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Most leadership podcasts give you theory. High Octane Leadership gives you the real playbook - from someone who has actually used it.
Donald Thompson is an EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Forbes Next 1000 honoree, and 3x Inc. 5000 Chief Executive who has built, scaled, and successfully exited multiple companies over a 25-year career. He's advised Fortune 500 brands, led post-merger integrations, served on corporate and nonprofit boards, and authored Underestimated: A CEO's Unlikely Path to Success and The Inclusive Leadership Handbook. Now he brings that hard-won experience directly to you - in conversations with the executives, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders who are actually moving the needle.
Every episode delivers cheat codes - the insights, frameworks, and lessons that took decades to earn and minutes to apply. Whether you're running a company, building toward your first leadership role, or somewhere in between, High Octane Leadership is where serious professionals come to get sharper.
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EBA ROI of Trust Webinar
[00:00:00] Today on High Octane Leadership, Donald Thompson is joined by Jackie Ferguson and Bob Bachelor to discuss the ROI of trust, why the executives who earn rooms they haven't entered yet are the ones who started building credibility long before they needed it. Don shares a six-figure deal he lost because a competitor circulated one white paper, and what he changed about his business because of it.
Let's get right into it. Here is Jackie Ferguson
Jackie Ferguson: Most executives believe that if the work is good enough, recognition follows.
Bob, why is that wrong? Why doesn't expertise speak for itself?
Bob Batchelor: we like to think that we live in a world where if you're good enough, you're, smart enough, that you've had accomplishments, that everybody's just gonna find out. But there's a couple things working against you. [00:01:00] One is all the noise in the marketplace.
Everybody has their own personal channel now, and multiple channels, so there's more information and more content in the system. And so when there's that much competition for ideas and for awareness, then the challenge becomes how do you stick out? And so my contention is that awareness should be everybody's primary objective, because without awareness, expertise dies on the vine
Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely.
Don, same question from the operator's chair. Thanks, Bob.
Donald Thompson: So one of the things that, allows me to give good context is I've been selling to enterprises for 20, 25 years of my career, and the big dynamic change that Bob alluded to, I simply will say this: machines are now picking the winners. And so if you don't have AI discoverability as a part of your marketing [00:02:00] strategy, number one, you become invisible.
Number two, how do you create and stand out in your thought leadership with all of the commoditized content that's available? And that is where those of us who have some business experience have some hard-won, battle scars. Our judgment, our experience, our real live examples will allow our comments and our commentaries to stand out, but you have to do that in a structured way.
But it absolutely matters to growing your business and accelerating your sales cycle.
Jackie Ferguson: Awesome. Thank you for that. The second question, Don, I'll start with you here. when you treat thought leadership as a business strategy, not just a, content calendar to be checked off or a vanity exercise, what is the business impact of that?
Donald Thompson: So one of the things I alluded to in the previous answer that we're all fighting for is that [00:03:00] we wanna continue to be able to charge for the value that we deliver, where most transactional conversations are a race to the bottom on price.
The reason that thought leadership is so strategic to your business strategy is you have to create the evidence of your long-term value to a client before you're asking for the order. So that means you have to create an appetite for your insight. You have to create a distribution channel for your knowledge, and I'll give a quick example because I like case studies and examples.
I was being vetted for a board seat and going through the interview process, which there were multiple. Several of the interviews had read what I'd written, had listened to my podcasts, and were predisposed to believe the things I was saying because it wasn't the first time they'd met me. It was the first time they met me in person, but not the first time they were introduced to my ideas.
The second thing is that when you're selling into the enterprise, when you're going after [00:04:00] investment as an entrepreneur, people are going to do their research on you, and you don't want to be down-selected or out of the equation because some other player in the market has more credibility with the decision-makers because they have that thought leadership relationship, because they are viewed in the market as an expert in the field.
And so what thought leadership does is it sets the space and the foundation for you to really accelerate that business goal that you have because you're building that evidence-based trust before you ask for the order, and that's super important in the selling process, attracting new clients, and maintaining the ones that you have.
Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely. Bob, anything to add to that? What's the impact or return that most executives fail to anticipate?
