How to become a visionary thought leader.

“You miss 100% of the shots you never take. I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it’s been. A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be,” Wayne Gretzky, the world’s greatest hockey player.

In our decade and a half working with companies of all sizes, across a broad range of industries, we’ve found that most founders and CEOs need guidance navigating and learning the art of how to build their executive visibility as an industry thought leader. You may ask, what are the benefits of thought leadership and how to get started?

What is an industry thought leader?
To be a successful industry thought leader, you have to stand out. This is no easy feat when there is so much noise on the internet. Did you know that thought leadership comes in several flavors? From the get-go, you want to avoid vanilla flavor. Why? Because vanilla is safe. It’s like the khaki pants of ice cream flavors. You’ll just be one of many in a sea of executives sporting the same khaki pants. To stand out, you have to be distinct. The type of executive leader that we examine in this blog post is what we call a visionary thought leader. 

Thought leadership goes well beyond the knowledge of one’s business, product, technology, or industry landscape. The goal is to build an executive’s visibility and brand, typically within a vertical sector, so much that the person and the issue, industry, or technology often go hand-in-hand.

Visionaries thought leaders aren’t born; they’re self-made.
Visionary thought leaders are executives willing to plant a stake in the ground and share their perspective as to the future of a market sector or technology. A visionary thought leader can break down, across a myriad of ways, their long-term view of how an issue, industry, or technology will unfold. For example, they are comfortable predicting how specific trends or business factors will ultimately shift the current status quo. Or they can share their deep understanding of how a developing or highly complex technology, such as artificial intelligence or neural networks, will or won’t play out, discuss existing barriers, and what’s needed to progress. Visionary thought leaders typically have a very close finger not only on the industry’s pulse but also with their customers and partners. They have a deep understanding of their customers’ concerns and challenges to keep their businesses competitive.

Visionary thought leaders often have sharp clarity about what’s around the corner from a future perspective well ahead of the market. In a previous blog post, we shared a detailed example of a visionary thought leader and their key traits, taking a close look at industry titan, innovator and thought leader: Jeff Bezos.

3 tips on how to get started in building your executive brand

1. Instead of a bio, tell a story
Unlike a bio that lists your professional work experience and academic studies, an executive profile, on the other hand, provides an opportunity to tell a great story. What trials and tribulations did you have to go through? What monsters did you have to conquer? What voyages or quests did you take to arrive at where you are today? Who helped you along the way? How did you develop into a better leader?

2. What’s your core theme
Identify a core theme that you can confidently and passionately share your perspectives and unique point-of-view. You need to then expand this theme out on several fronts. What are the significant unaddressed facets or plausible scenarios related to which you can provide your perspective? 

Different aspects of your core theme might include imminent industry regulations, customer behavioral trends, diverging approaches on a particular technology, etc. Think about the plausible market, business or technology outcomes, and likely scenarios that will help you get started. An executive can help the market and its target audiences understand how rapid technology advancements are unfolding, what their impacts are likely to be, who stands to lose, and why. For instance, as we face today’s new normal, a broad spectrum of industries are likely to change indefinitely. What does the future hold for your industry? There is no time like the current. Now is an excellent opportunity to look forward and begin to share your unique point of view as to what that future may hold. This analysis will become part of your platform and should be rolled into your content marketing calendar. 

The global pandemic has disrupted the economy and business world into an unprecedented state of chaos. As the country now begins to ‘reopen,’ one highly relevant, forward-looking theme is about redefining work and the future of work. How do businesses move forward in these highly turbulent times with a deadly virus still running wild? How does “business as usual” resume given we are all operating in a time of “business unusual”?

3. Build your social media presence
Begin to share your unique point-of-view by developing a series of thought leadership articles. Once you have a few executive viewpoint pieces ready, start to amplify your content via social shares. It will be important to begin to grow your social media presence. There’s plenty of opportunities to share your perspective with select media about what you expect to unfold in the market. There are opportunities to secure guest post articles in business or relevant industry outlets. Go beyond written communication. You can videotape your perspective and secure a spot as a guest in a related podcast. From there, you can create a landing page and lead magnet with a short ebook and amplify some of this valuable information and content within the company’s LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook channels.

