Leveraging Thought Leadership
Peter Winick and Bill Sherman
Welcome to the Leveraging Thought Leadership podcast, a beacon illuminating the paths and possibilities of thought leadership. With your guides, Peter Winick and Bill Sherman, we will embark on a journey into a captivating world where ideas converge with strategy and insight.
Where will thought leadership take you?
In each episode, we engage with thought leaders from diverse backgrounds. Whether it's professional keynote speaking, writing your own thought leadership book, investigating the niche expertise of specialized consultants, or crossing mental swords with distinguished academics, our guests collectively paint a vivid mosaic of thought leadership's multifaceted potential.
Through nuanced perspectives and rich experience, our talented co-hosts aim to offer you views of the ways independent thought leaders navigate success, elevate talent, and change company culture – while simultaneously examining how organizations harness the power of thought leadership to catalyze innovation and nurture sustainable growth.
Peter Winick is your guide through the realm of independent thought leadership. For the past two decades, he has helped individuals and organizations build and grow revenue streams through designing and growing their thought leadership platforms as well as acting as a guide and advisor for increasing business to business sales of thought leadership products. Peter is the Founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage. His clients come from a diverse set of backgrounds and specialties. They include New York Times bestselling business book authors, members of the Speakers' Hall of Fame, recipients of the Thinkers50 award, CEOs of public and privately held companies, and academics at prestigious institutions such as Yale, Wharton, Dartmouth, and London School of Business.
With a keen eye for detail, he delves into the intricacies of crafting personal brands, fostering genuine engagement with audiences, and expertly monetizing one's expertise. From the artistry of crafting keynote speeches that resonate with audiences to the strategic deployment of bestselling books as conduits for inspiration and insight, Peter's guests offer a treasure trove of strategies for creating value and impact and driving revenue through thought leadership.
Bill Sherman specializes in the exploration of organizational thought leadership. He examines how companies conceive, curate, and deploy thought leadership initiatives, and how those initiatives benefit the orgs and the people who work within them. Bill listens to the stories and advice of industry leaders and their triumphs within the competitive business landscape. Whether through the dissemination of white papers that shape industry discourse, webinars that educate and engage, or insightful executive blogs that offer thought leadership at the highest echelons of corporate governance, Bill's guests provide illuminating perspectives on the evolution of organizational thought leadership and its pivotal role in shaping industry paradigms and perceptions.
Bill concentrates on organizational consulting and business expertise, investigating organizational thought leadership and its effects, from instructional design and learning product development to marketing strategy and execution, to organizational development and transformational consulting. He enjoys working with business leaders, speakers, authors, academics, and other consultants, connecting their ideas organizational platforms and enterprise-ready product development.
As the series unfolds, Peter and Bill will lead us through a nuanced exploration of the latest trends and advancements in thought leadership. From the transformative impact of technology on communication and collaboration to the evolving preferences of consumers in an increasingly digital marketplace, they will dissect the shifting landscape with precision and insight. Moreover, they will shine a spotlight on emerging modalities that are reshaping the contours of thought leadership, from the ascendance of virtual events as a cornerstone of engagement to the growing influence of social media platforms as conduits for thought dissemination and audience interaction. Through their discerning analysis, they will reveal how thought leaders can adeptly harness these trends to amplify their reach, captivate new audiences, and maximize their influence in an ever-evolving business environment.
Whether you find yourself at the height of your career as a seasoned thought leader, or whether you stand at the threshold of possibility as an aspiring entrepreneur, the Leveraging Thought Leadership podcast offers an enriching voyage of discovery.
Join us as we unravel the enigmatic secrets to success in the vibrant realm of thought leadership, where ideas have the power to shape perceptions, drive change, and inspire action. Together, let us explore how you, too, can engineer value, evoke impact, and cultivate revenue through the sheer power of your ideas and expertise.
Welcome aboard.
Where will thought leadership take you?
In each episode, we engage with thought leaders from diverse backgrounds. Whether it's professional keynote speaking, writing your own thought leadership book, investigating the niche expertise of specialized consultants, or crossing mental swords with distinguished academics, our guests collectively paint a vivid mosaic of thought leadership's multifaceted potential.
Through nuanced perspectives and rich experience, our talented co-hosts aim to offer you views of the ways independent thought leaders navigate success, elevate talent, and change company culture – while simultaneously examining how organizations harness the power of thought leadership to catalyze innovation and nurture sustainable growth.