Bob Batchelor: Yeah. So I look back on [00:05:00] a career where 25 years ago I was a speechwriter and writing a lot of speeches for executives. And back then they wanted to give keynotes. They wanted to be out in front of people because that was an indicator that people either wanted to hear from them, enjoyed what they had to say.
the way to think about it now is it's like giving a keynote almost every single day through some distribution channel that you have access to. More people are watching. And so every day, whether it's an external audience or what a lot of people forget is the internal audience. Because there are more avenues into a leader's mindset and what they're trying to achieve, then you should be thinking as a leader, every day I have the opportunity to give a keynote speech.
Am I building, culture? Am I [00:06:00] building content? Am I giving my team something to use to sell better? And those are some of the things that I think are really important. We live in a pop culture world, and so the same things that drive movies, that drive, music, stars are the same things that then start to influence the business world.
And so they're not distinct. It's not like pop culture is here and the business world is here. Everything is merged because Facebook changed the game. Everybody's got their own TV station and through YouTube and through even Slack, the business tools that people use. So leaders need to start thinking about themselves not necessarily as celebrities, but becoming influencers within the stakeholder groups that are important to them.
the term, we call somebody successful a rock star no matter what they [00:07:00] do, and there is something to think beyond that term. What does it mean for you to be a rock star within the stakeholder groups that are important to you?
Donald Thompson: Jackie, can I add something to that? And I want to just extend on that.
I think that, that was, well said. Bob, you mentioned the internal audiences, right? So when we think about internal audiences and influence, so you might not be looking for, a new role. You might want to grow within your current organization. You might want your projects that you endorse to move faster.
the way you build credibility is that your voice becomes more valuable to the degree that you're published, and that publish can be that LinkedIn article, that publish can be your book, that publish can be your podcast. Whatever distribution function that you feel comfortable, that's not the issue.
The issue is that your name is getting out there externally, but you're creating credibility inside the [00:08:00] organization as well. And then the final thing on that point as a business leader for C-suite leaders, your people want to get to know you so that they can build trust with you and how their job aligns with their goals.
And when they read about you in the press, when they see an award that their CEO or their organization has gotten, they feel an internal sense of pride that is very valuable when we start to talk about retention and culture and growing inside the organization so you can dominate externally
Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely.
Thank you both for that. So the return is real, and it compounds, which raises the next expensive question, right? So Don, what does waiting cost, not in theory, in pipeline, in positioning, in the rooms that go to someone else?
Donald Thompson: All right. This is where I'm gonna get a little transparent. I'm gonna talk about a loss. LinkedIn's filled with accolades, awards they've won. I don't talk as much about deals I've lost, [00:09:00] and I'm gonna get a little emotional about this 'cause I'm still kinda ticked off about it.
I worked for a year, trying to win a piece of business in a Fortune 500 company, global company. If I said the name, I'm not that mad, I signed a lot of NDAs, I would... You would recognize, right? I did some small project. I worked with their local executive. I got their mid-level regional managers, and I worked my way to the C-suite for a very significant organizational change project, and we were having momentum Someone on the board of directors read a white paper from a competitor, had a one-on-one meeting with that competitor, circulated that white paper to the board, and the decision for the work I was pitching became a top-down decision versus all of my bottom-up work over the year.
It wasn't our quality. The feedback was not, "You were not compelling. Don, everybody that met you in the organization really appreciated what you've done. We, really enjoyed it. We were looking forward to working." [00:10:00] But the folks that owned the final financial decision selected someone else, and I never got a meeting to combat what they learned.
And so that was seven years ago. I... And changed me, and I started to make thought leadership part of the business strategy because it hurt, and sometimes we don't learn from what people are telling us based on opportunity. Sometimes we only make progress in the change we need to make based on pain. And seven years ago is when I accelerated my investment in thought leadership, in content, in building my media presence, in learning how to communicate as a stakeholder because the pain of that six-figure business loss generated a change that has now created a lot of good momentum.
But the cost of waiting is the deal you lose because somebody's doing this better, earns trust at a higher level than you're selling, and you [00:11:00] don't even know what happened to you.
Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely.
Bob, what would you like to add? Give me a before and after of someone that you watched change through thought leadership.
Bob Batchelor: Yeah. I've worked with a lot of executives, one-on-one, as, yeah, I mentioned earlier, a speech writer, as a content creator, as a strategist. And the thing that we sometimes lose in the day-to-day is that time is our biggest challenge. It's always the thing that holds people back. There's, one more call that needs to be made, one more meeting that needs to be attended.
