Learn in the Light

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.