Thought Leader Strategies

Justin Recla:

Welcome back to Incorporating Superpowers. Today we’re going to talk about the future. Because if you’re in business, whether you’re a solopreneur, or if you’re a Fortune 500 company, the fact of the matter is the business world is changing. And it’s coming down to the fact that more and more people are waking up, which means companies need to stay ahead and empower their people. In the best and easiest ways. Well, I have to say one of the easiest ways to do that and empower yourself and empower the people that work for you is by implementing a thought leadership strategy. And this is so important because it gives your employees the opportunity to contribute in ways they never were able to contribute for and so much more. Unfortunately, my guest today is an expert. She is the CEO and founder of the Institute for Thought Leadership. And this is what she specializes in. We’re here to talk about this. Please help me welcome Rhea Wessel to the show, Rhea, welcome to the show.

Rhea Wessel:

The Institute for Thought Leadership is a company focused on training subject matter experts to find their best ideas, and get them out to the world, find them, and frame them. And it’s based on my experience as a professional writer for 25 years, when I’ve seen these great ideas, buried in papers, and said, my gosh, the world needs to hear this, you know, why didn’t I know it? But the ideas weren’t coming out. So I took it upon myself to enable the subject matter experts to be heard by helping them with a journalistic framing of their ideas. And that’s the core of what we do at the institute.

Justin Recla:

Well, that’s fantastic. I know not everybody is a writer. I mean, there’s, you know, depending on what background you come from, what industry you’re in, it can be really easy to want to get your ideas out in a very clinical matter. Right. So how often do you see, you know, the clinical writing style that you have to work with? And how can people shift out of that?

Rhea Wessel:

Yeah, so the calm problem is very common. Because due to the internet, social media, and the way that businesses work, you have to promote yourself through writing, and subject matter experts aren’t given a chance to learn this in university. And so I work with Harvard alumni, with entrepreneurs from Harvard alumni, and they have the challenge of getting out there getting funding, articulating products and services that don’t exist yet. And they are writing for their business. And just like every subject matter expert, sometimes you’re just too close to the knowledge, right to know what’s useful for your audience, or what’s new or different. And so the problem is definitely widespread.

Justin Recla:

I agree, I think it’s in the superpower world. It’s what we call containers. And it’s when you’re in the box, it’s hard to see the box because you’re in it right. And being able to train yourself to step outside of the box and write from a different perspective is a whole new skill set. And I love the fact that that’s what you help people do. Right before we continue down this route because there’s so much information that you hold that I think is that the audience needs to hear. Is that how to go about writing and what that looks like and so forth? Though, before we do, where can people go find more information about you?

Rhea Wessel:

The best place is to go on our website, the Institute for Thought Leadership. And there you will find lots of things about what we’re doing or follow me on LinkedIn. That’s the best way.

Justin Recla:

Fantastic, folks. If you are in business, if you have thought leaders in your organization and you don’t know what that what a thought leadership strategy looks like for your organization, then you’re going to stay tuned because when we get back we’re going to dive down this rabbit hole a little bit further. Expand out what it takes and why you want to do and implement a thought leadership strategy. The organization’s stay with us we’ll be right back.

For the best listening experience, download the Superpower Network App