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
Sep 25, 2022 • 19min
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. Rule #1: If your audience doesn't understand what you're saying, and why, they certainly won't be moved to act on your information. As with many thought leadership programs, measuring success can be a difficult task. Sales data and leads aren't as tangible in the non-profit sector. Meghan shares how success at Habitat is measured, through anecdotal evidence, making connections with new backers, and deepening relationships. Her primary goals are to spread the word, and to increase credibility and trust in the organization. This kind of vision can't be measured in weeks or months - it can take years to see real results on a global scale. This conversation gives a glimpse into the unique world of thought leadership in the non-profit sector, and offers valuable insights for organizational thought leaders everywhere! Three Key Takeaways: * Curation and Digestibility are the keys to making complicated data into something a general audience can understand. * Thought Leadership isn't successful overnight. A plan and vision that spans years is needed to properly measure success. * Thought leaders need to be able to follow their instinct and not be afraid to experiment – and even fail from time to time.
Sep 22, 2022 • 34min
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 great experiences virtually. We talk about their successes, and the hardships they struggled to overcome — such as developing trust and transparency through a computer screen. The future of keynote speaking and conferences is still uncertain, and many thought leaders are exploring "hybrid" models, moving fluidly between in-person and remote presentations. Nick and Joseph discuss how they believe things will continue to play out, giving examples in the ways their businesses were returning to the "old normal," and how they continue to incorporate digital modalities. While this interview took place some months ago, the advice on how to build trust with a virtual audience is evergreen! Three Key Takeaways: * Virtual relationships can get clogged up and degrade over time – whenever possible renew that relationship in person. * If you are going to make video work you have to go deep fast. Forge a strong relationship right out of the gate by being honest, trustworthy, and transparent. * Virtual speaking means having to grab the audience's attention in the first 90 seconds. Speakers who don't have some form of interaction are missing a trick for their
Sep 18, 2022 • 40min
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 is credible, trustworthy, and relatable - and that brings in more customers! Learn why Zoe recommends starting this cycle at the executive level, and how doing so can create a culture of engagement both internally and externally. When executives interact with employees (and customers) online in a direct and meaningful manner, it helps build genuine relationships. This bolsters new sales, employee retention, and even talent recruitment. Great ideas can spark from anywhere, even a simple typo. Zoe shares how she mistyped "caroself" in a message to a coworker (instead of "carousel") and came up with a brilliant new idea. Using the pdf carousel function of LinkedIn, Zoe made a document that humanized her work experience, letting people know where she grew up, went to school, and even her likes and dislikes - and she called it the Caroself™. She then tagged others, and challenged them to do the same. Before long the idea had spread to thousands of users who saw the benefit of giving the world a deeper look into their personalities, and move their career prospects forward by going beyond the professional persona. We wrap up our conversation discussing women in thought leadership. Zoe works with hundreds of executives, and has seen a trend of women being overly timid about sharing their insights. Many incredibly insightful female leaders don't promote themselves through thought leadership - and they should! The chat explores why that trend continues, and gives suggestions around how to encourage others to take control of their power and seize the opportunities thought leadership presents. The world needs more great ideas! Three Key Takeaways: * The cycle of "invest in your people - let them be ambassadors for your brand - build your brand reputation - engage more new customers" is powerful, and it's one that more organizations should use. * You can't rely on a random algorithm to get the word out. You have to actively seek out and build relationships, sharing things about yourself (or your org) and creating a human connection in order to succeed. * When cultivating your social media profile, it's beneficial to ensure that personal stories still relate to your expertise or experience in a professional sense. Don't forget to show your strengths!
Sep 15, 2022 • 18min
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 organizations often promote meaning and purpose, but what does that mean — and how much control do they really have over their audience's perception? Martina shares stories about how our values impact the perception of our brands, and what audiences look for when choosing to buy. This is a fascinating conversation about the rise of the 'humanistic paradigm" and how brands, organizations, and advertising are having to change in its wake. Three Key Takeaways: * Organizations need to consider how to fundamentally improve customers' lives with their advertising, and align with each person's sense of greater meaning. * COVID-19 has made the emerging humanistic paradigm more profound and cohesive. * When starting out in thought leadership, find your niche! Hint: It's the thing you are more passionate and knowledgeable about than anyone else!
