall to join me for a discussion. Cindy Anderson is the Global Lead for Thought Leadership Engagement and Eminence, and Anthony Marshall is the Senior Research Director for Thought Leadership, both from the IBM Institute for Business Value.
In this episode, we talk about the IBM Institute for Business Value’s 20 year history delivering thought-provoking insights to business leaders about emerging trends, opportunities, and challenges. Their thought leadership reports offer prescriptive recommendations to address the most pressing challenges and opportunities, and to help determine future organizational success. Since 2004, they have conducted groundbreaking surveys, growing from 300 CEO respondents to more than 3000. Due to the long hi…
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Nov 30, 2022
Standing Up and Institutionalizing Thought Leadership | Bill Sherman | 448
One host is good but two are better!
On this episode, Leveraging Thought Leadership's hosts, Peter Winick and Bill Sherman, get together to share their insights about organizational thought leadership, institutionalizing it across an organization, and how it can create authentic relationships and increase audience loyalty.
There's no straightforward way to stand up a thought leadership function or position within an organization. Our hosts share their thoughts on that, and on organizations hiring for thought leadership positions (something unheard of only a few years ago!). The people filling these roles are coming from varied backgrounds – and that helps them bring unique perspectives forward, keeping an audience\s focus on the message rather than the medium.
In the past, the face of organizational thought leadership might be treated like a rock star, going out on speaking gigs and taking the spotlight. While part of that image is still true, organizations today want many dispa…
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Nov 26, 2022
Expanding Your Reach Through Thought Leadership| Malcolm Hawker | 447
In a world filled with so many voices, how do you distinguish yourself, and show your value?
By sharing your ideas freely, and bringing the audience to you!
In today's episode, I’ve invited Malcolm Hawker to join me for a discussion around the value of sharing thought leadership insights outside of the traditional advisory paywall. Malcolm is the Head of Data Strategy for Profisee Software, where they help enterprises solve complex data quality issues that hold them back from so many initiatives.
At a previous company, Malcolm's insights were placed behind a paywall; in order to gain access to his ideas you had to "buy in." Malcolm shares why he moved to a smaller tech firm, ditched the paywall, and immediately saw results. While the larger firm had brand equity and recognition, the freedom of medium and message he's achieved at his new position has allowed him to reach a far broader audience while maintaining alignment with the needs of his company. That's the best of both wo…
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Nov 19, 2022
Audience Advocacy and Thought Leadership | Cristina Loughrey | 446
Does your thought leadership content focus on hyping your organization or brand,
or are you weaving stories where your audience can picture themselves as the hero?
If the second option isn't your answer - you may be doing it wrong!
Thought leadership can ensure you connect with the right audience in a meaningful way. Focusing on your audience and creating content that forges a genuine connection is one of thought leadership's strengths - but to utilize it properly, you have to know how to tell the story.
Cristina Loughrey is a narrative architect and content strategist with 15+ years of experience in marketing, communications, and experiential marketing (events). She has multiple degrees in rhetoric, sociolinguistics, and analyzing societal narratives in popular American culture.
Cristina addresses audience advocacy, and why it's important that the audience you want can see themselves in the story of your brand. Building that connection makes your relationship with the au…
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Nov 16, 2022
Moving from Corporate to Entrepreneur | Jennie Blumenthal | 445
Most people think that once you’ve hit the big role at your company, it’s smooth sailing. The reality is far different.
C-suite positions often have hardships, and many executives deal with a lot of stress and difficulty in their job.
Once you stop and realize that corporate life isn’t fulfilling for you, how do you move on?
On this episode, Jennie Blumenthal, founder and CEO of Corporate Rehab joins us to share her journey from executive to entrepreneur, and how she uses what she learned through more than 20 years in corporate America to help others find their way. Jennie's also the author of Corporate Rehab: Ditch the Hustle Culture and Thrive Again, and we're fortunate to have her share her insights with us, today.
During the Pandemic, Jennie was able to take a moment to stop and think about the corporate ladder she had been climbing. She stopped and asked herself, “Where is this going?” - and the answer was not one she liked. Following her heart, Jennie left he…
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Nov 12, 2022
Using Thought Leadership in Start-Ups | Eric Youngstrom | 444
When launching a startup, there's a lot to think about.
Product, investors, marketing. But what about thought leadership?
Should entrepreneurs consider making thought leadership a priority early in their venture?
Thought leadership plays an important role in startups, and our guest on this episode, Eric Youngstrom, is just the person to tell us why. Eric is the Founder and CEO of Onramp Funds Inc, which provides expertise in eCommerce, fiancé, and software development to startups.
Eric has a proven record of success in start-up technology companies, and brings us his insight about why thought leadership should be top-of-mind for startups. Eric explains that startups need to tell a specific story: what problem you solve, why you care about seeing it solved, and why your solution works. This story must reach buyers and potential investors - and even new hires, convincing them of the longevity and value of your startup. And the best way to tell that story is through t…
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Nov 9, 2022
Developing Assessments from Thought Leadership | Tony Alessandra
Creating an organizational assessment isn't as simple as you might think.
It's more than a list of questions with multiple-choice answers like you might find in a magazine's "personality quiz."
Reliable assessments take careful research, which must be validated in order to prove the results are accurate and actionable.
To discuss the intricacies of creating strong thought leadership assessments, I’ve invited Tony Alessandra to join me. Tony Alessandra is the Founder and CEO of Assessments 24x7, the global leader in assessment technology. He is also a prolific author of more than 30 books, including What Makes Humans Tick?: Exploring the Best Validated Assessments and The Ten Qualities of the World's Greatest Communicators. Plus, he is a Hall of Fame speaker and the World’s Top Communication Guru.
We start our conversation by getting an understanding of the difference between an assessment and a validated assessment. Tony explains how a validated assessment meets the req…
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Nov 5, 2022
Collaboration and Humor in Thought Leadership| Jerome Pagani & Craig Joseph | 442
It is rare that thought leadership content is well formed and well supported the moment it's born out of inspiration.
How can you polish your content, and tighten up the message, to best connect with the audience you are looking to reach?
Today our guests Jerome Pagani and Craig Joseph join us to share how they collaborate to strengthen each other’s content and even add levity to serious topics to allow the audience a lighter read on heavy topics.
Jerome Pagani is a behavioral neuroscientist and the Head of Thought Leadership, Research, and Insights at Nordic Consulting.
Craig Joseph is a Pediatric doctor and Chief Medical Officer at Nordic Consulting.
Finding a partner and method of collaboration for thought leadership isn’t easy. Jerome and Craig share their process for creating quality content. We learn how their similar (but not overlapping) backgrounds allow them to establish a common understanding, while broadening one another's perspectives.
Working in the he…
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Nov 2, 2022
Breaking Away From the Preconceived| Zale Mednick | 441
When we were young, we all thought we knew what life would be like when we grew up.
Most of us were way off!
Life is about more than preconceived notions and expectations. At some point, the steps we take should be a conscious choice, not simply a matter of following the "traditional path." It's important to change our societal expectations as our culture, lifestyle, and technology move forward.
To examine ways to challenge traditional societal expectations, I’ve invited Zale Mednick to join me. Zale Mednick is an ophthalmologist by trade, and also host of the award winning podcast Preconceived and is also the editor of Preconceived: Challenging the Preconceptions in Our Lives.
Zale shares how his journey to become a doctor took a turn when he stopped to consider pursuing interests and passions beyond his profession. He landed on the idea of a podcast, and took up the banner of investigating the preconceived notions that we rarely think to question. What holds us back? What "o…
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Oct 29, 2022
Maximizing the Flow of Ideas for Your Organization. | Jeremy Utley & Perry Klebahn | 440
Too often when faced with a problem we rush to find a single solution – something safe, based on solutions we already know.
These comfortable answers are nice, but what if you could create an opportunity to not only solve the problem, but excel?
Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn are the co-authors of Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric that Matters. It is a book that explores how you and your team can generate a volume of ideas for any situation, by overcoming outdated, stagnant thinking traps.
Jeremy Utley is a dynamic and engaging speaker who co-leads the d.school’s Executive Education programs at Stanford University.
Perry Klebahn is an Adjunct Professor and Director of Executive Education, also at Stanford’s d.school.
We start our conversation discussing Ideaflow, and how the creation of ideas can be summed up as a complex mathematical equation of ideas over time. Perry explains how, when rushing for a solution, we often fall short because we don’t have a volume of…
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Oct 27, 2022
The Path of Developing a Book into a Business Model. | AJ Jacobs & Rita Gunther McGrath | 439
Many professionals realize that a published book is a great business card – but is anyone actually reading it?
Does your book have an impact?
Today, we discuss the journey of publishing, marketing, and building a full business model from a book. To share their insights on that topic, we've invited two great guests that have the publishing process down pat.
Rita Gunther McGrath is a highly regarded speaker, professor at Columbia Business School, and the author of multiple best-selling books such as Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen.
A.J. Jacobs is a journalist, TED Speaker, and seven-time author including the best-selling book Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey.
Our conversation starts by discussing the business side of publishing. Our best-selling authors clarify the focus of their recent work, and discuss the various purposes that a published book can serve. While creating a "book-sized" calling card will put you a…
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Oct 22, 2022
Connecting Social Selling to Brand and Thought Leadership | Michelle J Raymond | 438
At any given time 95% of customers are not in a buying cycle.
With that in mind, how can we stay prepared for the "purchasing 5%"?
Sales has seen huge changes in the last 20 years. To better understand what's happening, I’ve invited Michelle J Raymond to join me on today's podcast. Michelle is the Founder and B2B LinkedIn Strategist at The Good Trading Co., which provides LinkedIn strategies, training, and coaching for ambitious, innovative and purpose-driven business owners, consultants, and marketing teams. Her new book, The LinkedIn Branding Book, is a compilation of ways to support investment and profit through the power of LinkedIn.
We start by defining "Social Selling," and how it has become the new standard. Michelle explains that social selling is about finding the right people, connecting with them, and nurturing relationships. By providing insightful and useful content in a constant flow, you stay top-of-mind, and when your audience is ready to buy, you are the f…
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Oct 19, 2022
The Intersection of Leadership, Business, Culture, and Spirituality | Eboni Adams Monk | 437
s your organization evolving with the needs of its culture, or are you stuck in a mindset that no longer serves your business or its employees?
Our guest today is Eboni Adams Monk, the Vice President of Marketing and Commercial Excellence at Trinseo, a specialty material solutions provider that partners with companies to bring ideas to life in an imaginative, smart and sustainable manner. She is also the author of Leading Wise: Inspirational Reflections for Corporate Leaders, which offers inspirational prompts and a global perspective for corporate leadership.
In our conversation with Eboni, we learn what an evolved corporate community looks like and what it does. She explains that by thinking about the impact a business has on the people and cultures in our community, we can support and enhance those around us - while assisting our company in meeting financial and operational goals.
In addition, Eboni shares how she dances at the intersection of leadership, business, culture, an…
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Oct 15, 2022
Translating Complex Ideas into Compelling Stories | Rhea Wessel | 436
There are two major challenges thought leadership practitioners face when they sit down to codify their ideas:
Too many ideas, and
A big, blank page.
Sitting down to codify your content can feel like a daunting task. You've got tons of insights - but when you're staring at that first page, everything freezes up.
Where do you even start?
To learn how to gather your insights, map them out, and codify expert solutions, I’ve invited Rhea Wessel, the Founder of the Institute for Thought Leadership. Rhea helps companies turn their subject-matter experts into thought leaders, enabling them to share their insights clearly, cohesively, and fluidly.
Our conversation begins with a common issue: Should thought leaders give away their best insights for free? Rhea discusses the balance between how much content a thought leadership practitioner should share, and how much should be kept in reserve for clients, and most importantly - why that line exists and where to draw it.
As…
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Oct 12, 2022
Implementing niche solutions at scale | Urvashi Bhatnagar | 435
The principles of Green Chemistry have been widely accepted, but are not widely adopted.
With solutions for sustainable and profitable innovation available, where is the disconnect between these principles and their use?
Our guest on this episode is Urvashi Bhatnagar, Vice President of Business Development for Healthcare at Genpact, a global professional service firm that transforms industries. She is also the co-author of The Sustainability Scorecard: How to Implement and Profit from Unexpected Solutions.
The Sustainability Scorecard was co-written with Paul Anastas (also known as "The Father of Green Chemistry") while Urvashi was working toward her MBA at Yale. During discussions with Paul about the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, they examined why those principles had not been widely applied - even though they were widely accepted! With a better understanding of the issues, they proceeded to write a book that would make a big impact in both chemistry and management.
