It covered three pages longhand.

Then I categorized and organized those tasks and asked myself two questions:

1. could a robot do this? Or,
2. could I teach someone else to do this?

The answer in Every. Single. Case was “yes.”

My ego hated it.

I immediately felt that grasping, sinking, oh-shit, not-good-enough feeling. That desperate and competitive feeling. The feeling I get when I read thought leadership that resembles my own. Damn, I think. I guess my ideas aren’t that original.

My ego’s anxiety-driven logic went like this: if I could teach everything I do to someone else, it must mean I’m not a valuable leader or advisor or worth much as a person.

When I shared this experience with my friend Alex, she said “I don’t agree with that conclusion at all.”

I don’t either. But it made me think of something that holds women thought leaders back:

The Dupe of Originality

The dupe of originality goes like this:

If I’m a thought leader, my ideas must be ground-breaking. I’d better be publishing never-before-seen-or-heard-of-research. I’d better be the best orator around. I’d better have a book idea that’s so good it renders them speechless! I’d better package my intellectual property before someone else comes up with something similar.

The dupe of originality comes from several erroneous assumptions:

1. If your idea isn’t brand-new then it’s worthless
2. Brand-new ideas are scarce and therefore you’d better hurry up and get yours out there before someone else does
3. If someone else’s idea is similar to yours then it’s curtains for you.

It’s a scarcity mindset on wheels, and it puts enormous pressure on you to HURRY UP and THINK and come up with something BRILLIANT or you’re WORTHLESS!

It’s easy to trace the lineage of this mindset to patriarchy and capitalism: being first means beating your competition which means winning which means success which means access to resources which means being safe. (Our culture and society don’t do a great job of keeping us safe, do they?)

Naturally, the dupe of originality is INCORRECT.

The Dupe Revealed

It’s incorrect in two ways:

One, wholly original thought leadership would be like publishing your work in a secret language: so different as to be alienating and incomprehensible.

Thought leadership is compelling because it resonates. To resonate, it must be relatable. Familiar. We must be able to grasp it and apply it to our lives. This might mean taking old concepts and applying them in new ways. It may mean making connections your audience will understand. It could mean putting new words to thoughts or feelings people share.

Two, you don’t have to *try* to be unique. Unique is what you ARE. If you put your self, your perspective, experiences, and voice into your thought leadership, you can’t AVOID being unique. No one else can tell your stories. No one else has lived your life with your identities and vision.

Avoid the Dupe by Embracing What You Know

I read a lot of fantasy and romance novels. It makes me happy to read about good triumphing over evil and love prevailing over separation.

Fantasy and romance novels have a formula. Fantasy novels often follow the arc of the hero’s journey. Romance novels tend to feature a series of small to larger crises the couple must overcome before they finally agree to be together at the end.

When I read these novels, I know how they’re going to end. That doesn’t stop each one from surprising and delighting me.

The same applies to your thought leadership. Especially when you’re an expert, it’s easy to write off what you know as stupidly obvious. That’s the curse of knowledge: you know what you know so well, you forget that it’s new and helpful to others.

When you sit down to share what you know with your people, it’s a strength to use familiar language, storytelling techniques, and structure. Even if your ego thinks it’s been done to death by other thought leaders who are better/smarter/more successful than you, it hasn’t been done by you.

Your people are waiting for YOU. If your audience finds your work familiar to understand and approachable to apply, you’re doing it right. And by infusing your unique self into it, you’re surprising and delighting them, too.

Your ego will tell you it’s never good enough. Your ego will whisper that you need to be first, best, and indispensable.

You know better.

Thought Leadership Resonance: The Brené Story

One time I was chatting with a client who was a trained therapist. “Brené Brown’s work is great,” she said, “but it’s nothing I didn’t know. We learned everything she talks about in school.”

Brené’s work is not resonant because it’s brand-new and wholly original. It’s resonant because of how she presents it, infused with her own research and Texan flavor, and because she consistently provides it to her audience — to us.

Brené Brown is one of the most well known thought leaders in the English-speaking world at least. Take that in: she didn’t invent anything brand-new. No, she took concepts (that NOW seem obvious) about human connection and emotion and presented them in a relatable, applicable, consistent way.

Now she certifies others to facilitate her work. Just because she teaches what she does to others does not mean she’s not a valuable leader or advisor or worth much as a person, right?

