There’s a boredom-with-your-own-thought-leadership emergency facing women entrepreneurs, and it’s a sadly common affliction. It feels like I’d rather rub my face against broken glass than say the same damn thing one more damn time.
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:
- Spend regular, scheduled time being and allowing your mind to percolate, and
- 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.
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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
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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
