June 29, 2021

Learn in the Light

In this episode, Dan Sanchez shares abo ut his journey into thought leadership, and what it means to "learn in the light." 

Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.540 --> 00:00:02.740 Yeah, 2 00:00:05.140 --> 00:00:10.530 welcome back to another episode of B two B growth. I'm dan Sanchez, Friends 3 00:00:10.540 --> 00:00:15.230 call me dan Chevez and I'm here to talk to you about a problem with thought 4 00:00:15.230 --> 00:00:18.350 leadership because while I've been learning about this topic, been 5 00:00:18.350 --> 00:00:22.000 fascinated by this topic and talking to some of the experts, I've run into a 6 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:26.410 major problem with thought leadership and that's Most people want to be one. 7 00:00:26.710 --> 00:00:33.020 The problem is there is not necessarily a clear path On how to become one. Now, 8 00:00:33.020 --> 00:00:38.380 if you a week ago or maybe two weeks ago, I covered a topic called authentic 9 00:00:38.390 --> 00:00:43.340 thought leadership. It's crazy that I have to even throw the word authentic 10 00:00:43.340 --> 00:00:46.770 in front of it because there's so many fake file leaders out there. But it is 11 00:00:46.770 --> 00:00:50.580 a real thing. There are true thought leaders. You probably have other 12 00:00:50.580 --> 00:00:54.810 podcasters, authors, other people you're listening to and hearing from 13 00:00:54.810 --> 00:00:58.560 stage whatever that you're listening to and are influencing you right now. They 14 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:01.600 are legitimate thought leaders. They are helping you serving you and helping 15 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:06.300 you achieve your ambitions, your goals. You're helping you wish giving you 16 00:01:06.300 --> 00:01:10.450 strategies, tactics, whatever they are and whatever sphere of life. Some of 17 00:01:10.450 --> 00:01:15.830 them are marketers, right? They're real. And there are authorities out there and 18 00:01:15.830 --> 00:01:19.130 we talked about the three characteristics of authentic thought 19 00:01:19.130 --> 00:01:23.650 leadership, being expertise, contributing unique slash helpful ideas 20 00:01:23.660 --> 00:01:27.530 and having authority. That those are the three keys of being a thought 21 00:01:27.530 --> 00:01:34.230 leader. Otherwise, you know, you're a faker, Ak poser, A k a charlatan, right? 22 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:40.550 Nobody wants to be that. So then what do you do if you aspire to be a thought 23 00:01:40.550 --> 00:01:45.600 leader? Right? It always feels like, well, it feels Presumptions to push up 24 00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:52.410 my ideas, like thus, Saith the dan, Right? So what do you do when you 25 00:01:52.410 --> 00:01:55.720 aspire to be a thought leader? But, you know, you're you're good at what you do, 26 00:01:55.720 --> 00:01:58.770 you're probably, you're great professional, but you know that, you 27 00:01:58.770 --> 00:02:03.010 know, whether you're an expert or not, it's like uh it's hard to say You have 28 00:02:03.010 --> 00:02:06.650 some unique ideas, but they're not like research back. You don't have like 1000 29 00:02:06.650 --> 00:02:11.370 surveys, like giving you stats to pull from. You have been doing this for 15, 30 00:02:11.660 --> 00:02:17.510 years and have substantial evidence that it always works. You know, you 31 00:02:17.510 --> 00:02:20.300 don't have authority because even though you have some following on 32 00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:23.310 social media, you just kind of like, uh like what is an authority? Like how do 33 00:02:23.310 --> 00:02:28.500 you measure that? Right? So how do you do it? When can you call yourself a 34 00:02:28.500 --> 00:02:35.320 thought leader? Well, I have a theory hypothesis for you. This is what I'm 35 00:02:35.320 --> 00:02:40.490 currently doing to do this, right? And it's a concept I like to call learning 36 00:02:40.500 --> 00:02:46.380 in the light, learn in the light, here's how it works. Don't position 37 00:02:46.380 --> 00:02:49.960 yourself as a thought leader. I know this is kind of counterintuitive, but 38 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:52.860 you don't want to add the word thought leader to your bio. You don't want to 39 00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:55.840 add the word thought leader to your headline shoot. Actually, let's just 40 00:02:55.840 --> 00:02:59.840 call it out. The first rule of thought leadership is you don't call yourself a 41 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:02.880 thought leader. The second role of thought leader is equally important. 