How Top Thought Leaders Stayed Relevant in 2025 | 687
Release Date: 01/04/2026
From High-Stakes Flying to High-Impact Leadership | Merryl Tengesdal | 704
Leveraging Thought Leadership
What does it take to lead when the plan breaks, the pressure spikes, and failure is part of the mission? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick talks with Colonel (Ret.) , author of " about the ideas that drive her work today: adaptability, resilience, authentic leadership, and the courage to keep moving when the outcome is uncertain. Her message is clear. Success is never a straight line. The leaders who thrive are the ones who learn to adjust in real time. Merryl brings a powerful framework to the conversation. She treats leadership like flying. You prepare well....
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How To Turn Books into Thought Leadership Assets | Kevin Anderson | 703
Leveraging Thought Leadership
What does it really take to turn a book into a business asset instead of a vanity project? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with , CEO of to unpack what authors get wrong about publishing, platform, and the real role a book plays in growing authority. Kevin makes the case that a strong book is not just about writing well. It is about aligning the message, the market, and the outcome from the very beginning. Kevin brings a practical lens to the publishing world. He explains why authors should bring in expert guidance earlier, not later. He breaks down...
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Are You Solving the Right Problem? | 702 | Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
Leveraging Thought Leadership
What makes thought leadership actually travel? Not a bigger platform. Not louder marketing. A sharper idea that solves a real problem. In this episode, Peter talks with , coauthor of and author of Thomas’s work sits at the intersection of innovation, problem framing, and practical execution inside real organizations. The conversation focuses on a core truth behind strong thought leadership: the best ideas win because they are useful. Thomas explains that both of his books grew from underserved problems in the market. Innovation as Usual challenged the idea that innovation belongs only to...
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How Top Sales Performers Think | 701 | Bob Kocis
Leveraging Thought Leadership
What separates average sellers from elite performers? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with , author of , to unpack the ideas, behaviors, and disciplines that turn sales expertise into real thought leadership. Drawing from interviews with top performers who have earned more than 150 Presidents Club wins combined, Bob shares a sharper view of what high performance actually looks like. This conversation goes beyond sales war stories. Bob’s work is focused on codifying what the best sellers do differently and translating those lessons into practical guidance for the next generation. He...
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Well, This Is Awkward: We Wrote a Book | 700 | Bill Sherman & Naren Aryal
Leveraging Thought Leadership
What does it really take to turn expertise into influence that lasts? In this special episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, host Peter Winick is joined by and to announce their book, The Thought Leadership Handbook published by . This is not a conversation about writing a book for the sake of writing a book. It is a conversation about building a body of work that creates value, sharpens thinking, and expands impact. Drawing on hundreds of podcast conversations, client engagements, and years inside the thought leadership space, Peter, Bill, and Naren explore the...
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Rethinking Executive Coaching for Modern Leaders | 699 | Kendra Dahlstrom
Leveraging Thought Leadership
What if the leadership issue in front of you is not strategy, but an old wound you have never fully resolved? In this episode, Bill Sherman talks with an executive coach and host of "" podcast about the deeply personal path that led her into thought leadership, and why she believes the future of leadership development must go far beyond traditional coaching. Kendra shares how her own experience as a coaching client changed the way she worked, lived, and led. What started as personal growth became something bigger. Senior leaders began turning to her for guidance in high-pressure...
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Stop Closing Deals. Start Winning Consumption. | 698 | Art Fromm
Leveraging Thought Leadership
What happens when the real “close” isn’t the signature—but the customer’s commitment to consume? In this episode, Peter Winick talks with , a keynote speaker and sales enablement leader focused on what many B2B organizations still miss: the costly gap between pre-sales and sales. Art’s thought leadership centers on building seamless partnership, not a messy handoff, so clients win sooner and revenue sticks longer. Art makes the shift unmistakable. The market moved from one-time enterprise transactions to SaaS, recurring revenue, adoption, retention, and usage-based economics....
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Leading From the Heart in a High-Speed Culture | 697 | Claude Silver
Leveraging Thought Leadership
What would change in your culture—and your revenue—if people didn’t have to put on “work armor” just to show up? In this LinkedIn Live edition of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with , the world’s first Chief Heart Officer at , to unpack the contents of her new book “” and what it looks like when the pace is fast, the stakes are high, and the workplace is more human than ever. Claude’s thought leadership is practical, not performative. She isn’t selling “soft.” She’s building the conditions for performance: psychological safety, real...
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Deinstitutionalizing Your Expertise | 696 | David Lancefield
Leveraging Thought Leadership
What happens when you walk away from the big logo—and discover that your thought leadership gets sharper, not smaller? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with , host of podcast, a strategy coach to CEOs, C-suite leaders, and founders who has advised more than 50 CEOs and hundreds of executives over three decades. David writes on strategy, leadership, and culture for outlets like Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan, and he’s deeply focused on what strategy looks like in practice, not just on slides. David breaks down what thought leadership actually does when it’s done...
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Story Precision: The New PR Advantage | 695 | KJ Blattenbauer
Leveraging Thought Leadership
What if “getting PR” isn’t about hype at all—but about engineering trust at scale? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with , founder of and author of , who helps founders, creatives, and experts turn clear storytelling and smart media strategy into real authority—without the fluff. She breaks down what PR actually does: find the story behind your expertise, explain why it matters now, and package it for real-world attention spans. KJ makes the case that your work doesn’t “speak for itself” anymore. Not in a market where everyone is being commoditized...
info_outlineWhat did “great thought leadership” look like when the market wouldn’t sit still, the C-suite couldn’t sleep, and yesterday’s playbook was already obsolete? In this Best of 2025 compilation, we pulled together four standout conversations that got brutally practical about relevance, differentiation, and turning ideas into outcomes.
Keith Ferrazzi broke down the real challenge behind “evergreen” ideas: keeping the core principles intact while continuously connecting them to what leaders were worrying about in the moment—AI, volatility, and competitive pressure. The throughline was methodology. Not hot takes. Not vibes. A repeatable way to stay current without becoming a trend-chaser.
Then Keith pushed into what he called “teamship”—the underdeveloped layer in leadership thinking. Not how leaders gave feedback. How teams gave each other feedback. Not how a boss held people accountable. How peers did. He was blunt about the data: most teams were mediocre, and many avoided conflict when the stakes were highest.
Stephanie Chung reframed a politicized topic into a clean leadership platform: how you led people who were not like you. Not as a slogan. As a set of tools for leading across real differences—generation, gender, neurodiversity, ability, identity, and more. It was a leadership operating system for a workplace where “one-size-fits-all” was dead.
Michael Horn brought the “jobs to be done” lens into career strategy with Job Moves. The value here wasn’t motivation. It was decision quality. A structured way to avoid moves that looked right on paper and still landed wrong in real life—and to reconnect your thought leadership to the unique value you actually provided.
Paige Velasquez Budde got tactical about thought leadership as a
visibility engine. She called out the fantasy metrics (overnight
bestseller, one big hit, last-minute PR) and replaced them with a
grown-up approach: start early, build credibility over time, and use targeted “micro media” to drive the outcomes that mattered—leads, authority, and premium positioning.
We've learned a lot from our guests in 2025, this episode provides
valuable information on taking your platform to the next level,
staying relevant, and finding success in 2026!