As for my ego…

It recovered itself. After letting the anxiety run its course I felt relief. I don’t need to be wholly original. I don’t need to be needed. If I can teach what I do to others, that’s terrific growth potential and a burden off my shoulders.

If you can effectively communicate your thought leadership to others, that’s a big impact on the world. That’s influence and change. That’s power.

Your Thought Leadership Legacy Awaits

You know you don’t have to be original. You know your ego might lose it when you read something similar to what YOU want to write.

Once your ego settles down and your eyes are on the prize of what YOU want to say, you probably wonder: how do I make my thought leadership magnetic? How do I SAY THE THINGS effectively?

I created a short email course to answer those questions: The 5 Pillars of Magnetic Thought Leadership divulges what your thought leadership needs to stand out to your people.

Get the free course here: The 5 Pillars of Magnetic Thought Leadership.

It’s free, it’s just 5 lessons, and it’s got exercises, examples, and insights to make your thought leadership as just-right as cold water after a marathon.

Click here to join the free email course, 5magneticpillars.com.

The post My Ego’s Latest Anxiety Attack and the Dupe of Thought Leader Originality appeared first on Medusa Media Group.

You know this already — intellectually, at least — so why do you feel tongue-tied when it comes to going public with compelling, provocative opinions?

I’m not talking about the client front. You’ve been in your industry long enough to have confident answers to client questions. But when it comes to putting forth your opinions far and wide — to prospects, people you look up to, strangers — you freeze. You can’t think of anything to say that isn’t trite and obvious. And you know that magnetic thought leaders are never trite and obvious, but attention-getting, unexpected, or even controversial.

How do you become such a leader?

First, you have to know what you think. This sounds stupid because how could you not know????? Yet often, women entrepreneurs’ true opinions are buried under layers of these five mindset problems: advice susceptibility, people-pleasing, discomfort judging, good ol’ fear, and opinion familiarity. Uncover the depths of your most bold, provocative opinions by understanding where they are hiding:

1. Advice Susceptibility: It’s Killing Your Opinions

We are drowning in a sea of advice. Unsolicited, usually. How many times have you shared a challenge or concern with someone and had them respond, “have you tried X? What about Y? I really think you should Z.”

(There’s a trope that men are from Mars, and women are from Venus — which is idiotic — and that men want to fix problems whereas women want to talk about them. Don’t let that fool you: women try to fix each other all the time, too.)

Our propensity to problem-solve is a symptom of our culture’s obsession with doing — taking action, checking off tasks, fixing things. Thoughtful and provocative opinions (and, ironically, ways to solve problems) come when you let yourself be — think, percolate, imagine, create.

The advice economy is overwhelming in online marketing. How many times have you searched something, looking for new ideas or case studies or research, and received a billion results that sound like, “X Simple ways to Y so you can Z? And when you click on them, they’re listicles of the same advice you’ve read before? Or when you’re scrolling through Instagram or Twitter or, good grief, Pinterest, and it’s full of “10 reasons why you must use social media every day or your business will rot like unpicked fruit” content?

You’re surrounded by advice, most of which you never asked for. And when other people’s ideas are loud in your mind, it is near impossible to hear your own.

2. People-Pleasing: It Stifles Powerful Opinions

Women — I’m painting with a broad brush here, so settle your feathers — are not raised to have strong opinions. Most of us were not encouraged to be loud and outspoken and steadfast in what we believe (girls who are loud, outspoken, and opinionated are bossy. And definitely bitches).

Usually we were raised to be accommodating, to get along with everyone, to compromise. And it’s hard as hell to have a bold opinion while making sure everyone likes and approves of it.

What makes an opinion bland? Compromising on it. Mitigating it. Externally-validating it.

It is very difficult to have a magnetic opinion if you’re trying to please everyone and make sure they like you.

3. Discomfort Being Judgmental: Opinions are Judgments!

From a young age, especially if you’re a woman, you were taught not to be judgmental. You can probably remember the pain of being judged for clothes or music taste or body in middle school

From those formative experiences and training from our elders, most of us have a deep discomfort with being “judgmental.”

But you’re an adult now, and making judgments is good. It’s how your brain tries to figure out whether you’re safe. It’s how you know if you want to keep reading that article, talking to that person, or working with that client. Making judgments is how you discern what’s right for you.