42 00:03:02.880 --> 00:03:05.670 You don't call yourself a thought leader, You just never do. You never 43 00:03:05.670 --> 00:03:09.230 will because you don't really need to. So here's the reason here's what you 44 00:03:09.230 --> 00:03:15.680 can do. Instead, as a marketer, you're probably brainstorming outside the box 45 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:19.670 ideas to engage your prospects and customers working remotely. And you've 46 00:03:19.670 --> 00:03:22.720 probably thought about sending them direct mail to break through the zoom 47 00:03:22.720 --> 00:03:26.670 fatigue. But how do you ship personalized gifts to remote decision 48 00:03:26.670 --> 00:03:30.880 makers? When you have no idea where they're sitting at B. B. Growth? We use 49 00:03:30.880 --> 00:03:34.790 the craft and platform to send hyper personalized gifts to anyone working 50 00:03:34.790 --> 00:03:38.490 from anywhere. Crafting makes it easy for your prospects and customers to 51 00:03:38.490 --> 00:03:42.870 pick and personalize their own gift in real time and offers highly secured 52 00:03:42.870 --> 00:03:46.370 data capture. So decision makers feel comfortable submitting their home 53 00:03:46.370 --> 00:03:50.680 addresses for shipping purposes to get your own personalized craft and gift. 54 00:03:50.690 --> 00:03:55.230 Go to craft um dot io slash growth to schedule a demo and receive a 55 00:03:55.230 --> 00:03:59.000 complimentary personalized gift from craft. Um To claim your personalized 56 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:06.350 gift, go to craft um dot io slash growth. You start by position yourself 57 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:12.390 as a student. Again, you position yourself as a student, even if you're a 58 00:04:12.390 --> 00:04:17.050 professional, even if you're an expert position yourself as a student, it will 59 00:04:17.050 --> 00:04:22.290 go better for you because I'll be honest, I have people that have quote 60 00:04:22.290 --> 00:04:27.100 unquote expertise and unique ideas. They have phds in their field and then 61 00:04:27.100 --> 00:04:29.360 they come and pitch me. I want to be on the show 62 00:04:30.740 --> 00:04:33.420 but I turned them away because I don't know them. I don't know their ideas. 63 00:04:33.420 --> 00:04:36.750 Sounds okay. It's gonna it's not a problem I'm thinking a lot about and 64 00:04:36.750 --> 00:04:39.360 that's usually part of the problem right? Is there just not really 65 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:43.750 relevant? But they don't know them. They don't have authority. I don't I 66 00:04:43.750 --> 00:04:46.740 don't know like I can see that they have a valid degree and that they've 67 00:04:46.740 --> 00:04:51.240 been seen on T. V. And stuff but I don't know them. So I'm not gonna they 68 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:52.850 don't they don't have authority with me. 69 00:04:53.940 --> 00:04:56.600 But you need to be able to build authority at a time over time and it's 70 00:04:56.610 --> 00:05:02.090 easier to do it when you position yourself as a student. So a fun rhyme 71 00:05:02.090 --> 00:05:06.360 that I have stuck in my head that helped me remember this is if, if they 72 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:11.230 watch you grow, they'll know that, you know, if they watch you grow, they'll 73 00:05:11.230 --> 00:05:15.120 know that, you know, because the problem with the ph d that has come ph 74 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:19.480 d s that have come to me before is that I like, I get an idea that they, they 75 00:05:19.480 --> 00:05:23.940 know what they know. But if I had seen them from the beginning, posting and 76 00:05:23.950 --> 00:05:27.920 earning authorities step by step, I would probably trust them a lot more. 77 00:05:27.930 --> 00:05:31.160 Like we've all seen this with people around us that we've been watched, 78 00:05:31.160 --> 00:05:33.740 we've watched on linkedin, we've watched on social media, maybe we've 79 00:05:33.740 --> 00:05:37.530 been watched on Youtube, right? Um, people that have grown and influence 80 00:05:37.530 --> 00:05:40.880 over time and then we really respect them as we saw them when they were 81 00:05:40.880 --> 00:05:44.500 nothing and then we watched them grow and they're learning, We watched them 82 00:05:44.500 --> 00:05:49.460 grow and their expertise and their authority, and that's what you need to 83 00:05:49.460 --> 00:05:54.650 do. We all needed to humble ourselves, like stop calling ourselves experts. 