Personal Branding vs Thought Leadership - What's The Difference [+ Why Should You Care?]
Personal Branding isn’t Thought Leadership
First things first, I don’t think anyone should call themselves a thought leader. This is something someone else associates with you and often not even in such a direct manner. They may not say - oh yes, you need to talk to Jonny, he’s a thought leader in xxx but they would refer you and suggest to engage you in whatever format that may be.
Secondly, many people also confuse having a strong Personal Brand with thought leadership and that’s not correct. Your brand is the foundation for any marketing activities and creating thought leadership content would fall under this category. Your brand is the promise you make for others and the perception others have about you around this promise when they engage you.
So creating thought leadership content is a tool to amplify your authority brand positioning but it requires a lot more than just having an opinion or a thought on a topic you want to be known for.
It requires you to have a strong (informed) point of view that’s based on science and story, aka your knowledge, facts and figures connected with the way you’ve experienced getting these results.
Having a strong personal brand doesn’t necessarily mean you’re considered a thought leader.
Think of instagram influencers who went viral with a post - their brand may be well known amongst a certain audience but it’s not built on substance. There are plenty of examples of strong and well known personal brands who have built their profile on other things than insights and thoughts.
They have a high level of visibility but often a low level of competency or deep knowledge in an area. Don’t get me wrong- the ability to build a community around a lifestyle is incredible and I absolutely think those people deserve recognition. But simply being known or trying to become (insta) famous isn’t what I believe in, nor do I have experience in and with that, i don’t teach.
On the other hand, there are plenty of incredible thought leaders and change makers who aren't known -- they don't have a profound digital presence, nor have built a community around their thought leadership through speaking, blogging or podcasting. This is what I categorise the technical experts in my world who have a high level of competence but a low level of visibility.
And this is what I’m on the mission to change because the world is in shambles and having people with deep knowledge and expertise sharing their insights and thoughts, this is what makes the world a better place (again).
And this is where the principle of the trusted authority comes in. So the question is - what makes a thought leader and with that, a trusted authority? In true Petra manner, I have of course a framework to make it easier to remember and that’s the 5C’s:
Competence based on deep expertise in your area - have a deep specialisation in your industry/ profession. In this noisy world, it comes down to micro-specialisation which could be towards an audience but also towards a method/ delivery. For example: let's look at change managers. Who would you engage if you were a CEO in a highly regulated and high-risk industry? The change manager with 15 years of experience or the change manager who has a track record of delivering high risk projects in the FinTech industry for scale ups? This clarity of who you’re best able to support and add value to is what gives your decision maker the confidence that you know what you’re doing.
A clear point of view - this is what makes all the difference. Everyone could talk about web 3.0, compliance, digital transformation, [you name it]. That’s nothing special and doesn’t stand out. Your take on the topic based on your experience is what moves the needle. The ‘how to’s’, the ‘5 steps to …’ etc is what anyone in that profession/ industry could talk about but your unique spin on it, based on your personal or professional experience, wrapped around in your story - this is what no one ever can compete with and also what makes you memorable. Speaking of … without followers, you can’t be (any type of) leader.
Community over credentials - having degrees and years of experience in the area of expertise is one thing but having an engaged community who’re supporting your point of view- this is where the magic happens. At the time of this recording, I just got off a call with a large SaaS platform that provides HR tech solutions who I want to partner up for my 2nd business (which I haven’t mentioned on this podcast too often as it’s a B2B business and built on relationships). Anyway - the 2nd question he asked was how big my social media following and my email list is. So when I could answer that I have over 40,00 followers as well as access to a global community of executives, as well as HR leaders because I’ve been speaking at their conferences over the last few years and pro-actively built this community on LinkedIn, I got the tick of approval. Goes to show the importance of having influence over a certain audience and that’s the key. I don’t have many (if any) connections in the arts & music industry for example because it’s not been my focus, nor the target audience I work with and with that, it’s never been a priority. So no one of this community would know of me or quite frankly, care as I haven’t shown interest in them. This is a big take out here: if you want to become interesting (to anyone), be interested first.
Credibility - telling you’re the best at what you do is one thing, showing it takes it to another level of credibility. This is where the 3-O credibility frameworks comes in which I discussed in epi 62.
Consistency - there are many who create good content (in whatever format) but there aren’t many who create consistently good content. This is where systems come to play to ensure we have a framework to follow and don’t have to rely on motivation. I haven’t missed a training in - this year being - 10 years and I’m counting. Trust me when I say - i don’t rely on motivation as I’m hardly motivated to exercise and yet, I haven’t missed a workout because it’s become part of my routine and I don’t question it.
The same needs to happen to your efforts on building your thought leadership by contributing content (may it be via social media or through speaking engagements), building pro-actively your network (online and offline) as well as leading conversations (may it be through suggesting initiates at work that address a common challenge or speaking up in meetings etc.
If you’re interested in learning how create content to build your thought leadership and shape your personal brand to become known as the Go-To for your area of expertise, make sure to subscribe to this show as the next 2 episodes are all about that. Next week, we;re joined by Mariah McInnes who’s also known as the content queen. Needless to say, she knows a thing or two about content creation and the week after, it’s a solo episode with yours truly where I share some behind the scenes of my content creation process.
If you want to fast-track your learning, then I have a treat for you as I have completely revamped the content creation hub and turn it into an on-demand Trello board with a step-by-step instruction and run down on what it takes to create highly engaging and also converting content. Hop over to content-creation.hub for the details and get started building your thought leadership content today!
