Peter Winick, CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage, identifies four trends reshaping the industry post-COVID. Clients now demand high-quality content paired with community experiences. In-person speaking fees may not return for years as digital delivery becomes standard. A surge of new books, programs, and global collaborations marks what Winick calls the COVID Renaissance.
Hey there, it's Peter Winick. I'm the founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage. And normally at this time of year, we reflect on all the great things that have happened, the growth, the creativity, new clients, celebrating wins, all that sort of stuff. Clearly, this is a different year. So I wanted to just share with you some of the things that I've seen, some of the things I've observed, and sort of where I see thought leadership today and where I see it moving in 2021 and beyond. So first off, COVID has been a reinvent, not a resume situation. This isn't just a pause. This has caused everyone to reflect and think about every element of their business, how they serve their clients, who their clients are, their pricing strategies. Everything is up for discussion. Everything needs to be reevaluated. And those that are winning are those that are willing to have the courage to question every assumption they ever had about how they run their business. Number 2, I think that there is a hunger, a thirst by clients for great content wrapped in phenomenal community. So content in and of its own, great thought leadership, be that a keynote, be that a workshop, be that whatever the case may be, I think needs to be wrapped in some sort of community. We've seen it here at Thought Leadership Leverage with a group that we do every Tuesday. We've seen it with clients. We've seen small groups forming rallying around something that they're passionate about. So one of the things I would suggest that you think about is how do you integrate community into your content? Because I think that's going to be a phenomenon that's not going anywhere. Next thing I've seen is, you know, distance and digital are here to stay. So luckily we've got vaccines coming. Luckily the world will change. That's still a ways away, but distance and digital are going to be the new norm now and forever. And it's, it's It's something that forces you to rethink how you deliver, what you deliver, whom you deliver to, and how you do that in a top-notch, high-quality way that is valuable for you and valuable for your clients. Speaking— I don't know when speaking is coming back in terms of the business that we knew that it was. It might be 3 years, it might be 5 years. I certainly don't see it returning anywhere to where it was in the next year 2 or 3. And I think that's a significant issue for many that relied on the hefty speaking fees they were able to command in that marketplace. Very, very few are able to maintain pricing integrity for things that were delivered in person as a speech into remote delivery vehicles. It's just the market's changed. Last thing, which I think gives us a bit of hope, is creativity. I have seen more creativity in the last 8, 9, 10 months than I've seen in the last 5 years. I think, you know, if we were to fast forward to 5 years from now, this will be known as sort of the COVID Renaissance. I've seen more people writing the books that they wanted to write, more people creating new programs, new modalities. I mean, just so much collaboration across the globe. I think that's a great thing. I think I'm looking forward to seeing more and more of those collaborations and those creative connections. And I think the outcomes of that are great. If you'd like to chat, if you'd like to have a conversation around where you're going in 2021 and things that you could be doing, Feel free to hit the link below to get a call set on my calendar, or you can email me directly at peter@thoughtleadershipleverage.com. Have a healthy and happy 2021.
