Peter Winick says real thought leaders are recognized by peers as the best in their field, not self-appointed gurus. Most experts excel at their core work but fail at marketing and distribution. He argues they need a clear platform and audience, not scattered experiments like a quick Twitter push or mobile app.
You work with a lot of authors, a lot of thought leaders. What are some of the things you see them do really well in really scaling their ideas, in getting their name out? And then let's flip the coin. What are some of the dumb things we all are doing that we should stop doing because it's not helping us?
How much time we have?
On the dumb part or the smart part?
Well, so let me split that a little bit. So I think on the smart part, it is harder today than ever to be a real thought leader. So I'm not talking about somebody that anoints themselves the guru of the furniture business or whatever, right? But what does it mean to be a thought leader? It doesn't mean that's what you call yourself and whatever, but it means that you're recognized by a community, by your peers, whatever, as an expert in something, and you're really good at it. So number one is my advice is, and Actually, the reason that I do what I do is that if you are a thought leader, you're probably best in the world. So some of my clients are literally the best in the world at what they do, right? But people might not know who they are. They're not marketers, and they don't know social media, and they don't know distribution, they don't know product development, and they don't know mobile. Well, that doesn't make them less smart. It just means figure out how to add this chocolate into your peanut butter, because you can't replicate brilliance and thought leadership. You can figure this piece out. And what frustrates me, or what I find often, is they struggle with this. They'll become a Twitter expert for about 10 days, because by the way, they all also have ADD, right? So we do a little bit of stuff for a little bit of time, and then move on to the next thing. So one week it's Twitter, the next week it's a mobile app. So I think it's about defining the platform. I think it's about figuring out who they should serve, how that market consumes content, and then figuring out what to get off their plate and what to do quickly. So, The world of a thought leader and author is kind of lonely, so you've got all these people trying to help you, but they're only helping a really thin slice of who you are. So speaker agents, they care about you being successful, but they only get compensated when you speak, right? You know, book agents, ditto. Publisher, ditto. You know, clients, ditto. So nobody's looking at it holistically. So one of my clients said to me, they were in a rush, they were calling from an airport, and they said, Peter, I'm introducing you to someone, I think you can help them. And I said, oh, Give me a little background. He said, well, I don't really have much time. Look him up. And I said, well, what'd you tell him about me? He said, I didn't have much time. I told him you're sort of like the Jerry Maguire for nerds. And at first I was like, oh, OK. And then I was like, well, that's kind of cool, because actually, you know, I get confused for him all the time. People stop me and say, Tom, can you sign this?
Wow, really?
Yeah, it happens all the time. No, but when I thought about that— You're shocked, huh?
I'm a little surprised by that. You as well?
Yes, very much so. Clooney.
They confuse me with Clooney a lot.
That was my second choice.
Got it.
Not Jon Lovitz?
No.
So when I thought about that, what I realized that what, you know, the beauty of the agency for a sports person is if you're the world's greatest throw the ball, dunk the ball, whatever, obviously I'm not a sports guy, right? All you have to do is concentrate on being that, and the agent and the people around you take care of everything else, all the business side, the sponsorship nonprofits you should be with. Thought leaders really don't have that. So that's sort of the role that I like to play with my clients is, You be the smartest and the best and do your research and practice your craft, and I will help you devise the strategy and implement that in a way that's viable. Thank you.
