thought leaders magazine | issue 3 | july/august 2010
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Thought Leaders helps clever people be commercially smart!TRANSCRIPT
Thought Leaders helps clever people be commercially smart.
#tlmag update from the leadership councilthe dark side of expertise page 2
standing out is easy page 3
where have all the leaders gone? page 3
get real about getting things done page 4
how to profit from your ideas page 5
going from white belt to black belt as a million dollar expert p6
the negative impact of positive thinking page 7
what’s the story, morning glory? page 8
authenticity that attracts page 9
ask great questions page 9
what is a white paper? page 10
attraction factor page 11
selling thought leadership page 12
who are you talking to? page 12
JULY AUGUST 2010 | #tlmag
1. A fabulous mentor
accreditation program was run in June. Matt Church conducted an awesome week for the mentors, walking through the core Thought Leaders IP and getting very clear about how we can help clever people to be commercially smart. The next one in is October - if you think you have what it takes to be a mentor and work with other Thought Leaders helping them develop their great ideas, take a look at thoughtleadersglobalmentor.com
2. Scott Stein and Michael
Henderson, along with Matt Church have secured a publishing deal with Harper Collins to publish the first ever book on Thought Leadership. It’s going awesomely well and will be a great addition to anyone’s library.
3. Summits are rocking along
nicely with events run in Sydney, Auckland, Brisbane and soon in Melbourne. The format is fabulous, the conversations amazing
and with the addition of a social get together at the end. A fantastic additional touchpoint for members and mentors and for those new to the Thought Leaders Community.
4. We are on track to our goal
of 1500 members by Christmas 2010. We are halfway there and with your help and the fabulous connections to our mentors let’s see how we go!
5. Watch out for the Thought
Leaders Studio signature show
later in this year. Matt will be interviewing great Thought Leaders in a 20 minute Parkinson Style Format - can’t wait.
That’s it from the leadership council for now. Enjoy the new look landscape format. As the
Thought Leaders Magazine is a digital publication we took on board suggestions that this style lends itself to easier screen viewing.
update from the leadership councilThings are progressing nicely on the Global front. Five main things to report:
JULY AUGUST 2010#tlmag -1-
Finding and owning expertise can often turn into a category or genre exercise and this is a challenge for many thought leaders. What I do, and what I am really great at, are uncomfortable bedfellows against the vexing question of how this differs from other people or businesses.
Once we figure out what our deep expertise is, we often become so wedded to it that it’s difficult to define ourselves in any other way.
Sometimes we need the perspective of someone else to see things in us that we cannot see in ourselves. This is often the case in the world of classical music, and for the high-brow, Juilliard trained artists of the grand art of opera.
As a result, many have been surprised by the recent release, Dark Hope by the American darling of opera, Renee Fleming. Encouraged to try a project worlds apart from the opera stage, producer David Kahne has worked with Fleming to produce a CD of songs by some of rock’s greatest songwriters.
The narrow interpretation of Fleming’s expertise is as an opera singer, but the core of it is a voice and intellectual sensibility that can produce the most astonishing music. Instead of just doing “crossover” where performers sing popular music in a classically trained style, on Dark Hope Fleming “wanted to bypass the middle ground and get to the other side of the divide completely”. She sings in her speaking voice, two octaves lower than her soprano voice.
The middle ground should make us all nervous. Staying within the lines means that we can be in danger of thinking the same way as everyone else and offering similar solutions to our clients. If we are all reading the same books and watching the same talks, we are coming at problems in ways that can limit our thinking.I am an organisational ecologist, a field that looks at how the planning, management and design of organisations impacts individual, team and organisational performance. From an academic perspective, this is a relatively new and narrow field.
While I need to immerse myself deeply in the research, my expertise has been enriched by so many different things that other academics would probably discard as irrelevant. Some of these include riding Olympic level dressage, an Arts degree in Japanese and passions for sword fighting, Buddhism, truck driving and philosophy. I get lots of ideas from magazines like Dazed and
Confused. I love wandering around fringe festivals and exhibitions and talking to people who don’t inhabit my world. For me, all of these things are massively relevant to my field and I force myself to never settle on a boundary as to what ‘fits’ my expertise and what doesn’t.