(Also, not making judgments is impossible. We do it instantaneously, all the time. When people say “I don’t judge,” they’re lying — what they mean is that they won’t be a jerk to you based on their judgments.)

You can’t share a strong opinion about your industry without making judgments. A strong opinion is judging a trend, tool, or process is good or bad. This can be cringingly uncomfortable for women who’ve been told for years not to judge anyone, to be nice to everyone, to understand where people are coming from and respect them accordingly.

That’s all fine, but you can still disagree with them and have your own view. No judgment, no opinion.

4. Fear: Publishing Opinions Feels Terrifying

It can feel very scary to come out with a bold opinion. It feels risky to your place in your community (what if I’m proven wrong and I lose face?) and it’s vulnerable (what if it makes people think less of me?). Sometimes it’s downright dangerous.

You do not need to “fix” your fear. All those books and songs with “fearless” in the title are bogus: fear is part of our biology and we can’t meditate or affirm or manifest our way out of it. It’s normal, it’s natural, and it’s uncomfortable because it means an evolutionarily old part of your mind thinks you’re under threat and possibly about to die… but you’re not. Not, at least, from sharing a provocative opinion.

In fact, I recommend you reframe fear from a red light (Ah! I’m scared! This must be bad!) to a green light (Ah, I’m scared! That means I’m doing the right thing). My client Tracy Litt, a mindset coach, puts it like this: any time you step out of your comfort zone — whether in a big way (bungee jumping) or small (clicking “publish” on a bold thought piece) — it startles your system because it’s different. Not bad, just different.

5. Familiarity: Your Opinions are like 1 Billion Microorganisms

A study by NIH found that there are up to 1 billion microorganisms living on humans’ skin. We can’t see them but they’re there. Your opinions are like that: they’re part of you, they’re everywhere, and you’re probably not aware of most of them.

That’s why it can make all the difference to work with someone on developing your opinion pieces. Often, your opinion is so close to you that you don’t realize you have it nor that it’s valuable to your audience.

You’ve been in your sector for so long, and your strong opinions are so ingrained and taken-for-granted by you that they don’t seem worth talking about. That’s why a thought leadership and opinion development partner is invaluable – especially one from outside your industry.

4 Signals that Reveal Hidden, Provocative Opinions

Now you know what the rocks look like that your provocative opinions are hiding under. How can you coax them out of hiding?

Remember: your opinions are all around you. They’re like fireflies: every now and then they glow, and that’s when you can catch them. And the more you look for them, the more you’ll find. So, in case you can’t make it to the webinar (don’t worry, there will be others. Click here to hop on my email list and find out when), here are some glows to watch out for:

• “Maybe….” This word will often come up when you’re trying on an opinion. It can feel safe, because no one commits to a maybe! Take note: maybe you have a provocative opinion on your hands.
• “I would never say that….” One time, a colleague said, “executives are cheapskates! But I would never say that.” Well… why not? What if you did say it? I bet you would get their attention.
• “I don’t want to offend anyone….” Me neither! There’s a line (and it’s not a fine line, it’s a heavy one) between being an offensive jerk and stating bold opinions that make some people bluster and huff. Don’t do the former.
• “This might be wrong, but….” This is called mitigating — when you make excuses for your idea before you’ve uttered it. If you catch yourself thinking or saying that, take note. Then cut out the first five words, and state the opinion. No apologies.

Women’s opinions have been stifled for too long. It’s no wonder they’re hiding, but keeping them hidden doesn’t serve you, your clients, or your greater community. Now that you know how to uncover them, it’s your responsibility to lead with them. Go forth and be opinionated!

AAAHH! You might be thinking/feeling. I like the sound of this, but the mere thought of getting started feels like rubbing my forehead against a cheese grater. Everyone’s telling me to “be a thought leader” but… what’s the next step?

That’s what you’ll learn in my free training, Create Magnetic Thought Leadership. We’ll discuss how to turn your bold opinions into thought leadership that gets you heard, seen and hired.

Thought leadership is a commitment and a joyous, ongoing expression of the bold, strong, provocative opinions you didn’t realize you had. It’s brought me such satisfaction and positive feedback, not to mention client leads. On my webinar, I’ll walk you through exactly how I do it for myself and my clients.

