In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, host Bill Sherman introduces the "Comfortable Corners of Thought Leadership" framework, a 2x2 matrix that plots comfort with an idea against comfort with a delivery modality (e.g., long‑form writing, short‑form articles, video, documentary, speaking). He argues that thought‑leadership creators, like job interviewees, must package ideas in ways that resonate with their audience’s comfort levels. The discussion covers how creators often default to formats they enjoy, the risks of mismatching idea comfort and modality comfort, and how to use the matrix to decide when to stay in familiar formats (for idea development) versus when to stretch into new modalities. Sherman then flips the perspective to the audience, noting that most consumers have low to medium comfort with new ideas and therefore need content delivered in modalities they already trust. The episode offers practical guidance: use familiar formats to flesh out nascent ideas, leverage your strongest modality when both you and the audience are comfortable, and be willing to experiment with new formats to meet audience preferences. A visual of the matrix is provided in the show notes.
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Peter Winick: When you go for a job interview, you likely dress up. In the world of thought leadership, every time you put your ideas out into the world, it's very similar to a job interview. Your audience is evaluating your ideas to see if they're a fit and useful to them. So how do you package and present your ideas so that they're received in the best possible way. Today, I want to talk about a framework that I frequently use. It's called the Comfortable Corners of Thought Leadership. And in today's episode, I'm going to walk through the framework and explore it with you. By the end of the episode, you'll have a new way to think about how to create thought leadership offerings, as well as how your audience consumes them. We'll put a link to the visual for the framework in the show notes. So that you can see what I'm talking about. I'm Bill Sherman, and you're listening to Leveraging Thought Leadership. Ready? Let's begin. When I work with people who practice thought leadership, I've seen a pattern. Some people default to long-form writing. You'll hear them talk about, "Oh, my next book will..." or "I've got 3 more books in mind." or I'm working on this research piece. They focus on long form. Other people focus on short form pieces. They may do video or they may do infographics. I think one of the things that I've seen over the years is that most people gravitate to a format, maybe two, that they are most comfortable with. And that's useful in the sense that it allows you to get your best expression of the ideas out there. However, you may run into some barriers, and that's what I wanna talk about today. There's a difference between your comfort with the idea and your comfort with the modality. So let's think about this for a moment here. I had a client some years ago who came to me and said, "Look, I'm happy to do thought leadership in the world, but if you tell me I have to write a book, I'll throw it at you. I have no interest in writing a book. I have dyslexia. I have ADHD. This would be torture for me." that individual had a low degree of comfort with the format, even though he had a high degree of comfort with his ideas. And so he was going to struggle because of that low degree of comfort with the modality. And we talked and he said, "You know, I like making documentary films. It's a format I'm comfortable with." I know how to do this. If you tell me I can make a documentary, that's great. I'll look forward to doing that work, and I'll be energized, and I'll be at my best. So here I want to pause for a moment and ask a question. Where do you gravitate? Do you think of short-form articles, something that you write maybe on a plane flight or you open up LinkedIn and you write and post something? Or do you spend your time focusing on long form? Some people get stage fright when they are asked to present to an audience, especially if it's a large audience. Other people thrive for it. Where do you shine in terms of modality? Think about this in the format of a 2x2 matrix. If you have low comfort with the modality and low comfort with the idea, you're gonna struggle because that's a modality where you're not at your best, as well as you're trying to work out the idea. You're still trying to figure out the way to tell the story or the data or the examples that bring the idea to life. And if you try to work out an idea in a modality you're not comfortable with, it's going to be difficult, perhaps a nightmare. Now, when you're comfortable with the ideas, you have an ability to explore them in modalities that you may not be comfortable. As we all know, new technology comes out. And when new technology comes out, that means you have to learn new processes and find new ways to express an idea. So if you have a high degree of comfort with the idea, it's okay to, to explore and try new modalities because you can rely on your confidence with the idea. That ability to say, "Hmm, I've never done this before in this format, but I know exactly what I'm talking about," makes it easy to lean into this new modality. So that's based on comfort with the idea and then discomfort with the modality. Let's look at the top part of the 2x2 matrix. There are times when you're working through an idea or you've got an idea that's percolating, but it's not fully formed. Then is the time for you to go back to modalities you're most comfortable with. If you're a writer, write. Think your way through the idea. If you're a person who uses scrap of paper to make doodles, or you use Post-its, go ahead and do that. If you need to pull out your phone and start recording ideas either through video or just an audio recorder, use whatever modality you need to think through the idea. And the reason I say this is when you have low comfort with the idea, you're probably not putting this idea out into the world yet. And so this is sort of an internal development process.
