Thought Leadership

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Don't Be a Hero

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Don't Be a Hero

Who Is the Hero In Your Story?

If I told you my life story, would you care?

What if I asked you tell me your life story?

Eugene M. Schwartz’s The Brilliance Breakthrough: How to Talk and Write So That People Will Never Forget You should be (and often is) considered to be the “bible” of effective copywriting and storytelling. One of the many tenets Schwartz embraces is the notion of making the reader (or the customer) the hero of the story you’re trying to tell.

Too often, we put the capes on our own backs. And that’s where the writing falls short.

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Let Content Be Your Praise Singer

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Let Content Be Your Praise Singer

Adrian Lurssen tells the story of when he went to see Nelson Mandela deliver an address in his home country of South Africa. He still draws upon the experience today, but in the most unusual context.

As Adrian has recounted this tale to Jay Harrington and me on an episode of The Thought Leadership Project podcast, he likens this notion of a praise singer to how we considers thought leadership content to work on behalf of the expert that shares it.

In Adrian’s estimation — one I happen to share — thought leadership content serves in the capacity of being one’s praise singer. It exists out in the world to tell everyone how smart you are, what you know, what you think, what you can do, how you solve problems. “It sings your praises,” Adrian notes, “even when you’re not there in the room to do it yourself.”

See how…

Sale at Scale

Sale at Scale

How Content Allows a Company to Make Sales Calls, As if By Artificial Intelligence

A veteran salesperson knows that look. That tone of voice. That one question for clarification uttered by a prospect that indicates a buying signal.

And that’s when the sale begins to become final.

A good sales agent knows what to do when that signal reveals itself. Soon, the seller becomes the closer, and the prospect becomes a client or customer.

The only disappointing thing about that promise of future success is that they are hard to come by. By that, I mean: those opportunities…those moments…those qualified, veteran sales team that can detect the aroma of opportunity and know how to respond to it.

If only you could clone that qualified sales person. If only those opportunities would arise in greater numbers. If only artificial intelligence could scrape the internet for you, uncovering prospects and revealing sales opportunities.

That’s where content comes in.

Don't Fake It. Make It.

Don't Fake It. Make It.

People aren’t interested in your words. They want your ideas.

Anyone can produce words. Even artificial intelligence can kick out fairly convincing-sounding words. But those aren’t ideas. At least not yours.

Ideas are the synthesis of available information, filtered through the prism of your unique perspectives and lived experiences, and delivered with proscriptive advice and personalized guidance. And the best ideas belong to the thought leaders among us.

Are your best ideas worthy of broader recognition? Let’s find out…

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Why Start a Podcast?

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Why Start a Podcast?

Why start a podcast?

For fame? Fortune? Celebrity? Unlikely…

If the question were reframed as "Why establish a content marketing platform that isn't about writing and reading, doesn't require video, isn't about SEO...but during which you can captivate the undivided attention of a listener for 30-45 minutes — and at the same time, yield enough content for multiple blog posts, a newsletter, several short videos and one long one, plus the naturally generated text that will improve your website's search engine visibility?"...