Thought Leadership really is 3D chess.
You’ve got to manage several goals and priorities within your thought leadership business, and achieving that balance can be daunting.
The first part of the challenge is knowing all the elements you have to manage. You can’t manage something that you don’t know exists, or that it should be managed, or that it could be managed. I find that a lot of Thought Leaders don’t realize some of these factors, or they don’t see the value in them.
This leads to a dysfunctional, unbalanced thought leadership business. And then you’re just another expert, shouting at the clouds.
One of the overlooked elements of Thought Leadership is this: you need to regularly deliver cool, interesting ideas to your followers. That is the crack that you dispense to keep followers hooked.
If you’re not willing and able to do this, and actually do it, you’re going to have a rough time as a Thought Leader.
People want to be entertained.
Johnny Carson used to tell people to compare his salary to the salary of the president of Harvard University to learn if Americans used to value education or entertainment more.
People like cool ideas much more than they like the actual “how-to” stuff. Of course, they need the educational elements as well, but it’s not enough on its own.
As you learn all of the various factors that make up a successful thought leadership business, you might find it’s more difficult than you thought it would be.
That’s normal. And I’m here to help. Your first step is to sign up for my daily thought leadership emails.