Learn to Transform Yourself from an Expert to Thought Leader - Mitchell Levy

TRANSFORMING YOURSELF FROM
EXPERT TO THOUGHT LEADER
Mitchell Levy,
Thought Leader Architect & CEO,
THiNKaha

Mitchell Levy

mitchell.levy@thinkaha.com
Copyright© 2013 Mitchell Levy , All Rights Reserved.

(408) 257-3000
http://mitchelllevy.com – page 1

Today’s Speaker

Mitchell Levy



Mitchell Levy’s Background

Running the
e-Commerce
component of Sun’s
supply chain
($3.5b).

Consulted 100’s of
corporations,
touched tens of
thousands of
people.

Phase 1:
Corporate (’84-’97)

Phase 2:
E-Commerce
Guru(’97-’04)


Published over 225
books under
multiple brands.
Have helped create
numerous experts.

Phase 3:
Publisher /
Coach / Mentor (’05-’12)

Turning Experts
into
Thought Leaders.

Phase 4:
Thought Leader
Architect (’13-Present)

Creating Strong Thought Leadership in an Organization
Should be Equated to Creating a Building that Changes Shape Over Time

Architect the Blueprint
(Plan to Win)
•
•
•
•

Brainstorm desired outcomes.
Consider various approaches.
Paint a picture of the future.
Define toolsets to utilize and
experiment with.


Build to the Blueprint
(Win the Plan)
•
•
•
•
•

Analyze the plan.
Put a foundation in place.
Find outside resources or do it all
internally.
Run experiments.
Continued inspections and checks to
ensure that you’re building to existing
and continually changing code.

Our Agenda:

1

• Let’s define Expert and Thought
Leader

2

• How can you Transform into a Thought
Leader / Guru?

3

• What Steps can you Take to Start?



1) Textbook Definitions:
What is an
Expert?
•

•

Defined as a person who has a
comprehensive and authoritative
knowledge of or skill in a
particular area. (Oxford
Dictionaries)
Experts have a prolonged or
intense experience through
practice and education in a
particular field. (Wikipedia)


What is a
Thought Leader / Guru?
•
•
•

A trusted counselor and adviser;
a mentor. *
A recognized leader in a field: the
guru of high finance. *
An acknowledged and influential
advocate, as of a movement or
idea.*
(*The Free Dictionary)


Mitchell Levy’s Definition
You are a thought leader when
others recognize you as an expert in
your space and seek you out for
help…
• You are one of the key “go-to”
people in your space.
•



2) Poll Question
•

Assuming you are ok with that Definition, then how can you be the “goto” person in your space?
a) Be a Thought Leader?
b) Heavy Social Media Activity?
c) Write Case Studies/White Papers?
d) Write a Book(s)?
e) Be on TV/Radio, quoted in the press?
f) Be Omnipresent?



2) Poll Question
•

Assuming you are ok with that Definition, then how can you be the “goto” person in your space?
a) Be a Thought Leader?
b) Heavy Social Media Activity?
c) Write Case Studies/White Papers?
d) Write a Book(s)?
e) Be on TV/Radio, quoted in the press?
f) Be Omnipresent in your defined space!!!



The Four Legged Stool of
Your Thought Leadership Blueprint

Education,
Creation &
Distribution

Books,
Webinars,
Seminars,
White Papers


Create a Blueprint that addresses
these four elements.

Social Media
-Traditional
-Experimental


What Makes a Thought Leader
Audience by Content

Expert content can be
created (originated),
curated, or even expertly
aggregated.
The audience is typically not
a generic audience, but one
that is associated with a
specific industry or set of
industries.


Evangelist

Audience

To be a thought leader, one must
be recognized as an expert with
good compelling content and an
audience to share it with.

“Waiting for
great content”

Unknown

Thought
Leader

Expert
“Waiting to be
discovered”

Content
Originated
Curated

Expertly
Aggregated


Let’s start with what NOT to do!
•

Doing one thing and expecting it to be all you have
to be known in your field.
– Pay a publicist a hefty retainer of
$5-10K/mth to make you an expert.
– Writing a book and expecting it to
be a New York Times Bestseller.