And what I've seen firsthand with some of the, executives that I've worked with is that when they became intentional about building their own brand, good things just started happening. It's like a Field of Dreams moment. If you [00:12:00] build it, they will come. And they took the time and the effort, and very strategic in the way they went about it, but they needed to start now, and they did.
I have, one, one, person that I know really that's a thought leader who got good advice to start a YouTube channel a long time ago, and that person just kept putting it on the, back burner, on the back burner, on the back burner. now YouTube's blown up. Everybody in the world's watching YouTube all the time, billions and billions of minutes, and that person is behind versus the person who started small two years ago, one year ago, 10 years ago, wherever it was.
So putting the effort into a strategic context is really important for people to be thinking about right now. it can be small, but it's gotta be something, [00:13:00] and it can be really strategic baby steps that begin today
Jackie Ferguson: Such good advice, Bob. Yeah. Thank you for that. Bob, know, trust gets treated sometimes as a marketing warmup.
Many of us have heard that term. But give me the mechanics. What actually moves a person from known to liked, and from liked to trusted? What's the specific thing that does the work there?
Bob Batchelor: Yeah. I'm gonna add some context before answering the specific question, because what we know from research is that company reputation overall is tied to CEO reputation.
And we know that because we see it every day in the press, kind of superstar, quote unquote, "superstar CEOs" who are attached to great companies. And there's a reason for that. [00:14:00] We also know from research that 92% of people trust fellow individuals versus what a company says. And so if you sandwich those things together, you have a situation in which my business perspective is being driven by how people feel about me as a human being.
And we again, we go back to internally and externally. So I might be great in the walls, the four walls or whether they're virtual or real of my own organization. But if nobody else knows who I am, how are they gonna move to a trusting position? How are they gonna become where they like me? And I think about it in my own time.
So I think a lot about time management and how I'm spending my time. My personal time is really important to me because I need to refresh my batteries. And one of my favorite [00:15:00] things is to watch Dana Carvey and David Spade. Their podcast is called Fly on the Wall Now we all know them. They're celebrities, they're famous, but so we know them.
I watch the podcast because that gives me a good feel for them as human beings, because they're talking for an hour or so, they go, jump along a lot of different topics. So I move from know to and then I start to think, "Do I trust?" I'm trusting them with my precious free time. And we can take that same thought process and apply it to ourselves as leaders.
How do I move along a continuum? For somebody who either doesn't have the resources or the team to make content, written content, text-based content their primary objective, podcasting might be perfect. Other people have moved [00:16:00] beyond content at a marketing or basic level, and they need to start thinking about a book.
But you move along that continuum by being self-aware that the continuum exists, and that's the first level project or problem, challenge that we face. People don't understand somebody liking me leads to trust, and that just, many different business objectives can be, can become reality based on that.
So I know that's a little long-winded, but I like to put it in context because one of the first things that executives need to think about is, "I'm self-aware enough to know that this is the process. So now how do I make my journey along that path comfortable to me and doable over a set amount of time?"
Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely, Bob, and you're so right. the, the studies that I've done [00:17:00] about implicit bias over the years, right? When we like someone, we naturally want to trust them, right? So that's an easier- just movement forward. Don, what does it look like when an executive is stuck at known and never gets to trusted?
Donald Thompson: One of the things that, focusing on thought leadership as an individual is that you get to create an authentic footprint of who you are, and you shouldn't be afraid of that. And so one of the things that podcasting does is it's one of the sources that remains that is an authentic place for people to get to know you that haven't met you personally.
Because when you're listening to a podcast, you're not listening to an AI chatbot, you're not listening to something that was overly produced, right? You're getting to know the people behind the brand, right? And that is critically important. The second thing that I think is really [00:18:00] important in terms of thought leadership, know, trust, and I'll give you an example personally that happened recently, is that somebody had been following the work that I've been doing for a number of years, and we never really interacted.
We knew each other a little bit through LinkedIn, but never really interacted, but they were selling their company, and so they asked for some advice, and here's the way I think about thought leadership. I give helpful insights for free. I help you drive business value for a fee. And so because they had watched me over the years, I did a small consulting project with them, and they ended up selling their company, and we both did well.