Tickets go on sale soon! Click here to find out more, and join my email community to get signup details delivered straight to your inbox.

The post 5 Mindset Problems Blocking Your Provocative Opinions appeared first on Medusa Media Group.

One colleague, the co-founder and president of a large online career community for women, put it this way: “I want my thought leadership to promote my business, and there are only so many angles you can come at it with that are different and non-repetitive.” A client put it, “There’s nothing new to say. I end up writing the same old tripe that I wrote before.”

How can you create thought pieces that achieve the trifecta of thought leadership? That is, that give tremendous value to your audience, consistently promote your work, and lead people to your services? All this, without saying the same thing over and over, again and again?

If you’re sick of cudgeling your brains to find new ways to repeat yourself, it’s time to stop doing that, immediately. Your skills, mind, and experiences are vast and magnificent. You are here to do more than regurgitate, but you’re stuck. Below are three strategies to get out of your rut, look at your content with new eyes, and take a giant leap to a new level of magnetic thought leadership.

This word is strangling your brilliance

Imagine this is you: I want to write about gender inclusion diagnostics, but I should write about the business impacts of inclusion, because that’s more SEO-friendly and it’s what people are talking about, but diagnostics is the thing I’m excited about…

Nothing strangles good content faster than the word “should.” Kick that rude word to the curb! And yet, sometimes “should”… well, doesn’t it have a point? If the topic you’re truly excited to talk about is completely off-brand, you’ll confuse your audience, right?

This quandary might be a sign that it’s time for you to pivot. But more often it’s an invitation: an opportunity for you to make new, surprising, memorable connections for your audience.

• How can you connect yogic principles to selling workshops into corporate?
• How can you harness humanity’s greatest mythological stories to help your client ace an interview?
• What did your argument with your partner teach you about executive recruiting?

If they don’t seem like they connect at all, good. That means you’re about to create a NEW analogy.

In my last article, I started by venting about how much I hate the gender branding of energy. You know, “feminine” and “masculine” energy? My diatribe was pretty off-brand, and it took a few drafts before I understood how the duality of energy applies to my business and clients. But after a couple tries, I got it. And I published an article that excited me and has garnered unexpected attention.

The last time you cried, what happened?

What’s often missing from content that wants to be good but pancakes instead, is emotion.

So much content is a dry, blah-blah regurgitation of facts, tips, and lists that can be informative but leave no lasting impression. That kind of content rarely makes me think and certainly doesn’t make me feel anything but overwhelmed.

We humans are cute when we think we’re persuaded by logic. But in the early ‘90s, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio discovered something fascinating: when our emotions are impaired, it destroys our ability to make decisions! We may think we’re rational beings, but we make decisions based on emotion… and we backfill with logic.

That means that if you want your audience to ponder a new idea or take an action, you must make them feel.

The next time you create a thought piece for your business, allow yourself to sink into your feelings. I know — it can be uncomfortable. It helps to work with someone who will prompt you with questions, and simply let you feel and say what you feel.

Notice what makes you angry. What brings you tears of joy? What makes you giddy with excitement, and why? It could be stories you read, experiences from your clients, memories from growing up, or news.

People will respond to the emotion in your thought leadership, if you allow yourself to be moved by it first.

The book I’ve read one thousand times

My favorite book growing up was Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine. It’s a retelling of the Cinderella story, and I’ve read it more times than I can count, both as a kid and as an adult.

Why? Why do we reread the same stories and rewatch the same movies? Why do we ask our grandma to tell the same story of her house catching fire when she was a child, and her dad tossing buckets of water on the roof, all of which poured back down onto his head?

Because stories are the Queen of communication. Nothing pulls at our heartstrings and our minds the way a good story does.

My coach and mentor Eleanor Beaton tells great stories. In recent emails she’s shared a discouraging comment she received from her husband, her beloved dog passing away, and her awkward first speaking engagement. And she didn’t tell them just to tell them: all were tied to a thoughtful call to action.