I am asked to design workplaces precisely because I am not an architect or formally trained as a designer. I approach the work with different eyes, very different questions and fresh assumptions about what is possible and what will create the result the client wants. How else might you define your expertise and apply it in new ways that re-invent possibilities?Don’t be afraid to think differently and take risks everyday to do things that might enrich your expertise in surprising ways. Blur the lines, be intellectually curious
and have the courage to take risks, especially when you aren’t sure what the outcome will be. Fleming is a thought leader. Being a thought leader demands you inspire others with your fire, soul and sheer originality. Take a leap of faith, shun the middle ground and go to the other side of the divide. No matter if you are a devotee of KD Lang or Jeff Buckley’s versions or if you’ve never heard the song, it is difficult not to be transported by the application of Fleming’s expertise to Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
A revelation indeed.
Libby Sander is a Thought Leaders Mentor in Brisbane and is an expert on organisational design and performance.
Contact details:
Web www.libbysander.comEmail [email protected] 0409 436 650
the dark side of expertise - take a leap of faith
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As a thought leader, have you ever been fed the line ‘standing out is hard!’?
If you have received that sort of commentary, there are two things to consider;
1. You have been on the receiving end of someone else’s self-limiting belief
2. There is no logic behind the statement
Standing out is easier now than it has ever been. In years gone by standing out took money, time, study and effort, unless you were “born into it.’” In our current climate, thought leaders are standing out from the pack because of the sheer volume in the market. Confused? Let me explain a little further…
There are a lot more bad movies made these days than good ones– think about it, go to your local video shop or browse downloadable movies and you will find hundreds if not thousands of movies you can choose from, yet I bet you struggle to come up with 3 or 4 on your shortlist.
There are sooo many bad songs, and yet just a few good ones – whether it is cruising Limewire or i-Tunes, or wandering through Sanity or a Virgin megastore, there are many more unappealing albums than appealing ones.
The law of socio economics is on our side fellow thought leaders; wherever there is abundance, it creates a scarcity. I believe our standard of idea generation has slipped. I think the abundance and ease of production of most things has seen quality become a secondary criteria. Our embrace of average (or below average) in pursuit of choice has contributed to a scarcity for thought leaders to leverage.
Your ideas can stand out! If what is coming out of your head is better than Weekend at Bernie’s
IV (god help us if it isn’t!) you will become the new scarcity. The current zeitgeist means you only have to be better than average to be seen.
So be brave, unleash the ideas in your head upon the general public…they are probably more
desperate for it than you might think. Stand out, step up; be a thought leader.
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I was recently in a senior-level meeting that was looking at forward planning and I was amazed at the lack of thought leadership.
Given that the Global Financial Crisis has moved on, I was amazed to find many senior people still dazed and confused about how to begin leading in this new, uncertain environment.
If you have a group of people that are “stuck” in “hold” position, there are three things that you can do to get their thought leadership firing.
First, get them to identify what a thought leader would do. Get them to brainstorm what could be possible and what someone that is on the cutting edge would do in the same situation. Ask what would Richard Branson do? Get them to identify things that could be possible without fear. It can be amazing the ideas that come forward when people operate from this mindset.
Second, get them to look at what things are currently occurring that could be done in a more effective way; be it systems, approach or activity. Thought leadership is about new ideas—and about demonstrating the courage to lead changes that others may resist. Today, businesses can’t afford to play it too safe—or get stuck in 20 year old traditions that existed before the internet!
Third, get them to identify a strategy to position themselves and their people as thought leaders. An incredible thing can happen when people start believing in their capabilities—and start promoting the great ideas of their peers to others. One organisation I recently worked with had a couple staff doing some amazing research papers, the challenge was that most of their colleagues did not know about it. When we discussed what they found in their research, everyone was amazed—and this provided them with a tool to promote the thought leadership that is being demonstrated to their peers, their industry and most importantly their clients.
Thought leadership is more than just ideas, it is about executing them in a compelling way that enrols others. The next time the voice in your head says, ‘where has our thought leadership gone?’—don’t follow the crowd and play it safe—be the thought leader and make
something happen!
standing out is easy where have all the leaders gone?Scott Stein is one of the Directors of Thought Leaders Global, on the Leadership Council and a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Sydney. Scott inspires individuals and teams to reconnect with their instinctive purpose in life and to unleash their full potential.
W: www.scottstein.com.auE: [email protected]: 0412 990 919
Darren Hill is the Northern Territory Mentor for Thought Leaders and an expert on human behaviour and leadership.