But that thought leadership tree was planted and grown and matured with this individual over many years, but at the moment of choice, I became one of the three options they were vetting to support the sale of their firm. And so it's really important to, in this [00:19:00] age of microwave insights, that you have a longer term view of how you want to build an enduring brand and an enduring business.
And the final thing that I would, share, when we talk about know, and trust- Is it's also good that people down select. I wanna work with people that are excited about working with me, that the way that I think and approach problem-solving gives them good value, right? So the goal of thought leadership is, how can I be helpful?
That is the initial point of view, right? And by being helpful on a consistent basis, then you earn the opportunity to create revenue from that relationship. But the initial starting point is to share insightful information that can be helpful so that you plant those seeds of credibility that will pay you long-term.
And, I think those are important things that I've both learned and studied, but that I'm experiencing, in my business [00:20:00] life.
Bob Batchelor: One of the things that we've been doing at Exec Brand Authority is helping organizations use their heritage as a way to connect with today's audiences.
And I think that's a way that a lot of people could start to think about, "How do I move my organization from to trust?" And one of the ways you do that is through authentic storytelling. And authenticity gets thrown around a lot, so much often that people don't even really know what it means anymore.
But, what it means is being true to your narrative and demonstrating that each day. There is no more authentic communications or authentic storytelling than a company's own story, their own history. Even if that history is short, there's a reason either that your s- your executives have been super successful, that the business has been super succ- successful, and that the products have [00:21:00] been successful.
And so if I were at a law firm, maybe the law firm's only been around for 10 years. I would, if I were the leader, if I were the s- the, the chief executive of that law firm, I would start to think, "What has made us successful over this 10 years, and how do we tell that story externally?" Whether it's through a podcast, a book, a series of articles, a white paper, something that demonstrates, how do we move from people knowing who we are to people trusting us?
And if we rely on the he- heritage of our own organizations and our own e- accomplishments, the great thing about that is nobody else has it. There is no o- that story is completely yours in the marketplace. And so I think that's a- another way to move from to trust
Donald Thompson: This is another actionable s- case study, because I, wanna leave people with things that have [00:22:00] happened and that have turned thought leadership into revenue-producing events, right?
And I... This is me on the other side. So James Forest, who is with, Michael Best, but he became my lawyer 15 years ago, okay? And I was working with another law firm, and the way James kept me top of mind 15 years ago, running a tech company, different things, and vetting new lawyers was last thing on my list.
Any time he found thought leadership things about my industry that he thought would help me win, he'd just send me a quick note, send it to me. He'd drop by my office, just send it to me. Fast-forward, I've sold and been a part of, in that time, five different M&A activities, and James and his firm have worked on four of them.
So if you just think about the math of that, right? Those thought leadership pieces that he kept putting in front of me, and the way that he developed trust, [00:23:00] and then you think about the continuum of that value relationship with his firm, awesome. Now, watch this. When his firm had to do organizational change work, we did some business with them, and we helped them with their growth in a certain area with their business.
My point being is thought leadership is not just this abstract piece of content that you put into the ether. It is also how do you distribute it with a personal touch that brings that learning and that lesson back to the individual that shared it with you. James was helpful first, and then when it was time for me to make a business decision of who was gonna represent me in M&A work that I was doing when I was selling a business, it was natural to me that I wanted to be in business and do that with James and, his firm.
And so I just wanted to share that to just add that specificity to what Bob was describing in a real term that netted significant dollars, [00:24:00] right? Legal expenses and different things are pretty costly when you're doing those kind of transactions, but I didn't pick the firm, I picked the person
Jackie Ferguson: absolutely. Thank you both for that. That's, it's so important. The executives who move through that framework the fastest are the ones that are authentic, as Bob said, the ones that are helpful, as Don said, and the ones who lead with their audience's needs. So thank you both for that.
So let's be honest about the moment we're in right now. Everyone with a Claude Pro subscription is publishing thought leadership right now. It's grammatical, it's confident, it's on schedule, and most of it is a sea of mediocre, half-baked content that nobody remembers past lunch. Bob, how do you build a platform that cuts through all of that?
