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
Dec 10, 2020 • 22min
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Rita Clifton | 280
Today's guest is Rita Clifton, the co-founder, and chairman of BrandCap. She has been called "The Brand Guru" by the Financial Times and is the author of a new book Love Your Imposter: Be Your Best Self, Flaws and All. Rita is best known for her work on branding, so a book on imposter syndrome might seem like a departure. She shares why she wrote the book and the principles from branding she incorporated that can work in any aspect of your life. We discuss moving the book to the next stage and creating a business around it. What the goal of that might be, how it could play out, and how to scale it to reach more people than you ever could 1-on-1 or by webinars. In addition, we discuss the change many have experience of working from home using video tools to communicate and how it has added a touch of humanization to a business that is dearly needed in today's troubling times. If you feel like you are just faking it in your job you are not alone. 70% of people feel that way at some point in their career and this might be the conversation you need to hear in order to start believing in yourself. Three Key Takeaways: · Even the most successful professionals often feel like an imposter. Thought Leaders really need to come to understand themselves to overcome that feeling and help others. · When taking your thought leadership from written to scale, you need to fully understand your content or the tools you build from it will fail. · Often thought leaders will think of a brand as a logo, design, and packaging but it is the substance that lies beneath it all that is the most important part.
Dec 6, 2020 • 24min
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Dorie Clark | 279
Today's guest is Dorie Clark, one of the Top 50 Thinkers in the world by Thinkers 50 and the #1 Communication coach in the world by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards. She is the author of Entrepreneurial You and Reinventing You as well as a business professor at Duke and Columbia University. Dorie joins us to discuss what traditional avenues are still working for thought leaders in a world on pause due to COVID-19 in addition to what creative and new ideas have come from having to adapt to how the industry functions. Dorie shares how she created an online course by starting with a test group and developing the content in real-time, asking questions,s and taking feedback from the participants to nail down what was most important to them. Plus she explains how she adds community to the fully developed course and why that aspect is so important to make the content really stick. Last we discuss the future of thought leadership post-COVID-19, the plans that are being made to account for the unknown variables that still lie ahead, what changes we've made that we might stick with and what old habits will we return to. If you are thinking about developing online content or worried about how to continue business in the future Dorie and Peter have some amazing advice for you in this episode. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leaders can gain an invaluable amount of feedback from running their content at a discount with a test group. * You can add additional value to your thought leadership by developing a community that allows peer-to-peer learning. * Thought Leaders need to be prepared for how the industry will change post-COVID-19 and what aspects we are currently living with that might stay the same.
Dec 3, 2020 • 20min
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Rhett Power | 278
Today's guest is Rhett Power. In 2007 he co-founded Wild Creations which became one of Inc. Magazines 500 Fastest-Growing US companies. Currently, he is a co-founder of Courageous Leadership a consultancy that brings an amalgamation of experienced behavior scientists, entrepreneurs, and best-selling authors together. He is the best-selling author of The Entrepreneur's Book of Actions and One Million Frogs. Rhett discusses how the need to follow his gut led him from position to position while avoiding becoming complacent and then as he became better known avoided becoming over-committed. Rhett has a strong background as a writer, starting with Inc. Magazine and he shares how working for them allowed him to use their brand recognition to open doors and meet people he previously might not have received access to. Rhett hosts Linkedin Live interviews and he details how he is not only able to build two and three other pieces of content out of each interview but how he is building relationships that help share his content, introduce new people, and even become clients! Three Key Takeaways: · Thought leaders need to trust their gut and move to new challenges when it tells them to. · Live interviews via podcast or Linkedin live can be turned into multiple pieces of written short-form Thought Leadership after the fact. · Building a following for your thought leadership is a multi-year commitment. You have to have a work ethic around it and be persistent.
Nov 29, 2020 • 38min
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Michele Zanini | 277
Today's guest is Michele Zanini, the co-founder and Management Director of Management Lab and co-author with Gary Hamel of the best-selling book Humanorcracy a thought-provoking book about organizational change that will help you scale the creative ability of each person in your organization and break through the bureaucracy that often kills innovation. Michele discusses why many organizations continue to operate with a top-down bureaucracy heavy structure that is outdated, while those that embrace change and enable the power of each individual in the company are having record-breaking production and innovation. We discuss the struggle of creating and transmitting thought leadership ideas internally across a company with thousands of employees and how enabling the voices that are often not heard, both inside and outside of an organization can be part of the solution. Michele and Bill also talk about the need for a clear and solid strategy and how it will be impossible to create compelling thought leadership without it. If this deep conversation leaves you wanting more pick up Humanorcracy and for a limited time you can get a four-hour free course filled with tools and tips that will help you create a resilient, creative, and daring organization! Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders should consider an approach that unleashes the creative potential of each individual in an organization. Thought leaders will need to develop a clear and well thought out strategy if they want to cultivate persuasive thought leadership. Thought leaders in an organization should reach out to the voices that are often not heard to find new points of view that are likely valuable and overlooked.
Nov 22, 2020 • 38min
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Luke Collins | 276
Today's guest is Luke Collins, the Managing Director, and Global Editor-in-Chief at EY. Luke has had a number of thought leadership roles at high profile companies with a background in journalism before that. Luke talks with us about thought leadership being at an inflection point where there is tension between the need to push users towards the products you are offering and the need to retain a sense of objectivity that engenders trust. We discuss how EY managed to reframe their thought leadership early in the year with the outbreak of COVID-19 and how they are using a Now, Next, Beyond framework to manage what type of content they publish as the world changes. Next Luke shares how he is using his journalistic sensibilities to help build content that is able to grab reader attention in the first 20 seconds and present short-form articles that deliver powerful and useful information. Plus we discuss how you can use the same content in different formats to reach the end-user where they are and not where you want them to be. If you want to make content that tells the user what they need to know in a manner they will actually consume it, this is an episode filled with advice for you. Three Key Takeaways: · Thought leaders need to deliver the information leaders want to know and the information they need to know. · The format of your thought leadership is critical. Breaking it down into bite-sized chunks is more effective than a 3000-word essay. · Creating thought leadership like a journalist would deliver a story can capture an audience and connect with them in an impactful way.