84 00:05:54.660 --> 00:05:57.740 I'm not I still have a lot to a long way to go. I've only been a year into 85 00:05:57.740 --> 00:06:00.700 this topic and I've gone deep, but I'm like, man, I still have so much to 86 00:06:00.700 --> 00:06:04.730 learn. And even if you are an expert, isn't there always more to learn? Isn't 87 00:06:04.730 --> 00:06:09.260 that kind of the dichotomy of learning? You only learn how much, how much more 88 00:06:09.260 --> 00:06:13.390 you need to learn, right? Like usually learn people, people that have gotten 89 00:06:13.390 --> 00:06:16.740 more degrees or spent more time trying to figure out how things work. Say 90 00:06:16.740 --> 00:06:20.550 these things. It's because there's always more to learn so we can always 91 00:06:21.140 --> 00:06:25.270 be positioned as students. And the funny thing happens when you actually 92 00:06:25.270 --> 00:06:29.600 position yourself as a student is that people don't are less likely to like 93 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:33.480 call you out for being presumptuous, they're less likely to throw you under 94 00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:38.020 the bus for your bad ideas because if you position yourself as a student, 95 00:06:38.030 --> 00:06:43.250 it's hard to hate you, right? You're coming off humble and so they're not 96 00:06:43.250 --> 00:06:46.550 trying to pull you off your high horse, there's no high horse, you're starting, 97 00:06:46.550 --> 00:06:49.620 you're just like, hey, I'm just here on the ground trying to learn it works 98 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:53.810 much better that way. Here's some ways you can position yourself as a student 99 00:06:53.810 --> 00:06:58.690 and grow in real authority as they actually watch you learn, as they watch 100 00:06:58.690 --> 00:07:01.980 you grow, as they watch you interview the experts, they watch you contribute 101 00:07:01.980 --> 00:07:07.050 ideas. So the first thing you gotta do is just share what you're learning on 102 00:07:07.050 --> 00:07:11.180 social media from day one, you can set a goal to be a thought leader, don't 103 00:07:11.180 --> 00:07:13.590 say that you're setting a goal to be a thought leader. Just say, hey, I'm 104 00:07:13.590 --> 00:07:17.920 trying to, I'm trying to learn how to do this well, whether it's email 105 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:23.090 marketing or if your company, if you're trying to even position your company as 106 00:07:23.090 --> 00:07:28.060 this as an expert or authority in this one topic, you can just say, hey, we're 107 00:07:28.060 --> 00:07:30.970 trying to master this. We're trying to figure out how to make this a better 108 00:07:30.970 --> 00:07:36.320 world in this way and then share your learnings as you go from the books you 109 00:07:36.320 --> 00:07:40.100 read from the blogs you read, give credit where it's due, show that you 110 00:07:40.100 --> 00:07:44.630 can actually take in the information and participate in the existing 111 00:07:44.630 --> 00:07:49.560 conversation that's going on in that particular niche field. Ask good 112 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:52.750 questions. In fact, it's one of my favorite things about having a podcast 113 00:07:53.640 --> 00:07:56.770 because you have an excuse to go and talk to all the authors, all the 114 00:07:56.770 --> 00:08:01.070 writers, all the other podcasters, all the people with phds that are are 115 00:08:01.070 --> 00:08:04.210 authorities in the space to invite them on the show and have conversations with 116 00:08:04.210 --> 00:08:08.300 them. So what I'm doing right now in this series on Thought leadership, I'm 117 00:08:08.300 --> 00:08:12.920 growing in my learning and you can use a podcast to be able to do that very 118 00:08:12.930 --> 00:08:17.690 well. Yeah. So part of this whole series has been selfish for me to learn 119 00:08:17.690 --> 00:08:20.600 and to grow. But it's also great content for you as you get to learn 120 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:26.810 with me with all these experts and thought leaders on this show. So share 121 00:08:26.810 --> 00:08:29.930 what you're learning on social media from all the books and podcasts and 122 00:08:29.930 --> 00:08:34.559 interviews and research and tests and experience of you just testing out the 123 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:38.789 different stuff, share it, take screenshots of it asked good questions 124 00:08:38.789 --> 00:08:41.970 on social media. There's a lot of experts that love to share what they 125 00:08:41.970 --> 00:08:46.970 learned. Then after you've learned some things you can go and help other people 126 00:08:47.050 --> 00:08:50.330 