Peter Winick is your guide through the realm of independent thought leadership. For the past two decades, he has helped individuals and organizations build and grow revenue streams through designing and growing their thought leadership platforms as well as acting as a guide and advisor for increasing business to business sales of thought leadership products. Peter is the Founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage. His clients come from a diverse set of backgrounds and specialties. They include New York Times bestselling business book authors, members of the Speakers' Hall of Fame, recipients of the Thinkers50 award, CEOs of public and privately held companies, and academics at prestigious institutions such as Yale, Wharton, Dartmouth, and London School of Business.
With a keen eye for detail, he delves into the intricacies of crafting personal brands, fostering genuine engagement with audiences, and expertly monetizing one's expertise. From the artistry of crafting keynote speeches that resonate with audiences to the strategic deployment of bestselling books as conduits for inspiration and insight, Peter's guests offer a treasure trove of strategies for creating value and impact and driving revenue through thought leadership.
Bill Sherman specializes in the exploration of organizational thought leadership. He examines how companies conceive, curate, and deploy thought leadership initiatives, and how those initiatives benefit the orgs and the people who work within them. Bill listens to the stories and advice of industry leaders and their triumphs within the competitive business landscape. Whether through the dissemination of white papers that shape industry discourse, webinars that educate and engage, or insightful executive blogs that offer thought leadership at the highest echelons of corporate governance, Bill's guests provide illuminating perspectives on the evolution of organizational thought leadership and its pivotal role in shaping industry paradigms and perceptions.
Bill concentrates on organizational consulting and business expertise, investigating organizational thought leadership and its effects, from instructional design and learning product development to marketing strategy and execution, to organizational development and transformational consulting. He enjoys working with business leaders, speakers, authors, academics, and other consultants, connecting their ideas organizational platforms and enterprise-ready product development.
As the series unfolds, Peter and Bill will lead us through a nuanced exploration of the latest trends and advancements in thought leadership. From the transformative impact of technology on communication and collaboration to the evolving preferences of consumers in an increasingly digital marketplace, they will dissect the shifting landscape with precision and insight. Moreover, they will shine a spotlight on emerging modalities that are reshaping the contours of thought leadership, from the ascendance of virtual events as a cornerstone of engagement to the growing influence of social media platforms as conduits for thought dissemination and audience interaction. Through their discerning analysis, they will reveal how thought leaders can adeptly harness these trends to amplify their reach, captivate new audiences, and maximize their influence in an ever-evolving business environment.
Whether you find yourself at the height of your career as a seasoned thought leader, or whether you stand at the threshold of possibility as an aspiring entrepreneur, the Leveraging Thought Leadership podcast offers an enriching voyage of discovery.
Join us as we unravel the enigmatic secrets to success in the vibrant realm of thought leadership, where ideas have the power to shape perceptions, drive change, and inspire action. Together, let us explore how you, too, can engineer value, evoke impact, and cultivate revenue through the sheer power of your ideas and expertise.
Welcome aboard.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Feb 11, 2024 • 31min
Navigating Global Expansion | Larry Harding | 549
In this episode, we sit down with Larry Harding, the Founder & CEO of HSP Group, Inc., a renowned provider of solutions for companies venturing into the global expansion market. Larry sheds light on the complexities and surprises that often accompany international expansion efforts. Larry explains that many clients underestimate the challenges of global expansion, emphasizing the mantra "you don't know what you don't know." HSP Group assists companies in managing various aspects of their global footprint, from finance and accounting to legal compliance and human resources. Despite clients' initial interest in expanding overseas, they often come to realize the intricacies involved and the need for expert guidance. Drawing from his own experiences, Larry discusses the genesis of HSP Group. Frustrated by the inefficiencies and challenges faced during his tenure as a finance professional overseeing international expansions, Larry recognized the necessity for a dedicated company to address these issues comprehensively. Targeting fast-growing companies lacking infrastructure or experience, HSP Group aims to be a trusted resource for CFOs and venture capitalists navigating global expansion. Larry emphasizes the importance of thought leadership and establishing credibility within the industry. Through strategic partnerships with legal and financial professionals and by utilizing their own services internally, HSP Group builds trust and demonstrates its expertise in managing global operations. Join us as we delve into the complexities of global expansion and the crucial role of education and expertise in ensuring success.