Ur…
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Oct 8, 2022
Publishing and the Need for Community | John Jantsch & Andy Paul | 434
Now that publishing is easier and openly available, we see more books hitting the market than ever before.
With that in mind, how can you elevate your book and create a roadmap that leads clients to you and your offerings?
Today, I invite two seasoned experts to share their experience with publishing, and the tools they used to move their audience up the product ladder.
* Andy Paul is the author of "Sell Without Selling Out", Host of the "Sales Enablement Podcast with Andy Paul," and is a Top 50 Global Sales Expert, consulting with the biggest businesses in the world.
* John Jantsch is the President and Founder of “Duct Tape Marketing”, and the author of “Duct Tape Marketing.” As a consultant, he teaches business owners to streamline their marketing approach, increase revenue, and scale strategically.
We begin our conversation by discussing publishing options, and how modern methods are helping authors soar. John and Andy have both published multiple books using va…
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Oct 5, 2022
Helping Leadership Pivot | Lori Michele Leavitt | 433
When businesses talk about "making a pivot," it’s often thought of as something that must happen quickly and with great impact.
The reality is – a successful pivot is often anything but quick, and true impact can be difficult to implement.
Who better to discuss bringing big changes to organizations than the "Pivot Catalyst," Lori Michele Leavitt! Lori is the founder and President of Abridge Corp, as well as an accomplished coach, consultant, trainer, speaker, and author of The Pivot: Orchestrating Extraordinary Business Momentum.
Lori shares her insights on bringing about large-scale business changes, from building momentum to bringing people on-board with the shift in mindset. If you want to make a pivot, the leadership of the organization needs to encourage the adoption of many small changes by many people over time - not demand massive changes all at once! Momentum and buy-in are both key to any lasting change.
Lori has guided many businesses and leaders through this kind…
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Oct 1, 2022
Reaching Scale in Thought Leadership | Bill Sherman | 432
When most hear the word scale they’ll think of a kitchen or bathroom scale - a tool for measuring.
When it comes to thought leadership, what does "reaching scale" mean? How can you measure it, and how can you achieve it?
In this special episode, I'm are going to invite a few unusual guests: frameworks and models.
These models define scale, measure methods of distributing content, and find ways to assess impact.
When attempting to measure and reach scale, thought leaders often look to social media metrics such as followers, engagement, and likes. But, what's the value of a "like" toward measuring thought leadership? Instead of getting wrapped up in superficial metrics, thought leadership practitioners need to understand that scale happens when people encounter an idea and choose to act on it – because thought leadership,at its very core, needs to be an idea in action.
Thought leadership isn’t about building the largest audience it is about building the right audience.…
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Sep 28, 2022
The Value and Energy of Thought Leadership | Liz Brunner | 431
How do you connect a high-profile brand with its best audience?
Through great storytelling!
Liz Brunner is the Founder and CEO of Brunner Communications, assisting high-profile individuals and organizations in developing powerful, meaningful, and desirable brand identities. She is also the Founder of Brunner Academy of Online Learning, and the author of Dare to Own You: Taking Your Authenticity and Dreams into Your Next Chapter.
Liz has had a number of professions over the course of her career, from high school music teacher to Emmy Award-winning news anchor. She explains that the key to her success can be summed up in two words: great storytelling. When you know the secrets of storytelling, you can capture the attention of your audience and keep them hooked.
Having worked both in person and on television, it was easy for Liz to transition her work into the digital space after the pandemic started – in fact, she began to teach others how to engage in the virtual space and…
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Sep 24, 2022
Using Thought Leadership to Create Influence and Impact | Meghan Quinn | 430
There are a lot of hard-working thought leadership practitioners in the non-profit sector!
What's it like to face the challenge of communicating complicated, multi-generational problems to a global audience?
We're glad you asked!
To better understand the role thought leadership plays at established non-profits, I’ve invited Meghan Quinn, Director of Thought Leadership at Habitat for Humanity International, to chat with me about her work.
Meghan defines her role, elaborating on the meaning of thought leadership means at Habitat for Humanity. In a non-profit, conversations around thought leadership often start by focusing on the role and goals of the greater organization: for Habitat, that's the global affordable housing crisis.
In order to have a real impact, Meghan's work needs to reach policymakers, stakeholders, and donors. Meghan tells us how moving these people to action means taking technical research and creating content that is both curated and simple-to-approach…
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Sep 22, 2022
Thought Leadership, from In Person to Virtual and Back | Nick Morgan & Joseph Michelli | 429
During the last two years, speakers, consultants, and thought leaders have moved their presentations from in-person formats into relatively unknown digital space. Now, as we settle back into a face-to-face workplace, we look back and consider the lessons learned from online experiences. What would a new, hybrid style look like?
What better way to investigate these topics than to talk with two doctors, who are both experts in their fields!
Dr. Nick Morgan is one of America’s top communication theorists and coaches. He is also a keynote speaker and author who helps people bring clarity to their great ideas.
Dr. Joseph Michelli is a consultant, psychologist, professional speaker, and New York Times Bestselling author. He's been voted a Top 5 Global Guru in Customers Service for more than 7 years!
We start by laying the foundation: discussing what the standard business model looked like, pre-pandemic. Then, we move forward, and explore how each of our guests found ways to deliver gre…
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Sep 17, 2022
The Power of Investing in People| Zoe Bermant | 428
In thought leadership, which comes first: the brand or the people?
It's not a chicken-and-egg situation! The answer is always people.
You inspire and invest in your employees, and the word spreads.
Those people act as ambassadors for the brand, building a strong org reputation — and that brings in customers.
In order to understand where this power cycle starts, I’ve invited Zoe Bermant, the CEO at ZoecialMedia, creator of the Caroself ™, and an expert in organic social media for B2B.
While many believe that the brand needs to be the focus of an organization's social media, Zoe explains that the power in organizational thought leadership comes from the people who work for the company. Thought leadership is about creating a human aspect within a business relationship; moving interactions beyond data and white papers, and sharing meaningful interactions. By elevating your people, you create passionate ambassadors for your brand, and create an online presence that i…
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Sep 14, 2022
Purpose vs. Meaning in Brands | Dr. Martina Olbert | 427
When it comes to the "higher purpose" of your brand or organization, how much control do you have on either versus the values customers will place on them?
Today we will examine the impact COVID has had on how consumers see brands and the value we place on them. To get a better understanding I’ve invited Dr. Martina Obert to join me. Martina is the CEO of Meaning Global, an expert strategy consultancy helping leaders envision new possibilities for future innovation, value creation, and growth. She is also recognized by Forbes as The Meaning Expert™.
Martina explains how COVID created a shift in the marketplace that moved emphasis from brands to the people they serve. The feeling of being "stuck" was pervasive, and led many consumers into a period of self-reflection about themselves, their lives, and their goals. This realignment of values as impacted advertising, and to be successful, brands today need to do more to deliver appreciable, meaningful value.
Brands and organizati…
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Sep 10, 2022
Thought Leadership for Serving Others | Ryan McCarty & Mark Goulston | 426
An interview with Ryan McCarty and Mark Goulston that originally aired on January 26th, 2021, as part of Leveraging Thought Leadership Live on LinkedIn.
How do you use thought leadership?
Some thought leaders use it to build a brand, or to share an idea.
My guests today come from a background of service, and they use thought leadership to help people find purpose and hope.
Ryan McCarty is a keynote speaker, co-founder of Culture of Good and co-author of Build A Culture of Good: Unleash Results by Letting Your Employees Bring Their Soul to Work.
Mark Goulston is the world's leading Healthy Conflict Coach and author of multiple books including Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior and Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone.
In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, we discuss how the purpose of helping others started them in their original careers (ministry and psychiatry, respectively), and how they continue…
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Sep 7, 2022
The Two Sides of Being A Coach | Michael Wenderoth | 425
The words power, politics, and leverage typically have a negative connotation.
They bring to mind times when good people have been oppressed and mistreated.
But what if you could leverage power and politics ethically?
Michael Wenderoth is a speaker and executive coach who works one on one with leaders and executive teams, inspiring and teaching them to ethically leverage power and politics to get things done. Earlier this year, he authored Get Promoted: What You're Really Missing at Work That's Holding You Back, codifying his philosophies around thought leadership and morality.
In today's chat, we examine power in the workplace; from the fundamentals to the uses of leverage. Too often, good people stand on the sidelines of leadership, afraid of the negative associations or power - and therefore, those people are not making a positive impact. Michael explains how power is simply the force needed to get things done. It's not good, or bad, and it can be used to help others…
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Aug 31, 2022
Recognizing Thought Leadership | Michael Gallagher | 424
Our guest today is Michael Gallagher, Founder and CEO of The Stevie® Awards – the world’s premier business awards. He's also the co-founder of ImageShield, a web based program that helps protect images from unauthorized use.
Today, Michael tells us why he founded The Stevie® Awards, and how it has grown from its origins among The American Business Awards® to include eight award categories each with their own focus, list of categories, and schedule across the globe.
Next, we turn our attention to Michael's newest endeavor: ImageShield. Millions of people share their images online every day without much thought to who else could be using those images, and negative ramifications that could come when someone steals your images and uses them without your permission. Recognizing this growing problem, Michael is developing ImageShield - a service which will provide updates to its users, helping them keep track of how and where their images are being used.
Launching a new product…
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Aug 27, 2022
The Human Side of Thought Leadership Research | Manish Bahl | 423
Do you know why you choose one brand over another?
Traditional market research focuses on what people are buying. They study the number of items sold, where they're sold, and how those numbers are shifting.
But traditional research doesn’t tell you why people are acting in a certain way. That's where human insight comes in!
To understand the best way to merge human insight with market data, I’ve invited Manish Bahl to join me for a conversation. Manish is the Chief Executive and Founder of Curious Insights – where the company mission is to humanize data for analyst firms and organizations.
Traditional research has its place, but it can show a limited, one-dimensional perspective. Manish explains how data often misses the "human connection," and how the warmth of human insights can make research truly revelatory. Adding an understanding of human behavior, the way individuals think and feel, puts people back at the center of market research..
Convincing C-Suite execut…
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Aug 24, 2022
Improving Customer Service with Thought Leadership | Shep Hyken and Shane Green | 422
If you thought a global pandemic would dim the lights of customer service - you thought wrong!
Customers still want answers to questions, friendly assistance, and solutions for their problems. But one thing is changing: the way we deliver answers and solutions.
To take a deeper look at the customer experience, and how employee satisfaction relates to it, I’ve invited two good friends to join me in conversation.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, keynote speaker, bestselling author of I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again & Again.
Shane Green is a culture consultant for Fortune 500 companies, and Founder and President of SGEi, a company that helps customer-focused organizations develop a culture that attracts the right people and retains top talent longer.
We start our conversation by discussing the way reliance on virtual meetings has created new pressure on speakers, and how the speaking industry has changed. Shep and Shane…
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Aug 20, 2022
The Audience Experience of Thought Leadership | Ginger Conlon | 421
Thought Leadership sits at different positions in different companies. It can be bucketed with research, content marketing, or even brand building.
Given those options, how can you ensure all divisions are aligned in the story an organization's thought leadership is telling and the brand it is building?
To examine how to achieve a harmonious alignment, I’ve invited Ginger Conlon to join me for a conversation. Ginger is the Thought Leadership Director at Genesys, a software company that specializes in customer experience and call center technology.
At Genesys, thought leadership is research-driven and sits at the top of the funnel. The thought leadership team works with content marketing to learn about their priorities and focus on the most important issues - then, the former research reports which form the foundation of content for the months ahead. Through a shared editorial calendar, all parts of the organization tell the same story, and align around key points of the researc…
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Aug 17, 2022
Purpose Driven Thought Leadership | Gene Rice | 420
Did you know that more than 50% of executives struggle to feel satisfied with their work?
It's important to have a sense of purpose around your job; the feeling that you've contributed, that you're respected, and that your work matters.
Today, I'm speaking with Gene Rice, the Founder and CEO of Rice Cohen International, which provides executive search and consulting services to a premier list of global clients across the Learning & Development, Ed Tech, and Management Consulting fields. Gene has personally helped place more than 1000 executives, and has a deep understanding of what companies are looking for in senior management.