at first it'll just be the people that are a few steps behind you. But there's 127 00:08:50.330 --> 00:08:54.490 usually way more people at the very beginning stages of any topic than 128 00:08:54.490 --> 00:08:58.570 there are people at the advanced or expert stages. So there's always more 129 00:08:58.570 --> 00:09:02.090 people that need help in the beginning. Go and help them find the questions, 130 00:09:02.090 --> 00:09:04.780 find the things that they're talking about and engage with them in their 131 00:09:04.780 --> 00:09:09.420 posts and their comments. This is a slow game. But as you help one person 132 00:09:09.430 --> 00:09:13.740 after another after another after another you will start to build 133 00:09:13.750 --> 00:09:18.640 authority One person at a time it works. I've seen it work. I've only been at 134 00:09:18.640 --> 00:09:21.670 this for a year but I'm already starting to see the effects of it and 135 00:09:21.670 --> 00:09:24.350 I'm just showing up in the comments. I'm showing up in the D. M. S. When 136 00:09:24.350 --> 00:09:28.660 people ask me a question, I shoot them video responses sometimes. Um just 137 00:09:28.660 --> 00:09:31.200 sharing the things that I've learned that have gotten me to where I'm at and 138 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:35.860 I still have a freaking long way to go. So help people 139 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:41.820 and then you'll find that over time as you learn and as you grow you'll start 140 00:09:41.820 --> 00:09:44.700 to develop your own ideas about how things work and you'll start to 141 00:09:44.700 --> 00:09:48.130 actually have some practice in it. You'll start to form an opinion that 142 00:09:48.130 --> 00:09:51.890 might differ from some of the common generic advice that's out there because 143 00:09:51.890 --> 00:09:54.050 you've been testing and you've been helping people, you've been having 144 00:09:54.050 --> 00:09:57.450 conversations about social media and everybody's been kind of watching this 145 00:09:57.450 --> 00:10:01.030 happen. So you'll start to share ideas, you put out unique ideas and sometimes 146 00:10:01.030 --> 00:10:05.030 will be shot down. Sometimes people be like oh shoot dang, that's good. Um and 147 00:10:05.030 --> 00:10:08.070 sometimes you as a student, remember you need to position yourself as a 148 00:10:08.070 --> 00:10:12.540 student throughout the process. I would even ask for feedback on things like 149 00:10:12.540 --> 00:10:17.810 hey had this idea what if such and such were more like such and such, right? 150 00:10:17.810 --> 00:10:20.460 You like you have these ideas and you throw them out there and you be like 151 00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:26.760 just a unique idea. What do you guys think and invite criticism? Truth be 152 00:10:26.760 --> 00:10:30.320 told. It actually makes you better, helps you learn faster because somebody 153 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:33.700 more experienced than you, more of an expert than you. And there's always 154 00:10:33.700 --> 00:10:37.350 some out there, we'll be able to point out some flaws with it, right? And 155 00:10:37.350 --> 00:10:40.960 that's where thought leaders or people professed thought leaders get in 156 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:44.520 trouble is they're, they're coming up with ideas and not even validating and 157 00:10:44.520 --> 00:10:47.600 not even really having a conversation about it before. They're they're 158 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:51.890 pitching their ideas. Don't do that, throw your ideas out there, test them, 159 00:10:52.030 --> 00:10:55.780 see how people react to them. That's what the real, authentic thought 160 00:10:55.780 --> 00:10:59.820 leaders are doing their testing ideas just like good comedians, go and test 161 00:10:59.820 --> 00:11:02.940 all their jokes in front of small crowds over and over and over again and 162 00:11:02.940 --> 00:11:07.520 refine them, refine them. You need to do the same thing with your ideas. I've 163 00:11:07.520 --> 00:11:10.590 been practicing this and it works remarkably well on linkedin, but I'm 164 00:11:10.590 --> 00:11:15.440 sure it works pretty well on twitter as well. And over time you share your 165 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:18.900 ideas, you perfect them, you make them better, you can publish them in bigger 166 00:11:18.900 --> 00:11:23.820 and broader ways. You go from small social post to longer meaty blog post 167 00:11:23.820 --> 00:11:28.880 to a full on book with a collection or portfolio of your ideas that are all 168 00:11:28.880 --> 00:11:33.180 around