10 Essential Elements of a Profitable Thought Leadership Platform (Part 2)

Hello again, you with your world-changing thoughts and ideas.

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Have you read Part 1 of the 10 Essential Elements of a Profitable Thought Leadership Platform?

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With that solid foundation in place, let’s look at the remaining five essentials to put your influence, income and impact into flow state.

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Ready?

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Let’s dive straight into #ProfitableThoughtLeadershipEssential No. 6.

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?Your audience doesn’t want your content. Nor do they want to get to know you.

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Harsh, I know, but hear me out.

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The only thing they really want is a solution to their problem and a trustworthy, believable solution provider.

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So, your content has two goals: Draw their attention to the problem that you’re solving and build a relationship with them so they trust that you’re the right person with whom to solve it.

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Your relationship-building strategy is made of the 5 C’s: Content, Conversation, Carry Forward, Continuity, and Consistency.

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You want your Content to spark a Conversation. You want to have a way to Carry Forward their interest – a lead magnet, Direct Messaging, whatever the next point is in your customer journey. You want to keep the Continuity going: Don’t drop that conversation or abandon the interested person (especially if they’re dropping heavy hints that they’re not going to buy), and finally, Consistency – Keep repeating that flow and process and learn from every iteration to improve.

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Rooting from a 100-year-old marketing theory, and proven time and time again: Remember that it takes at least SEVEN touch points before someone is compelled to remember, recognize or take action with a brand/marketer.

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You better be putting out those touchpoints – they’re your little relationship-building soldiers!

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I know you know. But it had to be said.

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You have a brand whether you have consciously been building one or not. Ask the people in your life and at work to describe you. The words they use ARE your brand. They’re the perception of you.

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Consciously building your brand is taking control of that narrative. Or building that perception the way you want to be seen. There are way too many personal brand frameworks and trainers out there, so I won’t get into the details on this one here.

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The one-piece I will dive into is the most important aspect of your thought leadership platform. It’s not your brand colours, it’s not your headshots, it’s not your logo, or your LinkedIn headline. It’s your brand voice.

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The very medium that carries your thoughts and ideas to your people. Pay attention to your brand voice, and use your words with thought and intention. Everything you do as a thought leader lies in your ability to string together the right words to share your thoughts. Every. Thing.

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I’m going to share my 5-Minute Brand Voice Framework in the ‘What It Takes to Become a Profitable Thought Leader’ Live Training on August 17th! Are you on the waitlist yet?

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This links right back to Essential No.1.

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Your thought leadership becomes worth following when your messages ring loud and clear. The only way you can get anything to ring loud and clear in today’s very noisy digital landscape is: Quality Reps (Repetition).

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First, get articulate and clear with your messages. (The more polarizing, the better!)

Second, repeat them across your posts, your articles, podcasts, videos, repeat these messages on other people’s platforms.

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Think of some of these amazing thought leaders. I’m willing to bet that if you’ve heard of them, their messages ring in your head as soon as you read their names:

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Brené Brown, Simon Sinek, Sherly Sandberg, Angela Duckworth, Brendon Burchard, Tony Robbins, Mel Abraham, Jenna Kutcher

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Each of these people is deeply committed to their messages. They live them, share them with a passion and repeat them unabashedly, some of them for decades. It’s powerful. It’s their legacy.

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Find your messages and get message adamant. This is about YOUR legacy.

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O.P.P = Other People’s Platforms

We’ve talked a lot about your thought leadership platform. But you’re not building this in a silo. You’re building your brand in a rich, competitive, and collaborative landscape.

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One of the most powerful ways to reach more people is to get yourself onto other people’s platforms: Their podcasts, their blogs and publications, their live events, their digital events and more.

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When you do this, you are leveraging and leaning on the trust that these thought leaders and platforms have built with their tribes.

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They’re saying to their audience: ‘Hey, you trust me and I want to bring someone and their body of work to your attention. Look’

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That advocacy is powerful and necessary. It infuses believability into your thought leadership platform.

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And, of course, it invites new people into your world without you having to do the hard work of grabbing their attention cold.

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If you get strategic about getting on the right OPPs, you’ll experience effortless growth with your influence, income, and impact.

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And last but not least – build yourself a cohesive digital headquarters where you bring it all together. A.K.A: Your website.

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This is your real estate on the Internet.

Everything you do on social media is built on someone else’s territory. Facebook or LinkedIn or Threads can change the rules at the drop of a hat.

They control how much of your audience sees your content. They control the formats and ways in which you share content.

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It is crucial for you to shift the relationships you build in those channels to a channel over which you have more control: Your website and your email list.

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Time and time again, I will hear my clients whine about not having the ‘budget’ to build a great website.

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You don’t need a fancy web developer or designer.

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You need a neat, functional website that contains all the right information. You need an easy-to-follow sitemap so that when a prospect lands on your website from a social media feed or after listening to a podcast episode, they have signposts guiding them along their customer journey.

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You need a place where all your content, your long-form platform, your service offers, and your credibility pieces live together and give someone the full picture.

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You can put all of this together in a Word doc or plan it on the back of a tissue.

And then get a $16/mo Squarespace account (not an ad) and put your website together yourself. Or hire a $15-an-hour up-and-coming web designer on Upwork (also not an ad), and get them to build it for you.

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Stop over-complicating it!

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This, your digital HQ, is your corner of the Internet. Make it simple, but get it up sooner rather than later.

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And that brings us to the end of our list of the 10 Essential Elements of a Profitable Thought Leadership Platform.

Is it possible to build a profitable thought leadership platform, a coaching or consulting business, without these essentials in place?

Of course, it is. BUT, every one of these that you eliminate will make it that much harder for you to effectively reach your goals.

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I’ll tell you this much from having marketed people and businesses for 12 years now:

The most effective way to do it is to do it.

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You will never figure out your formula and always be an arm’s length away from what is possible for you if you don’t take action. ?

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So, if you’re ready to make Q4 your breakthrough quarter, then I’ve got just the container for you to set your plans in motion:

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I’m launching a BETA program to work with 20 coaches and consultants to build their profitable thought leadership platforms. We’ll be building the foundation for a solid US$ 250k annual revenue business.

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Details:

- 12 weeks to strategize and launch your online presence FINALLY

- Launch a profitable, STREAMLINED thought leadership platform

- Work out your EXACT profitable organic marketing strategy

- Get that blog, podcast, YouTube channel OUT of your head and in front of your audience

- FILL up your calendar, coaching programs and more with the RIGHT inbound clients

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Note:

- This is a BETA Program. Once finished, this program will go up 4x in price

- This is a BETA Program. Your success is my success, so I'm 100% committed to get you to win (because only then is my BETA successful)

- This is a BETA Program. Money back if it doesn't work :)

- This is a BETA Program. Limited Seats.

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Is one of those spots yours? Sign up here for the Live Training on August 17th to learn more.

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Note: The Live Training is not a commitment of any kind. It is a standalone value-packed session that will give you the pieces for you to go and work on yourself.

And I will present the option for you to work on those pieces with me inside the BETA container too.