Leadership Challenge #6 - How to start a thought leadership program
Happy Saturday,
Welcome back to my weekly leadership of the future newsletter. Every week, we do a challenge to boost your remote leadership skills.
This week’s challenge is thought leadership: why it is important, why it is the best investment you can make as a leader, and how to start a thought leadership program immediately.
As per previous challenges, you'll get the context (why it's important) and five actionable steps (how to do it), which you can implement at your own pace, DIY. Expect to invest about 3-4 hours in total. Let's get started.
What is a thought leadership program, and why is it important for all leaders, especially remote ones?
In the previous challenges, we addressed all the prerequisites for a thought leadership program.
You've learned how to position yourself and step up as a remote leader to the public.
We developed basic empathy skills so you can have stronger connections with others.
We discussed how to beat impostor syndrome and start creating short-form daily content.
We addressed the issue of trust internally so you can have your team get behind you in any changes.
Lastly, we practiced focus with the help of mindfulness techniques and better self-awareness.
All of these were essential for creating a thought leadership program. Without any of these, you shouldn't jump into this challenge. If you are new here, I suggest you do the previous challenges first, then return to this one.
Thought leadership is more than just a personal branding technique. It is a long-term investment in yourself. It serves you, even if you pause creating content around it. It opens doors that were closed before.
Thought leadership means standing up for what you believe in and consistently sharing your thoughts with others.
It is more than just publishing daily. Daily publishing is part of it. To adequately explain your thoughts, you need to create long-form content.
The wins are vaster compared to previous challenges, and they vary greatly based on your actual situation and goals with a program like this. For some, becoming a thought leader means getting better clients or building better business partnerships. For others, it means they become a better remote leader, leading to higher-performing people. It all depends.
But I can guarantee that you will gain more clarity on your thoughts and open doors for more opportunities for yourself or your business.
It will be the best investment you could ever make.
So, what are the basic principles of a thought leadership program?
A good thought leadership program has three pillars:
The content. It relies heavily on some form of long-form content (newsletter, podcast, video, etc.). It is the basis of the program, the platform.
The leader. It is professional but personal. Companies are not thought leaders. Leaders are. The goal of the program is to increase the presence of that leader.
The discussion. It is conversational and influential. The thought leadership program has to be open to everyone. Discussion is not optional but necessary. We can only grow together.
In the previous challenges, we established the basics for finding your voice and having empathy and trust to connect with others.
So, in this challenge, we will focus only on the content. How can you create long-form content that can serve as the baseline for your thought leadership program?
The tactics that I will share will address the core problems that most people have when they are about to start a program like this:
Complexity. A longer form means more complex content.
Time. The commitment means more time investment.
Investment. Because this is not just about content creation.
The tactics will give you a structure that solves the three problems above. So, let's jump in.
In this challenge, we build the tactics on top of each other so they are not interchangeable.
Day 1: Set your goals and platform.
Grab a spreadsheet.
ROW 1 above all columns: your goal with the thought leadership program.
Column 1: PLATFORM
Column 2: CONFIDENCE
Column 3: SUPPORT
In row 1, write down one single goal.
What do you want to achieve? Be specific and keep it simple.
I want to sign up better/more clients/customers.
I want to build better/more partnerships.
I want to create something meaningful for others.
Your goal can be altruistic, open, or hitting certain figures.
In Column 1, write down three platforms:
Newsletter/blog
Podcast
Video
There is no need to be more specific for now. These three can sum up the three different journeys you can take.
In Column 2, score yourself with 1 to 3.
1 - I'm not comfortable doing this.
2 - I can do this.
3 - I can thrive in this.
In Column 3, score yourself with 1 to 3.
1 - I need to do this on my own.
2 - I have some help internally/externally to do this.
3 - I have full support from my team.
Now, look at the spreadsheet.
Contrary to popular choices, pick the easiest route.
If you are comfortable writing a newsletter and you have an internal marketer who can set up the platform for you, do that.
If you feel that you need to do a video but are not comfortable speaking alone in a room to a camera, even if you have internal help, don't do it.
The best option is where you are most comfortable and can also get some help from others. It saves you time and headaches.
Day 2: Pick 12 topics.
Start a spreadsheet.
Column 1: Topic.
Column 2: Summary.
Write 12 topics in Column 1.
Explain each topic with a 2-3 sentence long summary in Column 2.
If you don't know your topics, go back to two of the previous challenges:
Challenge 1: Finding your voice, where you've listed all your values, interests, and aspirations.
