Welcome to The Thought Leadership Lab

I know, I know.

You might read the term "thought leadership" and roll your eyes a bit, especially if you're a marketer or have been steeped in the culture of everyone trying to outwit algorithms with their hot takes, carousels, and pithy "99% of people don't know this secret" posts.

But that's not thought leadership. It really isn't.

Thought leadership, on its own merits, is incredibly powerful for building both personal/individual brands and subject matter expertise as well as fueling the growth of corporate brands through authority, influence and knowledge work.

But 99% of people...sorry. Just kidding.

Jokes aside, doing thought leadership well is the accelerant for long-term growth. In fact, nearly 3/4 of decision makers say that a organizations thought leadership is a more trustworthy basis for assessing capabilities than typical marketing content. But the reality is that far too many companies wrap their thinly-veiled "lead capture" or sales motions in something they call thought leadership but is mostly just product marketing.

And as individuals, I think we inherently know that we should be using our expertise and knowledge to share it, to help uplevel other people and to make our distinctive mark on our industry, but so much of what passes as "thought leadership" is the same generic best practice advice that's been rinsed and repeated for ages and doesn't do a thing to help elevate either a personal brand or a company brand. It's devoid of personality, voice, or point of view. Some of that is because people don't know where to start, others are because we don't want to put in consistent work, and still more is because we don't know how to walk the Magic Line of personal and professional balance that elevates our reputation without putting it at risk.

We're going to talk about all of that.

Here at the Thought Leadership Lab, we're going to :

• Dismantle the cliches and veneers around what passes for "thought leadership" and zero in on the leadership part so we can understand what makes for a unique, authoritative voice people will pay attention to
• Highlight examples of people and companies really nailing the fundamentals of great thought leadership
• Share research, data, and insights about why thought leadership isn't just about "consideration" but is actually about building long-tail reputation and credibility that has everything to do with brand distinction and reaching those elusive out-of-market buyers
• Talk about what it takes to find and shape your individual voice and integrate it into your work, whether you're focused on building your personal brand or using your individual platform to elevate and amplify the work you do in a professional role.

If you're interested in all of that, I hope you'll subscribe and bring a few friends along. The vibes are casual but rich with real talk, real world examples, and a couple of decades of building my own platform, creating thought leadership programs with some of the biggest brands in the world, and everything I've learned (and screwed up) along the way.

Looking forward to having you.