Feb 8, 2024 • 19min
Unleashing Predictive Power| Eric Siegel | 548
Eric Siegel is a seasoned consultant with more than twenty years of experience with machine learning. In today's podcast, Eric shares insights from his best-selling book, "Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die," and his second book, "The AI Playbook." Having taught AI and machine learning at Columbia, he expresses frustration at the underutilization of machine learning. His mission with "The AI Playbook" is to bridge the gap between data scientists and business professionals, emphasizing the need for a customized process, discipline, and playbook for successful machine learning projects. The conversation delves into the misconception surrounding AI and machine learning, emphasizing the importance of planning for business outcomes and operational changes from the project's inception. The guest stresses that the value of AI lies not in its cool factor but in successful deployment. Discussing his second book, he reflects a focus on preorders and an emphasis on podcasts, he shares his strategy for getting the book into the hands of Fortune 500 stakeholders vested in machine learning success. Tune in for an insightful journey into the world of predictive analytics, AI deployment, and the passion that fuels success in the realm of thought leadership. Three Key Takeaways: · Business professionals must gain some technical knowledge to establish a standardized practice for machine learning. · Understand the use case – what is predicted and how it's acted upon are the cornerstone of driving value in machine learning projects. · AI and machine learning are powerful tools but don't get lost in the wonder of them. Stay focused on what you need them to do for you.
Feb 1, 2024 • 21min
The Breakthrough Manifesto| Kim Christfort | 547
Organizations often talk about having a culture of innovation. But what does that look like? To explore innovation and how to achieve transformative breakthroughs I've invited Kim Christfort to join me. Kim is the Chief Innovation Leader and National Managing Director of Deloitte Greenhouse Experience, where they work to spark new thinking, accelerate decision-making, and build long-term business development. Kim shares how her background in theatre and science gave her a love for problem-solving and interacting with people, but it wasn't until she created her position at Deloitte for herself that she could fully incorporate her creative side. The Deloitte Greenhouse Experience is not just a space, it is an experience, a stage where Kim can set the environment to diagnose what is holding the group back and activate the brain through immersion to create momentum and opportunity to break through the barriers that are holding you back. For ten years Kim and her team have been working with people, teams, and leaders to achieve breakthroughs but have never codified or packaged the research and data they have been doing. This was the catalyst for Kim's book The Breakthrough Manifesto which acts as a field guide for leaders and organizations to act, join the movement, and achieve breakthroughs that can fundamentally shift the way an organization thinks and operates. Three Key Takeaways: · A good metric for thought leadership is repeat usage. If people continue to come back time and again, investing their time and money they must be seeing value from it. · Moments are all around us. They are opportunities. Thought leadership can have a huge role in making those opportunities visible to clients. · Thought leadership that can become a movement is powerful. Those who believe in your ideas will become your biggest and loudest champions.
Jan 28, 2024 • 36min
Elevating Others Thought Leadership | Watchen Nyanue Hampton | 546
When complex topics come up, thought leaders typically have a list of usual suspects we can turn to for information. However, by continually going to these same sources you might become repetitive and miss out on new and important perspectives. To explore why these old habits can be detrimental and how we can overcome our presets I've invited Watchen Nyanue Hampton to join me. Watchen is the Founder and CEO of I Choose the Ladder, a boutique consulting firm in Chicago that does work at the intersection of talent culture and strategy. Watchen starts us off by discussing how our defaults could be drowning out other voices and perspectives that could potentially be advantageous to your business. Further, she shares how breaking that cycle can only happen with conscious and thoughtful effort. Finding new voices that want to step into the spotlight can be difficult. Watchen explains how finding them can only happen by getting to know people as people, by humanizing the way we interact with others in our personal and professional spaces. Asking questions and being genuinely interested in others can help them feel seen and heard, which will have a massive impact on how they work and the pride they feel. Watchen shows how elevating others in thought leadership and using your own power to share the spotlight can be good for retention, succession planning, and reaching wider audiences through wider conversations that you otherwise might never have been aware of. Three Key Takeaways: · If you are in a leadership role it is your job to know the people who you are leading. · Be intentional about the way you craft your life and your career. Always know that you have a choice. · If you are not part of the community and are aware of the conversations that are going on, you are never going to think about engaging them.