Over his thirty years of experience in the search industry, Gene discovered several important trends. While corporations are seeking people that meet "standard metrics," those that excel have a proven track record of building growth. Gene explains that the most valuable executives are those who found a sense of purpose that drives…
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Aug 13, 2022
Evolution Through Forced Innovation | Mitch Joel | 419
How does a public speaker deliver a message without a stage?
Speaking events screeched to a halt when the pandemic put an indefinite stop to in person events. To find out how speakers moved forward, we’ve invited Mitch Joel , the Co-Founder of ThinkersOne to chat with us about the future of the speaking industry. Mitch is a visionary, digital expert, community leader, and author of Six Pixels of Separation.
Mitch shares how a speaker must split their attention when doing a virtual event, and how they must control music, slides, and other technological aspects as opposed to having a crew to handle those needs. That can put a distance between speaker and audience, making presentations feel slapdash or hesitant. It's hard to do all that, and still be "in the moment" with the content and audience.
While the pandemic has had many effects on our global culture, Mitch adds another term to the discussion: The Great Compression, which happened among many trade associations and e…
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Aug 10, 2022
Creating Happiness with Thought Leadership | Monique Rhodes | 418
Is happiness something that comes naturally to some people? Can it be measured and taught?
In order to answer these questions I’ve invited the Happiness Strategies Monique Rhodes to join me. Monique is the CEO of One People Productions and her mission in life is to lead you toward a lifetime of happiness. To accomplish that, she combines teachings with powerful, habit-changing exercises.
Monique wasn’t always a happiness expert. Growing up in New Zealand, she was the victim of abuse as a child. That lead to depression in her teens and ultimately a suicide attempt. While in the hospital recovering, she chose to make it her mission to find happiness - and to understand why some people seem naturally happy, while others struggle.
This mission took her all over the world. In India, she began teaching mediation to a group of young girls who persistently asked for lessons. While Monique was not a natural teacher, she learned her passion about meditation - and her search for happines…
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Aug 6, 2022
Demonstrating Expertise in Thought Leadership | Louis Montgomery | 417
How do you best showcase your organization's depth of expertise?
Have you ever thought about the way thought leadership intersects with the executive search? Many organizations encourage broad diversity, and during executive search periods, they want to showcase and bolster that practice. But how do you demonstrate it to your target audience?
Today, I’ve invited Louis Montgomery Jr., Partner, Practice Leader Human Resources and Diversity Officers at JM Search, a firm that (through rigorous assessment) provides the right candidates for open positions to private equity firms, venture capital firms, and select corporate clients.
Louis understands what it takes to be successful in demanding fields. He discusses his path as an HR leader and Diversity Officer, and how he assists candidates seeking opportunity and growth. When he changed course during his career, he quickly realized, as many others do, that his reputation as an expert in HR didn’t follow him to his new position.…
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Aug 3, 2022
Accelerating Marketing Strategy with Thought Leadership | Denise Broady | 416
How do you help a client integrate research into their thought leadership, and what are the benefits?
Enterprise software can be a complicated story to tell. To explore ways to humanize a complex brand or product, I've invited Denise Broady to share her expertise in research, thought leadership, and consulting. Denise is the Chief Marketing Officer at Appian Corporation, helping clients build apps and workflows with a low-code automation platform; combining people, technologies, and data in a single workflow to maximize resources and improve business results.
Our conversation begins with an active discussion of thought leadership's ability to help tell a complex, enterprise story in a way that humanizes your brand. Denise shares how the lens of a business user can be used to create greater impact, preferring a personal touch and layman's terms rather than complex, high-level terms that might not be understood by an audience.
Often, marketers feel the need to go it alone…
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Jul 30, 2022
Using Thought Leadership to Earn Your Way Into Sales Consideration | Steve Watt | 415
When it comes to thought leadership, every corporation needs people that are building new ideas, sharing new insights - in essence, creating new maps to move things forward!
But it's not just about the "map makers." It's also about the "expedition leaders," people who can share those ideas and insights, and bring others onboard - even if they didn't create the maps themselves.
To discuss "map makers" and "expedition leaders," and really delve into the most effective ways to invite your whole organization to do thought leadership, I’ve invited Steve Watt to join me on the podcast. Steve is the Director of Market Insights at Seismic, the world’s largest enablement platform.
In both social selling and thought leadership people need to show up, speak up, and publicly demonstrate both subject matter expertise and org-centric passion. Not every sales person can or should be a thought leader, but they can always be a spokesman for the org's thought leadership content. We disc…
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Jul 27, 2022
Building Connections and Communities Online | James Kerr and Nadia Bilchik | 414
How many new skills did you learn during the pandemic?
The lack of face-to-face meetings required everyone to adapt, and for many, that included the ability to build connections and community online.
To discuss the skills and adaptations we all needed to update our lives to fit the new modality, I’ve invited two good friends to join me in a chat.
Nadia Bilchik is the President of Greater Impact Communications. She's a speaker, trainer, and author of Own Your Network: Expert Networking In Person & Online.
James Kerr is the founder of Indispensable Consulting. He's also a speaker, as well as a leadership coach and the author of Indispensable: Build and Lead A Company Customers Can’t Live Without.
First, we look at the way presentations and communication skills training have changed in the wake of the first Covid outbreak. Nadia explains ways that our language has become more intentional due to the lack of ability to read body language in the virtual world. She gives…
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Jul 23, 2022
The Link Between Thought Leadership and Entrepreneurs | Mary Cronin | 413
What is the relationship between thought leadership and entrepreneurship?
Both are forward-thinking problem solvers who know that passion and vision can take you far!
To dig deeper into the ways these two paths intersect, we sit down with Mary Cronin, a research professor at Boston College. She's also the Founder and President of 4Q Catalyst LLC, a business advisory firm that provides strategy consulting, market analysis, and leadership development services.
We start our conversation by discussing the similarities between thought leadership and entrepreneurship. In addition to passion and vision, both roles require a fine understanding of storytelling; a key component to success. Mary describes the impact of storytelling, and why it's often an overlooked function for start-ups as they focus on bootstrapping their business to achieve success.
In May of 2021, Mary published Starting Up Smarter: Why Founders Over 50 Build Better Companies, which provid…
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Jul 20, 2022
The Innovator’s Journey to Thought Leadership | Karen Hold | 412
What does it take to become a game-changer in your industry?
We are constantly bombarded with products and brands seeking our attention and money. How can thought leadership help your brand stand out?
Today, we are joined by Karen Hold, the founder of Experience Labs and co-author of Experiencing Design: The Innovator's Journey. Karen’s mission is to build creative capacity in individuals, organizations, and cities, using the language of design thinking. The trick is to turn abstract thought into concrete ideas, and to visualize those ideas in a way that captures your audience's attention.
Karen takes us back to the early days of her career, at Procter & Gamble, where her focus was on the Folgers Coffee brand. At the time, as Starbucks was starting to emerge, and Folgers needed a way to stand out in order to keep its share of the market. Karen shares how Folgers studied the Starbucks experience, and - due to flawed assessment - decided that the newcomer wasn't a…
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Jul 16, 2022
Bridging the Gap between Subject Matter Expert and Non-Technical Audience | Amelia Ross | 411
Your org's thought leadership illuminates a highly technical field. So how do you make it accessible to a broad audience?
In technical fields like A.I., it can be hard to clearly communicate your organizational insights in a manner that your audience can grasp. In order to make technical insights accessible, you have to get out of your bubble and into the mindset of your audience!
Our guest today is Amelia Ross, Director of Content Strategy at Primer AI, a company dedicated to helping organizations make the best use of their investment in data. They do this by using best-in-class machine learning and natural language processing technologies, to help their customers scale and optimize intelligence workflows.
We discuss how an organizational thought leader determines the right target audience for their insights. Amelia tells us that it isn’t just about reaching the economic buyer, but also spreading your content to the influencers that surround such a buyer. It's importa…
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Jul 13, 2022
The Compelling Vision of an Entrepreneur | Jay Steinfeld | 410
What does a successful entrepreneur do for their second act?
Most entrepreneurs work hard to create a prosperous business, perhaps even with the intent of selling it and making an exit. For those who succeed, the next question is — now, what? Do you start a new business and begin the cycle again? And how do you give back to those who helped you reach success?
Today, I sit down with Jay Steinfeld, a world-renowned entrepreneur and early ecommerce adopter who took his small blinds business online in the early days of the internet, and the story of how blinds.com became the largest online blinds retailer in the world. He is also the author of Lead from the Core: The 4 Principles for Profit and Prosperity, which lays out the “Four Es” — a set of guiding principles that can help overcome any obstacle to your organization’s success.
Jay takes us back to 1993, and tells us how he experimented with online sales to supplement his brick-and-mortar store. While it was slow a…
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Jul 9, 2022
Improving your Keynote Speaking | David Burkus & Stephen Shapiro | 409
A single keynote won't incite change, but it can start the ball rolling. Companies are starting to demand programs that take a keynote's lessons deeper, investing resources in building long term relationships with thought leadership.
To discuss the way keynote speaking has changed since the onset of COVID-19, I’ve invited two of the best speakers in the business to share their insights and talk about how they've navigated this new era of thought leadership speaking.
David Burkus is a best-selling author of Lead From Anywhere: The Essential Guide to Managing Remote Teams and internationally renowned keynote speaker, using forward thinking ideas to help leaders and teams do their best work.
Stephen Shapiro is the author of Invisible Solutions: 25 Lenses that Reframe and Help Solve Difficult Business Problems, and a Hall of Fame Speaker helping organizations keep up with the increasing pace of change.
David and Stephen share how they’ve changed their keynote services to meet th…
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Jul 6, 2022
Experimentation with Platform and Content | Kevin Eikenberry | 408
While many things in Thought Leadership have changed over the years, one constant is the appreciation of a great subject matter expert. But how do we find those experts?
To examine modern methods of developing a reputation and gaining the trust of your audience, we’ve invited Kevin Eikenberry, Chief Potential Officer at The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a leadership and learning consulting company. He's also the best-selling author of Remarkable Leadership: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill at a Time and The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for a Remarkable Remote Leadership.
When Kevin started as a speaker and consultant, thought leaders had far less options for building a platform. You could make a website, start blogging, or pay a PR firm to get your name out there - but those methods are outdated, and lack greater appeal. Modern social media offers an almost overwhelming number of options, and it's smart to utilize many different platforms to get the word out about your con…
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Jul 2, 2022
Thought Leadership in Local Communities | Andrew Button | 407
In rural communities, there are many would-be entrepreneurs with big ideas.
Can you imagine how much change for good would happen if every entrepreneur could bring their dreams to life?
In order to better understand the role thought leadership can play in reaching entrepreneurs, we're sitting down with Andrew Button, Founder and CEO of Mashup Labs. He's helping rural entrepreneurs grow their ideas, their businesses, and their communities.
Today, we're talking about thought leadership, nonprofit startups, and how creative ideas and insights can make a real difference to communities that need a boost. Andrew discusses the difficulties in getting a big idea off the ground, finding people who share your perspective and curiosities, and those who are willing to lend a hand to help things grow. There's a critical mass challenge, finding enough interested people to make an entrepreneur's dream a reality — and Andrew knows how to make it happen.
Finally, we discuss how Andrew i…
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Jun 29, 2022
Making Impact on Your Business with a Book | Tamsen Webster | 406
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 separatio…
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Jun 26, 2022
Communication and the Relationship to Taking Ideas to Scale | Richard Newman | 405
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 ca…
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Jun 22, 2022
Keynote Speaking Live and Virtually | Waldo Waldman and Freddie Ravel | 404
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…
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Jun 18, 2022
Thought Leadership in Startups | Jody Padar | 403
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 qui…
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Jun 15, 2022
The Strategy Sprint Method | Simon Severino | 402
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…
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Jun 11, 2022
Demystifying ghostwriters and their work in publishing | Jesse Finkelstein & Dan Gerstein
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 autho…
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Jun 8, 2022
A retrospective and look forward at thought leadership's future. | Peter Winick and Bill Sherman | 400
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 n…
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Jun 4, 2022
Launching Thought Leadership within Marketing | Eric Dates | 399
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…
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Jun 1, 2022
Transitioning from Broadcasting to Thought Leadership | Lynn Smith | 398
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 thoug…
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May 28, 2022
Dark Social and Supporting Employee Voices| Kerry-Ann Stimpson | 397
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 a…
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May 25, 2022
Being Strategic with Your Book and Business Model | Jan Rutherford & Shannon Huffman Polson | 396
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.
Shanon Huffman-Polson is one of the first female Apache helicopter pilots, and also the founder of The Grit Institute and author of The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience, and Leadership in the Most Male Dominated Organization in the World.