W: www.changeworksweb.com
P: +61 8 8945 3199
Deadlines are a powerful tool. Most people hate them because they force us to do stuff, to make commitments, make decisions, take actions and follow through.
To me these are all the great things about deadlines and the reason people that get things done and make things happen embrace them. Deadlines draw a line in the sand in the future and when they are strong and robust they push us to get off our backsides and make our ideas and thoughts a reality.
Thought leaders need to learn the power in embracing deadlines, drawing a line in the sand around the development and application of their ideas.
Journalists use deadlines to power their ideas for magazines and newspapers, authors use them to power their books, marketing people use them to power their products, CEO’s use them to power their
companies. The villain in a movie uses them to power the hero or heroine to make their escape. Imagine the mad bomber going “this bomb is designed to explode,
oh, whenever” not quite as attractive as “in just 7 minutes this bomb will explode and I will be safely away while you get blown to smithereens” is a much better attention grabber. Deadlines do that, they grab our attention and focus our energy. Deadlines work!
A deadline shared is a project, idea or thought delivered. Keeping them to yourself is a cop out - it
allows you to make excuses and weasel out of things. While sharing them makes you accountable, responsible and more likely to get it done. Particularly if the person holding you accountable to the deadline scares the socks of you! That’s why editors, publishers and CEO’s are so influential, they don’t back away from holding their employees and clients accountable for deadlines.
Once we have a deadline to meet, our brains start to operate at a higher speed and on a different level because our subconscious starts to kick our butt, ‘remember
to get this done’, ‘be aware of this commitment’, ‘be sure you do this’.
I was talking with my mate Marty Wilson last week, author of the ‘What I wish I knew’ series, one of his family was just taken to hospital with a fairly serious problem. When I spoke to him, he’s exclaimed, ‘Bugger! I have got the deadline for my latest book , ‘What I wish I knew about motherhood due today!’ . Despite the family crisis, his subconscious was still chasing the deadline.
Give it a deadline, your brain just
can’t resist chasing it.
Ron (Rowdy) McLean is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Brisbane, Queensland. He is a member of the Thought Leaders Global Leadership Council and is the master at getting things done.
Contact details:
Web www.rowdy.com.au
Email [email protected]
Phone 0414 347 667
get real about getting things done
“”
Thought leaders need to learn the power in embracing deadlines...
JULY AUGUST 2010#tlmag -4-
The biggest problem with innovation is not coming up with ideas. That's relatively easy because we're all having thoughts, opinions and ideas about something all of the time.
The real issue of innovation is turning the ideas we do have into something useful. The key to profiting from your ideas is to translate them into forms so other people can profit from them. When they profit, you profit.
Idea ModelThe first way to format your idea is to transform it into a visual model, diagram or representation. The goal here is to make it easier to share with others and for them to think about things differently.
Product or ServiceThe second transformation is to turn your idea model into either a service or a product. This can be as simple as a paper clip or as complex as a rocket ship.
Traditionally, telling the difference was black and white: products fitted in wheelbarrows, services didn't.
Today, it's not so clear where products start and/or services finish. It's more of a continuum or greyed zone from product to service.
Where a visual model lets someone think about your idea, products and services are designed for
action. They let someone do something with your idea.
EcosystemThe third transformation is to create an eco-system. Like a forest, this is a collection of products and services that all rely on and feed off each other. The Ecosystem concept is crucial because of the product/service continuum. You can't really create a product without some level of service and vice versa. The big reward if you get this right is for your customers to live your idea.
Example: Apple iPodA really potent example of an Ecosystem is the Apple iPod. Apple designed the product and got a manufacturer to make it. Apple then got the music companies to supply the songs and they built the iTunes store as software to buy, play and manage them. They also encouraged Gracenotes to maintain a database of songs and album covers. Then, Apple left room for a whole bunch of manufacturers to produce a whole bunch of accessories from covers to car phone adaptors. Finally, having this collection of products and services has attracted more people to buy more of Apple's core products: its computers. This collection of products and services has enabled Apple to grab a large chunk of profit from the sale of digital music.
Profitable ActionTo put the Idea Profit model into action start to think about your ideas and how others engage with them. Do they make people think? Do they help people act? Or, are they part of the way people live?
The more people who live your product the more profitable it'll be for you.
JULY AUGUST 2010#tlmag -5-
how to profit from your ideas
Geoff McDonald is the creator of the Bookrapper concept and is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Melbourne.
