Thought Leadership

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Thought leadership is something that you want to develop regarding your personal brand. Your personal brand is simply how people see you. Do they see you as an executive? Do they see you as a VP? Do they see you as a specific type of entrepreneur? Do they see you as somebody who helps Black men get executive roles? This is your personal brand—what people believe about you before you even answer the door.

Thought leadership is adding a particular perspective and sharing that with the general marketplace for your specific niche target market. When you are seen as a thought leader, and you have specific knowledge to share, people will seek you out for opportunities, consultations, and job openings where you can share your expertise.

Below, I will provide you with the top five methods of thought leadership and how you can position yourself for greater well-being, greater respect, and greater recognition as a professional.

The number one thing is going to be writing articles. Whether this is for LinkedIn, your own email newsletter, or writing for newspapers and magazines, writing articles is one of the top ways to position yourself as a thought leader, as people get to consume your content and constantly be informed by your unique perspectives.

Number two is writing a book. Writing a book is different than writing for magazines and articles. This is going to be more substantial as far as the breadth of life in the perspectives and information that you provide, and it will give you an immediate boost in the authority you perceive to have on a particular topic, sector, or industry. Writing a book can take some time. However, if you connect with the right distribution company or your marketing campaign is effective, you can leverage it for 5K, 10K, and 20K corporate speaking gigs, one-on-one consultations, million-dollar funding for your next venture, an amazing new job, and the personal satisfaction and achievement that come with being an author.

One low-hanging fruit that everybody can do is become a podcast host. Simply choosing your topic and having some regular cadence of distribution is all you need to get your name out. Many podcasts in the business sector are going to focus on leadership, team development, organizational psychology, diversity issues, coaching, executive perspectives, and hundreds of other related business perspectives.

Number four is going to be a social media influencer by producing videos. Simply put, you can begin posting regularly on YouTube and other social media sites about your specific topic and build a following that way. It’s extremely easy to create great regular content, upload it to your personal account or your business account, and watch your channel subscribers and viewers grow. Getting 10,000 views in your first month is very easy to do with the right strategy.

The fifth and one of the best strategies to become a thought leader is to become a high-paid speaker. Being on panels or workshops, and leading keynote speeches will immediately position you as a thought leader on your specific topic. People will be coming to listen to you talk about an issue that they care about and that they want to see resolved in their own lives. Being a speaker is quickly becoming one of the best ways to be seen as a thought leader.

With these messages, you can easily and very quickly, within six months to a year, position yourself as a thought leader on a particular topic and help to accelerate your career through promotions, new jobs, landing new business deals, and other opportunities as well.

If you want some help executing this plan, reach out to me for support, and we will use my Executive Blueprint to make sure that you have all the pieces needed to execute this plan in a timely and efficient manner instead of wasting years of your life fumbling through the dark, trying to put the pieces together, when what you really want is the results.

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