Most of us find it hard to “think of a great story and tell it!” It’s like when someone asks you where you want to eat, and you can’t think of a single restaurant — your mind goes blank. If this sounds familiar, you can do two things:

1. Spend regular, scheduled time being and allowing your mind to percolate, and
2. Work with a communications expert who can help you plumb your mind for great stories

My client Kim Chernecki is an executive, entrepreneur and sales coach. Her “well had dried up” for fresh content, and she sought me out for communications support to inspire and guide her, and to help her tap into the zeitgeist (I love that word). On our thought leadership ideation call, I started by asking Kim to go negative. I wanted her to rant about things that bother her in her industry. This is one of the fastest, most effective ways to bring out emotion — and I could hear it loud and clear in her voice.

Then we chose a topic to dig into: people who are pushy and sales-y (Kim HATES this). I asked her for the worst sales experiences she’s ever had, and what came out were some pretty remarkable stories (think: duct cleaners, a slander accusation, and a cowbell). What also came out were some great phrases: an event where she “ran out of there so quickly! I hated it!” and a man who was “getting his tentacles into everyone.”

But even more exciting than the stories she told and the phrases she used was how energized she was. We’d dug deep and found more water in her well — and what I know is true for her, and for you, is that our wells of ideas are bottomless. With stories, emotion, and analogies you will never run out of fantastic content.

It takes courage to share emotion and stories. It takes courage to create new analogies — and you’ll probably second-guess yourself when you do. I wonder what Gail Carson Levine thought when she first conceived of her Cinderella retelling. Did she wonder if it was a stupid idea? I wonder how Eleanor felt when she wrote about that comment from her husband. Did it hurt to relive that memory?

I don’t know, but here I am, writing about it because the work of these two women made an impact. You can do that, too. Take a deep breath, pull out a pen and piece of paper, and take that giant leap to a new level of magnetic thought leadership content.

How has creating or consuming thought leadership influenced your business? Let me know in the comments!

Special thanks to Amy Wright for edits. Featured image by Depth of Light Photography.

If you found value in this article, will you share it on social media? Use the swipe copy below:

LinkedIn:
Rather rub your face into broken glass than create another thought piece? That’s a marketing emergency, especially if you provide services in the women helping women economy. It also feels bad! Discover three strategies that will spark your next thought leadership: https://www.simplyputstrategies.com/blog/thought-leadership/what-to-do-when-youre-bored-to-tears-by-your-thought-leadership-read-this-to-stop-crying by @Eva Jannotta #WomenWhoLead #WomenInBusiness #WomenEntrepreneurs #LeadingWomen #ThoughtLeaders

Twitter:
Rather rub your face into broken glass than create another thought piece? That’s a marketing emergency, esp. if you provide services. It also feels bad! Discover three strategies that will spark your next #ThoughtLeadership: https://www.simplyputstrategies.com/blog/thought-leadership/what-to-do-when-youre-bored-to-tears-by-your-thought-leadership-read-this-to-stop-crying by @evajannotta

The post What to do When You’re Bored to Tears by Your Thought Leadership (Read this to stop crying) appeared first on Medusa Media Group.

A lot of “thought leadership” content is being created, and most of it is bad.

You know this truth to be self-evident: how many times have you searched a topic, looking for new angles, insights, and ideas, only to find nearly-identical listicles titled, X Ways to Y so You Can Z?

By “bad” I don’t mean the content is lying, or all the ideas are worthless. I mean it’s unoriginal, repetitive, and boring. Many people write unoriginal content; but the risk of doing so seems especially high for women entrepreneurs. Why? Because we tend to hold back when it comes to our most galvanizing and magnetizing opinions, for some very over-come-able reasons. (Some of these reasons come from universal human behavior. Others start with “patri” and end with “archy.” More on that in an upcoming article).

And we must share our views and opinions to change the status quo.

Why Most “Thought Leadership” Content is Bad

The problem is, so much business and marketing advice tells you to “be a thought leader” without acknowledging what the actual f that business-y jargon-word means. They’ll suggest that you “start a blog/podcast” with little guidance for how to make that content original, thought-provoking, and valuable.

Let’s start with a basic definition, from Edelman and LinkedIn’s 2020 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study: “Free deliverables organizations or individuals produce on a topic they know a lot about and feel others can benefit from having their perspective on. Thought Leadership in this context does not include content directly focused on describing an organization’s products or services.”

The emphasis is mine. Your perspective is what sets thought leadership content apart from the rest of the Internet. And the more you are direct and uncompromising with your perspective, the more your thought leadership will be valuable to others – and valuable to your business.