•

Talking more about yourself
of the benefits you
clients.


instead
bring to your


To Transform from Expert to Guru
You Need HELP
is for a Healthy following.
is about Execution, you need to
Execute well.
is for Leadership.
is Proven Platform.



= Healthy Following
•

You need to be an expert and have a following who know that you are an
expert and seek you out.



= Executing Well
•
•

Every time you interact, whether it is speaking or delivering a promise,
you need to execute well.
Deliver on your promises and ensure you deliver on the implied benefit
of your brand.

Jason Alba



= Leadership
•
•

Grow and deliver your brand, then share that wisdom with others.
Think about becoming a book author, and exploring media such as TV,
radio, blogging, webinars, social media, and more.

Pam Fox Rollin



= Proven Platform
•
•

Need a robust platform – inside and outside your organization – to share
your leadership, knowledge and continuous learning.
Stoke the fire and grow your network of followers.



3) Getting Started Today (or Tomorrow)



What are Three Things You can do to
Start your Journey?



What are Three Things You can do to Start
Your Journey Today (or Tomorrow)?
Clearly define and articulate your market. Know who is in it
and what services you can deliver to reach and affect that
market.



Identify and start making friends with the thought leaders in your
space and try your best to do favors for them. Comment on their
blogs, re-tweet their tweets, introduce them, and share their
thought leadership with others (build up your Klout score).



Define and put a plan in place to give yourself month-to-month
HELP. That plan should include:
a. Setting up media engagements.
b. Writing/ Crowdsourcing one or more books.
c. Allocating time each day to touch key folks in your field.



How do You Pick the Topic To Write on?

•
•
•

What are you expert in?
What are you being hired for?
What do you want to be hired for?



Time Required to Author Your Book?
NY
Publisher

42 Rules /
42 Rules /
Happy About Happy About
Originate
Crowdsource

THiNKaha
Originate

THiNKaha
Crowdsource

Time to
Write

1,000 hrs

120 hrs

60 hrs

60 hrs

20 hrs

Time to
Market

9-24 mths

2-4 mths

2-4 mths

1-2 mths

3-5 wks

•
•
•

Decide if you want to originate, aggregate or
curate the content.
Answer the six questions at:
http://thinkaha.com/6questions
Check out: http://www.thinkaha.com/write-abook/how-to-crowdsource-your-book/



What are Three Things You can do to Start the
Journey Today (or Tomorrow)?
1.
2.

3.

Clearly define and articulate your market. Know who is
in it and what services you can deliver to reach and
affect that market.
Identify and start making friends with the thought
leaders in your space and try your best to do favors for
them. Comment on their blogs, re-tweet their tweets,
introduce them, and share thought leadership with
others.
Define and put a plan in place to give yourself monthto-month HELP. That plan should include:
a. Setting up media engagements.
b. Writing/ Crowdsourcing one or more books.
c. Allocating time each day to touch key folks in
your field.



Is This Journey for You?
Do you want customers coming to you or do you want
to work hard to get them?
• Are you ready to put the time, energy and resources
necessary to be a “thought leader”?
• When you get there, do you want to grow your
organization or do you want to be a “solo”
practitioner?
•



Turning Experts into
Thought Leaders….
Wayne Turmel



Tools THiNKaha Offers to Help Experts
and Organizations with Their Transformation
•
•

Thought Leadership Mentoring/Coaching
Thought Leadership Creation
– Quick & Easy Books (Series)
• THiNKaha app in the iTunes App Store
– Custom Books Created for Your Clients Needs
– Thought Leader (Content Curator) of a Subscription Service with lots of
relevant content (www.thinkaha.com/thoughtleader)
– Webinar Quality Enhancement/Production Service
– Training Course/Curriculum Development