Contact Details:
Web www.ideasarchitect.com.au
Email [email protected]
Phone 0407 830 902
Thought Leaders has developed a great model for strategising and achieving the growth of your practice.
You can see the different levels, and their associated belts in the picture. Each additional $10k per month income into your practice gets you another belt (just like progressing through the belts in a martial art).
Strategy
The key strategy for building a million dollar practice is to do so one step, one belt at a time. The Thought Leaders methodology divides your practice across six modalities: speaker, author, trainer, mentor, facilitator and coach. The aim is to work up one belt and one mode at a time.
If you got to white belt as a trainer, then you should choose one of the other five - let’s say mentor - to get
to yellow belt. And once you get to yellow belt, you’ll pick a third modality to get to green belt.
It’s relatively easy to make $10k a month in any of the modalities. However, to make $60k a month from one modality you have to be at the absolute peak of that field. There are hardly any speakers, authors, trainers etc making $720k a year in just one modality.
In the Thought Leader’s community there are a growing number of black belts (over 50 now) who have got there using
this model. And the beauty of it is the different modes build on each other. If you’ve got a book, its much easier to get speaking gigs. Deliver a great key-note, and people will want to buy your training program. Run a kick-arse training day, and you’ll be in demand for your mentoring. And so on.
My white belt came from my business coaching practice (while I called it coaching, it was actually mentoring small business owners to grow their businesses). The next mode I added, which got me to yellow belt, was training - teaching science based innovation and creativity to corporates.
Focus - Decision
The focus at white belt level is decision. Decide on one market, and one message, and communicate that message to that market. (See Matt Church’s White Paper Sell Your Thoughts for more on this).
One decision I invite you to make is that you are going to be a black belt. I have a second dan black belt in Aikido, a Japanese martial art. I clearly remember the day I started Aikido I was told that 1 in 200 people make it to black belt. I decided that I was the 1. I’ve trained 3 or 4 times a week pretty much without fail in the 10 years since that decision. And it was that decision that had me get out of bed at 5:30am on cold winter mornings to get to training.
Make the decision to be a black belt - it will make you a more effective white belt, and help you do what it takes to get your next belt (and the ones after that).
Going from White belt to Black belt as a Million Dollar ExpertPart 1 - White Belt to Yellow Belt
JULY AUGUST 2010#tlmag -6-
”Peter Cook is a Melbourne based Mentor and an expert in the White Belt to Black Belt journey.
Contact Details:
W: www.petergcook.com
P: 0407 077 210
“Make the decision to be a black belt
Last week, yet another of my clients decided that they needed to postpone their management retreat due to ‘budget restraints’.
For many Thought Leaders, the impact of the GFC on our business might be cause for alarm, if we so choose!
My biggest concern, in the face of numerous worrying issues, is the epidemic of ‘positive thinking’ that is flooding the planet. Just being positive isn’t going to get us the results we desire. We need to understand that when we’re thinking along the ‘negative – neutral – positive’ spectrum, we’re on the wrong spectrum.
Obviously, negative thinking is also a flawed strategy for getting great results. The downward spiral of energy created by looking for the worst possible outcomes all the time is not going to power us to success. Similarly, remaining neutral in the face of adverse
conditions, is unlikely to inspire the activity levels that we need.
The way many people see the attitude spectrum is:
NEGATIVE NEUTRAL POSITIVE
The challenge is that “Positive Thinking” is not the solution either. We need a more powerful force to create optimal performance, for our Thought Leadership. We need the “Power Opposite”.
The flaw in this thinking is that the “Power Opposite” of negative is not ‘positive’, it’s something quite different.
Before we go there, let’s consider another example - Love.
Do you remember the feelings when you first fell in love? Regardless of how long ago it was, wasn’t it magical? When we’re in love, the world really is wonderful! The sun is shining, the birds are
singing, all is right in the universe. Then, something happens and suddenly the magic has gone. We’re plunged into a darker world which can lead (in some cases) to what we think is the opposite – ‘hate’. The challenge is that, while we’re in that place, we’re never going to get over the lost love and move on. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference. Only when we get there, will we be free to step into love, again.
The same applies with overcoming negative thinking. If we just decide to be ‘positive’ about everything, we’re not looking for best possible outcomes and we’re unlikely to take the massive action sometimes required to get us out of the slump.