But sharing your candid perspective can feel paralyzing, overwhelming, or frightening. So, many entrepreneurs default to creating dull content. It repeats what’s been said, or it follows the uninspired advice to “answer your client’s questions” (note: this can be a great idea, but it’s not ALWAYS a great idea!). Worse yet, it espouses grossly oversimplified advice. (Witness all the pins a la “how to launch your signature course in 7 days” written in bridesmaid font on a pink overlay if you don’t know what I mean.)

And the risk isn’t only that you’ll disappoint your audience. Thought leadership has more sales influence and business impact than most content producers realize. Poor thought leadership can hurt your chances of finding new clients and inspiring them to want to work with you. Frankly, it’s not even thought leadership when it’s lousy, it’s just mediocre “content.”

In their Thought Leadership Impact Study, Edelman and LinkedIn find that:

• Only 15% of decision-makers (i.e., the people who will decide to hire you) are impressed with the quality of the thought leadership content they read
• Less than 30% say they gain valuable insights more than half the time they read “thought leadership”
• 38% say their respect for an organization decreases after reading its lousy content
• And, 27% of decision-makers say they chose NOT to work with an organization after reading their thought leadership

Now, that last point isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If your content is bold and galvanizing, it WILL turn off some people. That means you’re doing it right. But, poor-quality content leaves a bad taste in the mouth of your reader, making her less likely to buy your services. This affects your ability to build the women helping women economy and end sexism for everyone.

And, even if you didn’t know from personal experience, Edelman and LinkedIn’s study makes it brilliantly clear: 85% of decision-makers are unimpressed with the thought leadership they read. Over 70% are usually disappointed in its quality. There is too much garbage content!

The Glaring Opportunity for Women Entrepreneurs

Now listen: it’s not that bad thought leadership has such a negative impact on your marketing and sales that you’d better not bother. NO. Excellent thought leadership has immense potential. It can lead to increased business opportunities like request for proposal (RFP) invitations, purchases, upsells, and cross-sells.

So if the stats above made you nervous, let me say creating thought leadership content is worth the risk, because Edelman and LinkedIn discovered that:

• 61% of decision-makers who are willing to pay well for services say it’s because the provider’s thought leadership shows deep thinking and other important virtues
• 42% are willing to pay more to work with someone with excellent thought leadership compared to one without
• 59% agree thought leadership is a more trustworthy source for assessing an organization’s capabilities than its marketing and product materials
• Over 85% of decision makers say their trust, perception of capabilities, and respect increase after reading excellent thought leadership

Nearly half of decision-makers say that thought leadership influences their decision to buy. That’s huge! Yet most content they read is disappointing. What we have is an enormous opportunity in the thought leadership market to create insightful content that our readers value and remember. So how do we do that?

The Path to Magnetic Thought Leadership

The keys to creating high-quality, excellent thought leadership content that will inspire people to work with you are three-fold. It requires:

• A commitment to a thought leadership infrastructure. You have to show up week after week and month after month, even when you don’t get instant gratification (or fame or fortune) from it
• An investment of time and/or money to discover what you REALLY believe. You have bold opinions; lots of them. You have insights and brilliance that you are probably overlooking, ignoring, or downplaying (or some combination of the three). Take the time to discover what those are, either in “a room of your own” or with a thought leadership ideation partner
• A structure for promoting and amplifying your thought leadership, and for measuring its effectiveness

Numbers one and three above require you to make some decisions and build some systems. It’s #2 that will ask the most of you, and it’s #2 that will be the subject of my next article. Now that you know, beyond a shadow of doubt, how important and influential quality thought leadership is, the next step(s) are to begin creating it.

How has creating or consuming thought leadership influenced your business? Let me know in the comments!

Special thanks to Amy Wright for edits and to Joseph Kingsbury, David M. Bersoff, and Tonia Ries for the Edelman/LinkedIn study. Featured image via CreateHER Stock.

