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 to expect from you:
✅You have a clear thought leadership strategy — you know who you help, what you help them achieve through your content, and how you do it.
🥁You’ve been beating the same drum for years.
💡You’ve built your platform around a core idea.
🔁You’ve mastered the thought leadership cycle (do work for clients, reflect on that work, document your insights through thought leadership.
🗻You’ve climbed your perch and gained perspective and wisdom.
What’s next? How can you build on that steady foundation…and talk about something new?
Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to help an established thought leader go down a new path. She’s still standing firmly on the body of work she’s been building for years, but she’s talking to new people and exploring those familiar ideas from a new angle.
And it’s incredibly refreshing for her as a writer and community-builder and for her audience. As the world is evolving, she’s evolving too.
Why should you explore new ideas as a thought leader?
Here’s why I encourage thought leaders to try something new, even if their tried-and-true platform is working.
When you explore new ideas, you…
Unlock new energy and creativity.
If you’ve spent years (or even decades) building your platform around a core idea, you know your topic backward and forward. But you might also be a little bit bored. If you’ve given the same keynote 100 times, or written the literal book on your subject, you can find renewed energy from dipping your toe into a different pond. You’ll unlock new ideas, new enthusiasm, and new people to dialogue with. Which leads me to another benefit of exploring new ideas…
Open the door to new partnerships and relationships.
Even a seasoned leader with an incredible network (the person who knows “everybody who’s anybody”) can get a boost of insight, perspective, and connection when they explore a new pool of people and ideas. Who are the people just outside your current network who you want to talk to? Who are the upstarts and newcomers who could give you a new angle on your body of work? Find those people and be open-minded about what they can teach you.
Evolve your ideas.
We all get better when we challenge ourselves. The same is true for our thought leadership. If you’ve been circling the same topic area for years, you might be immune to criticism or feedback. People accept you as the leader in the space. But if you venture outside your core topic, you enter a space where you can experiment, iterate, and test new ideas. The most inspiring leaders are always pushing toward their “growth edge” (a new-to-me term that I love), even if trying something new means they run the risk of looking foolish or green. The best ideas are always evolving. Are yours?
How to update your thought leadership strategy
If you’re exploring a new idea, it’s not hard to update your thought leadership strategy to guide your exploration.
I’ve shared the simple one-sentence framework I use for thought leadership strategy:
I help
people
do something
using tools/frameworks.
Most likely, you can keep the same core strategy — just add a new element.
Maybe you’re broadening (or narrowing!) the group of people you’re talking to.
Maybe you’re helping them do something new.
Or (and this is how most people pivot and add new ideas), you’re introducing a new tool/framework.
The good news is that most people follow leaders’ work because they like and trust them. So your audience (whether that’s just your internal team or your millions of social media followers) will likely be game to follow along as you explore a new topic, even if it’s not the topic that hooked them on your work in the first place. If you stay true to how you deliver your ideas, I’ve found that people are generally open to what you’ll explore next.
