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
Jan 15, 2023 • 34min
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 sparks your enthusiasm, too! If you've lost interest in your own ideas, the reader will never get hooked. They're only going to be as excited about your insights as you are in talking about them. When trying to determine the best medium for an idea you have to let the material tell you. Dan explains why you have to check the idea by asking "Are you sure?" to avoid having a bloated book that wastes the reader's time and undermines the idea. Three Key Takeaways: * Authors need to be good risk managers. Keep a low overhead, spend money on things that make money, and save money on everything else. * Think of a book as a long-term proposition and stick with it. Try other mediums – a lot of them! – to back up your book ideas. * It takes a certain level of maturity to leave some of your work on the editing floor, but remember that the reader needs to be entertained as well as educated - and keep things simple.
Jan 12, 2023 • 18min
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 employee health and well-being strategy known as "Healthy at Hopkins," which would become the basis for his book. Richard discusses the challenges and growth that were required to get his work to market. He wrote the book without an agent (or contract), but after signing the contract, he realized that - while his work was extremely valuable, it wasn't entertaining! With inspiration from his favorite authors, Richard rewrote the book, seeking to bring more fun and catch the audience's attention, while still providing value and practical tips. Richard tells us how he is not a self-promoter by nature, but the need to get his ideas to the people that would benefit drove him to reach out and learn the skills necessary to market the book. Three Key Takeaways: * Ideas for a book can bubble up from decades of work and experience. * A book that is composed of dry facts probably won't make an impact. Your work has to be entertaining, in addition to providing value. * To put your ideas into a practical process, you may need to simplify and focus on the details.
Jan 8, 2023 • 27min
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 a thought leader means having a broad perspective and an insightful, distinct view to share. Kimberly also shares how you can help the board identify gaps in their knowledge, patch them, and then use that knowledge to serve their market both internally and externally. Mark Smith is the Director, HR Thought Leadership at the Society of Human Resource Management (aka: SHRM). Mark has a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and years of experience in Human Resources consulting. Mark holds the first thought leadership position at his company and was responsible for building the role from the ground up. We learn the steps he had to take to make it a meaningful position within the organization and how he discovered ways to bridge the gap between the important research they were conducting and the audience they hoped to reach. Adam Zuckerman is the 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. In the last couple of years Adam has focused more on the visibility of thought leadership for the product. One of the ways he is accomplishing that is through social media, specifically LinkedIn, a platform he had previously ignored. Adam shares ways to use the platform as a powerful tool to build relationships, discover new ideas, and hone your content. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leadership can help you punch above your weight if you can reach your audience in meaningful ways with actionable content. * Effective thought leadership needs to be well researched, and place its insights into the hands of those that need it most. * Social media can be a powerful tool for reaching your audience, and by listening to your audience you can sharpen your content.
Jan 5, 2023 • 21min
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 be a tricky position to be in and Dan explains how he managed to grow his brand as a thought leader while keeping the best interest of his organization in mind. Last but certainly not least we have Stephen M. R. Covey. He is the co-founder of Covey Link and Franklin Covey, a bestselling author and a global authority on trust, leadership and culture. Stephen shares his experience growing from an analog to digital space and the forward thinking ideas needed to drive change and stay at the top of your game in a digital world. Three Key Takeaways: * Growing a loyal audience means producing consistent content and finding ways to connect in meaningful ways. * When producing thought leadership while working for another organization you have to balance the needs of the company with your own wants. * Finding success in the digital marketplace means transitioning your intellectual property into things like certifications and workshops.
Dec 29, 2022 • 29min
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. Still, it takes long-term work to create lasting success.Dorie shares her insights into the pains a lot of thought leaders suffer when they first start creating content, and how to hang on for the first few years before your big results manifest. By combining consistent content and using multiple modalities to reach your audience, thought leadership efforts can have a huge impact on your business. Lastly, Dorie discusses her newest book, and how publishing can add to your thought leadership movement. Peter and Dorie discuss books as revenue drivers (they aren't), and how a book can introduce your audience to your content, share your most valuable insights, and generate interest in your work. Combined with a strategic business model, a book release can be an important part of building a viable business for speaking, consulting, online courses and more. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought leadership can create a level of trust and familiarity with a potential client. This can be the difference maker that sets you apart. * While there can be overlap between thought leadership and content marketing, thought leadership should be more substantive and less transactional. * Thought leadership needs many touch-points for its audience to engage. Consider writing articles, guesting on or hosting a podcast, doing keynotes, and writing a book. The more modalities you utilize, the better chance you have of reaching your audience.
