Leveraging Thought Leadership

Peter Winick and Bill Sherman

Episodes

Mentioned books

undefined
Jan 30, 2022 • 36min

When Ideas Disrupt the Status Quo | Trevor Merriden | 370

How do great thought leaders successfully connect their content to their business objectives in a way that causes real impact? It's all about strategy. Strategy is the most overlooked piece of thought leadership. Even with compelling stories, brilliant insights, and a drive to share with their audience, some thought leaders fail simply because they didn't know how to craft a winning strategy to deploy their content. Our guest today is Trevor Merriden, Founder and CEO of Merriborn Media Ltd, a company that puts businesses on the fast track to content competency. Trevor started his thought leadership journey as an economist, finding the stories in numerical data. He took those insights and became a business journalist, helping Human Resources (or, in UK terms, the Personnel Department) find more strategic approaches to telling those stories - and delivering them with impact. After taking the role of editor as far as he could, Trevor started his own company. Now, he helps business clients deploy their thought leadership content with comprehensive, successful strategies. Trevor discusses the future of thought leadership, and how the field might grow and change as it evolves. Trevor also shares the three C's: Curiosity, Clarity, and Collaboration; when used effectively as a strategy, these can give your insights the impact and reach necessary for success. In addition, we discuss how the pandemic has had an impact on thought leadership, encouraging people to make better use of time and technology and allowing ideas to move faster than ever before. We also discuss the pitfalls of the virtual world, and how quiet voices can be lost amid the noise - unless they possess a strategy to help draw attention to their insights. Our conversation covers how a thought leader can grow from any role where a passion for curiosity and storytelling exists. Three Key Takeaways: If you have a driving curiosity to find answers and share insights, you need to be part of an organization that will support your creation of thought leadership content. Organizational thought leadership content needs to keep the strategic goals of the company in mind. Thought Leadership doesn't have to be a solo mission. The world's largest problems will require collaborative efforts.
undefined
Jan 23, 2022 • 32min

Thought Leadership in Stealth Mode| Clarinda Cerejo | 369

When did you first realize you were creating and deploying thought leadership? Many thought leadership practitioners were unknowingly performing the function before they stepped up to the title. However, adding the words "Thought Leader" to your title shines a particular spotlight on your talents. The title often comes with high expectations — and a need for clear metrics to show that your work makes sense. To explore how a new thought leadership role can be developed, and how to help it evolve and move forward, we turn to Clarinda Cerejo, Senior Director of Thought Leadership at Cactus Communications, a technology company that is accelerating scientific advancement by making research available to communities around the world. Clarinda tells us how Cactus Communications supported her work developing a formal thought leadership role, from the earliest days of research to the expansive plan of building communities. She also discusses what it meant to both her and her organization when she finally included the words "thought leadership" in her formal title. Determining what success looks like for thought leadership can be challenging. Clarinda gives clear examples of metrics you can use, why you need to celebrate the small victories, and how success is cumulative. Thought leadership means being invested in the long haul, and watching trends, not fads. We examine the work Clarinda is doing, and the challenges she has faced in moving from scientific research to content marketing. She carries the scientific method into her work doing community building, helping others get their work published, and navigating the difficult peer-review process. This conversation is a perfect example of the arc a career can take, from subtly doing thought leadership to steering the ship for your company. Listen in, and get insights from one of the most insightful new thought leaders in the business! Three Key Takeaways: * Remember that the external perception of your role is more important than any title. Do the work - recognition will come! * Success in Thought Leadership often looks different than success in marketing or sales. Celebrate the small victories, because they will add up to big changes. * Focusing Thought Leadership on community lets you create content that gives voices to those who have been most impacted.
undefined
Jan 20, 2022 • 21min

Transitioning from Corporate Leadership to Executive Coaching | Lance Tanaka | 368

