Why So Few Thought Leaders Truly Stand Out in Crowded Markets!

You know that we shouldn't assume, right? As a reminder, remember how the word assume breaks down? You make an ass out of you and me, which is something you don't want to do, especially in our business and in our marketing efforts. Assuming can get you into big trouble and cost you way more than $250,000. Vicki Sullivan is going to prove that to us in her first ever 10 minute talk at Genius Network. Vicki is internationally recognized as one of the top strategists for thought leaders and entrepreneurs. She specializes in branding and messaging strategies in crowded markets and over the last 30 years has helped thousands of companies and entrepreneurs outsmart their competition. She finds that one thing in the marketplace that makes her clients stand out and dominate. Her groundbreaking work has earned her an appointment to Harvard's Women's Leadership Board, a group of the top leaders in business, government, and academia. Vicki's Oklahoma accent adds interest to her speaking style, so those of you from New York and New Jersey pay close attention. Her title is Three Mistakes Thought Leaders make that Derail Their efforts. Please help me welcome Vicki Sullivan. Thank you, dear.

Thank you. Derailment. It's not fun to watch, is it? Especially when it happens to one of our friends. Linda and I were running buddies at Harvard. She was a leadership expert, and she had a center in North California. People came from all over the world to learn from her. She was fabulous. The sales were stagnant, so she decided to write the book that would launch her thought leadership and jump start her sales. Now, Linda and I were fast friends. Have you ever had that instant connection? I'm sure it's kind of happened in these meetings as well. Okay, so I got a ringside seat to all of this, right? I saw her spend every waking moment on this book. I saw her spend every dime she had. And so I couldn't wait to read the book. And so she gave it to me, and I was tearing through it, and my heart fell. She had great ideas. She always had great ideas. But the book itself did not have a focal point that made her stand out to her clients, which were the C suiters of Fortune 500 companies. She didn't pay enough attention to what was going on around her at the marketplace. So after a year of promoting the heck out of this, investing heavily, giving it everything she had, and not getting enough clients to the center, her business closed. Broke my heart. And what's so sad about this is that Linda was not an idiot, okay? She was talented. Her clients loved her. She got rave reviews. But the problem was is that she Looked like one of many because of the other voices in the marketplace. So when she came out with that book, here's what her buyers saw. Things you've already heard by just another expert. To them, they didn't understand how brilliant she was. To them, she was old wine in a new bottle. And that is what I want to talk about today. I want to make sure this doesn't happen to us. Okay? So thought leadership. Thought leadership is when you're writing a book, doing a webinar, anything. It's a strategy in which you are using your perspective, your insight, your brilliance to influence your buyers. Your goal in all of those activities is to stand out in a crowded market, in a market that has a lot of other voices than ours. I'm a market strategist, and I live at the intersection between what we do best and what the marketplace will more richly reward. And there's one thing that I say to clients time and time again, and I want to say it here. If you get nothing else, please get this. Is that if we don't pay attention to the marketplace, the marketplace will not pay attention to us. It's just that simple. Now, that begs the question, what is the marketplace? Everyone has a different marketplace. And so, just for the purposes of this talk, the marketplace is your best clients. It's where they reside. Everyone knows who their best clients are, or you wouldn't be as successful as you are today. It is also where your competition resides. And they are drawing attention away from you. They are drawing budget away from you. They are competing with you for that line item. It's kind of like going to the grocery store. I went to the grocery store the other day, and I just went there real quick to pick up a can of tomatoes for a dish I was making. This is what I saw heading down the aisle to the grocery store. My head exploded. I just wanted a can of tomatoes, for God's sake. The labels. I got this. I got that. This is this. Oh, over here. I'm like, just, can of tomatoes. That's all I want. Our buyers, our marketplace sees that in the same way as, well. There's too many options out there. And that is why the marketplace, and many of you know this, the marketplace runs on the visceral reaction. The visceral reaction. They operate on emotion. The marketplace is not logical. So we bring out all these reasons why we're better. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We have to have that one thing that people point to and say, I want me more. That as they would Say in Oklahoma. Give me more of that. So here are the top three mistakes I see brilliant, talented people make. And again, this is unintentional. You see, these mistakes are very easy to make and they're easy to make because they look good on paper. Okay? You think you're doing everything right. You think you're following the instruction manual, yet it doesn't turn out the way you think it will. And that is because people do not pay enough attention. They underestimate how crowded it is in the marketplace and they underestimate how they are being perceived. It's just a mess out there. So here's the first mistake I see brilliant people to make. I call this just be me. Now. These people lead. They focus on their mission and or methodology. I see this a lot in the personal growth field. They believe that showing up is enough. If I just show up with my sweet self and work real hard, it's going to be okay. I call this confidence without a cause. The problem is that they assume that they have no competition. They think that their passion and their excitement is going to be enough to show their natural differentiation. The problem is everyone is excited. The view at 30,000ft is free. So, your antidote. Claim your territory. Plant your flag. What can you redefine? We saw Joe this morning. Redefine what addiction looks like. What can you redefine? Mistake number two, get famous first. Now, these people lead with attention. It doesn't matter what kind. Thank you, Kardashians. Unfortunately, they accidentally position themselves in the free category. They're cool, but expendable. They confuse glitter with gold. The antidote. Sharpen your message. What is your role in the conversation? Joe is a community builder. Eric. Eric is an advocate. You'll hear him next. Alex. Provocateur. Third mistake. Ta da. As in, here I am. Listen to my story. Listen to my track record. These people lead with their achievements, which is a wonderful thing. The problem, they are talented, but nondescript. The antidote springboard. Your story, based upon your story, based upon your track record, what do you stand for now? What do you stand for now? What do you advocate? Folks, these mistakes are easy to make and we make them unintentionally. The problem is we get caught up with our brilliance. Our brilliance blinds us. So here's what happens. Let's look at what happens when we pay attention to the marketplace. Chris Valletta. I met his wife at Harvard. He's a former NFL football player turned serial entrepreneur. Built a hundred million dollar business. Was wondering where his next adventure was. So he hired me to position his thought leadership. He wrote the book, and I tore that book apart. The good news, I found his gold. The bad news, it was on page 176 of his book. And that's what I want to leave you with today is everybody has gold, but we have to unearth it. We have to do the digging, because the marketplace will not do it for us. When we put the marketing in the mix, magic happens.