An irrepressible grin lit up my face. I could see it on our video call.
“You’re the only writer I trust when I want to engage more thought leaders because I know they’ll see the value and love working with you,” my client said to me.
She’s been trying to get more lines of business to participate in thought leadership. We’ve managed to go from one to six groups this year.
Two main reasons why.
First, I approach thought leaders at their level. I make it a conversation—no “Business Writing 101” canned questions. Internal leaders even see me as a thinking partner, ready to challenge and advance their thinking, able to get down into the roots of what makes their insights valuable.
Second, they don’t end up with messes. I don’t confuse the issue. I don’t dumb things down for the sake of imagined generic readers who don’t matter because they don’t make high-stakes business or buying decisions related to the topic. No dreaded first drafts that are painful to review and no SEO fuckery.
Thought leadership projects can be colonoscopy-level unpleasant. Many thought leaders have had a bad experience in the past and feel reluctant to try again.
Or they can be fast, fun, and fearless. Thought leaders can enjoy the process and get better results from it. Marketing sponsors can engage new thought leaders without fear of embarrassment.
And then other thought leaders in the business see the outcomes and ask, “Hey, how can we do that, too?”
That’s the momentum that I call the Idea Sled.