Many believe that being a great leader in the business world means you're automatically going to be a great leadership coach. If you can do it, you can teach it, right? Wrong! Teaching is a difficult skill, one that must be learned and developed like any other. Many brilliant leaders fail to achieve success as a coach simply because they don't prepare for "Teacherhood." They face difficulties translating their insights, as well as discussing premium fees, or maintaining networks. So how do you make the leap? For our answer, we turn to Lance Tanaka, Founder and Managing Director of the Lance Tanaka Group, an organization focusing on coaching the best of the best around the world. Lance shares how he went from the general manager of Pepsi Tokyo to being a renowned executive coach, accumulating over 17,000 hours helping executives around the world since the Lance Tanaka Group's inception in 2001. He expresses the importance of self-discovery as an aid in coaching, and explains why more CEOs need to take time out for their own self-reflection. We examine the three things Lance looks at when hiring coaches to work at his company, and ways that new coaches can avoid falling prey to common problems. He explains why it's critical to keep an updated and relevant network, secure referrals, and be steadfast in your fees - and how many new coaches struggle with these issues. Lance lists the critical strengths a coach needs to bring to the table - and specific industry knowledge isn't at the top of the list! If you are starting to think about your future moving from the corporate space into coaching, or have struggled as a new coach, this is a great episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders seeking to coach need a passion for helping people change, and a strong ability to connect and empathize with their clients. It is imperative that Thought Leaders keep in touch with their network as their career path evolves, to ensure your connections know about your current offerings. When it comes to fees for Thought Leadership, don't be afraid to stand your ground. Offer smaller scope for a limited budget instead of discounts on your rates.
undefined
Jan 16, 2022 • 21min

Best of 2021 Organizational Thought Leadership | Jayshree Seth, Jeff Kavanaugh, Melanie Huet, and Thomas Kolditz | 367

Over the holidays, we took a look back at the conversations that have stood out from 2021. We were honored to speak with some amazing thought leadership practitioners, but a few really stood out, and we wanted to share them again: Jayshree Seth, Chief Science Advocate at , shares the way she is turning the scientific methods and processes used in the lab to also promote science advocacy. She talks about how to create a clear picture of goals, raise awareness, and break down the barriers and boundaries that impede scientific progress. Jeff Kavanaugh is the Global Head of the Infosys Knowledge Institute, the research and thought leadership arm of the Infosys diversified technology and digital firm. Jeff helps us understand the idea of "Quantum Organization," his method of doing many things at once, and challenges us to see how even small changes can bring about drastic impact. Melanie Huet is the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Serta Simmons Bedding. She provides critical insights about using modern marketing tools like TikTok to elevate awareness and spark conversations, and the challenges of transforming a long-established brand into a modern must-have. Thomas Kolditz is the author of Leadership Reckoning and Director of The Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. Thomas shares The Institute's two-fold mission: to create a powerful and widely available leader development experience, and to improve the quality of leader development in higher education everywhere. These were inspirational guests, with meaningful messages. We're thrilled to be able to shine a spotlight on them once more, and wish all of you the very best in 2022!
undefined
Jan 13, 2022 • 20min

Spiritual Thought Leadership | Kristoffer "KC" Carter | 366

What role can yoga and meditation play in the business world? Can leaders use these unconventional methods as an epic spiritual guide? How do you use empowering techniques to coach executives and corporations toward greater success? Today our guest is Kristoffer "KC" Carter, author of Permission to Glow: A Spiritual Guide to Epic Leadership, which outlines the first of four permissions that will create a long-term framework for Kristofer's works. He's the author of Permission to Glow: A Spiritual Guide to Epic Leadership, as well as an international speaker and retreat leader who teaches at the intersection of consciousness and business. We begin our conversation by exploring what KC means by "spiritual leader," and how meditation connects to business and thought leadership. Techniques like yoga and Transcendental Meditation are being used by high-profile CEOs around the world, and KC's methods bring those insights into the business world. KC discusses the ways that spirituality and meditation are critical to business leadership, and how he's pushing past the barriers of skepticism to bring deep insights to leaders from the Fortune 100 as well as newly-minted start-ups. He uses mindset to help leaders find clarity, and commit to the things that energize, inspire, and ignite them. KC's deep knowledge of instructional design is being put to good use, creating a strong thought leadership IP that is teachable, and requires only 15 minutes a day for leaders to change their lives. He shares details on his coaching certification program, allowing others to manage relationships within their organization and take back control of their lives. If you are curious about how spiritually can give your business a boost, KC's insights and thought leadership are a great place to start. Listen in, and it might just make your life epic, too! Three Key Takeaways: · Help organizations justify the expense of bringing in your thought leadership by providing benchmarks, methods for measuring success, and hard data to back up your content. · Creating a program of certified coaches to deliver your Thought Leadership is a great way to take your message to scale. · Without proper instructional design, your thought leadership programs could feel like nothing more than speaking notes. Take some time, and prepare for success!
undefined
Jan 6, 2022 • 21min