•

Getting Your Brand in the Market Place
– Social Media Support via Vetted Partners (www.socialcomplement.com)
– Getting Press through Gurus4Media (www.gurus4media.com)



Our Gifts to You for Your Transformation...
•

Three eBooks (at no charge)

http://happyabout.com/
42rules/books-drive-success.php

To download:
• Go to the book URLs and click
on “Purchase eBook”
• In the coupon code field, type in
“Author”.
• This will zero out the cost.
Or
• Go to:
http://mitchelllevy.com/books
• Click on Download Copies…

http://thinkaha.com/crowdsourcingtweet-book01
http://thinkaha.com/creatingthought-leaders-tweet-book01/


OPEN DISCUSSION!
GOT QUESTIONS?
Mitchell Levy
(408) 257-3000
Speaking/Mentoring/Coaching
www.mitchelllevy.com
Thought Leadership Services
www.thinkaha.com/thougthleaderservices
Getting the Word Out
www.socialcomplement.com
www.gurus4media.com


Publishing Arms
THiNKaha iPhone App
www.thinkaha.com/books
www.42rules.com
www.happyabout.com

THINKAHA THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP SERVICES
Reasons to play in our
playground
www.thinkaha.com/thoughtleaderservices



GOT QUESTIONS?
We turn Corporate Leaders and Experts
into Recognized Thought Leaders

Mitchell Levy

(408) 257-3000


Increase Engagement with Prospects & Customers

New/Existing Media
Platforms

E
n
g
a
g
e
m
e
n
t

We turn corporate experts into thought leaders by
helping corporations that are active involved in social media
leverage those activities to reach their audience and
increase their business.



THiNKaha Helps You Execute
Your Thought Leadership Blueprint
Execute against
the Blueprint.



Some of our brands…

THiNKaha® www.thinkaha.com
Happy About® www.happyabout.com
42 Rules™ www.42rules.com

Your
Book


Is Our Brand Known?
•

Depends on the circles. In many its very widely known, in others, you'll
need to let them know that we've published over 225 books:
– Some of our authors are Marshall Goldsmith, Jason Alba, Kimberly Wiefling,
Judith Glaser, Pam Fox Rollin, Mindy Roberts, Chris Edmonds, Ronnie Lott,
Kevin Eikenberry, etc.
– Some of the companies we’ve worked with are Synopsys, Cisco, Microsoft,
HP, SAP, Kodak, Walmart.com, etc.
– Some of the folks that have written forewords include Paul McCartney, Ken
Blanchard, Guy Kawasaki, Steve Wozniak, Joe Pulizzi, Mark Stelzner, Jeffrey
Hayzlett, Sean Payton, Dan Schwabel, etc.



Where We Distribute

•

Please look at this url for a listing of what we do:
http://www.happyabout.com/distribution.php
– Amazon (US, Canada, UK, Germany, France and Japan)
– BN.com and Nook Book Store
– 50+ other eTailers, including, but not limited to (iBook Store, Amazon Inside,
Amazon Kindle, Ingram Digital, Google Books, Mobipocket, Sales Gravy, Kobo
and Books24x7)
– Up to 15,000 libraries through NetLibrary and Content Reserve
– Ingram and Baker & Taylor (the distributors to ~95% of bookstores in the US)
– The THiNKaha family of web sites including, but not limited to
(THiNkaha.com, HappyAbout.com, 42Rules.com, NowWhatBookSeries.com,
Quick2Publish.com, ListenersPress.com, ScrappyAbout.com, and
AuthorThoughtLeadership.com)



We Make it Easy to Publish Quality
Books, Webinars, etc.
Expert Thought Leader Services
We help our experts become thought leaders through a number
of different services, here’s detail on books and training.

Experts
Publishing a
Book

Experts
Delivering
Training

Copy Edit

Reviewing Content

Content Layout

Polishing Style

Cover Design

Coaching on Virtual Delivery

Distribution

Delivering a Quality User Experience

Block and Tackle Marketing

Following up After the Webinars
Managing Details and Logistics

All of our team is available to support and help our
experts become thought leaders…


Create one or a Set of Books in the THiNKaha Actionable Business Summary Series
#SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING Book Series
You have questions, these books have answers!

