Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:00.240 Yeah, 2 00:00:04.940 --> 00:00:08.320 welcome back to be, to be growth. I'm dan Sanchez with sweet fish media And 3 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:12.830 today I am continuing the journey into thought leadership and I wanted to 4 00:00:12.830 --> 00:00:17.180 actually bring you into the journey that I had before this deep dive even 5 00:00:17.190 --> 00:00:22.140 started about a year ago. I had a number of different B to B. I guess you 6 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:25.970 could call them strategy, some of you might call them tactics But essentially 7 00:00:25.970 --> 00:00:29.090 like a number of different B2B marketing categories or different 8 00:00:29.100 --> 00:00:32.840 topics we have covered on the show before And I just looked at him and 9 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:36.540 decided to pick one that I wanted to go all in on one that I wanted to 10 00:00:36.540 --> 00:00:41.580 investigate to the 10th degree. And after kind of sizing them up I thought 11 00:00:41.580 --> 00:00:44.240 thought leadership was kind of an interesting one. I liked that thought 12 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:50.750 leadership. Both could be applied to a full brand, a company as well as an 13 00:00:50.750 --> 00:00:54.230 individual and both. You could actually use a bunch of individuals within a 14 00:00:54.230 --> 00:00:59.560 company or use a brand to build up individuals like all these different 15 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:04.099 avenues for thought leadership and markets for thought leadership. It can 16 00:01:04.099 --> 00:01:06.970 be applied to tech companies, it could be applied to higher ed, it could be 17 00:01:06.970 --> 00:01:11.860 applied to medical, it's like it it had no bounds and it would work and B two C. 18 00:01:11.860 --> 00:01:15.580 As well as B two B. It just seemed like a really interesting topic that had 19 00:01:15.590 --> 00:01:20.260 been well explored in the past. But I felt like could use even more help 20 00:01:20.260 --> 00:01:23.760 especially as I started digging into it and reading all the books on the topic. 21 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:27.440 I felt like there was there was more room to play here. Like this was even 22 00:01:27.440 --> 00:01:31.240 though a lot of people kind of hate this topic and call it really cringe e 23 00:01:31.250 --> 00:01:34.950 and don't understand it, the more I studied it, the more I discovered that 24 00:01:34.950 --> 00:01:39.400 this was something that I wanted to spend a long time researching a long 25 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:42.630 time getting to know the people in the space in a long time, like helping 26 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:46.990 other people develop good thought leadership marketing. And one of the 27 00:01:46.990 --> 00:01:51.460 big things I did just to kick it off was to read every single book on this 28 00:01:51.460 --> 00:01:54.860 topic so far. I think I've covered about 20 books and I wanted to 29 00:01:54.860 --> 00:02:00.030 highlight one of my favorite ones to you in this episode today. Now if you 30 00:02:00.030 --> 00:02:04.200 want to kind of get like the overview of all the books, like my rating of 31 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:08.650 them like what, who I think they're, each book is best for. I wrote a very 32 00:02:08.650 --> 00:02:12.640 long blog post, breaking them all down and given a side by side comparison. 33 00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:14.970 There's even a great little table at the top where you can get like a 34 00:02:14.970 --> 00:02:18.970 summary, not even a summary, like a breakdown of them on how I rate them at 35 00:02:18.970 --> 00:02:22.330 the very top of the blog post. I published this one of my own personal 36 00:02:22.330 --> 00:02:27.620 blog. It's at daniel Sanchez dot com slash tl books. If you want to look at 37 00:02:27.620 --> 00:02:30.520 the whole list of thought leadership books and get my top recommendations. 