Bob Batchelor: There's a really [00:25:00] practical way to cut through the AI slop, and the number one thing you do is use the tool properly. And so the way that you do that is you build a self-sustaining repository of information that's built off your own thoughts and the content that you and your team produce, and then you generate new ideas, new drafts, new brainstorming off that internal repository.
So that's the really hands-on way to do it. Don't ask AI to just go out into the world because then you're just making Xeroxes of Xeroxes and each one's fading until it gets to slop. So that's the hands-on way to do it. The best way to actually cut through the noise is to be hyper self-aware about what it is that either differentiates you, your [00:26:00] services, your products, your organization, and then engage with that conversation with others within your industry.
Almost nobody goes from unknown to superstar. there's a path. So your path might just be a consistent posting on LinkedIn and consistent commenting with other people that you are, engaged with, so other smart people. Other people who have a long legacy of successes, their way of engaging that cuts through the AI noise may be to write a book.
And so there's all different kinds of levels of way to cut through AI in a thoughtful way, and the best thing to do is to be self-aware, use those differentiators that are in-- that have made you successful, [00:27:00] and pursue those avenues.
Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely. Thank you for that, Bob. Don?
Donald Thompson: I think it's really important to align your personal experience and perspective in anything that you write, and that brings that knowledge very close to the center that is you, authentic, and very difficult to replicate.
And I'll give an example of something that just happened recently. I was working through an interview. I sit on a handful of boards, and so from time to time I'm in the interview process, as people are looking to be hired. And there was a candidate with a stellar resume. like this thing, it talked about AI as a revenue generation tool, go-to-market accountability, like it just en-enlisted all these examples.
And the person that showed up wasn't what was on the paper AI didn't create slop. [00:28:00] AI oversold this individual's capability, and when you, when we met them in person, the difference was stark And so I also want people to understand a different point of view, is that AI can use words to make you look bigger than life, and when you don't meet that expectation for the job, for the client, for the deliverable, nothing good happens, right?
Because people feel the distrust, right? And that's something that is really difficult to overcome in your brand. And in this case, this individual did not get the job. They didn't get to the next round because it was really obvious that they were better at putting together a resume than actually delivering on the work.
They couldn't justify in person what they put out on paper, right? And so that's a cautionary tale, that I want to share. The, second thing that, that I'll, add to this I [00:29:00] asked Claude, which I use a lot. I use all the different tools, a lot of different tools, but I asked Claude, "How many iterations do most people go through before they actually publish a piece of content, before they say it's done and they go off and use it?" And Claude said, "One to two." And I said, "Claude, how confident are you with the quality of the information after one to two iterations?"
And I quote my friend Claude, "These are my best guesses after one to two iterations." Excuse... I literally, I'm having this conversation with Claude. And then I said, Claude, what are the average number of iterations that I use from our year history of working together?" He said, "Don, in the beginning it was about four or five, but where we are now, based on the last 30 or 40 conversations, is that you are at 12 to 15 iterations before you call something done."
I said, "Claude, what's the difference?" "After the seventh or eighth iteration, it is your knowledge and your thinking [00:30:00] that I'm helping you accelerate versus giving you information that is my best guess." My point being that most people use the machine as an easy button versus a productivity tool to build on your thinking that is your original thoughts and accelerate your ability to deliver those.
And so it is very much not AI slop. We're blaming AI. It is the user. And so those of us, and I don't have, hair, but those of us with gray hair, if I grew my hair out, it would be gray, right? It's actually our moment because we have the judgment, the experience, the expertise to look at content, to look at pieces and understand what is real and authentic and valuable Versus someone without their own hard-won victories will take anything that [00:31:00] looks good, sounds good, and think it's excellent.
And so I'm very, appreciative of this moment with AI because my 30 years of experience is actually more valuable because I can notice the small things that move from okay to excellent. And none of us on this call want to be associated with okay. We want to produce things that are excellent.
We want to produce things that are memorable, meaningful, measurable, right? And those are the things when you become a serious user of AI, you then think in terms of making it your own, and AI is just a tool to help you get there.
Jackie Ferguson: Absolutely. the thing that I think of is back to the word trust and what that means when there's, so much in a sea of, content that sounds reasonable, that sounds true.