Subtitle

Co-Author

Subtitle

Co-Author

On-boarding that Works in Today's Environment

Open

Sustainability of L&D Programs

Open

Successfully Using Coaching & Mentoring Programs

Open

Blended Learning

The books in the #SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING series focus on a
variety of components of corporate learning. Each book is comprised of 140
bite-sized ideas that will get you thinking about and remind you of things you
need to do. Please share other topics you’d like to work on.

Open

Compliance Training that’s Current, Fun & Useful

Open

Effective Mobile Learning

Open

Engineering Performance, Driving ROI and Orchest
rating Corporate Sustainability

Open

• Profitable Training by Optimizing your
Customer and Partner Education Organization

Terry Lydon, VP,
Rainmaker Systems

* Critical Skills Learning Professionals Need Now

Bill Cushard, Director of T&D,
Allonhill

* Instructional Design for Today’s Employees

Vickey Halsey, Chris Edmonds,
The Ken Blanchard Company

Video’s Role in Learning

Open

Testing to Drive Performance

Open

* Career Transition Training and Services

Barbara Safani, Career Solvers

Buying the Right L&D Assets

Open

* Knowledge Management

Michael Prevou, Strategic
Knowledge Solutions

Creating & Maintaining the Right L&D Assets

Open

Maximizing Effectiveness of the Employee Lifecycle

Open

Creating a Learning Culture

Kevin Eikenberry

Train-the-Trainer

Open

Communities of Practice

Mike Hower, Strategic
Knowledge Solutinos

Exploring Social & Informal Learning

Open

Creating Powerful High-Quality Webinars

Sharyn Fitzpatrick, THiNKaha

Using Social Media Tools

Open

Collaboration Tools and Techniques

David Coleman, Collaborative
Strategies

Search and Learn, the Google Effect on a Learning
Culture

Open

Making Training Stick

John Moxley, Cricket
Communications

NOTE: All books in this series are written by corporate learning experts
and co-authored with Mitchell Levy, CEO of THiNKaha®. In line with the
THiNKaha book series, the titles are all the same and the subtitle
describes the focus of the book.

* Already Published
*** This represents an example of a series of
books we can help you create!

Deliver Customized Versions of Your Book
to Key Customers or Partners
This examples shows Walmart.com’s CEO
customizing #POSITIVITY at WORK tweet.

Insert your personalized letter inside the book
Make a statement that will be heard and
remembered inside your company
Enable “aha” moments for your employees
Prices for customized (starburst and/or logo on
jacket, letter inside) books:

S. Chris Edmonds

Lisa Zigarmi

Organizational psychologists, S. Chris Edmonds
and Lisa Zigarmi believe that work is a vital and
ready means to well-being. In an age where
people live for the weekends, they show readers
that work can fulfill their individual needs for
autonomy, connection, and impact while helping
their organizations thrive.










51-100*
101-200**
201-499
500-2,499
2,500+
10,000-99,000
100,000-999,999 1,000,000+
-

eBooks:
 1-10*
 10-999*
 1,000+

- $11.95/book
- $ 7.50/book
- $ 3.50/book

* $500 customization charge
** $350 customization charge
Note: Will add shipping (and tax in CA)

www.thinkaha.com/positivity-at-work-tweet-book01

$15.96/book
$14.96/book
$13.96/book
$12.97/book
$ 9.98/book
$ 6.99/book
$ 3.99/book
$ 1.1/book


Thought Leadership Mentoring

We turn your corporate
leaders and experts into
recognized thought leaders
in their “space”.

This
program
delivers
You get a customized
program consisting of
mentoring, coaching and
services designed to help
your experts be
successful.