38 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:34.120 But today I'm just gonna cover the first one and in this deep dive I'll be 39 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:37.860 doing two more of these to cover some of the books that stand out the best, 40 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:42.250 the long story short. There's actually three books I highly recommend. One is 41 00:02:42.250 --> 00:02:45.880 what I'm calling the best primer. Like if you want to dip your toe in and kind 42 00:02:45.880 --> 00:02:48.970 of get a feel for what thought leadership is all about and how it 43 00:02:48.970 --> 00:02:52.490 works generally. Um That's the one I'm going to be covering today. Its 44 00:02:52.500 --> 00:02:56.820 authority marketing by adam, witty and rusty Shelton. That's kind of like my 45 00:02:56.820 --> 00:03:00.720 best, It's my first recommendation. If someone's like, hey, like I'm new to 46 00:03:00.720 --> 00:03:03.560 the topic and I wanna, I wanna get to know it. This is the book to read 47 00:03:03.570 --> 00:03:06.280 authority marketing and I'll be covering that in a little bit. The 48 00:03:06.280 --> 00:03:12.480 other two books. One is by bob baker, robert baker who wrote the book called 49 00:03:12.490 --> 00:03:18.560 The Business of expertise. Um And while that one is geared towards agency 50 00:03:18.560 --> 00:03:23.040 owners are marketing, agency owners, it could really be applied to anybody 51 00:03:23.040 --> 00:03:28.410 who's a solo, like a freelancer consultant, especially anybody who is 52 00:03:28.410 --> 00:03:32.510 really in the business of expertise. If you sell expertise of some kind, even 53 00:03:32.510 --> 00:03:36.240 if you're not marketing, this book is probably the best for you. Just skip 54 00:03:36.250 --> 00:03:40.690 authority marketing goes straight to the business of expertise. But because 55 00:03:40.690 --> 00:03:45.520 that one only applies to a small crowd of people. That's not, I don't only 56 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:48.670 recommend it to those who are in the business of expertise. It's well named, 57 00:03:48.670 --> 00:03:52.970 right? Those who are peddling expertise of some kind or have some kind of 58 00:03:52.970 --> 00:03:56.570 service where you're considered the expert, like a bookkeeper or an 59 00:03:56.570 --> 00:04:00.230 accountant, a lawyer, right is someone's coming to you for some kind 60 00:04:00.230 --> 00:04:04.710 of expertise, even if you're not like selling the expertise and like info 61 00:04:04.710 --> 00:04:08.440 products necessarily, but if they're coming for you for services because 62 00:04:08.440 --> 00:04:12.550 you're an expert, then this is probably something worth checking out. Um And 63 00:04:12.550 --> 00:04:15.540 the last book is called thought leadership prompting businesses that 64 00:04:15.540 --> 00:04:20.269 they can learn. The book title is is really poor because this book that gets 65 00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:24.400 lost. But it's honestly the most exhaustive and well researched book on 66 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:27.620 the topic of thought leadership. And until I read this book I wasn't even 67 00:04:27.620 --> 00:04:33.450 sure that thought leadership was worth its coin term and was I was I was even 68 00:04:33.450 --> 00:04:36.560 concerned that it might just be a passing fad. It's a buzz word, it's 69 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:41.210 going to go away. But after reading this well researched book on where it 70 00:04:41.210 --> 00:04:46.180 came from, the history of it going all the way back to the 17 hundreds And how 71 00:04:46.180 --> 00:04:50.360 it's been applied in in the last 20 years. Um this book is a wealth of 72 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:53.290 knowledge and I'm doing a whole episode on this book. It's probably gonna be a 73 00:04:53.290 --> 00:04:56.500 lengthy because this is a lengthy book and not for the light of heart. It's 74 00:04:56.510 --> 00:05:00.010 it's it's not a college level textbooks but it's certainly somewhere between 75 00:05:00.010 --> 00:05:03.340 your fluffy business book and college level text. It's well indexed and 76 00:05:03.340 --> 00:05:07.880 researched and the writer was very, actually a phenomenal writer so that 77 00:05:07.880 --> 00:05:12.210 always helps. But today