If you found value in this article, will you share it on social media? Use the swipe copy below:

LinkedIn:
Most “#ThoughtLeadership” content is bad: Edelman and LinkedIn find that only 15% of decision-makers are impressed with the quality of the thought leadership they read. There is a gaping void in the market. Ladies: let’s fill it with original, thought-provoking, and valuable perspectives: https://www.simplyputstrategies.com/blog/marketing/the-glaring-opportunity-for-excellent-thought-leadership-by-women-entrepreneurs by @Eva Jannotta #WomenWhoLead #WomenInBusiness #WomenEntrepreneurs #LeadingWomen #ThoughtLeaders

Twitter:
Most “#ThoughtLeadership” content is bad: only 15% of decision-makers are impressed with the quality of the thought leadership they read. This is a GLARING OPPORTUNITY for #WomenEntrepreneurs. Discover how and why: https://www.simplyputstrategies.com/blog/marketing/the-glaring-opportunity-for-excellent-thought-leadership-by-women-entrepreneurs by @evajannotta #WomenWhoLead #WomenInBusiness

The post The Glaring Opportunity for Excellent Thought Leadership by Women Entrepreneurs appeared first on Medusa Media Group.

You guys, sometimes I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. Writing 100 blog posts in 100 days is hard!

I knew that not every blog post would be “good” – that is, highly valuable to you. But many of them contain at least a “good” kernel. A of a strong opinion, a bold idea, a controversial outlook – exactly what you need for magnetic, sought-after thought leadership content. Here are some of my favorites:

• 88: Your Business Fantasy is Not Your Business Goal
• 82: How to Position Yourself as an Expert Before You Launch
• 55: Joy Of Missing Out (JOMO) on Marketing
• 52: Are You a Bad Businesswoman if You Hate Goal-Setting?
• 42: You Can Claim Any Title or Position You Desire
• 34: Three Reasons I Was Scared (Not “Anxious” or “Stressed”)
• 31: WILL YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN the Difference Between Strategy and Tactics??
• 30: The Fallacy of Fearlessness
• 19: I’ll Have the Opposite of What She’s Having
• 17: 10 Networking Questions to Ask Before “So What Do You Do?”
• 11: Enough with the Advice Economy
• 3: You Can’t Microwave Outcomes (this is what happened after I published on Medium)

What’s next? I hope to expand on the best ideas here in longer, researched articles that I can pitch and publish elsewhere. But whether I succeed in that endeavor, I’ve reached my own goals for this 100 blog posts project. I discovered:

• I have a lot of ideas
• It’s not hard to come up with ideas (it is harder, and more time-consuming, to flesh out the ideas, though…)
• It’s possible to write every single day
• Not all daily writing is top-notch quality
• Some of my ideas aren’t great
• Some of my ideas are great
• I can commit, persevere, and improve.

Do I recommend this challenge? Yes. Will I do it again? Probably not.

Thank you for reading it – whether one post or several posts. The fact that I can write what’s in my head here and know that you’ll read it is incredible. Thank you.

This post is part of my 100 Blog Posts in 100 Days series. View the rest here.

Image by Claudio Schwarz.

The post 100: I wrote 100 Blog Posts in 100 Days! appeared first on Medusa Media Group.

A couple years ago I was asked by the choral director of our community theater production to audition for a solo. Asked! I was so flattered and excited. A few days after I sang the part for her, I received an email saying… I got it!

It was a bright spot in an otherwise tearful Saturday morning. I had just broken up with my boyfriend over what I thought was an irreconcilable difference (I was wrong. We’re engaged now). That email about the solo was the best thing that happened that day.

We had six performances over two weekends, and in about two thirds of them I did a really. bad. job. I don’t know WHAT happened, but I could not hit the right notes.

I was absolutely mortified.

Shame

To this day, nothing makes me cringe more than the memory of that solo. Thinking about it makes me want to scrunch up my eyes and slap my hands over my ears, as though that will stop the memory. The thoughts go like this:

Everyone heard those off-notes. I can’t believe I let the director and the whole production down. Why didn’t I try harder? I should have practiced more. Who did I think I was? I should have hired a voice coach. I didn’t deserve that solo. They will never trust me again.

I get similar – though not as acute – feelings of embarrassment when I think about my writingo on this blog. The thoughts go:

I can’t believe I wrote that. What was I THINKING!? How could I think that was any good? In fact, what makes me believe that ANY of my ideas are worthwhile? I’m just me. Literally no one will find this valuable, ever. 

What’s going on here?