Challenge 3: Creating daily content where you have already figured out these topics for daily pieces.
This task will give you three months of content ideas, which is more than enough to get started.
If you do a newsletter, the topics will be the titles of your editions.
If you do a podcast, the topics will be the discussions with your guests.
If you do a video, the topics will be the discussions for your videos.
Day 3: Plan out your production.
Start a document.
Regardless of what platform you are doing, write a plan that goes like this:
What is the popular belief on this topic? (attention)
What am I going to show you that goes against the popular belief? (message)
Why should you listen to me? What is my proof? (authority)
What are the five most important takeaways on this topic? (value)
If you want to learn more, how can I help you? (CTA)
First, you grab the audience's attention. Then, you convey your main message. Then, you establish your authority on that topic. Then, you provide value through education. Lastly, you drive them to do more.
For now, everything you do should rely on these five questions.
This will be the structure of all your content. Consider it as a starter template.
If you do a newsletter, it acts as a template you should write up.
If you do a podcast, direct the conversation through it.
If you do a video, this is your script template.
Day 4: Ignore everyone.
This will be the easiest but also the hardest task within any challenge.
What is the common belief here? What do people usually do when they start something new?
They look at others. They read industry insights. They look at competitors. They look at influencers. They evaluate tools.
Just. Do. Not. Do. This. Please. Ignore everyone and everything.
You've found your platform. You've got your goal. You've got your 12 topics. You've got a starter plan.
If you spend ANY time looking at others, you will feel overwhelmed.
When should I send out my newsletter?
What is the best platform for newsletters?
What gear should I use for video or podcasting?
Should I create an intro for my show?
How will I measure my metrics?
None of these matters when you are just starting.
I have a podcast. It has like 70+ episodes. The first ten episodes had no intro. I recorded one myself after the 10th. I paid a pro to do it for me after the 20-30th episode. I still use a cheap mic from Amazon with a headset. I still use a simple Zoom room to record the shows.
It doesn't matter. It's not the BBC 1. It's just a podcast.
My goal with it is to build partnerships, generate ideas, and network. My minimalist setup fulfills these goals.
Don't overcomplicate it. When you start, ignore everyone and everything.
The closer you are to yourself, the more confident you are.
Complexity kills confidence. And you need a lot of confidence to get started.
Day 5: Write the first pieces.
Now that you have spent one day ignoring everyone and everything, you have unconsciously digested the topics you wrote down.
It is time to write the first batches.
The tactic is simple: block out 2 hours from your calendar to complete this task. No meetings, no chat, no nothing. Just sheer focus on this prime task.
If you need help with the focus, go back to our previous challenge, which was finding focus. One of the tasks there is about having one prime task a day.
With the template in hand, you should be able to write 4 pieces of newsletters. Or, you can record 2 podcast episodes. Or you can record 2 videos.
Allow yourself to do some overtime. Depending on your comfort level, you might need more time.
This is especially true since the video or podcast heavily relies on others and/or technology/gear.
I can give you some quick tips to ease the process. These worked for me well before:
Write a newsletter piece without editing it. Once done, hit a 10-minute pause. Then, return to edit the piece.
For video, at least for the first ones, write a script with highlights and keywords, but don't write the entire sentences. Have your script on a separate screen above/below your camera so you can read it while talking.
Write an intro to your podcast where you follow your template and introduce your guest (if you have any, but I recommend interview-style podcasting as it is really simple). Feel free to read the intro entirely. Podcasting is not a live format. You will edit that anyway.
For audio and video, go for the simplest gear setup. Most of us have a phone/tablet and a headset. It's more than enough to get started.
Ignore mistakes. Even Joe Rogan's first 3-5 episodes were crap. It's OK. You are just starting and will learn to improve.
Day 5+1: Scale your content.
It's not a task, but I wanted to highlight this.
To promote your thought leadership program, you must create daily content—short content for social media.
Scroll back to your template, where your weekly 3-4 content pieces are.
A contrarian take on a popular belief.
Your message goes against the herd.
Five key takeaways on a topic.
A simple promo post with CTA
Once you've completed the long-form piece of your thought leadership program, your daily content schedule becomes almost autonomous. You will break down the longer pieces into smaller pieces and repurpose the content in various forms.
All this for a couple of hours every week.
This series of leadership challenge series has 8 challenges.
The ultimate goal is to enhance your leadership presence online.
The next challenge will focus on storytelling and how to lead externally and internally with better stories.
If you have any questions, I'm here to help you. Hit REPLY with your question.
Take care,
Peter