I'm talking about authority marketing, have the 78 00:05:12.210 --> 00:05:15.560 book in front of me, adam wood and rusty shelton. And if you want the 79 00:05:15.560 --> 00:05:19.970 other ones just stay tuned, Stay uh subscribe and stay tuned for the next 80 00:05:19.980 --> 00:05:23.180 next books that are coming. Authority marketing can actually be broken up 81 00:05:23.180 --> 00:05:27.120 into three different sections. One is kind of like the overview is what is 82 00:05:27.130 --> 00:05:31.670 authority marketing and what they call authority marketing. I'm just calling 83 00:05:31.670 --> 00:05:35.460 thought leadership marketing. They've just kind of I don't know I think have 84 00:05:35.470 --> 00:05:39.190 taken an attempt to kind of rebrand it and re categorize thought leadership 85 00:05:39.190 --> 00:05:43.190 since it's kind of cringe E. Um and just calling it an authority marketing 86 00:05:43.190 --> 00:05:45.640 to kind of create something for themselves. And I'd say they're they're 87 00:05:45.640 --> 00:05:49.280 right. I think all good thought leaders are authorities. I think all good 88 00:05:49.280 --> 00:05:53.280 thought leaders are also experts and contributing original ideas and and 89 00:05:53.280 --> 00:05:57.640 adam wood and rusty would say the same, would say the same thing. Um But the 90 00:05:57.640 --> 00:06:02.540 book is broken up into three sections about why become an authority, how to 91 00:06:02.540 --> 00:06:06.340 become an authority, and then the one critical thing that you need in order 92 00:06:06.340 --> 00:06:10.590 to do all the things that you need to do to become an authority. So let's 93 00:06:10.590 --> 00:06:14.830 start with the beginning, like why why do they pitch authority? And they 94 00:06:14.840 --> 00:06:20.880 explain authority as authority equals expertise times or multiplied by 95 00:06:20.880 --> 00:06:25.530 celebrity, Right? So you're not only an expert in something, but you're also 96 00:06:25.530 --> 00:06:30.560 highly known in the space because of this expertise you bring to the table 97 00:06:31.140 --> 00:06:34.720 and that's how they're defining authority. And I would just I would say 98 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:37.680 that's a pretty good definition of thought leadership. I would say it's 99 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:41.580 not it doesn't it's not just expertise. There's plenty of public intellectuals 100 00:06:41.580 --> 00:06:45.070 who are experts that don't contribute new thoughts. They just critique 101 00:06:45.070 --> 00:06:48.560 everybody else's, right, and they could be famous for it. That would that would 102 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:51.780 be they'd probably be an authority on the topic, but not quite a thought 103 00:06:51.780 --> 00:06:55.620 leader. So that's where I kind of deviate from where Adam and Rusty go 104 00:06:55.620 --> 00:06:59.310 with authority marketing, but generally, most people who read this book are 105 00:06:59.310 --> 00:07:02.860 going to get a lot of great things about thought leadership. One of the 106 00:07:02.860 --> 00:07:06.070 things I highlighted in the book was this passage right here, where it says 107 00:07:06.070 --> 00:07:10.120 authority marketing builds your visibility and credibility in your 108 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:14.560 field and uses that thought leadership as a way to drive business and make a 109 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:19.910 bigger impact. Because if you're known for your expertise that drives, uh, not 110 00:07:19.910 --> 00:07:23.290 only business because people know of you and come to you, rather than maybe 111 00:07:23.290 --> 00:07:27.750 one of your competitors, um, but also generates a word, a substantial word of 112 00:07:27.750 --> 00:07:30.870 mouth. It generates substantial press and media because when they, somebody 113 00:07:30.870 --> 00:07:33.830 wants a quote from an expert on the topic, and because you're known, 114 00:07:33.840 --> 00:07:37.580 they're going to be coming to you, which generates more business. And it's 115 00:07:37.580 --> 00:07:41.820 an important distinction to know that being an expert is not enough. And also 116 00:07:41.820 --> 00:07:47.320 being a celebrity is not enough. You have to be both right. Um, because, 117 00:07:47.330 --> 00:07:52.280 like, let's say, Dwayne the rock johnson is a massive celebrity, one of 118 00:07:52.280 --> 00:07:57.300 the biggest celebrities currently out there, but he's not known to be an 119 00:07:57.310 --> 00:08:02.160 expert at anything in particular other than maybe wrestling, acting, kind of 120 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:05.880 the realms he's been in, or right. No one really thinks of him as an expert. 