Once you’ve done these things, you can sit back and watch the results come in, right? Unfortunately, no. Building thought leadership doesn’t occur overnight. We’ve worked with clients where results can happen in under one year and some when it took longer. We would not recommend a choppy, intermittent approach, because you lose the momentum you began to build. Becoming a thought leader requires a commitment of time, input, resources and conviction. The more you do it, the more it will pay off for you in terms of market presence, personal brand, and sales opportunities.

Growing your personal brand with bold leadership: ready for takeoff?

Image by SpaceX/Youtube

In our previous blog, we shared ways on how to start building your executive brand and took a closer look at one of the boldest industry leaders in the market — Elon Musk. So let’s assume you’re all in. You’ve nailed what your personal brand represents. You’re ready to take a page from Elon Musk, and become a bold industry thought leader. Now it’s time to create brand awareness with your very own content marketing strategy that emphasizes thought leadership content.

Five steps to grow your executive brand

1. Create a unique point-of-view
Begin by establishing what your personal brand will stand for. What is your unique point-of-view? This involves weaving in your company’s core brand values and determining the theme and topics that you want to hone in on, and which you can speak to with intelligence and fervor. Make sure you know your target audience, their unique personas and concerns, and determine in advance your unique spin on the opportunities and challenges facing your industry. Here’s where a good public relations agency excels. A strong public relations agency can collaborate to define your thought leadership strategy and help identify the most salient perspectives vis-a-vis what it trending in your market, topics where your competitors are gaining traction, and the broader market landscape.

2. Develop a content marketing calendar that incorporates thought leadership content
In order to ensure a consistent flow of quality content, you’ll need to document and specify which topics you will cover, what angles you will take, and when you will publish. Best practices suggest that you publish at least once a week to build momentum and stay top-of-mind. There’s a lot more science to building a strategic content marketing calendar but incorporating executive thought leadership is a must.

3. Determine a content amplification strategy
While blogging is one popular way to distribute content, it’s by no means the only way. You should also incorporate a mix of videos, podcasts, articles, presentations and ebooks. Determine how you can get the most from your thought leadership content by repurposing it in different formats to reach your audience on their preferred channels.

4. Build your social media presence
The top B2B content marketing tactic is social media (92%). Where are your customers, partners and investors, and what’s the best way to package your content for your key social channels? Be creative. Include interactive content, such as infographics or live surveys. Ask questions to generate conversation. Building your social media presence is also important to growing your executive visibility.

5. Measure and improve
Make use of analytics tools to measure the impact of your thought leadership content. How much was your content shared via social media? Has your content accumulated authoritative backlinks to drive your content higher during organic website searches? If not, this is an important area for improvement. Is it performing well by driving organic traffic to your company’s website? How well does your thought leadership content drive organic content versus your top competitors’ content? Know what you’re tracking for, and make use of analytics to measure and calibrate your content marketing efforts accordingly.

To be recognized as an industry thought leader, you must go beyond challenging and inspiring employees to create a great brand that provides a valued product or service. You need to be willing to put yourself on the line, willingly talking to a variety of audiences about the opportunities and threats presented by a given technology, laying out proposed solutions, and articulating your company’s end-game. Bold leaders do not shy away from difficult people or topics. Instead, they put their stamp on the subject, letting the world know where they stand. They won’t be right all of the time, and they may be controversial, but, like Elon Musk, they do not go unnoticed. Especially if they have a solid content marketing strategy in place to ensure their voice is heard.

So even if you’re not planning on launching a starman into space on a Tesla Roadster, we encourage you to share your passion or expertise with your tribe! Seize the opportunity to express your beliefs and vision. Sharing you unique point-of-view is valuable information that provides an excellent window to champion the company’s core values and distinctions to your employees, customers, partners, target audiences and extended community.