The “Power Opposite” of negative is ‘optimistic’.
NEGATIVE REALISTIC OPTIMISTIC
When we’re faced with a negative situation, the first key step for an optimal outcome is to take a realistic look at what is really happening and what is possible, in terms of options and solutions. The critical next step is to tackle the selection of alternatives with optimism.
That means to approach it with, according to the Oxford Dictionary, “a disposition or tendency to look on the more favourable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favourable outcome”.
Ex-Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani said “Leaders need to be optimists. Their vision is beyond the present.” As Thought Leaders, optimism can power our ability to
deliver on our vision.
Helen Macdonald is Australia’s Corporate Optimist and a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Melbourne.
Contact details:
Web: www.helenmac.com
Email: [email protected]
Phone 0419 930 864
the negative impact of positive thinking
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We need a more powerful force to create optimal performance...
JULY AUGUST 2010#tlmag -7-
Up the road from where I live, there is a huge bill board with a metre high headline that says: ‘It’s all about the story’.
The photo on the billboard is of a television reporter talking to a crouched old man in a field. The ad is for a major New Zealand TV network and their news service.Now it does seem strange that the billboard is stating the obvious, but it goes to show how much leverage the advertising industry believes there is in depicting a TV network as “hands on” and authentic about their content. It’s all about the story.
There is now significant scientific evidence that human beings learn and remember best through story. Stories zing across the gap in our brain’s synapses like nothing else. And yet the “X factor” that makes stories stick is still elusive. Why do stories strike a chord while soul less facts get lost in translation?
In a nutshell, the science of story shows that the brain’s neurons are activated by “incoming coherent sentences”. But the science, known as psycholinguistics, still can’t quite nail how we achieve coherence. It’s
researchers say that it is more than just the written or spoken sentence.
Marketing guru, Seth Godin, says:‘People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.’ What leaders do: They give people stories they can tell themselves. Stories about the future and about change.
John F Kennedy mastered the science and the art of story. He used conviction and passion, juxtaposition and rhythm to craft some of the most memorable quotes of our times. He used the magic rhythm of three (tricolon) to great effect.
‘When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.’ And he used juxtaposition to put together one sentence that galvanised a generation.
‘In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon, it will be an entire nation, for all of us must work to put him there.’
There are a range of techniques that can be learnt to help craft stories, but the key to having stories connect is in the telling.
As a journalism lecturer, I used to come across countless students who were totally confronted by turning their research, data and interviews into a couple of sentences for a story intro. The blank page, the white computer screen was haunting. Where do you start?
I would physically make these student turn all their paperwork upside down, turn away from the computer monitor and tell me what they thought their story was about. Nine times out of ten they would vocalise their story intro word for word, summing it up succinctly and memorably.
Now some people have a knack that they can simply commit great sentences to the page without voicing them. You will know who you are. But for the most part, our conscious and unconscious mind is constantly sifting and ordering information coherently, and we voice it, we get to the ‘guts of it’ by speaking it.
We just have to fall in love with great sentences, observe them in others, play with them, collect them. There is nothing new under the sun.
Find the rhythm of the sentence, just like music. The successful British rock band, Oasis wrote the song, What’s the Story, Morning Glory? It is a line from Cockney rhyming slang, where the word ‘story’ is substituted with Morning Glory, just as London cockneys will talk about going up the ‘apple and pears’ for ‘upstairs.’ On one level the connection is meaningless, but it sticks, the rhythm and the play stick in our minds.
The key is not to ‘overthink’ stories. Great thought leaders think about the point they want to make and then play to weave a story around it, with word pictures and passion, statistics and proof.
Wake up and find the morning glory!
Andrew Melville is a Thought Leaders mentor based in Auckland. He mentors, facilitates and speaks on how to articulate your essence with Stories That Speak.
Contact details:
Web www.spoke.co.nz
Email [email protected]
Phone +64 9 846 1260
what’s the story, ,morning glory? the art and science of story
JULY AUGUST 2010#tlmag -8-
The value statement of Thought Leaders is ‘helping clever people be commercially smart.’ Steve Major offers a new twist to being effective with investigating our markets ahead of pitching our ideas.
People only buy solutions to their problems. Before we get carried away with a new idea, thought leaders must go into detail in posing the critical question: What are the problems we are solving? But even before this question is framed up, a deep understanding and appreciation of the problems of the market is needed. Once the problems are determined, they must be phrased as both great questions and statements.