121 00:08:05.880 --> 00:08:08.900 He's just a celebrity because of the things he's been able to do throughout 122 00:08:08.900 --> 00:08:12.960 his career. Right. Um, but it's not enough to be an expert. I've had plenty 123 00:08:12.960 --> 00:08:18.300 of people come to pitch me to be on the show, um, who are phds like legitimate, 124 00:08:18.310 --> 00:08:21.310 they've done legitimate work, they've spent put a lot of time in to thinking 125 00:08:21.310 --> 00:08:26.670 about a very niche subject and have done some original research, validated 126 00:08:26.670 --> 00:08:30.700 original research on a topic. And now taking that research and published in a 127 00:08:30.700 --> 00:08:34.240 book, and they asked me like, hey dan, I've done this great thing, um 128 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:37.360 published this book, great research could be good for your audience, and 129 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:41.270 I'm like, sorry, I don't know you, and therefore, I don't, I don't know if 130 00:08:41.270 --> 00:08:44.510 you're credible or not, right, They're lacking some of that celebrity. They're 131 00:08:44.510 --> 00:08:47.070 not really well known for that thing that they're peddling. They're coming 132 00:08:47.070 --> 00:08:50.630 right out of grad school hoping they can push their book and their ideas 133 00:08:50.630 --> 00:08:54.290 around, but nobody really knows them. And the problem with that is that you 134 00:08:54.290 --> 00:08:59.050 need to be known in order to be trusted, that's the whole game. Um it's not 135 00:08:59.050 --> 00:09:01.930 enough to be an expert, it's not enough just to be a celebrity. You need to be 136 00:09:01.930 --> 00:09:06.080 known for your expertise so that people can trust you, and that's why people go 137 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:10.560 to you as the leading authority, the leading expert in the field, whenever 138 00:09:10.560 --> 00:09:13.150 they have a problem with that niche that you're an expert in, they're going 139 00:09:13.150 --> 00:09:16.700 to be going to you and that's the case, Adam and Rusty Make in the beginning of 140 00:09:16.700 --> 00:09:20.260 the book, and then they go on to talk about what they call the seven pillars 141 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:24.620 of authority marketing, and I'll just read them here and kind of recap them a 142 00:09:24.620 --> 00:09:30.650 bit. One by one, The seven pillars are branding and Omni presence, one to lead 143 00:09:30.650 --> 00:09:37.340 generation three content marketing, uh, for pr and media, five speaking, six 144 00:09:37.350 --> 00:09:41.780 events in seven referral marketing. And I won't unpack all of these here. But 145 00:09:41.780 --> 00:09:44.680 if you're looking at these, it's really kind of like if you if you're a 146 00:09:44.680 --> 00:09:48.360 marketer listening to this, you're like, wow, this is just kind of like standard 147 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:53.670 Business lead gender. Like uh demand generation, like 101 kind of stuff. And 148 00:09:53.670 --> 00:09:57.280 it's true um a lot of this, but in their case they're trying to build this 149 00:09:57.280 --> 00:10:00.940 around a person, right? So you almost need to build a whole funnel around 150 00:10:00.940 --> 00:10:04.520 yourself. If you're trying to make yourself a thought leader, you need to 151 00:10:04.520 --> 00:10:09.370 do branding, right? You need to actually create a bit of a persona. Not 152 00:10:09.370 --> 00:10:13.000 that it's a fake persona, it's a real persona, but it's a persona that's been 153 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:20.820 well crafted and molded in order to be um personable in order to be authentic 