Jan 21, 2024 • 31min
Making Ideas Accessible| Keith Goode | 545
AI is a hot topic right now, but many don't fully understand the ramifications. How do you present data sets and explainable AI to the average person? Today we sit down with Keith Goode, the Vice President of Services at ZeroedIn Technologies which provides HR solutions by combining people data with business data for one source of truth. Our conversation begins by getting a sense of how complex ideas like AI can be used by people who are not familiar with it. Keith shares how he identifies the business issue or concern at hand and that AI could be useful to help solve those problems. From there they seek the right data to answer the questions and then qualify that information by looking at historical data, then aggregating it together to generate an AI model that can predict outcomes based on the predetermined traits. Building a data set is a crucial part of creating an accurate AI model. Keith explains how they use a template that has key factors that have been used in the past coupled with various data elements that are unique and important to the client. Keith continues by explaining how the model can be tested and updated to make the model more accurate. If you want a better understanding of AI in terms everyone can understand you'll want to tune into this episode. Three Key Takeaways: · If an idea is not explainable, then it is also not actionable. · AI models are not a one-and-done solution. You need to update and retrain them to ensure relevance and effectiveness. · AI models allow for a deeper and more complex dimension of examination of complex topics.
Jan 18, 2024 • 21min
Culture in Marketing | Marcus Collins | 544
Why do we do what we do and buy what we buy?What invisible forces drive those actions - and how can they be seen? Today our guest is Marcus Collins an award-winning marketer and culture translator. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Ross School of Business and an award-winning author. His newest book is For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be. Marcus shares how there is no greater external force more influential to human behavior than culture! However, if you ask ten people what culture is you'll get a different answer each time. Marcus explains that you must understand who you are, how you see the world, and what you believe if you are going to create a coherent and positive culture. Marcus's first solo book For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be came from his exploration of social sciences to understand better who we are as people and what the underlying physics of why we take the actions we do. Marcus states that as a marketer we have to gain that understanding to get others to adopt the behavior we are promoting. While launching the book Marcus chose to eat his own dog food, taking the same approach to his book launch as he would launch a client's product. Building out from understanding the culture the book represents he reached out to former students who embraced the thinking he taught, enlisting them to boost the signal of the book on launch day. By doing this he created a following of true believers willing to evangelize his book and ideas! Marcus shares smart advice for anyone who feels their culture is lacking clarity or for those who struggle to truly connect to their target audience. Three Key Takeaways: · There is no external force more influential to human behavior than culture. · It's about getting your thinking in the hands and minds of more people. · If you can activate people with shared convictions, then those people will evangelize on your behalf.
Jan 11, 2024 • 17min
Getting Focused on Growth | David G. Ewing | 543
Should you try to make your thought leadership relevant to everyone? Or, is being focused the answer? To examine the effectiveness of "going narrow" with your thought leadership, I've invited David G Ewing to join me. David is a trailblazer in customer experience innovation, and the CEO of Motiv, the world's largest Oracle CX exclusive partner allowing clients to manage their customer experience (CX) through every step of their journey. David shares how he uses thought leadership to differentiate and drive business, by narrowly focusing on customer experiences using technology from a single vendor. This has allowed him to tackle any challenges a customer might bring his way. David explains that a narrow focus allows him to find the exact target customer which is a match made in heaven for both sides. With thought leadership content focused directly on their pain points the customer knows from the outset the partnership is a good fit. Part of finding that focus came from coming up with a mission and motive. David trimmed that down to a single word "Growth." Having a one-word mission made it possible to have a lot of creativity while remaining focused. David shares excellent advice for going deep for elevated relevancy! Three Key Takeaways: · The more focused you are the more useful you are despite being relevant to a smaller group of people. · Having a good and clear mission statement can allow you to stay focused on your vision. · It's never too early to start thought leadership.
