Thought leadership is … what, again?
What it means, why it connects to passion, what personal branding has to do with it, and how to discover yours.
Let’s start with passion. What is it good for? Absolutely everything.
Without the grit and determination that comes from passion, the strength to persevere from passion, we wouldn’t have seen women’s college basketball season views climb higher in ratings than men’s college basketball. The women’s pro basketball team Dallas Wings would never have sold out a season.
There’s something powerful, unique in you that needs to find voice.
Because there’s no getting around that you’ll bleed in pursuit of building what’s next.
There’s nothing easy in front of you.
Without passion, thought leadership is missing a key element, like lukewarm coffee.
You may still get a caffeine buzz, but did we feel the full depth of it?
Not like we would if it were hot or iced.
At the edges.
At the forefront.
Not in the middle, trying to please everyone.
Thought leadership: My definition:
Lived experience
Expertise
What you LOVE
What makes you FURIOUS
Everyone who’s ever mentored you.
The books you read
The pods you listen to
What you think about
What you see when you look out your window.
All of this together. From this intersection, you speak, point the way forward.
And personal branding?
Personal branding is the gift wrapping around your thought leadership. How it looks, sounds, makes people feel when it’s expressed.
How do you find your thought leadership?
Thought leadership - is it in you? It’s the braver version of you found in your writing. In conversation. In being surrounded by people who champion and support you.
It’s time to dig for it. A visioning exercise:
You stumble off a 24-hour plane with the flu, hungry, dehydrated. Someone picks you up at the airport, and says:
“Our conference speaker just cancelled and you’re needed - we’re going there now!”
And you’re THRILLED! Even though you smell!
Because you love THAT THING so much.
And you’d talk about it, even in your condition.
This is a clue. Make a list of five things that could be your thought leadership, then, do this:
Instead of staring inward -
Just make friends around topics you love.
Just meet cool people you like, and engage with them in your network.
Where you come alive gets revealed and THEN - the clients you want, the life you want, the network you want begins to emerge.
Because you’ll be KNOWN.
You’ll build a network and followership while talking about what you love - and that audience will carry you through whatever pivots you’ll want to make.
Speak from your one-of-a-kind thought leadership, and tell us what you’re seeing, where we could go from here, what pitfalls to avoid. Be passionate, and listen to what the market wants from you.
You’ll find that the thought leadership explodes out of you with little trouble.
So if you’re stuck - and don’t know what to write about here on Substack or on LinkedIn?
Are you unsure about what service to offer?
👉 If it’s passion-less, it’s missed.
I’ll share my stories about the pivots I’ve made because of thought leadership in a future edition.
Julie
Check out Personal Brand Bootcamp - LinkedIn Top Voice Melissa Cohen and I have trained 125+ later career folks to use their voice in thought leadership, how to show up with a strong personal brand, with the confidence and accountability of a community to fuel their journey. We mean business.