Together, these two brilliant leaders, vets, and authors, discuss with us the importance of laying down a strategic plan early in your thought leadership journey. We discuss how they found ways to convey their leadership experience in methods that help others learn from it, and developing avatars to help reach the audience who needs you the mo…
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May 21, 2022
Impacting the Conversation through Thought Leadership | Heather Dondis | 395
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 investment company that specializes in helping clients achieve the financial security they deserve.
Together, we explore the ways thought leadership sits outside of the traditional streams of marketing. When done properly, thought leadership allows companies and individuals to compete on a higher level — but only if they have something to say, and the conviction to broadcast and shepherd that idea.
Once your organization has zeroed in on the message they want to share, you’ll need to get it to the right audience. Heather explains how she views thought leadership as an ass…
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May 18, 2022
Making a Business Case with Your Book Proposal | Matt Holt | 394
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, we’ve invited Matt Holt, Editor-in-Chief of Matt Holt Books (a BenBella Books imprint) to join us. Matt was previously Senior Vice President and Executive Publisher at John Wiley & Sons, where he oversaw a team of 85 staff. Over his 27-year career, he’s acquired over 1,000 titles and published 10,000 titles!
We start with the questions you need to answer before you set pen to paper. Matt believes you need to know your book's goal; why you are writing it, and for what audience? Once you have those answers, you can start thinking about the publishing model that will best…
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May 14, 2022
How Ideas Evoke Wonder and Agency | Vince Kadlubek | 393
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 Meow Wolf, an art studio creating massive, world-class experiences that weave art, space, and narrative into one inspirational adventure.
To start things off, Vince explains Meow Wolf's purpose and design, and talks about the three major Meow Wolf experience spaces. These huge art installations provide an environment to explore the unknown, something
essential to an authentic, visceral experience. That's the kind of place, Vince says, where real transformation happens. Bringing these massive events to life takes many iterations of prototyping, and many artisans working towards a unified v…
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May 11, 2022
Convergence of Thought Leadership and CMOs | Drew Neisser | 392
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 question, we’ve invited Drew Neisser, the Founder of Renegade, a B2B marketing agency that helps their clients do the heavy lifting of brand strategy, market research, content, and social media. Drew is also the author of Renegade Marketing: 12 Steps to Building Unbeatable B2B Brands, helping readers remove the complications of B2B marketing.
For thought leadership to be successful, you need to be clear about what you are trying to accomplish. Drew discusses the way CMOs should be focusing their efforts, and ways to express how thought leadership differs from traditional marketing.…
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May 5, 2022
Assessment Tools for Changing Habits | Meredith Bell | 391
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 Strong Leaders, where they help individuals discover key areas for development, and implement strategies for achieving higher levels of performance. She is also the co-author of Connect with Your Team: Mastering the Top 10 Communication Skills and Peer Coaching Made Simple: How to Do the 6
Things That Matter Most When Helping Someone Improve a Skill. Meredith started her journey into the assessment tool space in the 90s, when she became frustrated at the lack of customizable tools at her disposal as a consultant. Before long, she had made the pivot from consulting to software cre…
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Apr 30, 2022
Ideas, Events, and Behaviors | Ruud Janssen | 390
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 and sustainable change?
In order to better understand the challenges and pitfalls of organizing an event, we’ve invited Ruud Janssen, the Managing Director and Co-Founder of The Event Design Collective to join us. The Event Design Collective is a group of event designers who train and consult with event owners to elevate events using the Event Canvas model. As the co-creator of The Design Canvas, Ruud shares how they altered Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas to suit the event space, creating a model that any event owner could use under the creative commons licen…
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Apr 23, 2022
The Art of Thought Leadership | Geoffrey Colon | 389
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 Hybrid Thinkers Can Teach Us About Navigating the New Normal. Geoffrey is well qualified to discuss how individual creators and organizations are being challenged to think about accountability, and how their message and actions affect their reputation.
We start off the conversation by discussing how every action taken by your company and its employees is a marketing action, even if you don’t intend it to be. Geoffrey explains why companies need to consider how they are seen - from interactions with customer service, to social media, to advertising campaigns and thought leadership. Are you p…
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Apr 20, 2022
Transitioning to virtual events | Robbie Samuels | 388
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, consultant, and advisor. He is also the author of Croissants vs. Bagels: Strategic, Effective, and Inclusive Networking at Conferences and Small List, Big Results: Launch a Successful Offer No Matter the Size of Your Email List, plus, he is the host of the podcast On The Schmooze.
The arrival of the pandemic meant the end of in-person conferences, but as restrictions are loosening, we are starting to see these events return. We discuss what the post-pandemic conference scene will look like. Robbie explains that there is still great importance for in-person events, but they will have to be more tho…
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Apr 16, 2022
Discovering Thought Leadership | Mark Smith | 387
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 roles, following twisted paths that unexpectedly led them into thought leadership. When your organization needs a formal thought leadership position, how do you take people from disparate backgrounds and successfully stand up that new function?
To better explore this transition, we’ve invited Mark Smith. Mark is Director, HR Thought Leadership at the Society for Human Resource Management (also known as SHRM). Mark’s background includes a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and years of consulting in Human Resources, so he's got the right background to help us answer this question!
Mark started his career at SHRM by leading a team to develop certification exams for HR. This research led Mark off the beaten pat…
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Apr 13, 2022
Understanding management thinking | Art Kleiner | 386
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 management thinking, thought leadership, organizational learning, and scenario planning. He's the Principal Consultant at Kleiner Powell International (KPI), and the author of a number of books including Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege and Success and The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management.
Art shares stories of a time when business knowledge was universally applied, leading to a range of difficulties with every new application. Leaders wanted "the one right way" to run a business, not realizing that business isn't…
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Apr 8, 2022
The business side of thought leadership | Stephen M. R. Covey | 385
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 leadership?
We are thrilled to have Stephen M. R. Covey join us again on our podcast. Stephen is the co-founder of Covey Link and Franklin Covey, the bestselling author of The Speed of Trust, and a global authority on trust, leadership, and culture. Stephens’s incredible career can be divided into two acts: first, as a leader on the business side of operations, he was charged with figuring out how to scale and leverage the work of his father Stephen R Covey; then, he stepped forward to share his own thought leadership alongside the gold standard his company achieves.
Stephen e…
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Apr 2, 2022
Curating Good Ideas | Mike Zimmerman | 384
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 organizations get from data-rich to data-driven!
Purchasers for businesses now spend 83% of their buying cycle educating themselves on the products and services they seek. Mike helps us understand how thought leadership can get you on that shortlist, by helping those purchasers understand what your product is – and more importantly, why they need it.
Thought Leadership takes a different position inside every company. We examine where it sits within Hitachi Vantara, as well as the investments they are making in it. They integrate thought leadership on a top-down basis, and their “Insights”…
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Mar 30, 2022
Advantages of Being An Outsider | Monique Maley | 383
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 box."
Monique Maley is the Founder and President of Articulate Persuasion, working at the intersection of leadership and language. She is equipped with the belief that engaged, articulate, and persuasive leaders and teams can scale faster, build dynamic cultures, and impact those around them for the better. Monique is also the author of Turbulence, where she shares her insights about the way explosive challenges affect an organization. In it, she provides tools and strategies to overcome turbulence and build stronger organizational cultures.
Monique grew up feeling like an outsider…
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Mar 26, 2022
Bootstrapping Thought Leadership | Adam Zuckerman | 382
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 Watson, a company offering data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk, and capital. They work to make organizations more resilient, more motivated, and capable of amazing things.
Adam shares insights about crafting a unique voice for your thought leadership. He used a personal approach, sharing his narrative and using storytelling skill to add emotion to cold, academic numbers. Through this approach, he connects thought leadership to business development - and enhance employee performance.
When it comes to employee experience, WTW has a host of technological tools at its…
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Mar 19, 2022
Making the Business Case for Thought Leadership | Kimberly Ellison-Taylor | 381
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 of our podcast. Kimberly is a thought leadership practitioner, an experienced accountant, an active board member and the CEO of KET Solutions. She has the perfect balance of knowledge to assess the usefulness and impact of thought leadership at the highest levels.
We discuss thought leadership's impact within the executive suite, and how it can help prepare someone for a board position. Find out what the executive team of any organization should be thinking about when they begin a thought leadership journey; from roll out to measuring impact on a wide scale. Kimberly shares the reasons th…
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Mar 16, 2022
Evolving from Thought Leadership Executive to Independent Advisor | Dan Pontefract | 380
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 take on thought leadership as a full-time practice? Do you have to abandon the relationships you've made in your career?
Our guest in today's episode is Dan Pontefract. Dan is a TedX speaker, and author of two really special books; Lead Care Win: How to Become a Leader Who Matters, and Open to Think: Slow Down, Think Creatively, and Make Better Decisions. He is also the Founder and CEO of the Pontefract Group, a firm that aims to improve the state of leadership and organizational culture.
Dan talks about what it was like to start his thought leadership career as the Chief Learning O…
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Mar 9, 2022
Raising the Consciousness of Thought Leadership. | Sean M Doyle | 379
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 happens.
Today’s guest is Sean M Doyle, Sean is a speaker and advisor helping small-business owners improve their marketing so that they can increase sales and work with more profitable customers. He is also the author of Shift: 19 Practical, Business-Driven Ideas for an Executive in Charge of Marketing but Not Trained for the Task
We talk with Sean about what a thought leadership practitioner can do when great ideas just don't get traction, and what to do to boost them. He also discusses how thought leaders are their own harshest critics, and why content needs to be bespoke if it is re…
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Mar 5, 2022
Thought Leadership Allies and Ambassadors | Morag Barrett | 378
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 Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Skye Team, an international leadership development firm. She is also the author of The Future Proof Workplace: Six Strategies to Accelerate Talent Development, Reshape Your Culture, and Succeed with Purpose.
In this episode, we discuss allies and ambassadors – people who evangelize and help grow your thought leadership reach. What makes a person an ally or an ambassador? What are the differences between the two? Morag not only helps us define their traits, but also helps us understand how to identify these amazing resources.
Next, we talk about building r…
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Mar 2, 2022
Advice for Marketing, Messaging, and Publishing Your Thought Leadership Book | Aurora Winter |377
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 exactly that. Aurora is the Founder of Same Page Publishing and creator of the Spoke Author Method. Both help authors get their ideas on the page faster and on track to having a final product they can be proud of that will impact the lives of others and the author's business. Aurora is also the best-selling author of Turn Words Into Wealth: Blueprint for Your Business, Brand, and Book to Create Multiple Streams of Income & Impact (Turn Your Words Into Wealth).
Having started as a television writer and producer, she grew frustrated with the financial restraints and turned to books. As a fir…
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Feb 26, 2022
Transforming interactions in sales and marketing. | Kelly Wright | 376
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. K…
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Feb 19, 2022
Giving Voice to Your Ideas | Nick Morgan | 375
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 sto…
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Feb 16, 2022
Debunking myths for thought leadership practitioners interested in publishing | Lucinda Halpern | 374
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 addition…
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Feb 9, 2022
The ROI of Kindness | Linda Cohen | 373
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 sof…
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Feb 5, 2022
Making an Impact on Lives | Amanda Morin | 372
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…
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Feb 2, 2022
Crafting Bespoke Thought Leadership | Howard Brown | 371
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…
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Jan 29, 2022
When Ideas Disrupt the Status Quo | Trevor Merriden | 370
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…
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Jan 22, 2022
Thought Leadership in Stealth Mode| Clarinda Cerejo | 369
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 h…
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Jan 19, 2022
Transitioning from Corporate Leadership to Executive Coaching | Lance Tanaka | 368
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…
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Jan 15, 2022
Best of 2021 Organizational Thought Leadership | Jayshree Seth, Jeff Kavanaugh, Melanie Huet, and Thomas Kolditz | 367
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 Beddin…
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Jan 12, 2022
Spiritual Thought Leadership | Kristoffer "KC" Carter | 366
What role can yoga and meditation play in the business world? Can leaders use these unconventional methods as an epic spiritual guide? How do you use empowering techniques to coach executives and corporations toward greater success?
Today our guest is Kristoffer "KC" Carter, author of Permission to Glow: A Spiritual Guide to Epic Leadership, which outlines the first of four permissions that will create a long-term framework for Kristofer’s works. He's the author of Permission to Glow: A Spiritual Guide to Epic Leadership, as well as an international speaker and retreat leader who teaches at the intersection of consciousness and business.