But you [00:32:00] also have to know who, to listen to, whose work you need to read. that goes back into the trust, so thank you both for that. We've established the return and the cost, so let's get into some practical points. Bob, how does an executive find the, a, a point of view worth owning, and what stops them from claiming it once they've found it?
Bob Batchelor: I think self-awareness is the challenge. And I might sound like a broken record here, but self-awareness is so essential to strong leadership in the world today. And the lack of self-awareness, and, often sometimes fear. So why doesn't an executive take a strong point? Because they're afraid they may, spook somebody who is in their stakeholder, audience.
And that's reasonable. It's a reasonable perspective, [00:33:00] but you have to balance that with, why are you in business? there are, some executives who really feel deeply and, do h- hard work toward making the world a better place, not just making money. And so there are plenty of others that are in that same camp that want to do business with those types of individuals.
There's nothing wrong in the capitalist equation of you letting me know that you're a business person who cares not only about the quality work that you do, the products that you make, the services you provide, but also that you wanna do better in the world. And if I'm i- of that same mindset, then I wanna do business with you.
I'm not gonna know if you're not willing to say it. So thought leadership can have a really broad societal consequence, not just helping somebody get a raise or get on a board seat, but a bigger kind of thing. I know Don has used his thought leadership [00:34:00] platform to get on nonprofit boards and done super meaningful work because I've talked to the leadership of those nonprofits, and I know that the two balance one another out.
And so there is so much that leaders can do. And I'm not s- going out and saying you have to divulge all your personal feelings and thoughts about things, but you can make conscientious, thoughtful comments about the greater world that will attract audiences. And it doesn't all have to be conservative thinking, small C conservative thinking of I've gotta keep quiet or some shareholder might get upset and, start a, a brush fire.
Donald Thompson: the question, how do you develop that personal point of view that you want to own, right? Most of the folks that are listening, you have a business of your own, you're an executive in an organization, and so you have [00:35:00] a set of products or services that you want to win and dominate in the marketplace, and all of these things are good.
Thought leadership is, not about selling more product in phase one. Thought leadership is about establishing your unique difference with, evidence-based thinking. And so I want to use, something that I've leveraged that the team at Workplace Options, has developed, which is their annual psychological safety report.
And this report looks at workplace concerns globally, and this report has evidence-based thinking from thousands of discussions between employees and clinicians. Now, the data is anonymized, right? But the conversations and the content of those conversations are instructional about what's going on in the workplace that executives might not have visibility to.
How are [00:36:00] their people feeling? What are their concerns about work-life balance? What are their concerns about the geopolitical environment? Do they love AI, or are they scared about losing their job? All of these things are bubbled up into this global report, and here's what's important. It allows you to adopt a point of view because you're living in the environment that you're prescribing that un- that, that information. So when you have first-party data, things that you've experienced, things that you've culled from your user base, you now have expert status that not only resonates to the C-suite, but now makes you more valuable, visible in the algorithms that AI is pulling from.
So it's a double win because an executive reader trusts you more because it's data-backed. The algorithm trusts you more because it's first-party data. And so those are ways that you can develop and then [00:37:00] justify your own point of view as an organization if you're a part of an enterprise. And I'll wrap this up quickly.
If you're an individual contributor, right? If you are own your own practice in different things, what do you believe you're the best in the world in? And if you don't believe you're the best in the world in something, then I've got to question why you're an entrepreneur. Why do you want to give me legal services if you don't think you're the best lawyer?
Why do you want to be a personal trainer if you don't think you're gonna help me lose weight? And talk about the things that not only you're uniquely passionate about, but the things that you've demonstrated your ability to help other people win, and just share those stories of how you've been helpful.
Jackie Ferguson: Thank you for that, Don. Bob, someone right now is watching and is convinced, right? N- starting next week, they want to move forward. Where do they actually start? Not, what to optimize, but how to build a strategy that's theirs, that they can [00:38:00] sustain, and that moves the needle on what matters
Bob Batchelor: The, the strategy should be to align the resources that you have with the objective that you have. If you are in the business world, clearly LinkedIn is going to be the driver of your strategy. And then I would say if somebody's just at the ground floor, they need to keep in perspective, particularly if they're an entrepreneur starting their own thing, what can I get done with the resources that I have, and look for distribution points.