Brené Brown writes that shame comes from the belief not that you did something bad, but that you are bad – intrinsically flawed somehow. Is that where these mind-hurting thoughts that make my face hot come from?

Progress

In the solo example I did a poor job. And yes, part of me believes that is a sign of some inner flaw.

But with the writing??? Why is progress embarrassing? I’m not embarrassed by what I wrote in fifth grade. Why am I humiliated by what I wrote a few years ago?

I was confident in what I wrote back then. I had something to say and I had the right to say it. Now, I’m shaking my head at my past self. Who did I think I was? That confidence seems presumptuous to the extreme.

But, I haven’t actually read anything I wrote back then in a long time. But in my mind it’s probably garbage. What??

I’m puzzled by this, this self-flagellation and dismissiveness. It’s probably a symptom of perfectionism, or maybe some internalized oppressive belief that I don’t deserve to speak. Or maybe it’s because I regularly see writing that doesn’t impress me. If I judge those people, why wouldn’t I judge myself?

How much are these feelings holding me back from auditioning for another solo or writing?

This post is part of my 100 Blog Posts in 100 Days series. View the rest here.

Image by Filbert Mangundap.

The post 92: Is THIS Holding You Back? appeared first on Medusa Media Group.

Thought leadership and promoting your business and not boring yourself or your audience to tears. Let’s talk about it.

On a scale from one to ten, my colleague ranked herself a 7 in terms of getting her thought leadership out there. Why? Because of speaking events. After a few years of trying, she’s made great headway in speaking at the right events of her audience.

Public speaking is an efficient way to share your thought leadership because you can share the same speech multiple times! You get more mileage out of your message because each time you share it, it’s to a new audience.

Not so with writing.

No matter where you publish (LinkedIn, your website, Medium, a news outlet), anyone who searches your name will find it. You can’t publish the same message multiple times like you can with speaking. You can share the same ideas, but you’ve got present them in new ways. And it takes dedicated time and energy and creativity to pull that off.

My colleague put it this way,

“The issue is that I want my thought leadership to be promoting my business, and there are only so many angles that are different and non-repetitive. What can I write that is still promoting my company, in a subtle, thought leadership way, but is not repeating myself? It’s easy to repeat yourself on stage, but in writing there’s a paper trail.”

Three ideas to spark your thought leadership

There are ways around this, but have I mentioned that they take time and energy and creativity? I think your best bets for how-to-be-original-and-still-promote are:

1. Storytelling: I read a lot of fantasy novels, and the plots and language and tone can get repetitive. I don’t care; I still enjoy the story. If you serve clients, you have a wealth of stories to promote your company, while positioning you as an expert and leader in your space.
2. Format variety: writing is important, but so are video and images. Get more mileage out of each thought leadership angle but publishing it in multiple formats. This takes pressure off you and gives your audience different entry points to your work.
3. Repeat yourself: you don’t have to be wholly original all the time. The Internet is a big place. There is always churn in your audience: some people drift away and new people enter the fold. The new people need to hear what you already said (yeah, they can Google but they might want to hear it from you now, not you from 2015). Besides, repeating the same angle with slightly different language is great for your audience and search engines alike: people phrase the same problems and questions in different ways, so give your answers some new clothes.

Repeating yourself (within reason) might feel excruciating, though. 1) Because you are your own worst critic and put pressure on yourself to be brilliant and relatable and original all the time (which is impossible and unnecessary). And 2) because you might be bored with your own thought leadership and the angles that promote your business – which is very real and normal, and a separate issue.

A room of one’s own

I’m so glad my colleague brought this up, because this is a Very Real Challenge for content creators and thought leaders. It’s not that you DON’T have good ideas to write about – but you might be stuck on wanting to be super original, or feeling bored, or being pressed for time.

You can come up with great though leadership content to write – see above if you need ideas – but the main ingredients to make that happen are TIME and SPACE. A Room of One’s Own. Unfair that these ingredients are at a premium, isn’t it?

Or you could give yourself some grace from writing and focus on your public speaking thought leadership. TOTALLY VALID. You don’t want to do everything all the time.

But if you want to write (as I do, hence this 100 Blog Posts challenge)… you totally can.

This post is part of my 100 Blog Posts in 100 Days series. View the rest here.

The post 63: How to Write Non-Boring Thought Leadership Content appeared first on Medusa Media Group.