We begin our conversation by exploring what KC means by "spiritual leader," and how meditation connects to business and thought leadership. Techniques like yoga and Transcendental Meditation are being used by high-profile CEOs around the world, and KC's methods bring those insights into the business world.
KC discusses the ways t…
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Jan 5, 2022
Best of 2021
It has become a tradition to start the new year off with a look back at a few of the great episodes and most inspiring guests of our previous year's podcast. For 2021, we hope you’ll enjoy great advice from:
Doug Conant, best-selling author of The Blueprint and CEO of Conant Leadership. Doug shares insights about balancing his time as a thought leader and a CEO, and ways to make time for self-reflection. It's important to ensure that the things which matter most are never forgotten in the press of less-important burdens.
John Warrillow is the Founder of the Value Builder System and Best-selling author of Built to Sell. John talks about the best parts of coaching, and opens up about the psychology of selling to entrepreneurs vs. enterprise, and the need to find the niche that works best for you.
Lisa Bodell is the CEO of FutureThink and author of the best-selling book Kill the Company. In our conversation, we explore the meaning of her term "futurist," and how Lisa found a…
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Jan 3, 2022
Building a Global Movement | Jacqueline Jodl - & Haylie Wrubel | 364
How do you grow a movement from a backyard enterprise to a global mission reaching hundreds of thousands of people each day?
Today, we discuss the ongoing 50+-year mission of the Special Olympics with Jacqueline Jodl, Senior Vice President of Global Youth & Education and Haylie Wrubel, Director of Global Unified Champion Schools.
We start our conversation by discussing the way Special Olympics is bringing together people with and without intellectual disabilities to share experiences and build a common language. Their goal: create an understanding of the value of social and academic inclusion. One of the methods by which they achieve this goal is through creating Unified Champion Schools, a worldwide network of schools with inclusive programs, both sport and academic. Together, they bring people with differences together to build friendship and create leadership.
Taking a grassroots idea to scale is never easy, but is exactly what the Special Olympics has done. Jackie and Haylie sha…
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Dec 29, 2021
How Thought Leadership Can Differentiate Your Brand | Denise Blasevick | 363
With so many brands in the marketplace, how can you elevate yours? And how do you stay unique, eye-catching, and authentic to your vision?
To help address these questions, we turn to Denise Blasevick, CEO and Founding Partner of The S3 Agency. The S3 Agency provides advertising, marketing, and PR for companies seeking stronger strategy and an authentic voice that differentiates your brand from all others.
Denise shares how thought leadership can make your business stand out, and earn trust. She was the on-air marketing make-over expert for an MSNBC program for nearly a decade, and that exposure allowed her company to compete with larger firms and punch above their level. She offers tips she learned staying true to her vision in a sea of competition, and how she found people that shared her breakthrough point of view.
In today’s society, your brand must be authentic. Some choose to lean into (or away from) certain political issues, but Denise used her unique perspective to…
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Dec 25, 2021
Launching a Thought Leadership Function | Erica James | 362
Once you realize that your company needs a full-fledged thought leadership role, how do you make that vision a reality? What information should be included in your proposal? Who do you need to buy-in, and what would the role entail?
These are some of the questions we explore in this episode. Our guest is Erica James, Director of Customer Marketing and Thought Leadership at Medallia. Medallia's award-winning SaaS platform, the Medallia Experience Cloud, leads the market in the understanding and management of experience for customers, employees, and citizens by utilizing a proprietary AI technology to turn personalized and predictive insights into tremendous business results.
We explore the journey Erica has taken; from her instinctive talent for thought leadership, to pitching and developing her formal position as thought leader at Medallia. Erica describes how she knew the position would benefit the company, the way her personal love of thought leadership played a part in getting exe…
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Dec 18, 2021
Thought Leadership and Storytelling | Michelle Mellon | 361
Today’s guest is Michelle Mellon, Thought Leadership Director at SalientMG, a strategic marketing firm that creates custom programs for clients seeking to spur new business, create awareness, or get recognition as an industry leader. Michelle is also an accomplished short-fiction author; her work can be found in compilations like The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction. She's an expert in using creative storytelling to drive insights and make thought leadership accessible and powerful.
When writing a work of fiction, Michelle often starts with the question of “What if?” And, indeed, as she tells us today, that question also forms a powerful intersection between fiction and thought leadership. Michelle explains how her thought leadership goes deeper. She looks at trends, listens to her audience, and crafts stories that will both educate and entertain.
In our conversation, Michelle explains the basics of storytelling, and how the elements of fiction can also empower good t…
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Dec 15, 2021
The Two Roads of Thought Leadership | Niko Canner | 360
There are two popular roads that can be taken when building a consulting firm. The first is intense specialization; becoming the gold standard in a particular domain. The other is to have a more general focus, relying on a broad variety of topics that can be combined and recombined to solve many different problems. But what happens when the truth of your brand lies on both roads?
Niko Canner is the Founder of Incandescent, a firm which has many talents: it serves as a thought partner to leaders of large enterprises on strategy, organization and innovation; advises founders on the development of their ventures; and partners with foundations and non-profits engaged in systems change.
Prior to founding Incandescent, Niko was co-founder and Managing Partner of the consulting firm Katzenbach Partners. In our conversation, he recalls his struggles to properly but concisely describe their firm to the market, and how many potential buyers walked away without properly understanding their valu…
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Dec 8, 2021
How to Sharpen Your Thought Leadership | Everett Harper | 359
Today’s guest is Everett Harper, the Founder and CEO of Truss. Truss is a software company that works with teams to design, build, and scale software and tech infrastructure to give them the tools they need to excel. Everett is also the author of Move to the Edge, and Declare it Center, a book that helps people lead organizations, solve problems, and sustain company growth with effective practices for complex, uncertain, and unpredictable environments.
Many CEO's want to write a book about their experiences, but doing so can be an expensive and time-consuming process. How do you know it’s the right time to write a book? What insights and experiences should you share? In Move to the Edge, and Declare it Center, Everett discusses a moment of disquiet in 2020 that compelled him to write - and how that moment has gone on to inspire others through his book.
Everett also describes the process Truss uses with their clients, interviewing not only the leaders of a project but also…
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Dec 5, 2021
Thought Leadership in the Content Playground | Ashley Faus | 358
Have you ever had to onboard a new hire, or explain a complex task to a colleague not in your field? How can you get a novice up to speed without giving them a doctoral-level lecture?
Today’s guest is Ashley Faus, Content Strategy Lead for Software Teams at Atlassian. Atlassian is a software development company that creates tools which are used worldwide to unlock the potential of high-functioning teams in the workplace.
We start our conversation by discussing frameworks for thought leadership, content, and broad ideas, and how building a content framework can make even complex ideas accessible to learners of all levels. Ashley goes on to share the four pillars of her framework: Credibility, Profile, Prolific, and Strong Depth of Ideas. She explains how frameworks can be a tool to assess areas of specific challenge or difficulty, and how to use them to create a stronger focus to improve. In addition to her four pillars,
Ashley shares how she arrived at the idea of the "Cont…
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Dec 1, 2021
Thought Leadership Books and Digital Assets | Dr. Sharon Lamm Hartman | 357
When you can't gather in person, how do teams manage strategic planning, maintain role clarity, and build both alignment and consensus?
Today’s guest on our podcast is Dr. Sharon Lamm Hartman, the Founder and CEO of Inside-Out Learning. She talks to us about the content of her book, The Authenticity Code: The Art and Science of Success and Why You Can’t Fake It to Make It, and how she helps clients, professionals, and leaders to be real and authentic no matter what communication obstacles they may face.
Having a published book codifying your thoughts and processes can be a useful tool as a thought leader. Yet, in our present environment, buyers often have different expectations of virtual programs and how they will put forward the information and insights in the book. Sharon helps us understand those expectations, and talks about the ways thought leaders can both meet and exceed them, giving your thought leadership book even more staying power. Further, we explore the way…
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Nov 27, 2021
Human-Centered Thought Leadership | Ethan Beute | 356
We are assaulted by digital pollution on a daily basis: spam calls, fake e-mails, harassing chats, phishing scams, and worse. With all the noise, how can thought leaders create a message that our audience wants to hear? How do we make them understand that our outreach is important?
To help answer these questions, we’ve turned to Ethan Beute, the Chief Evangelist at BombBomb; a company that uses video messaging to build better business relationships. Ethan is also the co-author of Human-Centered Communication: A Business Case Against Digital Pollution. This book is a great read for anyone who needs to generate attention, build trust, and create engagement online!
Discover the pitfalls of "digital pollution," and how it negatively impacts our ability to reach potential customers. Listen in, as Ethan shares insights about Human-Centered Design, and how it breaks through the noise to reach customers, and make sure the message they hear is deeply relevant to their needs. He dis…
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Nov 20, 2021
Creating Meaningful Brands with Thought Leadership | Emmanuel Probst | 355
Every day, we are berated with advertising for products and services trying to convince us to switch to their brand. What makes us take pause and pay attention is no longer the fear of missing out. Audiences want to find meaning in the products they buy and activities they take part in. So, how can you convey to your customer that your brand has meaning?
Our guest today is Emmanuel Probst, Global Lead of Brand Thought Leadership at Ipsos, where they are passionately curious about society, markets, and providing a game changing understanding of the world to help clients make faster, smarter and bolder decisions. He is also the author of Brand Hacks: How to Build Brands by Fulfilling the Consumer Quest for Meaning. In this book, Emmanuel shows us how to use simple hacks to create and grow brands that deliver meaning — even with a limited budget.
We ask Emmanuel, “What is the quest for meaning in branding? Why do people care about some brands and almost instantly forget others?…
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Nov 17, 2021
Working Less and Making More with Thought Leadership | Joe Sanok | 354
Working 40 hours has been accepted as the "standard work week" since Henry Ford implemented it almost 100 years ago. What would happen if we focused more on the outcomes that we wanted from our labor, instead of focusing on the time it takes to accomplish them? Could we learn to work less and do more?
Our guest today is Joe Sanok, host of the popular The Practice of the Practice, the #1 Podcast for counselors in private practice and one of the top 50 podcasts worldwide! Joe has gone from working as a full time physiologist to teaching others how to structure their practice in a way that will increase ROI and reduce time spent working. Joe's also is the author of Thursday Is the New Friday: How to Work Fewer Hours, Make More Money, and Spend Time Doing What You Want.
Today, Joe shares his story; from working at a Community College, to building a strong and profitable side practice that made more than his full time job. Learning how to leverage his gifts helped Joe make the journey to…
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Nov 10, 2021
Becoming Resilient Through Thought Leadership | James Harold Webb | 353
The word Redneck tends to conjure up a certain image in most people’s minds. When you hear the word do you think Director of Radiology and author?
Our guest James Harold Webb is a self-proclaimed redneck who despite the obstacles that stood in his way went to college became a radiology technologist, then Director of Radiology at a hospital in Dallas, and now is the author of Redneck Resilience: A Country Boy’s Journey To Prosperity.
James shares how his simple upbringing in Mississippi was actually the bedrock of his work ethic and resiliency, watching his parents overcome various challenges in their personal and professional lives implanted the idea that he too could always find a way to overcome and rise up.
We discuss the origin of his book Redneck Resilience and what exactly is the meaning of resilience. After many telling him he should write a book he started jotting down notes and stories realizing that he wanted the lessons he learned to be able to be passe…
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Nov 6, 2021
Lessons from a Decade in Thought Leadership | Amelia Folkes | 352
Ten years ago, the term "thought leadership" did not exist. Yet, the principles of thought leadership were being practiced, shaped, and refined by pioneers in the field; people whose great ideas literally shaped the road for all others.
Our guest today is Amelia Folkes, Senior Manager of External Relations at Workiva. Previous to that, she worked at Emerson Automation Solutions and State Farm, where she worked to implement changes that made the world a safer place - through practices and insights that we now recognize as true thought leadership.
Changing an organization's culture can take years of effort. Amelia explains how she did it: by positioning brands as more than just vendors. She taught her companies to become solutions providers and partners to their customers, and level up the organization's voice. In this way, she created earnest relationships, and helped her brands gain the trust and loyalty of their audience.
Relationships are important, but the hardest work of thought…
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Nov 3, 2021
Thought Leadership for Working Mothers | Dr. Whitney Casares | 351
Being a working mother means juggling a lot of balls. Stress, overload, and exhaustion can make work a nightmare and in turn create an unhealthy home environment. Is it possible to simply let go and focus on the important things one at a time?