Nov 19, 2020 • 22min
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Jeff DeGraff | 275
Today's guest is the "Dean of Innovation" Jeff DeGraff, is the founder of the Innovatrium an innovation consulting firm focusing on creating innovation culture, capability, and community. Jeff is also a business professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and bestselling author of The Creative Mindset. Jeff sits down with Peter to discuss how positive deviance is the driving force behind innovation and why bureaucracy both can stifle progress by attempting to pull everything into a more traditional standard. Jeff explains his business model, how it evolved, and how finding new applications for established schools of thought has allowed him to create hybrid schools that have become the key to innovation. Last Jeff tells us the four things you should think about in your life, why they are important, and why for better or worse you need to own them! If you are the creative type, feeling stifled by red tape this episode will give you the insight you need to charge forward! Three Key Takeaways: Cutting edge thought leadership will often feel deviant to the norms because it does not fit into the established standards. Thought leaders should surround themselves with other talented people that will challenge your thinking and force you to regularly evolve. Often there is no career for thought leaders. You'll need to create your own job and make it up as you go.
Nov 15, 2020 • 23min
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Kara Goldin | 274
We are thrilled to have Kara Goldin join us again! Kara is the Founder and CEO of Hint Inc, the host of the podcast Unstoppable with Kara, a keynote speaker first-time author of the best-selling book Undaunted! Kara shares how the four-year process of writing the book played out, while she continued to run her company and host a podcast! She explains how continuous e-mails from customers who were influenced by her story of becoming an entrepreneur influenced the stories she shared and how the stories in the book were therapeutic to share. We discuss with Kara how the book has helped the business and how it can be used as a recruiting tool for attracting talent to the company. Many first time authors have different objectives for their book, Kara talks about what she wants from the book and what success would look like for her. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more about Kara and Hint Inc. check out episode 90! Three Key Takeaways: · Thought leaders can take the stories of their experiences and hardships and turn them into a book or larger content to help their audience. · A book about your thought leadership can be a good tool to attract people who will better understand you to want to work with you. · Thought leaders who keep an open means of communication with their audience can use that to determine what content would be useful to them.
Nov 12, 2020 • 22min
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Geoff Woods | 273
Today's guest is Geoff Woods, the co-founder, and vice-president of The One Thing, a training and education company based on the best-selling book The One Thing. Geoff is also the host of the One Thing Podcast which is in the top 5% of podcasts in the world. Geoff shares how he had a successful job that lacked fulfillment and how he found his purpose after rushing to meet Jay Papasan when he came off stage at a conference. Geoff faced the uphill task of making a successful business based on the content of The One Thing without the ability to use either Jay or Gary Keller as the face. We dig deep into building content and IP from the book, the business model, and why thought leaders should distance themselves from their own work to ensure the content and assets can stand on their own. Geoff talks to us about the training they do, how they've found success in the virtual space by looking at what they can become and not getting hung up on what the company was in the past. If you want to be able to detach yourself from your product to have the freedom of being obsolete this is an episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders need to invest time in the creation of content that can stand without them in the room. As thought leaders move deeper into virtual events, you need to think hard about how to continue to build a sense of community in that space. A common problem thought leaders face is the inability to look forward. Don't get obsessed with what you used to be to the detriment of what you might become.
Nov 8, 2020 • 20min
Leveraging Thought Leadership |Moshe Engelberg | 272
Today's guest is Moshe Engelberg, the founder, and CEO of ResearchWorks and author of The Amare Wave. The Amare Wave is an incredible book about breaking away from the old warlike paradigm in business to introduce love and outperform the completion. Moshe explains the origin of the Amare Wave and the common things he found in a traditional business that made him realize the old ways were outdated. He explains how business tradition had a warlike paradigm of terms like "Crush the competition" and "Killing it" that we're creating a resentful environment for employees and clients. Moshe goes on to talk about how brands that are loved tend to build loyalty with their clients and loyalty can quickly turn to profits! Some might think love isn't a suitable word in business, but who doesn't want people to love their company? Join the Amare Wave and watch your profits soar! Three Key Takeaways: The paradigm of business is changing. Is your thought leadership changing with it? Thought leadership can often include words like love that make people uncomfortable, so sometimes you need to be able to use other words to get the same point across. If people come to love your thought leadership, they will be loyal to your brand, and that will result in increased profits.
Nov 5, 2020 • 28min
Leveraging Thought Leadership | Mark Victor Hansen | 271
Today's guest is Mark Victor Hansen, the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul franchise and best-selling author of The Power of Focus, The Aladdin Factor, and Dare to Win. Mark discusses how he shifted from a business going bankrupt to a best-selling author! He shares his years of experience about how the book business has changed from selling books at the back of the room to online, and how things are changing again due to COVID-19. Mark gives incredible insights into how he makes a licensed the Chicken Soup for the Soul books when no one had ever thought it was possible to license a book. We wrap up by disusing how you can keep your name relevant while travel restrictions remain in place by taking advantage of being a podcast guest and learning to speak without an audience in front of you. Three Key Takeaways: Thought leaders need to keep up with the changing environment of sales for books. Licensing your thought leadership might be the method you have not thought of to reach a huge audience. Thought Leaders should be seeking podcasts to appear on to spread the word about their content while our movement is restricted.