a central theme or a topic that address something and then you're 169 00:11:33.180 --> 00:11:35.850 starting to become a thought leader. But you've never called yourself a 170 00:11:35.850 --> 00:11:38.780 thought leader, You've never positioned yourself as a thought leader, you were 171 00:11:38.780 --> 00:11:42.250 just a student that was there to help. And that's kind of the secret. If you 172 00:11:42.250 --> 00:11:44.780 want to learn in the light, you position yourself as a thought leader, 173 00:11:44.780 --> 00:11:49.670 your humble yourself and you just say, I want to serve people by learning as 174 00:11:49.670 --> 00:11:54.330 much as I can about this topic and helping others with the problems in 175 00:11:54.330 --> 00:12:00.350 this particular niche space. And over time, over the years of learning and 176 00:12:00.350 --> 00:12:04.680 the years of helping, in the years of just helping others, you will just be a 177 00:12:04.680 --> 00:12:09.330 thought leader, you will just be the one everybody trust on this topic 178 00:12:09.340 --> 00:12:14.180 because you've helped so many people, they've watched you grow, they've 179 00:12:14.180 --> 00:12:18.550 watched you wrestle, they've watched you help one person after another, 180 00:12:18.740 --> 00:12:21.910 that's how real authority is built. And that's kind of the answer to the 181 00:12:21.910 --> 00:12:25.870 problem. You can't just come off the scene, not even with the PhD, which is 182 00:12:25.870 --> 00:12:29.690 credible. You can't even just launch off the scene as an unknown and just be 183 00:12:29.690 --> 00:12:34.840 like, here I am like, open the curtains, I have arrived to take care of your 184 00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:39.960 problems. No, you can't do that. You gotta do it one person at a time and 185 00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:46.720 kind of go low to be able to be an authentic thought leader. So this is an 186 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:49.230 idea of mine. I've actually tested it on linkedin. I've kind of gotten 187 00:12:49.230 --> 00:12:53.860 feedback and refined it. Um and I want to do that now, I do not, I'm not the 188 00:12:53.860 --> 00:12:57.120 expert in this and this is just something is a hypothesis that I come 189 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:00.360 up, came up with and I love your feedback on this. Let me practice what 190 00:13:00.360 --> 00:13:05.150 I preach right now. Like I want your feedback. Does this ring true. Have you 191 00:13:05.150 --> 00:13:08.810 seen circumstances where this isn't the case? And somebody became a thought 192 00:13:08.810 --> 00:13:12.750 leader, one that you actually respect that just launched on the scene and 193 00:13:12.750 --> 00:13:17.940 then everybody knew them, love them, trusted them. I'd love to know. Let me 194 00:13:17.940 --> 00:13:23.370 know at Lincoln dot com slash en slash digital marketing dan. I answer all my 195 00:13:23.370 --> 00:13:27.860 direct messages that aren't automated and anyone that comes from the show and 196 00:13:27.860 --> 00:13:33.250 answers me there. I certainly love to have conversations with. So let me know 197 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:36.360 How did this go? 198 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:41.400 Are you on linkedin? That's a stupid question. Of course, you're on linkedin 199 00:13:41.410 --> 00:13:45.930 here, Sweet fish. We've gone all in on the platform. Multiple people from our 200 00:13:45.930 --> 00:13:49.720 team are creating content there. Sometimes it's a funny gift for me. 201 00:13:49.730 --> 00:13:53.820 Other times it's a micro video or a slide deck and sometimes it's just a 202 00:13:53.830 --> 00:13:57.880 regular old status update that shares their unique point of view on B two B 203 00:13:57.880 --> 00:14:02.110 marketing leadership or their job function. We're posting this content 204 00:14:02.110 --> 00:14:06.900 through their personal profile, not our company page and it would warm my heart 205 00:14:06.910 --> 00:14:11.460 and soul if you connected with each of our evangelists, we'll be adding more 206 00:14:11.460 --> 00:14:16.440 down the road. But for now you should connect with Bill Reed, R. C 00 Kelsey 207 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:20.410 Montgomery, our creative director dan Sanchez, our director of audience 208 00:14:20.410 --> 00:14:24.810 growth Logan Lyles, our director of partnerships and me, James Carberry. 209 00:14:24.820 --> 00:14:28.750 We're having a whole lot of fun on linkedin pretty much every single day 210 00:14:28.760 --> 00:14:31.450 and we'd love for you to be a part of it.