Today, we sit down with Dr. Whitney Casares, a private practice pediatrician and mother. It was the combination of these two life paths that led her to write The New Baby Blueprint: Caring for You and Your Little One and her newest book The Working Mom Blueprint: Winning at Parenting Without Losing Yourself.
Whitney discusses the significant changes to the pediatric approach that have occurred in the last decade, and how doctors are becoming more involved in the physical health of parents as well as the mental health of both parent and child.
Whitney shares her experiences as a working mother trying to manage a time consuming career while figuring out how to care for a colicky newborn. She touches on her challenges with postpartum, and later,…
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Oct 30, 2021
Creating New Lines of Communication for Thought Leadership | Traci Conley | 350
When you can no longer meet face to face, how do you update vital information with medical professionals and the at-risk patients they serve?
Our guest today is Traci Conley, the Thought Leadership Manager for Standard Imaging, Inc., a company that has become the leading supplier of calibration and quality assurance instruments for healthcare, including a broad range of solutions and support for radiation therapy. Traci is also the host of Out of the Gray, a podcast that looks at the world of Radiation Oncology.
Traci started her role as Manager of Thought Leadership around the same time as the COVID-19 outbreak, which made the traditional means of communications with healthcare professionals and patients nearly impossible. In today's conversation, we discuss new methods being used by thought leaders in the healthcare field to maintain the spread of crucial information while keeping everyone safe.
Before moving into the role of thought leadership practitioner, Traci worked as a radi…
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Oct 23, 2021
Looking Into the Future through Thought Leadership | Peter Griffiths |349
Thought Leadership means peering around corners to predict changes, innovations, and challenges in your field. How far into the future is far enough? 5, 10, 20 years? Is it possible plan for 50 years down the road?
We answer these questions with the help of today’s guest, Peter Griffiths. Peter is the City Strategist at ING Media, and an Urban Content Consultant specializing in building cities that will thrive and grow. We discuss how he is using thought leadership to get ahead of the curve, and develop the cities that will embrace and support humanity's future.
Looking into the future means asking the right questions about the impact of today's choices, and how we can affect tomorrow's dreams and solve challenges before they arise. Peter finds the right questions thanks to a background in journalism; he looks for right answers by understanding that a unique view of the world is valuable, but so is the strength of collaboration. By being willing to merge his vision with the experti…
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Oct 20, 2021
Being Your Confident and Authentic Self through Thought Leadership | Leslie Ehm | 348
Today’s guest is Leslie Ehm, Swagger Coach, Amazon #1 best-selling author of Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want, speaker, and Chief Fire Starter at Combustion Training: a creativity-fueled training company that transforms people so that they can transform organizations.
In today's conversation, Leslie tells us her story; from working as a TV host, script editor, and advertising creative director, she found her true voice and started her own training company, building creative companies through a foundation of support for creative and inspirational people.
We discuss the slow growth of Combustion Training due to the need for trainers to be subject-matter experts in order to avoid the sub-par training experiences that she has seen in the past. From this realization came the origin and process of Leslie’s book, Swagger. Leslie shares the hard choices she made to keep her authentic voice, the methods she used to keep the words of others out of her mind…
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Oct 16, 2021
Weaving Humanity into Thought Leadership Work | Aliza Hughes | 347
We all have personal stories of triumph and growth. Our history, our experiences, shape us and drive the most insightful parts of our thought leadership. So why is it so hard for us to share those stories?
Aliza Hughes is the Director of Thought Leadership at Zoecial Media, a company that provides social media management with the aim of growing the client’s audience and credibility through brand storytelling.
We start our conversation by discussing how uncomfortable it can be to share personal stories in our thought leadership - the very stories that best illuminate our insights, strengths, and growth! Aliza shares her thoughts on telling personal stories, and how even tales of failure can connect you to your audience, and connect you as humans in search of growth.
Aliza also explains that LinkedIn is important - get that first post out! While a certain level of professional polish needs to be present, perfection isn’t required, and seeking it is just another method of pro…
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Oct 13, 2021
The Effects of Soft Skills in Thought Leadership | David Wood | 346
Not that long ago, books about emotions, vulnerability, and transparency would have been found in the self-help section. Now, business books about those same "soft skills" top best-seller lists. What has changed and why have these skills become so important?
Our guest on this episode is David Wood, a former consulting actuary to Fortune 100 companies and founder of the world’s largest coaching business, serving an audience of 150,000 coaches across 12 countries. He also hosts the Tough Conversations podcast, and is the author of Get Paid For Who You Are as well as an upcoming book titled Name that Mouse.
David shares his journey, from developing his intellect while shutting down his emotional side, to his realization that there is a great need for emotional intelligence, vulnerability, and transparency on the path to excellence as a leader. We also discuss the change in the way these necessary soft-skills have been perceived in the last decade, and how they moved out of the se…
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Oct 6, 2021
The Spiritual Mindset of Thought Leadership | David Weitzner | 345
Decades of economic principles have been written in stone, followed blindly by leaders and scholars alike. But, as with all things, stone erodes over time. Our guest today is ready to shatter the rock, and set minds free. Listen in!
Today, we're honored to speak with David Weitzner, author of Connected Capitalism and Fifteen Paths. David primarily identifies as a philosopher, but has spent time as a music industry executive, a professor of management, and has spent nearly two decades studying the philosophies that make our economic principals work. Now, he teaches at York University, where he advocates for co-creation, not management.
David shares with us some of his deep thoughts, explaining the meaning of the term "Connected Capitalism,"and how it differs from Conscience Capitalism or ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance). David also explains how Connected Capitalism offers a deeper sense of spiritualism and harmony; two traits which are often thought of as taboo in t…
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Oct 2, 2021
Making Better Decisions Through Thought Leadership | Thomas Lahnthaler | 344
Great leaders have to handle tough situations. Inevitably, the time will come when you have to make a hard choice or deal with a crisis. Will you be prepared?
Our guest today is Thomas Lahnthaler, Founder and CEO of The Crisis Compass, an organization which teaches leaders and companies innovative and resource-based crisis management. We start our conversation by discussing the concept of risk and how it relates to Thought Leadership. Thomas explains that "crisis points" are inevitable, and the future is always unknown. We get through crisis points by being prepared, stepping up, and making choices, not by ignoring possible difficulties.
These crisis points are often a source of fear and tunnel vision, even for the best leaders. We tend to rely on assumptions, or feel as if a leader needs to take full responsibility and solve the problem alone. Thomas shares reasons why these assumptions can be dangerous, adding to the feeling of risk. He also addresses the way tunnel vision can be a…
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Sep 29, 2021
Creating Brand recognition in Thought Leadership | Kevin Harrington | 343
Can creating a brand make your brand distinct, and give you a competitive advantage? Today, we dive into the deep end with a true shark of brand creation. We'll answer that question - and more!
Kevin Harrington is an entrepreneur, business executive, and one of the most well-known hosts of the investment reality show Shark Tank. Kevin has decades of experience helping people like George Foreman and Tony Little build their brands, and generate billions of dollars in sales. And today, he's our guest!
Kevin created his first infomercial in 1985, identifying an opportunity to fill late night and early morning dead air on cable networks. He's seen the rise and fall of many brands, and has become one of the foremost thought leaders in the sphere of productization. Today, he explains how he noticed the change in trends and habits surrounding television, and why he chose to sell millions of assets to move away from broadcast television and toward the internet.
While Kevin has not been…
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Sep 25, 2021
Deploying Thought Leadership Inside the Organization | Vishwas Anand | 342
Trying to get your thought leadership to the employees of your company is never an easy task but attempting to reach 250000 employees in your organization can feel like trying to climb Everest. Making the tools to climb that mountain is what today’s guest excels at.
Vishwas Anand is part of the Infosys Knowledge Institute which helps industry leaders develop a deeper understanding of business and technology trends through compelling insights.
Vishwas shares how he aided in the creation of the Infosys Insight Store -- a platform people can use to access hundreds of articles, podcasts, and video. It is meticulously cataloged to make finding the right content simple without having to take a deep dive into it.
Many companies are still trying to understand how to measure the success of thought leadership. Vishwas explains why vanity metrics such as likes and shares may not be as important as many think, in fact, they can end up being more of a distraction to the brand in the long r…
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Sep 18, 2021
Community Building and Thought Leadership in Open Source | Royal O’Brien | 341
Can thought leadership help organize people towards a common goal? The answer is yes!
Our guest in this episode is Royal O’Brien, General Manager of Digital Media and Games at Open 3D Engine, an important facet of the Linux Foundation.
Open 3D Engine (O3DE) is an Apache 2.0-licensed multi-platform 3D engine. This engine enables developers and content creators to build AAA games, cinema-quality 3D worlds, and high-fidelity simulations. And, because it's "open source," creators can use the engine without fees or commercial obligations. Open source projects create base code and make that code available to everyone. This allows the audience to modify and innovate that code for their own projects, continually updating and adding to the base.
Motivating, coordinating, and moving people towards a common goal can be a challenge. Yet, organizing large groups of creative people without restricting or stifling them is the key to Royal's success, and he's managed to do it time and ti…
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Sep 15, 2021
Public Relations for Thought Leadership Books | Mark Fortier | 340
Savvy authors know that public relations can be more unpredictable than marketing. So, how do you navigate those treacherous waters and find success?
Today’s guest is Mark Fortier, founder of Fortier Public Relations. Mark has spent 30 years publicizing hundreds of important books, including 140 bestsellers! Now, he's here to share tips and tricks with us that are essential for making your thought leadership book a success.
When taking a book to market, authors often only look at big wins. It's important to get coverage in large media outlets, but what most don't realize is that it's often small, incremental goals that really move the needle. Mark explains how and why it is important to manage expectations, and why you should work to create close relationships in order to help your book's audience grow. He also discusses the ways PR has changed over the years, and how online interviews and podcasts have become an important part of any successful author's portfolio.
One of th…
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Sep 8, 2021
Using Thought Leadership to Promote Ecommerce Solutions | Raj De Datta | 339
Today’s guest is Raj De Datta, Co-Founder and CEO of Bloomreach, a company bringing solutions that are uniquely built to serve digital commerce and marketing professionals. Their mission is to deliver meaningful moments to customers; moments that result in organizational growth.
Raj shares Bloomreach's goal to use AI and machine learning for delivering exactly what a customer is seeking. Moment to moment, a customer's needs change — and so should an organization's digital response.
With Bloomreach powering roughly 1/4th of e-commerce in the United States and the UK, Raj is often asked "What helps organizations succeed in the digital arena?" In an effort to answer that question, Raj wrote The Digital Seeker: A Guide for Digital Teams to Build Winning Experiences, published by Columbia Business School Publishing. Raj explains that his book is more than a rendition of the typical CEO experience. He discusses the reasons for his research, shares insights, and talks about…
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Sep 4, 2021
An Overview of the First Year as Head of Thought Leadership | Tammy Ammon | 338
Ever wondered what it was like to be the Director of Thought Leadership for a major corporation?
Many organizations don't define their thought leadership role at creation, leaving the shaping of those responsibilities up to the first person to take the position. That's a tough job!
To better understand the first few months in such a role, we turn to Tammy Ammon, Senior Director of Thought Leadership at Acxiom. Acxiom is a corporation that strives to ethically use data and technology to fuel meaningful connections between brands and the people who love them.
Like many thought leaders, Tammy had already pursued a long career in product development and marketing. Senior Director of Thought Leadership was the perfect position to blend her passion for storytelling with her deep knowledge of client needs. Even so, her first few weeks in the role were spent defining the position , mapping existing pieces of content, and aiding with branding, marketing, and innovation at the highest levels…
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Sep 1, 2021
How to balance a Day Job with Your Passion for Thought Leadership. | Lance Mortlock | 337
How do you plan for something you can't predict?
Today’s guest is Lance Mortlock, a Strategy Partner at EY (Ernst & Young) Canada, where he manages a team tasked to drive growth for clients in the oil, power, and mining industries. Earlier this year, Lance authored his first book, Disaster Proof: Scenario Planning for a Post-Pandemic Future. Disaster Proof is a practical and accessible guide for identifying risks, facing unpredictable challenges, and planning for the future.
Lance discusses the process of writing an in-depth thought leadership book while also working a demanding day job. Getting the book across the finish line required long hours, the support of his family, and surprisingly, the support of his employers at EY. Employers might be quick to think that writing a book would take away from an employee's daily focus. Not always true! Lance explains why elevating his personal brand elevated his employer, as well.
