What does thought leadership have to do with anything you do?
A lot of coaches and consultants don’t necessarily see the correlation. Indeed, you may say, “I work 1-1 with folks. Having some big, grand message doesn’t matter when I’m in there helping them solve their problem.”
For the most part, that’s true–so, why does it matter so much that you have such a message? (And in this day and age, it does.)
Because your inspired thought leader message is your “storefront sign.”
It’s what people will see of you from the outside, before they ever
enter your inner sanctum and begin to work with you.
And that “sign” must appeal, attract and STAND OUT if you have any hope of succeeding.
When you’re walking through the streets of a city, a store’s physical sign goes a long way in enticing you.
But in our business of selling invisible services, our physical sign–our website header or logo, etc.–doesn’t have that much impact. We need much more than design and color to persuade folks we’re valuable.
You need something that will appeal, attract and stand out by lingering deeply for the visitor/viewer/attendee.
What lingers deeply? For starters, whatever stirs our emotions. That’s neuroscience 101.
But here’s the real answer: what interrupts our patterns, our world-views.
Do you remember hearing something in your life that ran counter to everything you had believed prior? That just shattered what you knew?
A big one for me came when I was 23. My father had died and, as a self-proclaimed atheist at the time, I was desperate to hear something that would prove he had not just vanished into blackness. I strolled into Quest Bookstore in Manhattan and a book on Hinduism literally fell of the shelf at my feet.
This was not a thought leader giving a lecture, but it was a subject matter that shattered my known paradigm: reincarnation.
The point here is certainly not whether reincarnation is valid or not. The point is that the topic in that book “broke my schema”–and permanently etched new circuitry in my brain. I was not the same after hearing such a new view.
That’s what interrupting patterns does:
- The new idea is novel, so it captures the brain’s attention.
- It touches us emotionally, thus keeping the brain’s attention and opening the way for long-lasting memory.
- And it literally lays down a new pathway in the brain, causing all kinds of potential for change.
These are invaluable results in today’s world of second-by-second marketing!
Having something to say that disrupts your prospects’ status quo is the very, very best chance you have of capturing them as clients.
It is also the only chance you’ve got for effecting change in the world on a wide scale, if that’s your calling.
So, why an Inspired Thought Leaders’ message?
Because failing in your coaching or consulting business is NOT AN OPTION.
BUT–it’s getting harder and harder to succeed in the overcrowded marketplace.
You MUST do something radically different from everyone else!
You must capture the ATTENTION, the MIND, the HEART and the SPIRIT of your prospects or they will “click” and be gone.
Disrupt what they know–and you will.
So, what do you think?
Check out the powerful 2-minute trailer for my upcoming teleclass January 15th. It will remind you of why you’re here and your potential when you shatter paradigms. Go see it now! I think it will linger in you for a while.
If you’re feeling ho-hum, and not called to anything particularly meaningful, or not meaningful enough for you, I can almost bet