154 00:10:20.820 --> 00:10:24.730 in order to be sticky so that people can remember you and your message, 155 00:10:24.730 --> 00:10:28.420 right? Because it's not just the message, it's coming through you and 156 00:10:28.430 --> 00:10:33.030 you need to be memorable, Right? So they make a big case um for branding 157 00:10:33.030 --> 00:10:36.200 and personal branding and omni presidents kind of like being 158 00:10:36.210 --> 00:10:39.340 everywhere, being, having all the different social accounts, having a 159 00:10:39.340 --> 00:10:42.430 blog, having a newsletter, having all these different things available so 160 00:10:42.430 --> 00:10:46.100 that people can run into your brand in different places and then they go into 161 00:10:46.100 --> 00:10:50.090 lead generation that you should be generating leads, you should be have 162 00:10:50.090 --> 00:10:54.630 some kind of lead magnet and drip sequence. So you can educate people in 163 00:10:54.630 --> 00:10:58.110 little bits and snippets on twitter and on linked in, but you should also have 164 00:10:58.110 --> 00:11:02.860 a system for bringing them farther down in the funnel to get to know you better 165 00:11:03.140 --> 00:11:07.070 content marketing, right? Which kind of runs a lot of regeneration branding 166 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:13.270 these days. Pr and media, because it's not enough to just say that to 167 00:11:13.280 --> 00:11:16.980 essentially proclaim your message and idea. Hopefully you're not proclaiming 168 00:11:16.980 --> 00:11:19.630 and declaring that you are a thought leader. Everybody knows that's that's a 169 00:11:19.630 --> 00:11:24.510 no no don't do that. Um, but champion your message. It's a lot better when 170 00:11:24.510 --> 00:11:28.530 somebody else champions it for you, which is P. R. And media. And if you're 171 00:11:28.530 --> 00:11:31.270 out there doing good owned media, chances are they're going to come find 172 00:11:31.270 --> 00:11:36.100 you and have you give input to different articles in journals and 173 00:11:36.110 --> 00:11:41.590 other platforms for comment speaking, right? This is a very well known state 174 00:11:41.590 --> 00:11:45.010 place and stage for Thought Leaders, right? Is to speak at conferences, 175 00:11:45.020 --> 00:11:50.310 webinars and other virtual events so that you're getting in front of a crowd 176 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:53.920 and of course showing up to the events where you can meet people and referral 177 00:11:53.920 --> 00:11:57.610 marketing I won't speak to. But they have a big part in their system to do 178 00:11:57.610 --> 00:12:01.770 it. And the last part of this book is wrapping it up with what they call is 179 00:12:01.770 --> 00:12:08.530 like the major point um that all these seven pillars all surround this main 180 00:12:08.530 --> 00:12:12.410 thing that you have to do in order to be a thought leader. And I'm, the more 181 00:12:12.410 --> 00:12:15.470 I kind of wander around the space, the more I'm starting to find that this is 182 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:18.910 true, you can be a thought leader without this, but this is definitely 183 00:12:18.910 --> 00:12:23.820 rocket fuel for being a thought leader and that is being a published author 184 00:12:23.830 --> 00:12:26.920 and it doesn't necessarily have to be published with Wiley or some other book 185 00:12:26.920 --> 00:12:30.320 publisher. It can be self published, but there's something about being in a 186 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:37.050 book and having your ideas bound in the newspapers uh in order to solidify your 187 00:12:37.050 --> 00:12:43.910 ideas and then using the seven pillars of authority to drive people to your 188 00:12:43.910 --> 00:12:48.880 book. There's a reason why as good as Gary Vaynerchuk is at speaking and at 189 00:12:48.880 --> 00:12:53.340 creating social media every couple of years, he's launching a new book to 190 00:12:53.340 --> 00:12:57.160 take all his best insights and new ideas and putting them in a book format, 191 00:12:57.160 --> 00:13:00.760 even though the guy can't right, he just hires a ghost writer to write it 192 00:13:00.760 --> 00:13:03.910 for him and he should, because there's something about putting in