7 Words or Less: How to Simplify Complicated Ideas

jumbled line over cloudy background: simplify complicated ideas

Have you ever felt like your brain was full of spaghetti?. Your thoughts are jumbled. You have too much going on. You have good ideas, but they take a long time to explain. People’s eyes glaze over in the middle of your conversation. Most of the thought leaders I work with face this problem. They […]

Can AI Write Thought Leadership Content for You? [NOPE]

can AI write thought leadership?

Can AI write thought leadership for you? Short answer: No. Long answer: Let’s look back at how content has evolved online, then do a couple of experiments to see how savvy AI writing tools have become. A short history of bad content (aka ‘sludge’) When I think about AI writing, I don’t have to look […]

3 Kinds of Thought Leaders

3 kinds of thought leader: beacon, curator, challenger

What kind of thought leader do you want to be? When you reach a stage in your career that you’re ready to share your work, the easiest first step is to promote what you’re doing. To share the good news, shiny awards, and proud moments. I think of this first stage as “ads and accolades.” […]

How to Explore a NEW Idea

"NEW" with cursor arrow on pink background

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Or, in this case: Can an established thought leader pivot to explore new ideas? Today, I want to think about what happens when you add a new idea, layer, or dimension to your tried-and-true thought leadership. When you’re an experienced, established thought leader, your audience knows what […]

How to Be a Thought Leader AND a Private Person

“I want to pursue thought leadership as a strategy, but I’m a private person. I don’t want to spill my guts online.” A friend asked me this question the other day: Can you be a thought leader and a “private” person? My answer is a resounding YES. Here’s why: Thought leadership is about sharing your […]

One-Sentence Thought Leadership Strategy

What’s your thought leadership strategy? You might not be sure how to answer that question. You might think your thought leadership strategy is “LinkedIn.” Or “email.” Or “I’ve always thought I had a book in me…” Or if you like speaking, it could be “maybe I’ll get back on stage soon…” When I ask about […]

2022 Year in Review

calendar pages with bold numbers

How do you measure a year of work? In my work life, 2022 has been a banner year. I started and finished my second ghostwritten business book, and watched the project move from an idea through many rounds of research and manuscripts to a published book on bookshelves. I worked closely with longtime clients and […]

The Thought Leadership Cycle

image of spinning wheel with arrows in front of a colorful background

How can normal people turn their work into thought leadership? If you aren’t creating thought leadership now, how could you squeeze it into your already full schedule? A lot of people assume that thought leadership is for other people. But I’ve seen that thought leadership can and should be a part of most people’s everyday work […]

How to Set Goals for Your Thought Leadership

When you look ahead at next year, you could probably name a few business goals. But what are your thought leadership goals? When I talk about thought leadership goals, I’m really asking: What would happen if more people knew about your ideas? What could you accomplish?  A lot of people want to “be a thought […]

So You Want to Make a Business Podcast?

One of my favorite reports came out last week… 🤓 It’s the NPR/Edison Research Spoken Word Audio report. The 2022 report shows that podcast listenership is growing, big time. The quick stats that stood out to me: Podcast listening hit an all-time high in 2022: 62% of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast […]