One of the questions I’m constantly asked is, “I want to be a Thought Leader; what do I say?”
Fair question! And as I said, not an uncommon one. We all have to speak knowledge and wisdom into the silent void.
So I’m going to give you three types of things that Thought Leaders say, so that you will at least have a perspective you can work from. You can take your pick between them.
The first things Thought Leaders say are things that haven’t been said before. We introduce original concepts and market those concepts. Let the content marketers write about us. So we say things that have never been said before.
But you don’t always have to be so original, because that’s extremely difficult to do. If you have three to five original concepts, you could have a entire thought leadership career based around those concepts.
Second, we say things that have been said before in ways they have never been said before. Tibor Kalman, one of the premier graphics designers of the late 20th century, once said, “I’m always trying to turn things upside down and see if they look any better.”
That’s what Thought Leaders do. We turn things upside down and provide another perspective.
Third, we re-introduce people to forgotten and valuable knowledge. It always amazes me how easy it is to find what seem like new ideas in very old books. We’re always on the hunt for old, rare, and valuable knowledge. So we repeat things that haven’t been said in a really long time.
So to recap, we say things that have never been said before, we say things that have been said before in ways they haven’t been said before, and we say things that haven’t been said in a really long time.
I hope this helps you conquer the blank page.
If you are an up and coming Thought Leader, I have something to give you. I want to help you grow into that role, and you will learn a lot from my daily thought leadership emails. You can sign up — it doesn’t cost anything — at You Can Be A Thought Leader.