Everything Old Is New Again
You Can Be A Thought Leader
on C.S. Lewis was right. Old books help us correct the mistakes of our own era. It’s not so much that people back then were smarter than we are now, although I think that’s true in some areas. It’s that they didn’t make the mistakes we make. And, to be fair, we sometimes are not making their mistakes. So like with all of history, you have to take the good and leave the bad in the past. Lewis prescribed reading one old book for every two or three modern books you read, and I think that’s a good idea. In spite of all of our natural fascination with newness, one of the...
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The Money Is In The Details
You Can Be A Thought Leader
Welcome to day four of “Making Your Stuff Cool.” To review, we covered the little-known “RADIO technique” on Monday, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tactic on Tuesday; Wednesday was about making predictions, and today is about details. Photo by on We’ve all heard the saying that “the devil is in the details,” but I’m going to tell you that the money is there, too. Claude Hopkins taught me that. Of course, I never met Claude, because he died forty-three years before I was born. But he lives on in the ads he created for the companies that were clients of...
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Predictions for Fun and Profit
You Can Be A Thought Leader
Welcome to day 3 of “Making Your Stuff Cool.” As previously discussed, I’m talking about driving up the interest of your audience by making your information “cool.” On Monday, we talked about the “Radio Test.” On Tuesday, we talked about combining the interests of your audience in new and original ways. Today, we’re going to apply the technique of fortune-telling to your thought leadership. Photo by on Here’s what we know about all people: they’re fascinated with predictions. I was just reading an article the other day about the end of the NHL regular...
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These Two Guys Made Billions Off Cartoon Turtles. Here’s Their Secret.
You Can Be A Thought Leader
Welcome back for day 2 of “How To Make Your Stuff Cool.” Photo by on I’m going to jump right into the story: In November of 1983, Ronald Reagan was a year away from one of the largest landslide election victories in the history of the United States. But that has nothing to do with it. At the same time, in Dover, New Hampshire, illustrators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird had an idea: they thought it would be “fun” to start a comic book. They decided on their target market (teenagers), and then brainstormed things that teenagers found exciting. After a while, they...
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This Week: Making Your Stuff Cool
You Can Be A Thought Leader
Some of us might not like to admit it sometimes, but a part of thought leadership is simply bringing cool ideas to your followers. It’s just the appeal of interesting information and concepts. Don’t underestimate your audience’s need to entertained. So how do we do that? This week I’m going to focus every day on ways to bring the “cool” to your followers. Today, I want to talk about a little-known copywriting trick called “the RADIO Test.” Photo by on “RADIO” is an acronym for: Reward Affirmation Deadline Intrigue Originality Reward stands for the...
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The Importance of Experimentation in Thought Leadership
You Can Be A Thought Leader
Today, let’s talk about testing and experimentation in Thought Leadership. You probably already know that establishing yourself as a Thought Leader in your industry requires constant innovation and experimentation. Photo by on As an information marketer, it’s essential to take risks and try new things. Today, we’ll discuss why experimentation is crucial in thought leadership and explore some areas wherein you could greatly benefit by testing and experimentation. I think you’ll get a lot out of this if you’re willing to put in the work. Experimentation can take...
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The Thought Leader’s Guide to Creating Impactful Products
You Can Be A Thought Leader
If you want to establish yourself as a recognized and well-rewarded Thought Leader in your market, creating and selling information products is a key part of that goal. Providing such products to your audience is a great way to help them achieve the transformation they seek. Photo by on Information products are resources that provide valuable insights and knowledge to your target audience. They come in various formats, such as ebooks and physical books, physical written courses, video courses, or membership sites. Each format has its own strengths and weaknesses, and you...
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Why Thought Leaders Need a Call to Action Strategy
You Can Be A Thought Leader
As a Thought Leader, your primary aim is to provide value to your audience. However, your message is incomplete if your audience doesn’t take any action on the information you have provided. That’s where a call to action (CTA) comes in. Photo by on A call to action is a prompt that encourages readers, viewers, or listeners to take a specific action towards doing something about the information you have provided. It can be anything from signing up for a newsletter, buying a product, or leaving a comment on your article or video. Examples of CTAs include “Sign up for...
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The Power of Content Quality in Thought Leadership
You Can Be A Thought Leader
Do you want to stand out and establish yourself as a Thought Leader in your industry? Then you must understand the importance of delivering high-quality content to your audience. Photo by on In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, it is essential to provide fresh, relevant, and high-quality content that speaks to the needs and interests of your customers. Solid, informative content can establish you as an authority and start a conversation with your reader. Today, I’ll discuss how quality content can help you differentiate yourself from the competition and drive...
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Choosing Your Followers Wisely
You Can Be A Thought Leader
Photo by on As a Thought Leader trying to grow your audience, you may be trying to target your audience with an ad campaign or some other effort to target who you would like to put your thought leadership content in front of. Today, I want to go over a couple of things that will help you do that. When you think about the kind of people you want as followers, you might start thinking about what you want them to be like. What kind of people you want them to be. I’ll give you an example: for my business, The Educated Authority, I need people who are willing to study and...
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I’m once again returning to how followers think (after yesterday’s message was very well received) with a tactic for establishing common ground with your followers.
First off, why would you want to establish common ground?
Well, you do and you don’t, actually. You are the leader and they are the followers, but they need to be solidly convinced that you understand their lives, and particularly their situation that is applicable to your expertise.
This builds trust in you as a Thought Leader, which is something you’re going to need. And the reason you need it is because your follower needs it.
There are a few ways to establish common ground with your follower, but I’m going to give you the best one right now.
You should have a before and after story about you and your thought leadership career. This is your personalized story about what your life was like before you learned and implemented what you now teach, and what your life is like now.
Your followers need to see themselves in the “before” part of your before and after story, so you need to tell that part with as much detail as you can. In the context of telling them about your life, you need to be telling them things about their lives that they’ve never told anyone else.
So let me give you an example. Let’s say you help people lose weight and get in shape because you were once very overweight and you figured out how to drop all those pounds.
When you’re talking about the “before” in your story, you need to talk about getting winded going up a flight of steps, the embarrassment of having to ask for a seat belt extension on a plane, and how you felt when people looked at you as you were eating an ice cream cone.
They need to feel that not only do you empathize with their situation, but that you have lived their life and you understand it intimately. You need to be saying things that only people that have lived through it can understand.
And that is the best way to establish common ground with your followers. Now if you haven’t been through their experience like that; let’s say that using my previous example you were never overweight, so you don’t have that “before” phase of your life, don’t despair. There are still ways to establish common ground.
Let me give you an example: when I go to the doctor with a broken leg, I don’t need the doctor to tell me about how they broke their leg a few years ago and talk about how much it hurt. I need them to show me they understand what I’m going through, and they have the tools, skills, and knowledge to fix my situation in the best and most painless and convenient way possible. And there are ways that the doctor can communicate that.
This is the kind of thing I discuss in the emails I send out every day to people who are up and coming Thought Leaders and quite a few who have been very successful at achieving and maintaining thought leadership. You can claim your place in that discussion by signing up at You Can Be A Thought Leader.