Best of 2021

It has become a tradition to start the new year off with a look back at a few of the great episodes and most inspiring guests of our previous year's podcast. For 2021, we hope you'll enjoy great advice from: Doug Conant, best-selling author of The Blueprint and CEO of Conant Leadership. Doug shares insights about balancing his time as a thought leader and a CEO, and ways to make time for self-reflection. It's important to ensure that the things which matter most are never forgotten in the press of less-important burdens. John Warrillow is the Founder of the Value Builder System and Best-selling author of Built to Sell. John talks about the best parts of coaching, and opens up about the psychology of selling to entrepreneurs vs. enterprise, and the need to find the niche that works best for you. Lisa Bodell is the CEO of FutureThink and author of the best-selling book Kill the Company. In our conversation, we explore the meaning of her term "futurist," and how Lisa found a way to guide people to their potential and teach change through a structured format. Tom Schwab is the founder of Interview Valet and the author of PODCAST GUEST PROFITS. Tom sheds light on proper etiquette as a podcast guest, and talks about ways to turn guest speaking on an episode into a relationship that can help you attract and keep engaged customers.
undefined
Jan 3, 2022 • 40min

Building a Global Movement | Jacqueline Jodl - & Haylie Wrubel | 364

How do you grow a movement from a backyard enterprise to a global mission reaching hundreds of thousands of people each day? Today, we discuss the ongoing 50+-year mission of the Special Olympics with Jacqueline Jodl, Senior Vice President of Global Youth & Education and Haylie Wrubel, Director of Global Unified Champion Schools. We start our conversation by discussing the way Special Olympics is bringing together people with and without intellectual disabilities to share experiences and build a common language. Their goal: create an understanding of the value of social and academic inclusion. One of the methods by which they achieve this goal is through creating Unified Champion Schools, a worldwide network of schools with inclusive programs, both sport and academic. Together, they bring people with differences together to build friendship and create leadership. Taking a grassroots idea to scale is never easy, but is exactly what the Special Olympics has done. Jackie and Haylie share some of the methods they've used to create an impact on a global level. We discover how thought leadership resides at the intersection of research, policy, and practice, and how creating that thought leadership is at the heart of their work. In addition, we learn how a focus on storytelling and sharing the real-life stories of individuals and schools can resonate with policymakers and move the needle on a global scale. In addition, Jackie and Haylie discuss how they go about cultivating allies and ambassadors for their movement. They explain why you shouldn't be too narrow while identifying allies, how you can co-create content, and how you can turn followers into allies and ambassadors. This is a fascinating look at how the Special Olympics has grown, and continues to grow, across the world - creating a positive social impact for everyone. Three Key Takeaways: Scaling thought leadership can be done by using a policy that works in one area and modifying it to suit another. Thought leadership is more authentic when you give voice to those it is intended to impact. Creating thought leadership for a global movement involves having an infrastructure with staff and volunteers in the communities they are intending to work with.
undefined
Dec 30, 2021 • 20min

How Thought Leadership Can Differentiate Your Brand | Denise Blasevick | 363

With so many brands in the marketplace, how can you elevate yours? And how do you stay unique, eye-catching, and authentic to your vision? To help address these questions, we turn to Denise Blasevick, CEO and Founding Partner of The S3 Agency. The S3 Agency provides advertising, marketing, and PR for companies seeking stronger strategy and an authentic voice that differentiates your brand from all others. Denise shares how thought leadership can make your business stand out, and earn trust. She was the on-air marketing make-over expert for an MSNBC program for nearly a decade, and that exposure allowed her company to compete with larger firms and punch above their level. She offers tips she learned staying true to her vision in a sea of competition, and how she found people that shared her breakthrough point of view. In today's society, your brand must be authentic. Some choose to lean into (or away from) certain political issues, but Denise used her unique perspective to guide her brand's voice. Today, she walks us through the reasons how and why a brand should engage in the conversation about difficult topics. Further, she reminds us that leaning into a cause means more than giving lip service to your views; you must act on them, or your audience will call your authenticity into question. The S3 Agency has helped clients, from BMW Motorcycles to Tetley Tea, develop their brands. Denise explains the Brand Elevation Process used to collaborate with clients and help them reach the next level. She explains how she broke years of gut instinct down into small, measurable parts, then used her insights to build a codified process that allows brands to scale their business. Whether your brand is big or small, this conversation can help you find clarity and meaning - and find success! Three Key Takeaways: When codifying your thought leadership, break it down into its most basic pieces. Then, of each part, ask "Does this really matter?" For thought leadership to change the world, it must do more than talk about it. You must stand for something, take action, and be the change you want to see in the world. The only way to scale thought leadership effectively is to create a process that allows others to replicate your results.
undefined
Dec 26, 2021 • 34min