Be the Thought Leader Powering a Subscription Service
to Larger Set of Your Client’s Employees
THiNKaha can make some or all of our books, plus other assets from yours
and other experts available to your audience. Great way to educate an
audience on a key topic.

Curation Expert: Now the great part. You
will be the recognized “Branded” thought
leader owning the selection and ongoing
addition of content to this service!



When it comes to Webinars, everyone would like to have a “Guru”
presentation. It is, however, not necessary for every presenter to spend the
time and money necessary to create such a Webinar. In in order to measure
the perceived impact of a Webinar, we look at both the quality of the content
presented and the way it was delivered.
 Content quality is the evaluation of the presenters understanding of the
subject for the audience they are presenting to.
 Content delivery involves the notion of delivering the content in the
form that the audience wants to process it: auditorilly, visually and
kinesthetically.

Content Delivery

Webinar Quality: We Transform Webinars from
Basic, Engaging or Expert into Guru
Engaging

Guru

Basic

Expert

Focusing on both content quality and content delivery will allow the presenter
to bring their Webinars from “Basic” to “Guru”.

Content Quality
Basic

A “Basic” webinar has OK delivery and OK quality. A “talking head” presentation typically falls in this category. There is nothing
wrong with a “Basic” Webinar as speed of delivery allows the message to be communicated quickly.

Engaging

An “Engaging” webinar does all forms of content delivery well, but needs help fine-tuning the quality of the content to the
audience. This is a webinar that really captures the attendee, but doesn’t deliver a strong content quality punch. For a typical
business audience, one can argue that an “Engaging” webinar is better than an “Expert” one.

Expert

An “Expert” webinar has great quality of content, but only uses one form of delivery well (e.g. a business audience may find it
boring). For a technical audience, having “Expert” content quality is much better than an “Engaging” person that appears salesy.

Guru

A “Guru” webinar utilizes all three forms of content delivery and great content quality. In short, an “Engaging” “Expert” delivers a
“Guru” performance.



We Help You be a Thought Leader
Offered by Patrick Reilly and Tony Deblauwe

•

Managing Up Webinar
Cost: $75 per person

In this one hour webinar, you will learn the key concepts for managing up effectively. Managing up has
always been a critical business skill but is essential for today’s global and distributed workforce. Gallup
surveys repeatedly show that the relationship between employee and supervisor is the most important
relationship in the workplace and a key ingredient to successful communication.
•

Take aways from the webinar include:




Why connection and relationship is more important than completing tasks
How to partner with your boss to enhance alignment and efficiency




Creating the mindset of stepping into your boss’ shoes
Developing your leadership point of view



Crafting accountability



Use Your Book/Webinar and Others to Customize a
Program for Your Clients/Audience
THiNKaha offers cost-effective, ongoing employee development that is customizable
and flexible for the learner and the organization. The content needs to be engaging,
actionable and applicable to their job immediately. This program will continually
foster “aha” moments!

Leadership Training
Mo.

(Use as is or modify to meet your needs)

Guru Webinar (In-Person) Sessions

Complementary Book

1

Effective Relationship with Your Boss

#MANAGING UP tweet

2

Engaging Your Staff

42 Rules of Employee Engagement

3

Effective Coaching

#COACHING tweet

4

Effective Teamwork

#TEAMWORK tweet

5

Effective Project Management

#PROJECT MANAGEMENT tweet
Scrappy Project Management

6

Effective Leadership

#LEADERSHIP tweet

7

Managing Millennials

#MILLENNIAL tweet

8

Managing Sales People

42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness Management
Sales People

9

Managing Diversity

#DIVERSITY tweet

10

***Your Choice of Topic

‐‐You Suggest the Author

11



12





Show Your Thought Leadership Easily
Using an Aggregation Service
Use one of the aggregation tools to sort through and curate content for
reading or demonstrating thought leadership. THiNKaha can quickly
train you (or outsource) you to be a “curation expert.”



Learn to Transform Yourself from an Expert to Thought Leader - Mitchell Levy

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