"What Do I Talk About?"
Justin Foster
Co-Founder of Massive Change | Brand Crafter | Co-creator of The New Resistance Roundtables | speaker, author, poet
I’m feeling practical and actionable this morning. Thus, a practical, actionable post!
One of the most common questions I get from leaders is “What do I talk about?” This applies to writing content, giving presentations and even 1:1/small group engagement.
The tendency is to talk about our expertise. Or our career path. Or our industry. ZZZZZZZZ. Unless you are an ice cream taster for Ben and Jerry’s, none of those are very interesting.
Keep in mind that all leadership includes thought-leadership. What is your mission? What are your ideas? What do you want to teach to others? What is your point of view as a leader? These are much better areas to draw from when creating spoken or written content.
Your mission, your ideas, your views, your knowledge is the root system of thought-leadership. But there needs to be fruit. There needs to be consistent, original output. And for that, we often need some prompts.
Thought-leadership is the harmonious balance between philosophy, methodology and personality. Each of these areas contains a deep well from which to draw out original content. Here are a few prompts to get you started …
Philosophy
- Mission
- Message
- Beliefs
- Standards
Methodology
- IP
- Process
- Methodology
- Systems
- Tools
Personality
- Stories from your personal life
- Leadership observations
- Lessons from history
- Books you’ve read
- Podcasts listened to
These areas are also the basis for developing more immersive, longer-form content. Want to craft a workshop? Practice writing/speaking about your methodology. Want to launch your own podcast? Practice telling stories and sharing ideas. Then there’s the ultimate output – a book! Thinking, creating, structuring around these areas (and practicing them regularly) will become an excellent foundation for a book – or books!
Look at the masters of thought-leadership. They didn’t promote their way to that status. They practiced their way to that status. And when you break it down, these three areas are very apparent in their output.
Think & Do Differently: Free Classes | Coaching | Mastermind ?? Podcast Host + Speaker
5 年I love this.? Very timely.? Thank you!
Negotiation Trainer, Consultant & Partner at Generact AB
5 年What a wonderful post, Justin! So ........ Justin! ??
Sales Operations Ninja managing the things
5 年This is great and it reminds me of some of my takeaways from the Ted Talk, Start with Why. Thinking back, I've always been more excited to work with a supervisor or manager when I understood more of what they believed or enjoyed. This doesn't mean every personal detail but just some of what makes them get out of bed every morning- something myself and the team can relate to. For example, one owner I worked for enjoyed sprint car racing. He was very teamwork oriented, helped out in the warehouse whenever he could, talked to all of us as a team, rather than by department (office employees v. warehouse employees). I enjoyed working for him and the meetings there- believe it or not!? However, I do have one question about the article. How does one become?an ice cream taster for Ben and Jerry’s? Asking for a friend.???