Go ahead and think them through.
Use the tools that you're most comfortable with. Then when you're comfortable with the idea and the modality, guess what? That's your time to shine because you know how to express that idea in a format that you're incredibly comfortable with. If you're a keynote speaker, you walk on stage, the audience lights up, and they follow your idea step by step all the way through the presentation. If you are a writer, you build a great article. Maybe you publish it in HBR, or maybe you publish it in a journal, wherever. But you know that you are firing on all Cylinders, and that is your time to shine. So if you think about this 2x2 matrix allows you to think about which modalities you should use based on your comfort with the idea and the modality, because if you choose the wrong box, you may struggle when you should be shining. Or you may be using an exploration when you need to rely on a modality that'll help you think better. So as I mentioned, this framework will be in the show notes. Take a look at this. And when we come back from the break, we'll flip this and we'll look at it from the side of the audience.
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All right, so now let's lip the framework, the comfortable corners of thought leadership, and think about your target audience. In most cases, 80-90% of your audience will be less comfortable with your idea. If you're presenting at an academic conference, if you're speaking to peers who understand your idea really, really well, then they may have a high degree of comfort with your idea. That's an exception. In most cases, most of the time when you're practicing thought leadership, your target audiences will have a low, maybe a mid-degree of comfort with your idea. And that's important to remember, and in fact, critical to remember. Because if you look at the comfortable corners, then you have to think about how will your ideas be received. If your audience is both uncomfortable with the idea or new to the idea and they are uncomfortable with the modality that you're putting out, they are destined to struggle with your idea. And that struggle will only occur if they have to go through your idea. They are more likely to abandon your exploration of your idea and they'll go, "Hey, that's not for me." They may not even see where your idea has been placed in the modality that you put out into the world. Let me unpack that for a moment. So if you're writing long-form books and your target audience is a set of leaders who Yeah, they'll read a book or two a year, but at this point they're looking for short-form distilled content that they can consume quickly, then no, a book format is a full meal when they're looking for a quick snack or an appetizer. Now, if you've targeted your audience properly, and your audience is curious for your idea and they're willing to approach it, you also have to put it in the right modality. And here, the most comfortable corners for your audience are the modalities they most frequently consume content and ideas. Because remember, they have a low degree of comfort at this point with the idea. They may be curious, but you need to meet them in a modality where they already have a high degree of comfort. You need to give them time and space to think to the level and the degree so that they can digest your idea. So this sets up a bit of a paradox. If you focus solely on your comfort with the idea and your comfort with the modality, and you approach it and say, hey, I want to shine, I want to work with ideas I'm comfortable with and produce content in modalities I'm highly comfortable with because that's me as a creator at my best, you run the risk that your audience will not be receiving the content because the modalities that you're comfortable with may not be the modalities your audience is comfortable with. And so you have to be willing as a creator to explore new modalities to be able to reach your audience. Otherwise you wind up sitting in different comfortable corners and never communicating thought leadership. When it comes to modalities, we all default to the modalities we're comfortable with, both in creation and consumption. And that's something that you have to, as a thought leadership practitioner, be constantly aware of. Where is your comfort zone and how do you stretch yourself to new modalities? Where is your audience's comfort zone and how do you meet them there? If you focus on those two questions, you are more likely to reach your audience in a place and a time where they're ready to consume ideas. And with that, I encourage you to start using the comfortable corners of thought leadership. As I said, it has been incredibly useful to me over the years. And until next time, thanks for listening to Leveraging Thought Leadership.
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