Lance had many years of articles, papers, and industry exp…
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Aug 28, 2021
Elevating an Issue Through Thought Leadership |Reilly Brock | 336
Does your thought leadership solve global issues? How do you draw attention to a multinational crisis, on a personal scale?
Our guest in today's episode is Reilly Brock, the Associate Creative Director at Imperfect Foods. Imperfect Foods is a weekly grocery delivery service on a mission to build a better, less wasteful food system. Through their efforts, they help people save time, money, and the planet.
As Associate Creative Director, Reilly has a passion for making the average person aware of the global food waste problem, and giving them options to waste less food. Through his work, he educates customers on ways to increase and improve regional sourcing, utilize food that would otherwise be squandered, and make empowered decisions. They pay attention to wide-scale problems (like the reason Imperfect Foods doesn't sell bananas), so their customers can feel assured that their choices are having a positive impact on the world.
Reilly has been delivering his message in long for…
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Aug 21, 2021
Narrowcasting and Bespoke Thought Leadership | Peter Winick | 335
Welcome to this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership! Today’s guest is our very own Peter Winick, Founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage, a firm that helps thought leaders of all kinds develop strategies for branding, marketing, technology, and sales.
The episode begins with Peter outlining the similarities and differences between marketing and thought leadership, particularly as it pertains to sales. While some comparisons can be made, thought leadership targets a small, very selective audience, giving timeless advice directed toward specific challenges. Sales, on the other hand, commonly relies on wide reaching, less focused tactics, marketing consumer products to a broad audience and relying on wide appeal.
Peter tells us that the true art of thought leadership means your offerings are unrelated to 99.9% of business problems, but laser-focused on solving the issues of a sharply defined target audience. In that space, your insights and products can deliver solutions t…
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Aug 18, 2021
Behavioral Science And the Art of Thought Leadership | Jon Levy | 334
Today, we sit down with the incredibly insightful Jon Levy! Jon is a behavioral scientist and social engineer best known for his work on human connection and decision making. Jon is the founder of the Influencers Dinner, a secret dining experience started in New York in 2009. Twelve thought leaders, tastemakers, and influencers from various industries attend, but do not discuss their professional career, or share their last name - in order to guess, at the end of the dinner, what the other attendees do professionally. What started as an experiment has turned into a world class experience that brings guests from a broad spectrum of fields together to share insights, camaraderie, and a great meal. In addition to being a TED speaker, Jon also has a new book: You’re Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence.
We start today's conversation with a discussion about the way humans, as a whole, possess a desire to experience something different and unique. Jon explains a b…
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Aug 14, 2021
The Intersection of Thought Leadership and Social Selling | Mandy McEwen | 333
Today’s guest is Mandy McEwen, the CEO of Mod Girl Marketing, a firm that helps their clients increase brand presence and stand out from the crowd by offering innovative content marketing & social media strategies, and by leveraging the organization's best asset – their people.
Many companies are asking employees to engage on the org's behalf through social media, but not everyone really understands LinkedIn's power to increase brand presence. Mandy shares common reasons people struggle to support their company through posts, likes, and comments, and why there's a lot of social anxiety around the topic.
Mandy gives advice on ways that managers and leaders can empower their teams, methods for starting or joining appropriate conversations, and ultimately, how your workforce can generate their own content all as part of a daily routine!
Getting the most out of any social media platform will mean becoming comfortable with experimentation; employees need support and flexibility…
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Aug 11, 2021
Matching Journalism with Thought Leadership Consulting | Adam Bryant | 332
Today’s guest is Adam Bryant, Managing Director at The ExCo Group (formerly Merryck & Co. Americas). The Exco Group specializes in helping boards, executives, and teams unlock their full leadership potential and deliver high-impact performance for their enterprises. Adam is also the author of The CEO Test: Master the Challenges That Make or Break All Leaders; a book that focuses on the seven most critical reasons leaders succeed or fail.
Adam hasn’t always been a Thought Leader. For 30 years, he had a successful career as a journalist, editor, and columnist, primarily at The New York Times. As he honed his communication skills and learned the ins-and-outs of complex teams, Adam focused on the question: “What if we interviewed a CEO for an article and didn't discuss their business background?” Instead, he focused the conversation around the lessons of leadership, culture, hiring, and talent, to see what made high-powered leaders flourish and grow.
Over 10 years, Ad…
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Aug 4, 2021
Using Thought Leadership to See the Future | Lisa Bodell | 331
Today we are excited to sit down with Lisa Bodell. Lisa is the CEO of FutureThink, an award-winning learning company that is transforming the way teams work in organizations. She helps leaders guide teams to build skills that are radically simple and immediately impactful. Lisa defines herself as a "futurist," and is an expert on the topic of innovation. She's been named one of the Top 50 speakers in the world by Thinkers 50, and is the best-selling author of Kill the Company and Why Simple Wins.
Lisa explains what it means to be a futurist, and how she brings a compelling message of simplification and innovation to over 100,000 people each year. Lisa also discusses manufacturing strategic luck, and ways to teach others to recognize potential and capitalize on opportunity. It's not ESP - it's science!
Teaching these powerful skills is no small task. It may take work before mastery becomes instinctive, but Lisa's innovative process breaks the challenge into many small steps. T…
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Jul 31, 2021
Evangelist Programs for Thought Leadership | Dan Sanchez | 330
Welcome to the Leveraging Thought Leadership podcast! Our guest in this episode is Dan Sanchez. Dan is the Director of Audience Growth for Sweet Fish Media, a full service podcast agency focused on B2B brands. Dan is also the co-host of the go-to podcast for marketers seeking to grow: B2B Growth.
Many businesses have thought leaders producing content and drawing attention to the company, but how many take the next step and create a program that evangelizes thought leadership within the org? That's the way to create a body of thought leaders, so that everyone in the company takes part in elevating and sharing those insights.
Today, Dan talks about the way he started such an evangelist program, kicking off elevated leadership and organically taking Dan’s Linkedin connections from 1000 to 10,000 in just 5 months! Dan describes how everyone at his organization was offered a chance to invest in and create thought leadership, so long as they committed themselves to the work for a…
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Jul 28, 2021
Following Instinct in Thought Leadership and Consulting | Maura Barclay | 329
Today’s guest is Maura Barclay, a transformational leadership consultant. In addition to being the author of Unbreakable Women, her previous occupations range from firefighter to fitness trainer to military consultant! In this conversation, she shares the ways that her wide variety of previous experiences make her an incredible consultant and coach.
Maura has always been interested in building and relying on proven methodologies that can be repeated for reliable outcomes. Learning is only the beginning; a great leader needs to continue to upgrade and iterate their knowledge into stronger, even more functional methods. In her work, she often utilizes check-lists, setting goals and building methods to achieve more Creating a solid list will anchor the methods in your brain, teaching the instinctive left-brain to perform tasks automatically - and guiding you to greater success.
Maura uses her powerful and proven neurofacilitation system to help people build new mindset pathways. Armed…
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Jul 24, 2021
Thought Leadership Advocacy for Non-Profits | Stu Manewith | 328
Welcome to Leveraging Thought Leadership! Today’s guest is Stu Manewith, Director of Advocacy and Thought Leadership at Omatic Software. Omatic Software deals in data integration for non-profits, helping them maintain and grow donors and donations. His thought leadership changes lives!
Before joining the team at Omatic Software, Stu worked as a fundraising director for non-profits for 16 years. His deep experience gives him an exceptional view of the sector, and taught him to understand the needs of both software vendors and fundraisers. By marrying those two interests, Stu was able to create incredible insights. His work became a turning point, helping non-profits achieve even greater mission impact though using cleaner, more integrated data and finding effective pressure points.
Stu talks about the epiphany that made him realize that non-profits could better serve their customers by studying past stories, tracking data points, and comparing the outcomes. Utilizing this proces…
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Jul 17, 2021
Bringing Humanity to Science: Through Thought Leadership | Jayshree Seth | 327
Today’s guest on our podcast is Jayshree Seth, Chief Science Advocate at 3M. Jayshree works to raise awareness and appreciation of science and how it aids us in our everyday life. Her first book, The Heart of Science: Engineering Footprints, Fingerprints, & Imprints furthers conversation around science advocacy, thought leadership, and inclusive progress.
In one of our most fascinating conversations to date, Jayshree shares the process she uses in the lab, and talks about the similarities between that process and the ones great thought leaders use. Through analytical thinking and empathy, she determines what people think about science, where the gaps and barriers are, and ultimately, how to overcome them.
One challenge of working in a scientific field is overcoming the stereotype that scientists are elitists; unrelatable and hard to understand. Changing people's perspectives on science is a huge task, and one that Jayshree is tackling on multiple fronts. Today, she talks about ho…
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Jul 14, 2021
Thought Leadership to Become Unbusy | Garland Vance | 326
Is there a difference between activity and productivity? Both make you busy, but only one makes you fulfilled!.
Our guest on today's episode is Garland Vance, the co-founder of Advance Leadership, a firm that helps leaders accomplish more and stress less. Garland is also the author of Getting’ (un)Busy, a book that takes you through the 5 steps to overcome "busyness" and live with purpose, productivity, and peace.
The conversation is an insightful and active one, with Garland sharing how his own "busyness" caused him significant health problems. This sparked his initial research, hoping to discover ways that he (and others) could accomplish more while doing less. He discovered ways to identify and focus on important tasks, and how a positive "ripple effect" could elevate everything else.
Garland's business mode, delivering content through coaching and keynote speaking, was upended over the last year by COVID-19. Like many others, he needed to retool his content to reach a…
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Jul 7, 2021
Finding Clarity for Effective Thought Leadership Marketing |Dolores Hirschmann | 325
Today's guest on our podcast is Dolores Hirschmann. Dolores is well known for organizing TEDx conferences, and is also the author of Clarity First, a recently published book that helps people find the clarity they need to grow their business. She has deep experience in marketing, and has blended coaching into her unique approach for helping businesses scale. We are so excited to spend some time talking to her!
Dolores uses her time as a TEDx organizer to delve into the way many brilliant minds lack the succinctness needed to deliver their message. Too often, great leaders get tangled in the details, and can't connect in a way that gets others to lean forward and buy-in. By applying her knowledge of coaching skills to marketing tactics, she has enabled countless leaders to read between the lines of conversation - and strike upon the best ways to share the parts of their leadership that really matter most.
However, clarity isn't the only struggle. Even leaders who instinctively grasp…
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Jul 3, 2021
Thought Leadership Marketing for B2B Manufacturers | Joe Sullivan | 324
If one voice can reach a wide audience, what about a hundred voices in unison? Think that would get some attention? You'd be right!
Our guest on today's episode is Joe Sullivan, the co-founder of Gorilla 76: a firm that specializes in helping mid-sized B2B manufacturers modernize their marketing programs. Joe is also is also the host of The Manufacturing Executive Podcast, celebrating a year’s worth of content helping manufacturing leaders find the right growth strategy for their organizations..
In our conversation, Joe shares how Gorilla 76 helps their clients find the right audience. He discusses having a focus on clients that can be helped efficiently, profitably, and with expertise in their challenges. By developing a deep understanding of the decisions involved in purchasing, manufacturers can create and capitalize on the strongest opportunities for growth.
Amazingly, Joe isn’t the only thought leader at Gorilla 76. Along with his partner, Jon Franko, Gorilla 76…
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Jun 30, 2021
Improving Thought Leadership Through Pragmatism and Serving Others | Doug Conant | 323
Our guest today is internationally renowned business leader, Doug Conant. Doug is the best-selling author of The Blueprint, an eminently smart and practical guide to leadership that contains 6 content-rich steps to creating a richer, fuller, more elevated professional life. With more than 40 years of leadership experience at first-class companies like Campbell Soup and Nabisco, Doug now focuses on Thought Leadership as the Founder and CEO of Conant Leadership.
In today's episode, Doug shares his passion about his life's work in Thought Leadership, and how he implemented positive, meaningful change at Campbell Soup Company. Years after he began, he chose to leave the corporate world and move into Thought Leadership full-time, using his experience and expertise to help leaders world-wide.
Doug tells us about his legacy of contribution, and the ways in which he is inspired to transcend the ordinary and elevate new, innovative ideas. Doug talks to us about his book, The Blueprint, and ho…
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Jun 26, 2021
Collaborating Across Companies on Thought Leadership | Jeanne de Cervens, Brian Forbes, Surya Kolluri | 322
When an issue is too important and too big for a single leader or team member to own?
