How to Become a Thought Leader by Podcasting
episode 78
Three years ago, if you told me I would be a thought leader getting paid to share my message, I would have asked what you were smoking. But through podcasting I've been able to grow my confidence, voice, and message and awareness around my brand. If your goal is to grow your brand and business by sharing your message on bigger platforms, listen to this episode to learn how.
We also talk about
How I define a thought leader.
How being a thought leader can impact your business.
How a podcast can position you as a thought leader.
Questions to ask yourself to discover your thought leadership message.
How I leveraged my podcast to speak on a national stage & get paid to speak.
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in this episode…
I’m talking about one of my favorite topics thought leadership, and how you can position yourself with a podcast to become a true leading voice in your industry, in your niche, and then leverage that to get on bigger stages, call in bigger opportunities.
I love helping clients to define what their thought leadership is, what their unique voice and message is. And I wanted to go into a little bit about what that is for some of you who may not know. I know that I've heard of the term thought leader in my corporate job, but I know that it's used outside of corporate. There might be some of you who are like, what is a thought leader? It sounds cool and how do I become one?
What’s a thought leader?
There are a couple of definitions that I really like. For example, a thought leader clearly communicates challenging new ideas. They back those ideas up with data. They have a strong point of view. They're not afraid to talk about controversial opinions or topics. A thought leader is going to have a positive reputation. They're going to be someone who's likable, who feels like they're trustworthy. And one of the definitions that I really loved is someone who empowers others through their vast knowledge and insight.
And some definitions talk about thought leaders as being able to see what's going to happen in the future. They're on the pulse of what's going on, where things are going, sort of that being able to predict what's going to go on in the future. But what I like to define it as in terms of the future is people who are actually wanting to enact change. They are part of creating a new future because of their new way of thinking, their new approach.
For me, a thought leader is really anyone who has an area of expertise, they're trusted, they want to empower others through their knowledge and their insights. And there's someone who wants to change up status quo. There are things that they're seeing that they don't like and they're coming up with different ideas, different ways of being in the world, different ways of operating their businesses. They're creating things that they want to see, but they're not seeing.
If that feels familiar to you, if it feels like, hey, I feel like I have something important to say and I know that what I have to say could really change my industry, it could change how people think, maybe it could even change the world. And you're feeling called to share this message on a podcast, maybe on bigger stages. I really believe that podcasting is one of the best ways to develop your thought leadership. And I want to talk about why and a little bit about how my journey has included podcasting in terms of honing my voice and getting on bigger stages.
How can being a though leader help your business?
I talked about what thought leadership is, but before we dive into where podcasting fits into this whole thing, I want to talk about what's the importance behind becoming a thought leader. How can it benefit your business, how can it benefit your community? When you become a thought leader, you are:
sees things differently
help others see the world differently
someone who can inspire change
And that's really important, especially now when there are so many things that as a society we are rethinking. And to be a part of that change is really important.
Being a thought leader also helps build your brand, that helps people trust you because they know that you are someone who has ideas that are innovative, that you're looking to solve for impact, that your solutions are around. I want to create meaningful changes in impact for the people in my community. And being a thought leader helps position you as someone who is leading those efforts, who's thinking about things in a different way. And that just adds so much value to your brand.
As you develop your ideas, your unique solutions, that's where you're also developing your credibility. That's what's going to get you speaking invites, it's going to get people noticing you for what is uniquely you, for what only you have to offer. That's what's going to get people to want to book you on their podcasts for interviews or at their conferences or their trainings or for even media opportunities. So that credibility that comes from being a thought leader gives you a lot of opportunities to share your message on bigger stages and grow your brand and actually create the change that you want to see in the world.
How can I position myself with a podcast?
A podcast is excellent for building thought leadership because this is a platform where you get to start to really hone your voice and your message. You get to create shows. Solo episodes. Sharing all the different facets of what you know, your insights and yourself. Which is always going to be sort of your differentiator because no one sees the world the way that you do. No one has the blend of experiences and perspectives that you have and bring to whatever topic it is that you are passionate about sharing and knowledgeable about sharing. A podcast will help you get that practice of sharing your message in a different way over the course of a season of a podcast or years of a podcast. And you really get to start to hone that message and figure out what it is that you want to talk about.
After having a podcast for almost a year, I started to hone in on what I loved to talk about and that was building community through podcasting, empowering others through podcasting left, lifting different voices on a podcast and helping people feel seen through podcasting through sharing your stories. And that's really what I love to talk about. I created a Signature Talk around that and started sharing it on other people's podcasts and then eventually at conferences and retreats and also being a guest on other people's podcasts.
Having a podcast is also great for building authority. When you have your solo episodes where you talk about your topic, for me it's podcasting, that's where people learn from you and they learn what you know about. They start to trust that you know what you're talking about and that gives you that sense of oh, this person is ‘in the know’. They're sharing their ideas. They're thinking about things. It’s great for authority building.
If your goal is to speak on bigger and bigger stages, being seen as a thought leader is going to help get you on those stages. But you don't always have the speaking experiences to talk on that bigger podcast or talk on that bigger stage. And so being able to create your own bank of evidence of episodes that highlight that you're capable is a great especially when you're first starting out to build evidence that you are someone who can talk about your ideas. And that you're committed to doing that. If you have a whole bank of 50 episodes, that shows that you not only have thought about your topic a lot, you've talked about it a lot.
How do I know if I'm a thought leader?
“Thought leadership is at the intersection of what you’re passionate about, what you’re knowledgeable about, what your unique solution is to a problem, and then adding in that layer of what makes you, you. ”
I hear from clients, “I have so many stories that I could share that are part of my journey. I have so much experience, but I don't really know how to put all of it together.” Or “How to position myself as someone who should be on those stages, should be interviewed on whatever media outlet you want, get the PR exposure.”
Developing thought leaders is what I used to do at my corporate job, is I would work with the executives in my firm and I would help identify who do we think is a thought leader and who would be a great person to start positioning in that way. I coached them and find out what it was that they were really passionate about because that is so important. If you're not really lit up by what you're talking about, it doesn't matter how expert you are for the most part, if you want to become a public speaker and engaging in a dynamic public speaker or representative for your firm in this case. And so that was always the first place that I started.
Then I would ask about what are their qualifications, what experience do they have, credentials, etc.? And then we would talk about any sort of unique perspectives they had. And then it was a matter of creating the content and a strategy for sharing that content through multiple platforms. It's essentially the work that I do with my VIP clients, except I'm working with one entrepreneur and we're working on creating one medium.
“It’s about leveraging this medium, this podcast, for maximum output and highlighting your leading voice in a way that shares your impactful message with your community.”
Having this powerful piece of content and making the most out of it a lot of the times looks like content repurposing, but in this case, when you add that extra layer of thought leadership, it's actually helping to build your brand, grow your visibility in a really empowering way for you, and an impactful way for audiences. And it's something that then you can use to launch your public speaking career or being in media outlets or getting a book deal. Your podcast also helps with your sales, getting leads and then collaboration.
As an entrepreneur looking to grow my brand and speak on bigger stages, this is exactly how I did it with my podcast. So not only do I have the experience of working with directors and executives in my corporate career, bringing that into my business has been a fun extension of that role and how I help my clients.
If becoming a speaker and increasing your visibility and your brand awareness is your 2023 goal, this is a great time to start a podcast that positions you as a thought leader and expands your brand.