How do you create a consistent and authentic voice for your thought leadership content?

Keep engaging your audience, ask your audience questions, get feedback from your audience and you will continue to evolve your brand and maintain consistency with what your audience wants and needs.

I take issue with the way "Define your purpose" is explained and the order in which it appears. Purpose, as talked about here, means goal or objective. I'd argue that if the goal or objective is to make money as a thought leader, one's purpose is not understood. As I understand it (through my training, certification in purpose work, and as Council Member of the Global Purpose Leaders), purpose is a transcendent identity, beyond one's concern for self and family, that calls us to apply our gifts and virtues towards a vision that inspires us. This cannot be defined by our egos, but must be discovered through a series of processes, aka purpose work, that reveals who we are deep down. I'd bump this section to the top, and define it properly.

“Pick your three pillars.” I can’t take credit for this one, but it has dramatically helped me in focusing my content creation. Find the three silos of information that you can speak to or grow with. I’ve chosen my three pillars for things that are important to me professionally and speak to me personally: combat sports, mental health, and brand partnerships. What story are you trying to tell? Shout out to Adriene Bueno for the advice!

The question is, what is thought leadership focusing on: the research or the stories using the research at hand? The first thing that comes to mind about thought leadership as a practice is the research that goes behind it. Consumers of thought leadership rarely, if ever, say, “We enjoyed the stories that came out so beautifully amid all the research that’s gone into it.” While research is usually a process in the back-end, more like the code behind a mobile application, it’s the stories like the functional interactivity of the mobile app that define the user experience. Better the user experience, the more loyal the users are to stay on for a more fulfilling experience.

Don't be afraid to try new things. Put yourself out there by talking about things that you're passionate about. Try not to overthink it.

Your style should be authentic and unique. Don't try to be someone else or emulate attributes of others because you enjoy their work. Be real, be consistent and develop your style!

Some companies might feel the science of thought leadership storytelling is good enough without adequate attention to the art. But the inconsistencies of such as approach would be reflected in lower brand perception. For instance, a data-heavy infographic with numerous facts will disconnect the reader from the intended message if a well-built narrative structure is not present. When this is missing, the reader loses the essence of a story and is left with a baggage of data that he or she wouldn’t want to take with them amid the content saturation they already deal with every minute of the day.

First and foremost - be yourself! If you try to speak in a different tone or pace, or otherwise try to be different, you will come across as awkward and inauthentic. If you are coaching a speaker, lean into and embrace their style. Learn their quirks and phrasing and gestures and work with, not against, them. You can always suggest subtle improvements and enhancements, but embrace individual style and characteristics. These are what make speakers unique and interesting.

Don't overthink this area too much. The most important thing here is to be authentic to how you would show up if someone met you for a conversation. Do not try to force your content to fit an image that is inauthentic. That just will not work. Also, it’s important to always provide context to your audience about why something matters to you and why you’re sharing it with them. The worst content lacks clear context.

The more consistent you are, the more consistent your audience's expectations will be to better know, like and trust you and the value you bring.

If a few reports aim at setting a new benchmark in high quality research output, consistency needs to be more deeply embedded into the operational rigor so that audiences develop stronger loyalty for other publications from the brand. If the other publications don’t meet the desired quality level, it would do more harm than good, falling way short of consumer expectations. When clients discover such content regularly, it could build up negative perception about the brand that results in lack of interest in higher quality reports and even reduced favor for new business opportunities.

The only real metric that should define a thought leadership strategy is an unbridled passion in the journey to a return on innovation: an obsession with original, research-backed insights delivered to a target audience with painstaking consistency. When such a passion is missing, it leads to an operational mindset with a different kind of obsession: one with short-term metrics that can do more harm than good to one’s thought leadership strategy. Such a destination isn’t real. 1,000 raw page views mean nothing if it doesn’t come from a defined target audience. And a journey that focuses on operational elements to reach a certain destination is a detour from original insights and slowly starts to resemble a sales-centric proposition.

Authenticity can be hard to find — but when you do, it is so refreshing! I struggled with this when launching my business, because I had serious imposter syndrome. Once I dug deep and got to the core of who I am, what my mission is, and who I help — posting valuable industry- related content has been much easier AND helped me grow a tribe of supporters and a decent book of business.

You should also experiment with modalities. Not everyone (myself included) enjoys or is a good writer. You may be better on audio or video. Short form or long form are other variables to consider.

Thought Leadership? Is that not what we used to call "Influence"? Certainly, the purpose of being a thought leader is effectively influencing others. If there is more to being a thought leader than influencing others, I am open to persuasion and other influential though leadership.