How can massive organizations tackle challenging issues in a manner that is beneficial to society?
Our three guests in this episode are Surya Kolluri, Jeanne de Cervens, and Brian Forbes. They join us to discuss their critically important study: The Pandemic’s Perfect Storm. This study examines COVID-19’s impact on Gen Z and Millennials, and delivers some surprising results.
Surya Kolluri is the Managing Director at Bank of America, where he structures and leads their Thought Leadership, with a focus on retirement, longevity and social impact.
Jeanne de Cervens is a public policy strategist and advocate, with a deep understanding of complex legislation and regulations. In the past, she has worked at both Transamerica and Georgetown University.
Brian Forbes is the current Director of Thought Leadership and Strategy at Transamerica. He oversees that organization's resear…
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Jun 19, 2021
Thought Leadership in Private Equity and Intrapreneurship | Dr. Chitra Anand | 321
If you've ever felt creatively "stuck in a rut," and innovation seems out of reach, this is the episode to cure your woes!
Our guest today is Dr. Chitra Anand, an award-winning Communications & Marketing executive with over 20 years in the technology industry. She's an extraordinary leader, and has spent time as the head of Communications for Microsoft Canada, Director of Marketing at TELUS Corporation, and Director of Operations at Open Tex. She is also the author of The Green House Approach, a book filled with insights about innovation, creating compelling storytelling in business, and fighting complacency in the workplace. The Green House Approach is a mindset shift; a change in the way we approach thinking, and gives strong advice about "breaking out" and challenging current structural norms.
Bill and Chitra reminisce about her career in various tech companies, and discuss the way she implemented thought leadership to educate customers about new trends - long before "…
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Jun 16, 2021
Collaborating to Join Research with the Applied in Thought Leadership | Jim Kouzes | 320
Today’s guest is Jim Kouzes the coauthor with Barry Posner of the award-winning and best-selling book, The Leadership Challenge. He's also the Dean’s Executive Fellow of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University.
Jim tells us about his first meeting with Barry and how they quickly became best friends. That friendship and their complementary skills and interests led to writing The Leadership Challenge which has sold more than two million copies worldwide!
Jim’s focus on the applied and Barry’s emphasis on research has allowed them to develop the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) a standard 360 leadership assessment. Jim explains the process of creating LPI and how real-life examples play heavily into the ability of clients to grasp the concepts.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way many people work and think. Jim discusses the changes in leaders and what employees look for in leadership due to the pandemic and whether we can expect these changes to…
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Jun 9, 2021
Hosting versus Being a Guest on Thought Leadership Podcasts | Tom Schwab | 319
Tom Schwab is the Chief Evangelist Officer and Founder of Interview Valet, which helps hosts find great guests for their podcast. He is also the author of PODCAST GUEST PROFIT which gives step-by-step systems from taking your podcast from obscure to acclaimed!
With more than 2.1 million podcasts out there you are probably curious as to how to get yours heard. Tom gives us strategies for getting the most out of your podcast, how to hit the right audience, and why big numbers don’t need to be a priority.
In addition, we discuss the pros of being a guest on the bevy of podcasts that exist. Tom explains why you should try being a guest 20 or 30 times before starting your own. Then he breaks down why being a guest might be better for some than putting in the time and money to become a host of their own show.
If you chose to be a guest you’ll want to hear the advice Tom has for ensuring you maximize the potential of your appearance. Tom compares being a podcast guest to being invited…
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Jun 5, 2021
Thought Leadership for Building New Leaders | Tom Kolditz | 318
Our guest is Tom Kolditz, the author of Leadership Reckoning and Director of The Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. The Institute's two-fold mission is to create a powerful and widely available leader development experience and improve the quality of leader development in higher education everywhere.
Tom shares how many universities include the development of leaders in their mission statement. However, he explains that few have any focused programs to bring about that mission. Many focus on what Tom calls “leadertainment” which has no lasting benefit.
We discuss Tom’s book Leadership Reckoning, which outlines the failure of higher education. In addition Tom defines leadertainment and reveals how to measure outcomes and design programs to improve leadership development.
Tom informs us about the upcoming classification system from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching that is compelling Universities to listen to the problems being presented. A…
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Jun 2, 2021
Thought Leadership for development and training | Melissa Davies | 317
Today’s guest is Melissa Davies, Founder, and CEO of Wieseways Consulting, author of How Not to Act Like a BLEEP at Work, and founding member of the Global Institute for Thought Leadership. Melissa is a Dynamic Facilitator, Educator & Executive Coach with a global perspective.
Melissa walks us through the path she took to become a thought leader having first had a career as an educator in Canada and The Middle East before landing in the States to use her global insights to understand people, gain their trust, and provide a unique perspective to complex problems.
When seeking to improve leadership or teams we often seek to introduce change. Melissa talks about being intentional with those changes, using performance management, and being mindful of the culture you are intending to introduce and the possible negative implications of those changes.
Our conversation concludes with a look at how COVID-19 has affected training. We will no doubt return to in-person training on some level,…
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May 29, 2021
Thought Leadership for Startups | Jim Adler | 316
Today’s guest is Jim Adler Founder and Managing Director of Toyota AI Ventures, a standalone early-stage venture capital fund that invests in startups working on A.I., robotics, mobility, and more.
We start the conversation with Jim describing what Toyota AI Ventures does and what its mission is. From we get into how they help startups take their idea to scale when to introduce processes and how to find a balance that allows creativity and growth.
Jim shares how Toyota AI Ventures bridges the gap between global enterprise and startup, which is an important step. If an investor is too involved it can stifle innovation that happens early, but if they are not involved enough the startup could end up lacking the ability to recruit, build company culture, or find clients that see the value in their idea.
Next Jim shares the success story of Joby Aviation, his first meeting in a canyon to see their air taxi in flight, going to bat for them, and their goal of saving one billion people an…
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May 22, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Jody Grunden | 315
Today's guest is Jody Grunden, a visionary accountant with over 20 years of experience that has helped pioneer innovative changes to his industry. Jody is the co-founder and CEO of Summit CPA Group, author of Digital Dollars and Cents.
Jody takes us back to 2013 when he arrived at a conference to speak only to have a series of events go wrong that ended with him giving his presentation off the cuff while wearing a Hawaiian shirt and becoming a huge success!
Since that fateful event the Summit CPA Group has undergone a lot of changes. We discuss why they’ve moved to focusing on creative agencies and how thought leadership has become their only form of marketing, and how they are teaching other firms their methods.
Getting your thought leadership off the ground is often time consuming and expensive. Jody shares his experience getting things off the ground, what it took to find success, and how he got his business partner on board with his ideas.
If you are looking to develop your o…
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May 19, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Sandra Smith | 314
Today’s guest is Sandra Smith, Founder, and President of Smith Publicity a marketing company that focuses on authors and expert promotions.
Many things have changed in the last ten years and publicity is no different. Sandra walks us through some of the big changes authors should be conscious of and why their social media presence and what they share are more imperative now than ever before.
When it comes to success for an author, selling books seems like the logical focus. We discuss why selling books is great but getting the attention of your industry is even better. Sandra explains why authors don’t need to be overly concerned with metrics and how the shelf life of business books is much longer than it used to be.
Sandra goes on to explain why authors should start a conversation with a publicist before they start writing. Getting a firm grasp on why you want a narrow audience, how your release date isn’t that important and the benefits of hiring a publicist outside of your…
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May 15, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Christopher Brace | 313
Today’s guest is Christopher Brace, a global executive successful at building highly effective integrated marketing teams across complex organizations to drive awareness and product sales.
We start our conversation off by discussing how you can emotionally bond customers to a brand of consumer product and how these same techniques can be used to create an emotional connection to an idea.
Christopher shares how he gets his customers to tell the stories that connect them to a brand, how he is able to fast track focus groups to get to the emotional core, and how that information can be used to tell a story that can inspire and ultimately alter behavior.
It takes more than simply getting people emotional to create loyalty, you first have to dislodge customers from old ideas before they’ll accept the new ones. Christopher walks us through that process and why you have to be careful to not attempt to change too many behaviors at one time or you risk people digging in and not budging a…
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May 12, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Scott Shute | 312
Today’s guest is Scott Shute, the Head of Mindfulness and Compassion Programs at Linkedin and the author of the new release book The Full Body Yes.
Compassion is the #1 thing you can do to be successful in business and life. That philosophy is something Scott shared with the CEO of Linkedin which allowed him to use his history in customer service combined with his passion for wellness to create a position to introduce mainstream mindfulness and operationalized compassion to the company.
Scott explains how internal compassion involves a change from me to we thinking and how if employers care about their employees they need to have the tools and system in place to care for the mental well-being of their employees in the same manner, a gym helps to maintain and grow physical well-being.
We discuss with Scott how his recent book The Full Body Yes benefits not only himself but the company he works for and the other employees there.
If you have a passion for compassion, Scott suggests…
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May 5, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Michael F. Schein | 311
Today’s guest is Michael F. Schein, the author of The Hype Handbook, founder and CEO of MicroFame Media a company that turns consultants into celebrities.
Very few people ever become worldwide famous, but is that really what you need to be a known entity in your field? Michael shares why micro fame is a better goal to seek when you are selling ideas.
Michael and Peter discuss how hype is can be more effective than traditional marketing by relying on centuries-old psychological principles you can create a highly emotional reaction that will allow you to move people and create a sense of loyalty to your brand or idea.
Last we wrap up by talking about Michael’s recently launched book The Hype Handbook, how the book connects to the business, the effects it has had, and even what Charles Mason and Warren Buffet have in common!
If you’ve been struggling to conquer your little corner of the universe this episode has some great advice for hyping your content!
Three Key Takeaways:…
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May 1, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Stephen G. Pope | 310
Today’s guest is Stephen G. Pope the founder and CEO of SGP Labs a creative marketing, media, and technology company with the goal of helping others grow their business faster.
Creating video is as easy as hitting the record button, but once that is done what do you do with it? Stephen shares the importance of having a solid process in place that makes for an easy workflow for everyone involved in it.
Stephen talks about how you can take existing video content such as zoom calls and repurposes them into shorter video clips for social media, transcribe them for consumption on your website, and even convert them into other blog posts to create a deep pool of content suitable for any platform.
If you are thinking about adding video to your thought leadership arsenal or already have video sitting on a drive somewhere this episode is just what you need to turn that unused potential into a new content library!
Three Key Takeaways:
* When creating thought leadership videos you should…
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Apr 28, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Justin Foster | 309
Today’s guest is Justin Foster, the author of Oatmeal vs Bacon and co-author of Rooting Up. He is a speaker consultant and co-founder of Root + River a practice that specializes in branding for defiant leaders.
Justin shares his path to thought leadership and the tricks he learned along the way, including a brilliant method for how to get in front of potential clients when they won’t answer the phone for a sales call.
Breaking through the noise to have your voice heard amongst an abundance of other consultants is tough enough, but how do you get heard without coming across annoying or worse like a jerk? Justin tells us how conviction and originality can be the key!
Last we discuss methods of generating content, the pros and cons of going with the method you are comfortable with and have energy for versus the method that you audience might expect from you.
This episode is filled with a ton of TLPM (Thought Leadership per Minute) so grab a pen and take notes!
Three Key Takeaway…
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Apr 24, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Ali Ahmed | 308
Today’s guest is Ali Ahmed, the director of thought leadership at Fidelity.
We discuss with Ali the work he is doing at Fidelity leading a team of thought leaders, two of the audiences they focus on, and the modalities used to help people along their financial journey that is often not a straight line.
Ali has a strong background in experience design that he incorporates into the content they create. We discuss the techniques that carry over, how to put the user at the center of the journey, and ways to avoid overwhelming the user.
Three Key Takeaways:
* When creating thought leadership makes it impactful in a way that will inspire people to action.
* Thought leadership that focuses on the experience of the user is better than content that overwhelms the user with data.
* Thought leaders need to understand when and where to insert themselves into the conversation.
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Apr 18, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Tendayi Viki | 307
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…
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Apr 14, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Dr. Troy Hall | 306
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 a…
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Apr 7, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Karen Leland | 305
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 t…
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Apr 3, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Organizational Thought Leadership Anthology | 304
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…
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Mar 31, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | William Arruda | 303
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 unfor…
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Mar 27, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Jeff Kavanaugh | 302
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 any…
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Mar 20, 2021
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Peter Winick & Bill Sherman | 301
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…