a book that 193 00:13:03.910 --> 00:13:07.840 creates a more substantial piece of work that people consume at once and 194 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:12.430 are more likely to be changed by it and more likely to be impacted by it. And 195 00:13:12.430 --> 00:13:17.240 there's certainly more likely to see you as an authority. After spending the, 196 00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:22.470 you know, the 6 to 8 to 12 hours, consuming your content, your backstory, 197 00:13:22.470 --> 00:13:27.260 your ideas, your case studies and all the little stories and evidence that 198 00:13:27.260 --> 00:13:32.480 supports your unique contributions to the field. And Adam and Rusty um pushed 199 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:35.810 this idea heavily, partly because they run a little marketing shop where they 200 00:13:35.810 --> 00:13:39.760 can help you become a published author. So it's um they're really selling this 201 00:13:39.760 --> 00:13:44.810 idea hard in the book, but I kind of understand why um in fact I had talked 202 00:13:44.810 --> 00:13:49.370 to Adam witty himself on my podcast because I read his book and wanted to 203 00:13:49.370 --> 00:13:53.550 talk to him as the author. And when I was talking to him myself, he was like, 204 00:13:53.560 --> 00:13:57.630 the reason why you called me up is because I wrote a book, not because 205 00:13:57.630 --> 00:14:00.230 I've been publishing a blog, not because of my newsletter, not because 206 00:14:00.230 --> 00:14:03.740 of my Youtube channel, not because of a keynote you saw. It's specifically 207 00:14:03.740 --> 00:14:08.810 because I wrote a book. So you perceive me as one of the authorities on the 208 00:14:08.810 --> 00:14:12.030 topic of authority marketer thought leadership and therefore you wanted to 209 00:14:12.030 --> 00:14:16.980 have an interview with me which is free marketing for him. That's the power of 210 00:14:16.990 --> 00:14:21.460 a book. And I'll close with that. I would recommend anybody who's thinking 211 00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:24.690 about becoming authority is subject to write some kind of a book on it. Even 212 00:14:24.690 --> 00:14:28.300 if it's only half a book, you know, 30,000 word book as opposed to a 213 00:14:28.300 --> 00:14:33.820 traditional 60,000 word book. Um that it really is worthwhile to write a book 214 00:14:33.820 --> 00:14:38.780 on the topic, even if it's a working piece. If you again are interested in 215 00:14:38.780 --> 00:14:41.680 what I'm saying, please check out the book, Authority marketing by adam, 216 00:14:41.680 --> 00:14:45.550 witty and rusty Shelton. That's available in all bookstores. And if 217 00:14:45.550 --> 00:14:49.800 this episode was helpful to you, please smash the writing button on your 218 00:14:49.800 --> 00:14:54.030 podcast app, give it the rating that you think it deserves. Um If there's 219 00:14:54.030 --> 00:14:58.640 anything you can do to bless me and validate that this was helpful. Just 220 00:14:58.640 --> 00:15:02.240 give us a rating. Don't you don't have to leave a review. Just smashed a five 221 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:07.030 star, four star, three star whatever star you think it is. Uh smash that 222 00:15:07.030 --> 00:15:10.060 button and let us know that this show has been helpful. Thank you so much. 223 00:15:12.340 --> 00:15:13.140 Uh huh. 224 00:15:14.140 --> 00:15:18.400 It's sweet fish. We're on a mission to create the most helpful content on the 225 00:15:18.400 --> 00:15:22.970 internet for every job function and industry on the planet for the B two B 226 00:15:22.970 --> 00:15:27.010 marketing industry. This show is how we're executing on that mission. If you 227 00:15:27.010 --> 00:15:30.490 know a marketing leader that would be an awesome guest for this podcast, 228 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:34.050 shoot me a text message. Don't call me because I don't answer unknown numbers. 229 00:15:34.060 --> 00:15:40.650 But text me At 40749033 - eight. Just shoot me their name may be a link to 230 00:15:40.650 --> 00:15:44.490 their linkedin profile and I'd love to check them out to see if we can get 231 00:15:44.500 --> 00:15:50.160 them on the show. Thanks a lot. Mhm.
