Your Ideas Can Leap Tall Buildings Let’s Make Sure They Do
How about a two-second thought exercise? Read this quote from Joel Kurtzman, editor-in-chief of Strategy & Business, and tell us what you think should go in the blank:
“A __________ is recognized...as someone who deeply understands [their business, customer needs], and the broader marketplace in which they operate. They have distinctly original ideas, unique points of view, and new insights.”
If you answered “thought leader,” you are correct. But isn’t it interesting how the quote works just as well if you filled the blank with “successful executive or entrepreneur”?
The fact is, you already have what it takes to be a thought leader. (If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have gotten here.) The trick is getting it from in here to out there, in a form that your target readers can appreciate, marvel at, and want to act upon.
That’s where MarketSmiths comes in. We’ve awakened many a visionary startup founder, venerable non-profit director, brilliant banking executive, masterful marketer, supreme sales leader, skillful software guru, and others to their inner thought leaders, Clark Kent-style. For the most part, it simply comes down to connecting the cables between your expertise and ours. Yours is your ownership of what you know—and how it can shape the future. Ours is the ability to draw out your insights through interviews and research—and turn these into persuasive arguments and compelling stories.
Being plugged into our ghostwriting machine also lends consistency to your platform, so you don’t fall prey to the once-in-a-blue-moon publishing calendar that is like kryptonite to so many aspiring thought leaders.
Naturally, we can’t post any samples here. Instead, here are the core beliefs that guide our process for identifying and unleashing your powers.
You take an unpopular stance.
There are a whole bunch of “thought leaders” parroting variations of the same ideas we’ve heard elsewhere. But a true TL goes against the grain. As voices rise in harmony, you cause readers to look again—and think harder.
You share your thoughts magnanimously (which takes heart and discipline).
You have to put in the work to articulate, share, and promote your ideas. Seth Godin sets a remarkable standard with his daily blog. If you think that’s an impossible standard to reach, think again: some posts are just 20-30 thought-provoking words.
You invent new constructs for thinking.
Einstein said, “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Bingo! Think Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, who coined the term “alliance” to redefine the employee / employer relationship of the 21st century.
You stay relentlessly on message.
Thought leaders are not one-and-done people. Marie Kondo, author of The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, created an actionable approach to organizing your home. But now with a new Netflix show, she’s still relentlessly on message. Susan Cain, bestselling author of the book Quiet, didn’t just write a book and go away. Instead, she’s overturning the introvert/extrovert paradigm through her blog, TED talk, and now school and corporate training programs. That’s a platform—and we can build one for you, too.
