The First Step to Thought Leadership

“How do I promote my internal brand externally and become a thought leader in my field?”

I’m delivering my first TEDx talk in a little over a month and I am over here, furiously outlining, typing and rewriting something I hope will resonate.

But you want to know something weird?

Of all the things that stress me, figuring out my message or how to convey it is not one of them and for that I feel charmed.

This doesn’t happen by accident though.

Being able to pretty easily pick a topic and write it is because I have spend the last 3.5 years answering these key questions as a professional:

  • Who do I serve with my work?
  • What problem do I solve for them?
  • How is their life better when I solve that problem?
  • How is the world better off?
  • From a messaging perspective, what does that person need to know to make their life better?

There’s lots of ways I’ve practiced in real time:

  • writing this newsletter
  • writing LinkedIn or Harvard Business Review articles
  • engaging in no less than 4 coaching programs to define and redefine my brand
  • talking about it daily with potential students
  • creating my curriculum for every program I’ve created

One of the reasons I love engaging with ambitious high performing women is that they think big. They don’t just think about the promotion, they know that spreading their message is another form of leadership.

However, it’s not enough to start posting whatever to LinkedIn. I mean, you could but it will take much longer to figure out what you want to say than taking the time to understand who you want to be in the next 5-10 years and then working backwards.

To understand what story to tell about your work, it helps to know the ending.

How clear are you on your long term career destination?

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Alex Cooley