Launching a Thought Leadership Function | Erica James | 362

Once you realize that your company needs a full-fledged thought leadership role, how do you make that vision a reality? What information should be included in your proposal? Who do you need to buy-in, and what would the role entail? These are some of the questions we explore in this episode. Our guest is Erica James, Director of Customer Marketing and Thought Leadership at Medallia. Medallia's award-winning SaaS platform, the Medallia Experience Cloud, leads the market in the understanding and management of experience for customers, employees, and citizens by utilizing a proprietary AI technology to turn personalized and predictive insights into tremendous business results. We explore the journey Erica has taken; from her instinctive talent for thought leadership, to pitching and developing her formal position as thought leader at Medallia. Erica describes how she knew the position would benefit the company, the way her personal love of thought leadership played a part in getting executive buy-in, and the way her new role increases employee satisfaction throughout the entire organization. Erica shares with us the way feedback from current clients is a source of inspiration, as she takes their requests for information and turns that into a drive that shapes content. She discusses the many people who have come out of the woodwork to work with her now that her position is formalized, and how she shines the spotlight on them (both internally and externally) to develop their brand. Finally, we discuss the methods of coaching Erica employs to move others along the thought leader road. By using an apprenticeship model she is able to make meaningful relationships and then by breaking down thought leadership into bite-sized chunks, she makes the task manageable and more comfortable for new practitioners to accomplish. This episode gives amazing insights and pathways toward standing up a new thought leadership role inside an organization, and will be useful to those looking to become thought leaders as well as to executives wanting to create a thought leadership function inside their organization. Be sure to listen in! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership is like a marching band. Everyone on the team has a unique role that adds to the harmony of the music. When adding a thought leadership function to an organization, start with the question, "What outcome are we trying to reach?" People are seeking thought leadership content that is authentic and approachable. The personal touch can carry you far!
undefined
Dec 19, 2021 • 27min

Thought Leadership and Storytelling | Michelle Mellon | 361

Today's guest is Michelle Mellon, Thought Leadership Director at SalientMG, a strategic marketing firm that creates custom programs for clients seeking to spur new business, create awareness, or get recognition as an industry leader. Michelle is also an accomplished short-fiction author; her work can be found in compilations like The Year's Best African Speculative Fiction. She's an expert in using creative storytelling to drive insights and make thought leadership accessible and powerful. When writing a work of fiction, Michelle often starts with the question of "What if?" And, indeed, as she tells us today, that question also forms a powerful intersection between fiction and thought leadership. Michelle explains how her thought leadership goes deeper. She looks at trends, listens to her audience, and crafts stories that will both educate and entertain. In our conversation, Michelle explains the basics of storytelling, and how the elements of fiction can also empower good thought leadership content. Michelle walks us through the best practices of crafting and telling engaging stories about leadership, brand, and mission, and explains that by following and even sometimes breaking the rules of basic storytelling, one can capture and inspire an audience. Every author has to find their voice and stay true to it. Michelle explains why an authentic voice is necessary to craft good thought leadership. In addition, we discuss ways to develop the mind's ear, and how to use voice and language that is specific to every audience. Having a distinct voice will only carry you so far - if your audience doesn't understand or isn't interested in what you are talking about, your thought leadership won't stick! This is an insightful episode for creative writers entering the world of thought leadership, and for those seeking to breathe life into an idea and share it with others. Listen in! Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders should embrace the speculative and look into the future as they craft their content. Your ideas don't have to be 100% right; they just have to be engaging and enlightening. It's a fallacy to think that long-form content has more prestige. Convey your thought leadership in a variety of formats, and you'll reach a wider audience. Thought leadership needs to tell your personal story, share your experiences and your mission, but it must also inspire others - and to do that, you must share it in a way that they can understand.

The AI-powered Podcast Player

Save insights by tapping your headphones, chat with episodes, discover the best highlights - and more!
App store bannerPlay store banner
 Get the app