Asking questions to have people get clear about their problems will help promote the conversation towards our solution.
Posing great questions as a speaker, a trainer, or in one on one sessions with clients and and then clearly stating the problem will ensure others see you have a deep understanding of their needs.
But to succeed as a thought leader, we need to move quickly to explaining the causes of these problems. A simple rule of thumb is to come up with three specific causes to each problem.
Now here comes a key twist. Thought leaders can hit an emotional blind spot with their solutions and get carried away with selling or delivering the total solution themselves. But to be truly effective, there must be an invitation to others to participate in the solution. The Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, said: ‘A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.’
To be commercially smart, the thought leader must understand our market’s problems, detail
the causes, have a quality solution and invite people to take part.
JULY AUGUST 2010#tlmag -9-
ask great questions
Lis Faenza is a Thought Leaders Mentor near Canberra. Lis’ expertise lies in being Commercially Savvy from one-on-one sales to joint venture deal making.
Contact details:
P: 0414 447 275
Steve Major is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Brisbane. He is an expert in helping thought leaders make smarter decisions.
W: www.decisionhq.com
P: +61 7 3298 6583
authenticity that attractsAuthenticity that attracts: How knowing and owning your IP “mojo” enables you to create high value products that attract people to buy.
From a sales point of view, when we talk innovation, we mean products that offer a high value proposition. That is, they are a high end product that very effectively solves a niched problem.
The elegance of the Thought Leaders Positioning Matrix, is it helps at both ends of the spectrum. It helps you identify your “mojo” in commercial terms and link it to the problem in the market place for which you have a unique and effective solution. I think this is where a data-base of case studies where your product/service has been used to solve a problem in the commercial world adds gravity to your offering. Remember, you will be competing in a market place where a lot of claims are made on untested ideas.
Where we need to stand out as thought leaders is in our willingness to back our IP with evidence. The Thought Leaders Positioning Matrix then allows you to package your IP to deliver high relevance to your target market.
This makes buying easy, and it means you are not a sales-person. You become an innovative solution provider who attracts the right buyer at the right time in their cycle. It takes the emphasis off making a sale and puts it back onto the value transaction, making you creatively
wise and commercially savvy.
Back your IP
with evidenc
e
”“This makes buying
really easy, and it means you are not a sales person
White Papers (sometimes called “Special Reports”) are an important tool for thought leaders. A well-formulated White Paper raises your profile as an information expert. It helps you become known for your unique approach to your subject.
The term “White Paper’ originates from Government documents. Most paper is, of
course, white. A White Paper has a white cover. It is an official statement outlining the Government’s policy or position on a particular matter to be brought before Parliament.
A Green Paper (with a green cover) is more provisional in nature. It is a document prepared for the purposes of consultation, to stimulate debate, or to propose a strategy without any commitment to a particular course of action.The term “White Paper” now also applies to business documents of an informational type. White Papers educate people about new technologies, products or services. White Papers are used for promotional purposes, but the
“selling” is not overt. The essence of a White Paper is the informational content. It’s not a marketing brochure. The material in it must be of an educational nature.
A White Paper focuses on particular problems faced by the target market and ways to address them. It must provide real value, and should contain some ideas that the reader can apply without engaging your services. The best way to market your thought leadership services is to demonstrate the value you can provide. This is the way to position yourself in the mind of the reader, so that they will know
what you stand for and how you can help them.
With your White Paper, you drive a metaphorical stake into the ground, declaring your stance on your chosen topic. It’s not a provisional document, so it should not be the first thing you publish. Novelist E.M Forster said “I don’t know what I think until I see what I say”, and I have found this to be true. Put your thinking in writing – by blogging, contributing to online discussion groups, starting an ezine and publishing short articles. Put your ideas out into the world and see what people think. This can be confronting at first. I spent two whole weeks writing the first edition of my ezine “The Cauldron
of Innovation”. I read and re-read it, reflected and re-edited. As my finger hovered over the “Send” button, I felt my heart pounding. The next time, it was easier.
Be really clear about the points you want to make in your White Paper, express them succinctly, and back them up with substantiating material.
Your White Paper doesn’t have to be white. You can choose any colour for the cover, and you can even put pictures in it. But the most important thing is its
valuable information content.
Shelley Dunstone is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Adelaide. As a Mentor her focus is on helping thought leaders to discover their unique wisdom and to express it in writing.