Because the thing about awareness is it goes hand in hand with distribution. You have a lot of alternatives. Substack could be your primary outside of LinkedIn. Starting a blog, having a website. So the idea would be to [00:39:00] align your objectives with the distribution points that ultimately raises awareness.
Because unless you're a one name known around the world, you're Beyoncé, Microsoft, that kind of thing, Jordan, then we're all fighting the same awareness game. Everybody's fighting for limited attention. So you have to define what your goal is and then chart a path to getting closer to that goal, and it's all about awareness and distribution to me.
And if you work on those two things, which are manageable and in your control to some degree, then good things will start to happen for you in reaching your objectives
Jackie Ferguson: Awesome. Thank you, Bob. Don, it looks like you have something to add.
Donald Thompson: yeah, I was jotting down what Bob was describing, and then I thought to my own personal experience, which I think is the most credible thing.
[00:40:00] start small, right? Don't feel like you have to change everything that you're doing, but I never try to do things that were big by myself, right? And some people are like, "If I'm gonna write a book, I'm gonna sit and do it," but there's probably a dozen folks on the call that have a book idea, a book started, book chapter, and never finished.
And the only thing that I did, instead of buying a newer car when I could, I invested in somebody to help me get started with my book. Instead of the, the, beach house or the different things, I invested in my personal brand to help find somebody with my social media. And so I really believe that if you're trying to do something that is big picture, then I do think expert advice, number one, even if you're gonna do it yourself, but expert advice in the beginning is super important.
And number two, you wanna talk to people that have made a lot of mistakes so you don't have to. And so when I think about why I invested in Executive Brand Authority, right? I'm a part of the team, but it's [00:41:00] not my day-to-day, but I've helped build, the team and put some, some dollars behind it. It's because I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, figuring out how to build a brand, and that's from podcast, from book, from LinkedIn presence, all the things, from headshots to all the things, and then we wanna package that with others.
And here's the critical thing. Whether you're using a firm or individuals, there's information on YouTube. There's information out there where you can touch experts at whatever cost level you're at, right? Don't try to reinvent the wheel. There are blueprints available, and dig into the one that feels comfortable for you.
Price, people, positioning, right? So this isn't about who to use. This is about don't try to go it alone because you have a single perspective, based on your lived experience of what your brand feels like and looks like. You want to find somebody that can give you multiple perspectives [00:42:00] so that the actions that you take are efficient and effective.
Because if you're anything like me on this call, you don't have time to waste. If you're anything like me on this call, you've already waited too long to get started on this. So that means every step you take go forward needs to be efficient and effective. And I'll give a shout-out to, to, folks on this call, and this wasn't the, the, reason for it, but Jackie and Bob on this call have helped me tremendously with everything that I've gotten credit for in the last five to seven years.
I found experts that were willing to help me achieve my dream, and I got there faster. And I think that's really important in this do it yourself culture, which is fine, but not if you want to get there fast and effective. You got to find a good team that you trust that can help you drive your dreams forward at a cost and an investment you can afford, right?
And there's all kinds of options out there, and so I, I, wanted to shout out.
Jackie Ferguson: Thank you for that, [00:43:00] Don. "How do you start producing thought leadership from scratch? I have an audience on social media. I have the stories to share. I don't know how to organize the content in a meaningful way."
Bob, I'll start with you on that one.
Bob Batchelor: Yeah, so I've actually built a system for this that I have piloted with, some students at Coastal Carolina University where I teach, and I'm going to force all the students to do it in my classes from this fall on because it's that important, and it's based on AI discoverability.
So I'm gonna tell you a really simple way. Start a Medium site, post on Medium, wait 24 hours, post a l- overview of that idea on LinkedIn, and link to the Medium, site in the comments. It's that simple. Your AI discoverability will go through the roof if you do this for [00:44:00] a year, six months, four months, any, any bit that you do it.
So you can understand from the pers- perspective of students and teaching them how to understand AI dis- discoverability and also be discoverable, that's gonna make it, a re- good reason for me to force them to do it because they don't understand, A, brand you, and they don't understand AI discoverability.
So I'm gonna, I'm going to catch that butterfly. I'm gonna catch two butterflies with one net by forcing them to do it, and anybody on this call can do the same thing. And it, so that kind of consistency, we're not talking a novel. We're talking 700 words, 800 words, whatever. So if you have the, idea and you have some following, then figure out how to double up on the distribution, and your awareness goes up, and AI figures you out.