Jan 7, 2024 • 29min
Best of 2023 featuring Lynette Jackson, Kathy Risch, and Kasey Lobaugh | 542
In today's episode, we showcase some of the best guests from our Organizational Thought Leadership series. We think their insights will be as useful this year as it was last! Lynette Jackson is the Head of Communications at Siemens. She shares how thought leadership can act as an umbrella for your brand, bringing all the various disciplines of communication together under it, enabling them to move in the same direction with purpose! Kathy Risch is Senior Vice President, Shopper Insights & Thought Leadership at Acosta. She takes us inside what it takes to understand how and why people buy. She shares how it goes beyond the usefulness of a product and dives into the impact the emotion a product or service can tap into while speaking to an underlying need or frustration in the consumer's life. Kasey Lobaugh is the Chief Futurist for the Consumer Industry and Principal at Deloitte Consulting, LLP. He shares how the research they did over a year is more than a white paper, it's a platform! Kasey explains how they can shape the thinking of the future of not only Deloitte but their entire industry by engaging with hundreds of people inside and outside the company. He shares how they approached people from diverse backgrounds to get a better picture of the future by seeing it through many unique perspectives. Three Key Takeaways: · Having the ability to create content that speaks to an audience on their level, be it introductory or expert is the key to reaching a wider audience. · Connecting your product or service with the consumer's insights is how you hit the sweet spot. · When engaging others on large scale research you need to allow them to engage with and shape the content.
Jan 4, 2024 • 24min
Best of 2023 featuring Jenna Fisher, Mark Miller, Lily Zheng, and Jane Hanson | 541
As we ring in the New Year it is always a good idea to take a moment and reflect on the past year. We continue our tradition of doing so by providing a compilation from a few guests who provided timeless advice. Jenna Fisher is the Co-lead of Global Financial Officer Practice at Russell Reynolds Associates and a Wall Street Journal bestselling author with a new book To the Top: How Women in Corporate Leadership Are Rewriting the Rules for Success. In this conversation, Jenna shares how she interviewed dozens of women who provided inspirational and practical stories that she used in her book. In addition, she discusses the synergy the book has with her business and what she learned in the process of writing. Mark Miller, is the Vice President of High Performance Leadership, Chick-fil-A Inc. and author of Culture Rules: The Leader's Guide to Creating the Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Mark gives insight into being an embedded research house within Chick-fil-A and how pragmatism and leadership are the keys to balancing the scales between the two. Lily Zheng 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. Lily discusses the ebb and flow of DEI in the workplace and how it is something that is needed all the time not just when things go wrong. Jane Hanson is an Emmy Award winning Journalist with thirty years of coaching experience helping people communicate more clearly and efficiently. Jane shares what thought leadership means to her and how the heart of soul of it is communication. She discusses knowing your purpose and provides tips and advice for communicating in mediums you might not excel at. Three Key Takeaways: · While doing research for a book or any thought leadership, reaching out to a diverse audience can help give you a wider and more balanced perspective. · Everything rises and falls with leadership. · As a thought leader your purpose needs to be getting the important information you have out into the world for others to hear and use
Dec 28, 2023 • 19min
Blending Disciplines to Create Powerful Thought Leadership | Selena Rezvani | 540
Thought leaders come from a wide variety of backgrounds and skills. Each unique path leads to inspiration, solutions, and frameworks that can reach niche groups on a personal level. Selena Rezvani is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and consultant on leadership. Her newest book, a Wall Street Journal bestseller "Quick Confidence: Be Authentic, Boost Connections, and Make Bold Bets on Yourself" is a guide for overcoming the nine most common obstacles that stand in the way of building authentic confidence. Selena shares how her journey in thought leadership started while she was a young management consultant whose boss created a policy that all consultants would have to write and present at conferences twice a year. While incredulous at first she was also thrilled at the challenge and agency the opportunity presented. That push into thought leadership resulted in seeking an MBA to better speak to her audience. Selena shares how during her MBA program she interviewed high performing C-suite level women to discover the commonalities and hardships they face. The result of these interviews came together as her first book The Next Generation of Women Leaders: What You Need to Lead but Won't Learn in Business School and led to continued relationships with many of the women interviewed and Selena breaking out on her own to further her thought leadership work. Selena shares how her business continued to grow adding speaking, learning to value herself and the years of previous research that were required to create engaging and actionable speaking engagements. Selena shares wonderful advice for speakers, authors, leaders, and budding thought leaders on how to create content, build relationships, and measure your own success and self worth. Three Key Takeaways: · Great things happen when you bring the frameworks and thinking of one discipline into another that might not typically be blended. · You have to value yourself. You have to own your authority. Ask for what you need. Don't settle. · The success or failure of an experiment is not a measurement of your success or worth. You will either win or you'll learn.