Sep 11, 2022 • 31min
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 following that purpose through the practice of thought leadership. Ryan shares how he spent 20 years in ministry focused on community, and how he found his purpose in helping people find a sense of purpose in their everyday lives. Mark comes from a background of psychiatry, and after his own brush with depression while in med school, rose to specializing in suicide prevention so that he could help others discover hope and meaning in their lives. Our guests have traveled parallel paths, helping others live happier and healthier lives through their work. Now, they're bringing those insights about hope and meaning to the corporate sphere. We learn how Ryan built a Culture of Good and how that philosophy gets companies to create a meaningful and fulfilling workplace that also improves the bottom line. Mark works with executives and leaders, teaching them to carve away the negative aspects that create a culture of mistrust, fear, or hopelessness at an organization, and build trust and purpose into the everyday life of the org. Our guests today provide actionable advice on how you can change the culture of your company and employees, and live a more meaningful life — starting today! Three Key Takeaways: Every leader — from thought leaders to the organizational C-Suite — needs to be authentic, caring, and purposeful, and strive to be the type of person others want to follow. Keeping a journal of thought and ideas can build a deeper understanding of everyday insights, and might even create the basis for your thought leadership! Doing good and making money doesn't have to be at odds. A profitable business can use its strength to create and fulfill a meaningful purpose.
Sep 8, 2022 • 21min
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. Michael has seen an increase in organizations wanting to shape the next generation of ethical and more diverse leadership. He shares how many people who are not used to being in a position of power or leadership can be ill-equipped to take the lead. Companies are investing in their future leaders by hiring coaches to help the next generation reach their full potential. In March of 2022, Michael published Get Promoted: What You're Really Missing at Work That's Holding You Back. We discuss why launching a book takes years of investment, and talk more about navigating the two sides of a coaching business - doing the grunt work of business, and the amazing potential of coaching. Three Key Takeaways: * Power and politics in the office can be leveraged ethically to accelerate your career. * Organizations wanting diverse leadership need to invest the time to train these potential leaders – but also accept that leadership can look different to many people. * When working as a coach for a company you need to be frank about the deliverable and how you will impact those you serve.
Sep 1, 2022 • 20min
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 like ImageShield requires educating the target audience on why this product is a necessity. Michael shares how he turned to Leveraging Thought Leadership for help in creating avatars, images, and strategies for reaching ImageShield's core audience and helping drive an understanding of its services Three Key Takeaways: * People have a need to be recognized for their dedication and hard work. * Good thought leadership can draw attention to common problems that are not top of mind to the average person. * When investing in thought leadership, find the people in your organization that can vocalize your org's mission, clearly and compellingly serving the brand.
Aug 28, 2022 • 36min
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 executives to participate in surveys and interviews can be a challenge. Their time is precious, but so is the information they have to offer. Manish shares his best tips for turning a data-driven interview into a two way street, where both parties are engaged and learning from the discussion. Manish also discussed how to create content that is fresh and compelling. Too often, content creators become focused on SEO results, which can create bland, cookie-cutter content. Manish shares how having passion and invoking curiosity in your audience can draw people in - and take your ideas to scale. Three Key Takeaways: * Blending human science with data collection allows us to understand what customers think and feel about our thought leadership. * In order to have successful interviews, the interviewer must also be transparent and open. A conversational experience will yield better results than a static list of questions. * People have a short attention span. If your content does not grab them in the first 5–10 lines, you will lose them.
Aug 25, 2022 • 35min
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 share why many organizations are likely to keep the bulk of their company-wide meetings virtual, and how that has put pressure on speakers not only to entertain but also to provide actionable advice. As part of the changes to the workforce, we've experienced The Great Resignation - which Shane feels is more of a "A Great Reshuffling." He states that more than 80% of employees who quit their job during this period were looking either for better payment or for a better culture. It's simply true that companies with higher employee satisfaction have higher customer satisfaction. Shep and Shane explore how a strong, well-communicated company vision can increase employee satisfaction, especially when supported by proper training. Companies need managers and leaders who role model that vision, and they need to celebrate the times when that vision translates into meaningful goals. Company culture is the combined attitude of the hearts and minds of an organization's employees. If you want to raise your company - and it's culture - to new heights. you'll want to listen to this episode! Three Key Takeaways: * Thought leadership practitioners delivering a keynote need to tell a good story, but also ensure that their content is actionable right away. * People have a need to collaborate and learn, so webinars need to be far more interactive, and contain more than simply a lecture. * Research and surveys must always be updated. The information you had five years ago may not be relevant today.
Aug 21, 2022 • 27min
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 research. Too often, great content sits on a shelf, untouched. To ensure that doesn't happen, Ginger forms relationships with the owners of internal content management hubs and owners of team-specific newsletters. That way, she keeps them informed of new, relevant content, and uses their channels to push content through the organization. In addition, by seeking input from others throughout the organization, Ginger and Claire Beatty, senior director of thought leadership, create a sense of ownership in the content as leaders see their input influence thier content. Ginger shares great advice for anyone working on or alongside a thought leadership role on how to create a great end user experience for content. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leadership is about engaging your audience and sharing insights with them on a broader level. * A shared editorial calendar is the key to ensuring thought leadership and content marketing work hand in hand. * In order to get your message across an organization you not only have to build relationships but you have to understand how information is disseminated across it.