Dec 22, 2022 • 32min
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); what to do when trust has been broken, and the role that the themes of Trust & Inspire can play in Thought Leadership. If you feel your leadership style is no longer meeting the needs of your organization, you'll learn a lot from this episode. Three Key Takeaways: * Having a culture of trust will help you attract and retain talent. * Building trust at scale means being the model for that behavior both in private and publicly. Once others see it you become an example others can replicate. * Do not attempt to separate the principle of your message from the practice of it. Doing so can cause your message to come off as fake or disingenuous.
Dec 18, 2022 • 42min
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 specific person and position that can have the largest influence on your business can be more effective. Thought leadership created with those people in mind can always be expanded on later for a larger audience relatively inexpensively. As individuals we have a limited amount of attention we can give to the glut of content and information that is thrown at us each day. Chris shares why thought leaders have an ethical responsibility to deliver content that creates a higher value for their audience. He also warns that if you put out content that wastes their time it poisons the soil and makes planting the next idea that much harder. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leadership is not about mass scale; it's about getting insights into the hands of decision-makers who are receptive to it. * When creating thought leadership, don't think of your audience in broad terms. Try to identify the people it can influence most, who have the most influence on moving your ideas forward. * Working with a thought leadership partner allows them to ask the hard questions, and force your content to become sharper and more focused on the right audience.
Dec 15, 2022 • 21min
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 conversation discussing their book, which began as a course taught by Sam and Olatunde at the d.school. In the course, they taught about ways to identify and navigate your creative path, and how to make a living doing things that matter. It wasn't until co-workers approached them and presented the idea of turning the course into a book that they realized the direction had greater potential. Sam and Olatunde explain how the words "Creative Hustle" are perfect for their endeavor; a combination of imagination and ambition. They want to share insights about finding new creative paths that inspire, building diverse viewpoints, and creating ventures that benefit yourself and your community, while bringing enough entrepreneurial energy to move those ideas forward. In addition, we discuss the journey of co-authoring the book, which is often a tumultuous road. Sam shares how the experience of having a co-author is preferred to writing solo and how the experience bought him so much closer to Olatunde. Three Key Takeaways: * When authoring a book, you should also be considering the business models that can be used once it is published to avoid chasing the hype. * Working with a co-author allows you to push each other to be better and make sure your ideas are concrete. * During the process of writing a book, take some time to enjoy the process.
Dec 11, 2022 • 34min
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 together than either might achieve on their own. With so many organizations struggling to find this kind of alignment, Winston shares a few of the most common reasons why teams can't unify - and three things you can start doing right now to bring yours into sync. In addition, we discuss the role that empathy plays in finding alignment throughout an organization. Winston explains that teams need to be able to step out of their bubble in order to better understand how the other functions in your company operate, and their value to your work and to the whole. Once teams have that understanding, they can better see the system as a whole, and take steps to bridge any gaps that might exist between team functions. That kind of alignment is powerful, and can change the game. Three Key Takeaways: * Don't confuse thought leadership with content marketing. Smart leaders understand the difference, and how to best use each function. * You can achieve better alignment by spending time with those outside of your role. Learn to understand other functions and perspectives, and your organization will do better as a whole. * Understand why your current customers are choosing to do business with you. This can help you better fulfill their needs, and build a strategy to increase customer satisfaction, org reputation, and revenue.
Dec 8, 2022 • 15min
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 role as Director of Community started in the very early days of the school's establishment, and she's always been a creative force, helping the d.school's growth. Unlike the typical slower pace of research, the d.school specializes in swift cycles, rapid iteration of design, and innovative thinking. Charlotte discusses that cycle, and shares how her role has evolved from connecting with students, running info sessions, and encouraging the school's growth, to overseeing a larger group of people who collectively help students learn "thought design skills" that will help them excel when they enter the larger world outside of Stanford. One of the ways Charlotte explains her role is as "a champion for self-awareness," helping designers and tech producers understand each other's function, needs, and dependencies, and work better together. Too many people think of design as a soft, easy-to-master skill - and they'd be wrong! Design thinking shapes goals, builds connection with the audience, and sparks creativity and curiosity. Charlotte shares how she prepares students to deal with difficult critiques, giving them the resources to work with feedback so that both designers and tech creators understand why both sides of the coin are necessary to create a valuable whole. There's no substitute for true creativity and invention, and design thinking elevates any craft, moving it from "what gets it done" to "how can we solve problems, drive innovation, and foster collaboration?" That's the heart of thought leadership, and that's where Charlotte's insights shine. Three Key Takeaways: * Design skills such as creativity, collaboration, and rapid iteration, are essential to leadership roles. These "soft skills" elevate the game. * Being comfortable with change and learning how to think on your feet builds the capacity to handle even the toughest challenges. * Connections and relationships are important - even when they're outside your field. Learning from those with different skills and interests broadens your understanding, and makes you a better leader.
