ARE YOU ASKING YOUSELF THE RIGHT QUESTIONS TO DIFFERENTIATE YOUR BUSINESS?
I hope that by now I’ve shown you how building your thought leadership has the ability to positively impact your community and your business, but let’s unpack this a little bit more so you can create a crystallized vision for the way this could change your life.
Being a thought leader means, well, being a leader. It means impacting people in a way that makes them want to follow you.
And not through force, coercion, or, hell, even charisma. Instead, it should be for your thoughts, your ideas, your perspective. All you’ve experienced throughout your life and career. Your hard-won insights uncovered, and lessons learned.
Your impact doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen because of luck. It happens because you’ve put the work in and shared its outcome with the world.
We’re not talking about developing a following similar to teenage girls screaming for a boy band. We’re talking about helping people think of things in a new way. Opening their eyes to a perspective or concept that hadn’t occurred to them before. Helping them see new possibilities. It’s about inspiring positive change in others. And let me tell you, when you see that you can have such an impact on others, it can feel overwhelmingly good.
Hopefully, you can feel the possibility, the tingle on your skin as you imagine the impact you can make on others, simply for being you. But let’s get down to brass tack, shall we?
You care about your business and your bottom line. How can building your thought leadership help those?
We all know that the buying process has changed in the last decade. Business buyers are much further along in their buyer’s journey before they ever speak to a salesperson or representative from a potential vendor. They do their research online. They speak to colleagues and friends. They know what they want and need.
This means that even if you have an incredible product/service, and you’re a stellar salesperson if your ideal prospect doesn’t know who you are and have a positive view of what you do — enough to include you in their original buying research — you’re out of luck. You won’t even get a chance to make your case.