Contact details:
Web www.shelleydunstone.com
Email [email protected]
Phone 0417 846 108
what is a white paper?
“”
White Papers educate people about new technologies, products or services...
JULY AUGUST 2010#tlmag -10-
Part I: Causing a MOJO explosion that effortlessly attracts high value clients to you and your products.
Have you ever wondered how some people just seem to attract the best clients and opportunities just seem to fall in their lap?
Or why sometimes you are hot; and everything you touch turns to gold, while at other times you are not; and everything you touch turns to... well let’s just say... would be good for the compost heap!
As Thought Leader Mentors and in the Thought Leaders training programs, we have some very effective tools for helping clever people be commercially smart.
Two of these tools include:
1. The Unique Intelligence training- which rapidly allows you to tap into who you are that makes you unique and valuable to others. 2. The Positioning Matrix - used to succinctly communicate that uniqueness and value; either personally or through your products in ways that are relevant
and compelling for people. It positions you and your products as being attractive to high value clients.
I like to think of it as mojo.
I define mojo as self-confidence. It’s the super attractive energy that comes from being true to yourself, while in service of others. It’s a deep knowing and accepting of yourself while recognising and sharing your value.
High mojo people and products attract high value clients like honey attracts bees.
Tapping into your mojo creates a couple of very important things: authenticity and uniqueness.
Authenticity builds trust. People intuitively trust people who know who they are and act true to their purpose, skills and values.
Uniqueness sets you apart from others, which puts you in the league where there is no competition.
Signs that mojo is missing or lacking:1. You are not attracting an
abundance of the terrific clients2. Your work is stressful and
difficult, not joyful and flowing3. Inspiration and effective
implementation are missing4. You or your clients are not thrilled
with the outcomes and results that you are getting
Aspects of personal mojo:
1. Who you are being: knowing who you are in the context of your expertise and how it benefits others and acting consistent with this
2. What you say and how you say it: Communication forms the bridge between your ideas and results
3. Your mojo talismans: The wayyou display and leverage yourself and your products that attracts people to you. E.g. online video, blog, website, product brochure,
sales proposal, physical product or book.
Product mojo is an extension of personal mojo.
Products can be speeches, books, training programs and mentoring programs. They are specifically packaged pieces of your thought leadership intellectual property (IP)
that provide powerful and compelling solutions to your target market
Start identifying your mojo!
What is it you love to do for others that is of high value? What are you awesome at? What challenges have you faced in your life that gives you
special skills and insights?
Ivan Waters is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Melbourne and is an expert in helping finding effective and sustainable ways to easily get results.
Contact details:
Web: www.loveyourbody.com
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0408 625 907
attraction factor
JULY AUGUST 2010#tlmag -11-
“ ”Start identifying your mojo!
The way an organisation sells has a critical impact on the way it is perceived in the market, the nature and value of the relationships they build with clients and the organisational culture.
For thought leaders it is important to ensure that our own sales approach demonstrates thought leadership to build a strong community and enhance the reputation of our members as they promote their own practice.
Based on over a decade and a half in sales across a range of organisations, I propose a model of sales approaches based on the level of conviction and competence of the sales-person. The proposed approach suggests application of the Thought Leaders 5-step Sales Model with high degrees of conviction and competence.
Conviction is related to the level of congruence with the offering. It is an internal attitudinal measure that comes across in the way that you communicate, the space you hold and the level of neediness. They know that if there is a well qualified prospect in front of them, they can hold the space and the person will buy when the time is right. - or not.
Competence is related to the degree of mastery of the subject. This is the focus of many technical sales organisations.
Thought leaders are experts in their IP and in deep conviction of the value that their offering. This approach is referred to as Partnership Selling - one where the relationship is paramount and the
seller becomes a trusted partner for the buyer. JULY AUGUST 2010#tlmag -12-
When it comes to delivering your thought leadership on video, how do you know you are really connecting with your potential market and clients?
Imagine that you’re surfing the web in search of someone who can help you in a specific area. You do a ‘Google’ search and find lots of businesses. Most of them have videos on their home page. So you watch a few and notice that some of them really grab your attention and others don’t. Some of them really manage to connect.
In a world where YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine on the planet and having video on your site is an expectation, you need to be able to cut through and really connect.
So how do you connect when delivering your message on camera?
