140 The thought leader advantage with Trevor Young

03/03/19 • 25 min

CRANK THE 3RD: Exploring the entrepreneurial + creative side of life post 50

‘Thought leadership’ can be quite a nebulous concept, says Trevor Young aka The PR Warrior: consultant, author, speaker and host of REPUTATION REVOLUTION.

In this solo riff, Trevor says simply telling people you’re a thought leader doesn’t necessarily make you one. That said, there’s certainly nothing wrong with aspiring to become a thought leader in your industry, profession, discipline or community.

Trevor says that to become a thought leader today, you don’t need to rely on the gatekeepers e.g. the media, or book publishers:

"You can become your own media channel, and you can publish your own books and distribute them globally," he says

‘Thought leadership’ can be quite a nebulous concept, says Trevor Young aka The PR Warrior: consultant, author, speaker and host of REPUTATION REVOLUTION.

Trevor says that to become a thought leader today, you don’t need to rely on the gatekeepers e.g. the media, or book publishers:

"You can become your own media channel, and you can publish your own books and distribute them globally," he says

Previous Episode

139: Commercialising your personal brand with Mary Henderson

Mary Henderson is a personal branding specialist based in Melbourne, Australia.

She helps coaches, consultants, business owners and corporate executives define their personal brand and convert their expertise into a business solution that solves a complex problem.

In this wide-ranging chat with Trevor Young, Mary

Building a personal brand that can be commercialised
Content is not IP; it needs to be turned into a methodology
The importance of mastering one craft to position ourselves as an authority in that particular space
Why you need to understand your 'end-goal'
Having an agile mindset is "absolutely critical"
Content is king, "but volume content is a whole new level"

Mary's LinkedIn video strategy

Mary also unpacks her LinkedIn content strategy, which is really starting to pay dividends for her profile and her business.

Video is her go-to media format, and she breaks them down into themed series

She started with daily videos: "The engagement has been fantastic ... some posts reach 5000 views, ten, twenty, forty, even 50,000".

Mary is now experimenting with posting on LinkedIn three times a day, two of which are videos.

Most of Mary's videos are pretty "raw", although if she's targeting them at the C-suite, she will record them in in her home studio.

And here's the kicker: Mary reveals that it took at least six months of producing content daily on LinkedIn to effectively position herself as an authority in the personal branding space. By month nine, now the leads are starting to flow in from all over the world.

But wait, there's more! Perceived credibility brings business benefits.

Mary says the third part to all of this is once you establish your 'go-to' status, people start perceiving you to be the top of your field and understand you're not going to be "the $299 (per hour) coach".

"They already know that," she says.

So in essence, according to Mary, the "six-to-nine month mark is where it's the game-changer".

But, she reiterates, content is fundamental.

Connect with Mary

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/6figureexpert/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/6figureexpert
Website: http://www.maryhendersoncoaching.com/

Next Episode

141 Achieving a return on your intellect with Ronan Leonard

Ronan Leonard works with professional experts and thought leaders to get the most out of their ideas and intellectual property.

More specifically, through his business Eccountability, he helps people create global online virtual mastermind groups.

Part of Ronan's process is to people how to find their niche 'white space', drawing out and amplifying their hidden genius, and then packaging it up so they can automate the process and achieve a predictable income.

In this chat with Trevor Young, Ronan provides his definition of a thought leader.

"It's not enough to be a subject matter expert," he says.

Ronan also unpacks masterminds, a concept that has its genesis in Napoleon Hill's 1937 classic book, Think and Grow Rich.

A mastermind group is designed to help people overcome challenges with help from the collective expertise and skill-sets of others. A group might meet monthly, weekly, or even daily to receive support, provide advice, share resources, and tackle problems together.

According to Ronan, successful mastermind meetings always have some sort of an agenda and someone in moderator role, ensuring conversations stay on track.

Other points of discussion include:

the optimum number of participants for a successful mastermind
how long masterminds should run for
how much successful mastermind facilitators are charging
the difference between group coaching and mastermind groups

A key takeaway from Ronan is that subject matter experts should teach to the problem: "You want to teach what people want to learn, not what you want to teach," he says.

CONNECT WITH RONAN: