Gill Moakes (00:02.818)
Welcome to the Heads Together podcast. I'm your host, Jo Moakes, and I am so glad you're here with me. If you're a new listener to the show, welcome. Thank you for finding me. And this episode, this is going to be one of those more coaching kind of episodes. So I like to kind of mix it up a little bit on this show. you know, sometimes we have more lighthearted episodes.
Sometimes we have interesting conversations with guests. This one is really around one of the topics that is foundational to my coaching. So, you know, if you followed me for a while, you know that I help women play big in their businesses. I help them do that via radical authenticity and
by establishing and sharing their own thought leadership. So thought leadership is the topic for today's episode.
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sorry Lena.
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my mind's gone really blank. I hate it when that happens.
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I'm gonna dive into what I consider to be the four pillars of thought leadership. And I want to start before we dive into the episode, I want to get one thing straight. And that is that I think there is a lot of elitist conversation goes on about thought leadership. I see people online being disparaging.
about people talking about their own thought leadership and somehow, somehow asserting that you need to have a certain level of celebrity or following or kind of guru status before you can claim to be a thought leader. And honestly, I think that's bollocks. I think that you
can absolutely claim your space as a thought leader. And actually, as we go through these four pillars, you'll see why I believe that so strongly. But it's really important to say that, that this isn't there's no space in my world at all for this kind of elitist, you have to be of a certain standard to join that club, right? That's not what we're about around here. So we are about being genuine, being authentic.
and absolutely being the best business owner we can be and serving our clients in the absolute best way we can. So without further ado, let's dive into this episode, the four pillars of thought leadership.
Okay, so let's kick off with what I consider to be the first and most important pillar of thought leadership, and that is your unique contribution. So just in the intro, then I was kind of referring to that elitist argument that, you know, to be a thought leader, you have to be of a certain standing, or whatever.
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And this is really the reason why I think that is not true. And that is because to be a thought leader, I think one of the prerequisites is that you have something to say, you have something unique, something fresh to bring to the conversation. And I'm much more interested in that than in how many followers you've got.
to enable you to class yourself as a thought leader, right? It's really important that thought leadership.
requires of you to dig very deep into what is my unique contribution to this topic or to this conversation.
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It's about really leveraging your strengths and your perspectives. When you do that, that's when you get to make a significant impact.
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Thinking about what you do and how you do it, it's about what sets you apart from other people. What's that hill that you would die on in terms of your topic, your take on something? This, honestly, this...
Unique contribution concept really is the cornerstone of your thought leadership. It absolutely is what defines your individuality and it absolutely defines the specific impact that you can make and only you can make.
It's really important for a few reasons. First of all, it absolutely makes you stand out and thought leaders stand out. They do. They have something new to say. They have something to add to the conversation. It makes it possible for you to have a meaningful impact on your space.
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And it absolutely means that you are going to be working in alignment with your authentic self because you've dug down that deep and unearthed what your unique contribution to that space is.
So I think identifying what your unique strengths are and what your unique take on a topic is, it's done by spending time reflecting. It's about thinking of your learned and lived experience. Quite often in business, I think we...
kind of zero in on that learned experience. So what are all of that? What are the courses I've taken? What are the, you know, what have I learned from my career so far? And actually, I think there is as much to add to your thought leadership in terms of your uniqueness from your lived experience. What are all of the experiences and learnings that have come from
things that have happened to you through your life.
What kind of so for me, for example, I'll give you an example of this. One of the things that I talk about a lot is resilience. And I believe that to play big, which is my area of thought leadership, I claim that space. And I do it unapologetically. Women playing big is what I'm really passionate about.
Gill Moakes (07:41.134)
And one of the parts of my life that has informed that is things that have contributed to me building resilience, losing my husband to cancer, my son being severely autistic.
Those are things that I have had to navigate that have built in me an inner resilience that contributes to the way I look at and think about what it means to play big.
So when you're thinking about what your unique contribution to your topic or your space or your industry is, think outside of just your business. Think about your lived experience. What's the journey you've been on as a human?
that informs the way you think about things.
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not only negative things either, are, you know, think about your passions that sometimes they're going to lie outside of work, but they're going to absolutely be informing your unique contribution to your topic.
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So that's the first pillar of thought leadership. The second pillar, and these kind of feed each other, by the way, so that first one is where you start. If you're committed to showing up as a thought leader in your space, you start with that unique contribution. What is that? What does it look like for me? And then the next pillar is prolific.
creativity. And I think this scares some people because that word prolific does that mean that Jill's asking me to go away and create god knows how much content and you know do I have to be everywhere on social media and is that is that what she's talking about and absolutely not that's not what I'm talking about. What I mean is that
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Creativity is really the engine of innovation.
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thought leaders continuously bring fresh ideas to the table. And I believe that prolific creativity is having the ability to generate this constant flow of ideas.
It's not just about the odd burst of inspiration. It's about really maintaining a steady stream of creative output that is establishing you is it's the thing that people will notice over and over again that you talk about that you think about that you speak about and it positions you as
a forward thinker in that field when you're always thinking about fresh ideas to bring to it. coming back to that unique contribution. And this can sound like a really kind of elevated lofty ideal to be prolifically creative. But you know what, what it really means is knowing what your thing is, unique contribution.
and then consistently talking about it.
coming back to it over and over, writing about it, being interviewed on podcasts about it, starting your own podcast and talking about it. Regular creative output is what allows you to develop new approaches and solutions to things. And it's what keeps people engaged with what you're doing and keeps them interested in your work.
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So I really want you to think about this because I'm not necessarily asking you to create more content than you are. What I am asking you is how aligned and consistent is your content with the thing you want to be known for?
because and don't get me wrong, we are all guilty of this to a certain extent. You know, you've only got to look back on this podcast to see some episodes that are like, what the hell is she talking about that for? So I am not exempt to this at all. But I think we can sometimes get a little bit like the dog on up where he's, you know, chasing the squirrel.
And what we really need to do is to have our one thing and to make sure that we are 90 % of the time creating content that is aligned with that one thing, with that thing we want to be known for. So this is really important.
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Having a creative mindset as well, it's something I learned. I don't know if any of you listened to the interview I did with Ian Sanders a couple of months ago. Such a good conversation. I'll link to it in the show notes because you might want to go back and listen to that one. Cultivating a mindset that embraces curiosity is absolutely key for this. If you are going through life, experiencing life with curiosity,
you can consistently add fresh perspectives and angles to your thought leadership, to your topic, to your thing. So that would be my number one recommendation is curiosity. It's the spark that ignites your creativity. So just get in the habit of exploring new ideas and asking questions.
looking at different perspectives, but then turn those back to your own thought leadership so that your content becomes prolific and aligned with your thing. Okay.
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Creativity is a lot... Creativity really flourishes when experimentation is encouraged. So, again, you know, don't be scared to try new approaches and different ideas around the thing that you are wanting to write about. take all that out, Alina, I don't like that bit. Go back about...
to be just before the encourage experimentation bit. Signal that bit.
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Let's go back to...
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Mm.
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So cultivating this pillar of thought leadership, this prolific creativity, this is an ongoing journey, okay? But here are a few things that you could try to help you get started or to continue what you're already doing. The first one is going to be, know, do you have creative time set aside in your calendar each week, every week, regular time?
for creative activity, whether it's brainstorming or reading or writing, podcasting, whatever it is, making creativity a priority in your week is really important.
Your content doesn't need to be of the same medium all the time, but it absolutely needs to be added to every week. So make sure you've got some time set aside.
The second thing is creating quite a stimulating environment. You know, if you're asking yourself to be creative, to create content that is gonna be engaging and is going to position you as a thought leader in your thing, you need to make sure the environment you're working in is really inspiring you to be creative. I know for myself, if my office is a tip,
and I feel unorganized and it's just not feeling great, that's gonna affect me. I'm not gonna do my best work in that environment.
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And something that some people try, I don't do this so much, but I know a lot of people who do do this. And that is engaging in different creative practices. So that might be journaling, it could be sketching, could be mind mapping, you know, those kind of creative things that just get your brain working creatively can really help establishing that habit.
Another thing is collaborating with others. So this can be a fantastic way of really positioning yourself as a thought leader is to find someone who's maybe in the same or an adjacent space to you on online or in the world. Don't take out online or in the world, Lena. I'll start that bit again. Another
thing that I think can be really helpful is to engage with others. So collaborate on projects. Collaborating can create some incredible content and it really gives you this opportunity to establish your thought leadership in the content, in the context of a wider arena. So
Collaborating with other people and adding your ideas and solutions to a wider conversation can be a great way to kind of explore that creativity.
So there's a few ideas there around this prolific creativity pillar, but I think the crux of it is you need to be creating fresh, original thought content every week. And you know that I am definitely more about connection than I am about consistency, but consistency is very helpful.
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If you can be making sure that that you are putting out something fresh and original every week, you know, that really is key.
Sorry Lena, lost my thread. I'm just gonna go back.
If can make sure that you're putting something that's fresh and original out there every week, that is going to stand you in really good stead for what's coming in our next pillar. And our next pillar is courageous visibility. So you understand what your unique contribution is. You now know that you need to be prolifically creative.
in creating content or ideas around that topic. so the third pillar, courageous visibility. This is about putting yourself out there. And for some of you, that's gonna be the part where you're like, can't I just sit in my room and prolifically create forever? No, because I want you to be a thought leader.
in your area. So I want other people consuming your thoughts, your fresh ideas, your innovations. And that is about putting yourself out there. It's about sharing your insights. And it's about making sure your voice is heard. It really is, it's the courage to stand up and be counted. And if you have done a really good job of understanding what your unique contribution is,
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and how you can be prolifically creative around it, then I hope that you want to step into that visibility because that can be part of what makes it so meaningful is sharing it with others, is being influential, is being inspirational, right?
I think, you know, in a world where women are so often underrepresented in leadership, in thought leadership, particularly, courageous visibility is our powerful tool for change. When you are brave enough to get visible, you can inspire others, you can create opportunities for yourselves.
and you can absolutely build credibility.
Being consistently visible is what helps establish your credibility and authority in your thing.
And I know that it can feel really challenging to make a commitment to being more visible. And some of you will say, well, I feel like I'm already visible. I'm on social media. I'm on this platform and that platform, and I'm posting consistently. Probably not enough.
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Courageous visibility is about putting yourself forward for opportunities that you don't even think you've got a hope in hell of getting. It's about cheekily asking for something that you up until now might have thought was unavailable for you.
Right? This is about overcoming societal biases. It's about overcoming that self doubt that fear of judgment, those things, all the things that hold us back from being courageously visible from pitching to that podcast, from asking that person with some huge kind of audience if they will be interviewed on your podcast, from
pitching to Thrive magazine, Huffington Post, know, whatever it is, whatever feels like a stretch for you in terms of your visibility. That's where I want you to go.
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sorry, Lena. There's a few things that are going to be super important for you.
They really are in... Sorry, Lena.
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Creating a really strong personal brand is the absolute foundation of courageous visibility. A brand that unmistakably reflects your values and your vision. And this is very, very foundational work. This is a lot of the work that I do with clients who want to
Level up their game. Often it doesn't start with their business. It starts with their personal brand. What do you stand for? What makes you unique? What are your core values? And the big one, what do you want to be known for?
What do you want to be known for? So going back to that unique contribution, what is it?
And having a really strong personal brand, so it's consistent across any platform that you show up on, it speaks to your website, it's reflected in your social media, your messaging across all of those platforms needs to be consistent. That's really important. And I'm not giving you this as a laundry list of things that have to be in place before you can be courageously visible, but these are things to act
absolutely think about. Okay?
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thinking about other ways to enhance your visibility.
public speaking and media appearances are.
courageous visibility gold. Yeah. And you can start small here. You can start with small speaking engagements at local events. That's what I did. So the first time I ever did a speech in front of an actual audience was at my local university. And do you know what, actually, I have to share this with you because this is the God's honest truth. So embarrassing. But
The university was doing like an open day for some of the kids from the local school to come in and the first speaking gig I did, there was hardly anyone in the auditorium. And I think it was like the third row was a row of school kids who'd come in for the day. And I was talking about rewilding your business. Honestly, a boy in the middle was either on his phone for the first half.
and then put his head back and had a good sleep. It was really distracting. And, you know, that was still courageous visibility for me. I was still nervous before I did it. And, you know, we all start somewhere. So as you gain confidence, that's when you can start aiming for larger platforms, right? That's when you can start thinking about media training if you want to hone those speaking skills and how to be interviewed really well.
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You can start really honing your pitch and, you know, take advantage of bigger opportunities. But we all start somewhere. And the first step is really understanding that courageous visibility is one of the four pillars of thought leadership. And if you are ready to play bigger,
And if you want to get what your thing is, sorry, and if you want to be known for your thing, it's one of it's a pillar you're gonna need to master. And you can define what that looks like for yourself. Don't get me wrong. One person's definition of courageous visibility will be very different from the next person's. That's okay. But like I said before, whatever feels like a stretchy
to you right now in terms of your visibility, let that be your goal.
It might be sending me an email and saying, Jill, can I come on your podcast as a guest? Right. If you're listening to this and you want that first
step on the ladder of being more courageously visible. I dare you, I dare you to email me info at jormotes .com. Let's get you on the podcast.
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That's how you do it. You take an action.
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So that's our third pillar.
Also, I should just add actually that courageous visibility is about more than just being seen, Hopefully this is a given. It's about making a meaningful impact through your presence. So by embracing this pillar, you get to inspire other people, you get to create other opportunities, and you absolutely get to build your credibility, right?
So what is the fourth pillar of thought leadership? This is about establishing recognised authority.
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A dear friend whose podcast I've been on and who has also been on my podcast, Alastair, I'll put a link to the episode where I was on his podcast. His podcast was called Recognized Authority. So you know, that's a good listen if this is where you are. This is about becoming known for your thing, your expertise, your contribution. And
The requirement on you for this pillar is consistently demonstrating and providing value.
You know, when you're seen as an authority, people trust your opinions and they seek out your advice and they absolutely look to you for guidance. And this is probably this last pillar is the one that really reinforces the thing that I always say to my clients. And that is that more
money. Sorry, Lena. And that is that growing your business, earning more money, getting more aligned clients. Those are all side effects of thought leadership. Right? Those are the opportunities that automatically come along when you have mastered all four of these pillars.
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So becoming recognized as an authority in a particular topic in your thing, your unique contribution, remember, your area, it absolutely enhances your credibility and it makes your voice more persuasive.
It definitely opens more doors and it increases your influence. So when you think of this in a wider context, it allows you to shape opinions and drive change. This can help you impact an entire industry. That's thought leadership.
That is passionately harnessing the thing that you believe in so strongly with your unique take on it, being courageously visible about it. All of those things lead to you building authority.
but it doesn't happen automatically. And I think, you know, every single one of these pillars are like thinking about Stephen Covey's seven habits of highly effective people. These things all fall under the category of sharpening the saw. These are things we need to be doing and renewing constantly in our business.
You know, when you're building authority, what are you doing to do that? Where are you continuously learning? Are you staying ahead of the latest trends in your field?
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Are you researching? you reading? Are you networking with other experts and thought leaders in your area? Really important. This is about, this is what becoming a recognised authority looks like. It becomes, you know, the first three things get you so far, but this is where you absolutely put yourself in the room.
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Publishing content is a key part of becoming a recognised authority. So thinking back to that prolific creativity, the output of that creativity, it's important to be publishing that. Articles, blog posts, white papers, ebooks, books, authoring a book is a huge boost to your authority, right? It's often why non -fiction books are written.
not necessarily for the book sales, it's for the positioning of you as that go -to expert.
So publishing prolifically again, really important.
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Again, speaking, really brilliant way to build authority. Brilliant way. So what are the spaces you could think about getting into? What are the conferences? What are the seminars? What are the webinars? What are the workshops? Could you host a workshop? Could you host a webinar where you get to share your knowledge and engage with your audience? Podcasts, panel discussions.
All of those kind of things are ways for you to position yourself as that authority in your topic.
If you think about, it's really good example actually, and I know we use Brene Brown as an example all the time, but you know what? Brene Brown is a research professor. That was actually her kind of main thing, not author. She was a research professor.
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And she's known for her work on vulnerability. I always say to clients, know, what is, what is to you, what vulnerability is to Brene Brown? I want to claim playing bigger is to me what vulnerability is to Brene Brown.
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And she has positioned herself as a leading authority in that field of psychology and personal development. You know, she has this ability to present really complex concepts in a super accessible and relatable way. And that has positioned her as a recognized authority and a trusted voice absolutely around the globe.
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But she didn't do that from a place of celebrity, if you like, or influencer or social media guru. You know, she was a research professor. But she took steps to be courageously visible because she was so passionate about her thing.
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So.
That path to becoming a recognized authority is, I would say it's five steps. The first one is identifying your niche. Well, we know that we've already done that. That's your unique contribution. It's your space that you want to claim for your thought leadership. So identify your niche done. Creating a learning plan for yourself. I think this is actually really important.
if you intentionally develop a plan for continuous learning in your area, you're going to be much more likely to stay on topic and to actually develop your expertise in that one particular thing. That one thing.
Creating a learning plan. Brilliant idea for keeping you on track so that you're not doing the kind of shiny object. this sounds interesting. I'll go and learn about jewellery making this week, or I'll quickly go and develop this Instagram course. go and... Sorry, Lena. Or I'll quickly sign up for this Instagram course, because that sounds interesting. Keep your learning plan aligned with your thought leadership. Develop your...
knowledge. I think that's exciting. I think that's really exciting to do that.
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start publishing. So begin writing articles, blog posts, sub stacks. You know, don't wait until your topic is perfect or your unique contribution is perfect. Just start sharing what you know in your space. And you can refine that content over time, you're going to get better and better, you're going to get more nuanced, you're going to really start honing down to your own unique contribution. But
Don't let that stop you from starting.
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and start seeking speaking opportunities. If the thought of it doesn't make you feel physically sick, if the thought of speaking on a stage makes you feel physically sick, don't do it, right? Because there's a difference between pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and putting yourself off your business for life. And I don't want you to do that. So if playing big for you doesn't include speaking on stage, that's okay. You get to call the shots here.
But if it is something that's secretly deep down, you would love to be that woman on the stage with a captivated audience in front of her, then start looking for opportunities to speak at events or be a guest on podcasts. Like I say, dare you email me. You will get a reply. I promise you that info at your mox .com. If you want to come on this podcast.
And the last thing is engage with your community. Community in 2024 is so important. We are so over digital marketing for the sake of digital marketing. don't, you know, we really are. We want relationships. We want to actually build relationships with other experts, other thought leaders, potential clients, collaborators, right?
Surround yourselves with all of those categories of people and engage with them. Actually spend more time engaging than you ever have before and you will reap the benefits tenfold. I promise you.
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So all this to say that becoming a recognised authority is a process, it takes time, but there are these things you can check off your list. It is a strategic approach to it. It's continuous learning, it's publishing valuable content, and it's engaging with the people in your community. That is how you're going to build your authority.
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So those for me are the four pillars of thought leadership. Now, like I say, you can Google thought leadership and you will find lots of other people giving you lots of other definitions. And that's absolutely fine because you know what? This is my unique contribution. This is what I believe thought leadership to be. This is one of the ingredients that I believe goes into playing big.
And I think if you follow these four pillars and really start making yourself a plan for how you're gonna harness this, how you're gonna step into thought leadership in your space.
you're gonna see a huge difference very quickly. That's the other thing, you know? What this actually gets you to do is stop chucking seeds at the wall or whatever the, can't remember what the expression is. Spaghetti at the wall, not seeds. I don't know what I'm talking about. Leave that in anyway, Lena.
Gill Moakes (41:58.838)
Yeah, don't spread yourself so wide. Let's keep coming back to our one thing and let's get known for it. Okay, well, I hope that's been helpful. I have created a little downloadable which sums up these pillars of thought leadership and gives you a little checklist of actions to take. So I will
link to that in the show notes and I think I said twice before already if you're willing to get courageously visible drop me an email info at jormokes .com including your email what your area of thought leadership is not will be is we're starting from a place of is okay I look forward to hearing from you
from you. Have a fabulous week and I will see you back here again same time same place next week. Bye for now.