Here’s a simple device. Present as if you a talking to just one person, not many. When in front of a camera the trap is presenting to the masses, to the thousands, maybe millions of potential viewers.
But in reality, I’m the one sitting in front of my computer watching. It’s just me, and if you present to the masses then you’re not talking to me. Video is extremely personal.
So, select just one person, who is perfect to hear your message. It could be your favourite client, your spouse, or another thought leader, and deliver your message to them. It will help you deliver a more personal, more targeted message
and help you connect.
selling thought leadershipNigel Collin is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Sydney and is an expert in helping thought leaders deliver their ideas and business on camera.
W: www.nigelcollin.com.au
P: +61 2 9888 6200
Jeremy Samuel is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Melbourne. He helps people and organisations harness the power of change to accelerate their success.
W: www.dadsflyingsolo.com
P: 0414 532 751
who are you talking to?
It was Charlie Jones who said that the key factors that make a difference between who you are today and who you will be in 5 years time are the books you read and the people you meet.
We reckon he was right, but now, the change can happen quicker, and the ways you can learn are more diverse.
We have been running meetings for thought leaders for almost 10 years. A Thought Leaders event is so unique.
Where else in the world would you get to attend a program where the audience is as stimulating as the presenters? In the past, the only
way you could really know this was in the breaks. Those short sessions where you duck to the ‘loo’, grab a muffin, chat to some new people briefly and then, almost with regret, have to break up the chat to go back into the learning session.
Well, what if the whole program was as good as the break? What if you just had a whole event dedicated to the mutual sharing of ideas between some truly great thinkers and subject matter experts?
The Summits are built around the phenomenally successful Open Spaces format. This structured approach to unstructured
meetings has been used in the United Nations assembly discussions and in small regional communities in the outback. It works!
Of course you have to take our word for it the first time. After a few minutes though, you will come to see this as one of the most natural and effective ways for people to get together to share, learn and meet.
There are four principles of Open Space...
1. Whoever comes are the right people
2. Whatever happens is all that could have
3. Whenever it starts is the right time
4. When it is over, it is over
And, there are two laws...
The Law Of Two Feet implies that if, after being part of a session you are no longer interested in it, you have permission to leave. The law
puts responsibility for your own actions on your own shoulders.
Bumblebees And Butterflies are for those people who wish to use their two feet and 'flit' from meeting to meeting. These people can pollinate and cross-fertilize,
lending richness and variety to the discussions.
It’s elegant in its simplicity!
Not only do we not apologise for the likelihood that you might just think differently when you finish the day - we hope that is exactly what happens. Indeed, that is the role of thought leadership.
So what do you do? Well, go to the registration site and invest $990 and get our ‘all you meet’ special deal. That’s right. You can attend any of the advertised dates and locations. You can register by going to www.thoughtleaderssummits.com
And, come to the first one as our
VIP Guest!
a new way to share, learn & meet
JULY AUGUST 2010#tlmag -13-
sydney Thursday 6 May 2010Thursday 5 August 2010Wednesday 20 October 2010
brisbane Wednesday 2 June 2010Wednesday 1 September 2010Wednesday 1 December 2010
melbourne Wednesday 30 June 2010Tuesday 24 August 2010Wednesday 27 October 2010
auckland Tuesday 18 May 2010Friday 27 August 2010Friday 26 November 2010
Where Why What to do
It’s not what you know but also who you know. This is the key place to meet, network and communicate directly with the whole Thought Leaders membership community.
• Build a profile• Join the local community group• Introduce yourself to a local mentor• Blog your thoughts• Be cool—‘serve don’t sell’
You get tonnes of great information on how to capture, package and deliver your expertise.
• Create an RSS feed to the episode list• Watch videos, post comments, share the
content with your friends, clients and colleagues via facebook, twitter etc
Read streamed articles and specific thoughts on how you go about developing your expertise.
• Set up an RSS feed• Post comments• Share the content
Get short bursts of mentoring.Stay up to date with latest networking and learning opportunities
• Follow • Re-tweet the stuff you like
It’s the one stop portal for all these different online places. • Link to all in the Thought Leaders world
They are the live, belly-to-belly, face-to-face experiences that combine the multiple benefits of sharing, learning and meeting.
• Participate
Ability for to you apply to become a Thought Leaders Accredited Mentor.
• Branding• Licensing• Positioning
Navigating your way around the online world