So that's how you do it.
Jackie Ferguson: Thank you for that, Bob. That's so great. For executives [00:45:00] inside larger organizations who feel they can't build visibility without institutional permission, what's your advice? Don, I'll start with you on this one.
Donald Thompson: All right. This is a very good question, and, I'm gonna make a disclaimer. like, y- you have to be careful, right? The, the, reality is it depends, but now I'm gonna give you some specifics, 'cause I don't wanna evade it, but this is the right question. The first thing that you should do is become visible about the thought leadership that exists within your organization, right?
you wanna swim in the lane with the team that is building and growing and, and, paying you. That's number one. But number two, here's the nuance to it Thought leadership of you as an individual is a business value to the organization you represent. And so the stronger you [00:46:00] are in the marketplace, the more valuable you are to the business that you represent.
The reason that some people are afraid to do it is because they've never actually had a conversation with people in the building about thought leadership. So they're thinking in abstract versus going to folks that are producing content in your organization and asking them how you can be helpful to them with your personal brand.
Because the handshake is when you're doing personal brand work like I am today, I shared with you all a very significant white paper that was built by Workplace Options. So when this goes out into the ether, when the transcript is there, this is growing Workplace Options' AI discoverability. So the larger my brand gets, the more valuable I can be for the employer.
But most people never have that [00:47:00] conversation with anyone inside the business, so you have this internal boogeyman about why it might be bad or not be well, well-spoken. The other thing that you're very, I'm very careful of is I do my own personal branding thing that's just for me with my money, my time, my computer, my stuff, my team.
When I'm doing things on the clock, so to speak, I make sure there is a significant mutual benefit. Give you an example and, and, then I'll, I'll yield. I, was talking to somebody that was pitching me about, Workplace Options sponsoring this big event in Europe, okay? And I was like, we probably don't have $50,000 for a sponsor," at least not on my P&L, right?
That, I was, managing. I said, "But it so happens that the topic of this seminar is around employee engagement and how to become an inclusive leader. I write, wrote a book [00:48:00] on both of those topics." The organizer called me back in a week, waived all of the fees, and flew me out to Brussels to talk to 100 CHROs.
My personal brand allowed me to talk in the European theater about work that I'd developed, but the team Workplace Options that I represent. So I know that's not a specific answer. Yes, you have to be thoughtful, careful, but also you have to realize that the stronger your brand is, the more valuable you are to the business.
Bob Batchelor: I would say on that, organizations spend a lot of money handing out swag and want people to wear their polo shirts with the logo right here, and don't ask anything of them, just wear the shirt.
And so wouldn't it be great if you took that idea of instead of just wearing the shirt, go out and talk about w- how great your organization is. It's not only gonna grow your brand, but it's going, you're going to be a true ambassador for the [00:49:00] organization. And if you're worried about whether that's gonna be accepted or not in your organization, ask your boss.
I can't imagine a C-suite executive who wouldn't like a thoughtful employee to come up to him and say, "Hey, you know what? I've been reading about thought leadership. I think it's important. Is it okay if I talk about XYZ in which I am a leader and our company excels?" What, what leader is gonna turn that down?
You're gonna be like, I got, need to find a place to give this guy a raise or this person a raise." thought leadership equals business opportunity. That's what people need to think. Thought leadership equals business opportunity. We live in a world that is, built on popular culture, and trust matters.
Trust breaks through the clutter. So what can I do to build trust, and how do I use my trusting vibe to lead to the business objectives or personal objectives that I have for my brand [00:50:00] or my organization's brand?
Jackie Ferguson: Amazing. Bob and Donald, thank you so much. You showed up today with generosity, candor, and real expertise, and we're grateful, for your investment with us today.
To everyone who joined us, you came here because you know that this matters. I hope you're leaving with not only a direction, but a real desire to move your personal brands forward. The executives who earn space in the rooms they want don't wait for permission. They build the trust that makes the invitation inevitable.
If today surfaced a question for you, about your visibility or credibility, we'd love to have a conversation with you, so visit execbrandauthority.com. Thank you all so much for being here, and we'll see you soon. Bob, Don, again, thank you so much.
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