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Own Your Impact equips experts and leaders to transform their expertise into meaningful influence. Host Macy Robison reveals how successful thought leaders use deliberate systems—not luck or volume—to amplify their authentic voice and create lasting impact. Through practical frameworks and strategic guidance, you'll discover how to build a self-reinforcing ecosystem of Core Resonance, structured Content, a Central Platform, strategic Connections, and intentional Commercialization. Whether you're just starting to share your expertise or scaling an existing platform, this podcast delivers the roadmap to turn your ideas into purpose-driven influence that resonates far beyond what you might imagine possible.
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Macy,
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welcome back to own your impact. I'm Macy Robison, and if the description I am about to share sounds like you, then this episode is for you. You think analytically and excel at solving problems that have stumped others. You have a credible presence that instills confidence in leadership teams, and you are magic. With a whiteboard, you can see what's happening under the surface and behind the scenes in real time, and then when you start mapping out those systems and connection, it feels like money comes out the other side of that whiteboard. But here's what might be draining you. Everyone keeps telling you to be more vulnerable or relatable in your content, and it feels completely wrong for your expertise level. You know your value lies in rigorous thinking, not in personal storytelling for its own sake. If this sounds like you, but you want confirmation, I'd love to have you take the thought leadership archetype quiz at Macy robison.com, forward slash quiz to see if you are what I call a strategic advisor. So you're a strategic advisor. What does that actually mean? Let me tell you about a client I worked with who perfectly illustrates this archetype. She came to me frustrated because everyone was telling her she needed to share more personal stories, be vulnerable, create relatable content, do reels. But when I looked at her work, she was solving million dollar problems for organizations through strategic frameworks she could develop in real time, right at the whiteboard. So here's what I told her, as someone who can see what's happening under the surface, behind the scenes, when you start sketching that out, when you start walking through that with people, whether you're in front of a whiteboard, doing it on your iPad with a leadership team. Magic happens. You are taking live input from people in the room and communicating, figuring that out and turning it into strategy right as it unfolds. Now that is very different from some of the other archetypes. You're a live processor. You work interactively with clients to solve problems as you hear them, not someone who goes away and thinks about it for three weeks. What energizes you is getting presented with a messy, complicated problem that other people have struggled with, and you being able to untangle it. You love that kind of work, mapping out systems, finding leverage points that can transform entire organizations, creating clarity, whether it's visual clarity or however you decide to organize it around what everyone else sees as chaos. Ironically, many strategic advisors are actually storytellers, but it's not storytelling for storytelling sake. The key difference is the stories that you tell are in service of the system you're uncovering. Take Patrick Lencioni, who I believe, is a strategic advisor. He tells personal stories on his podcast about working genius. His books themselves are business fables, and when he's on stage, he tells stories that illuminate the organizational principles he's teaching, but the story serves the strategy.
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I think what many of you love about stories is the predictable structure, and you can see those patterns, the cause and effect the systems at work, even in personal narratives. But here's what drains you, emotional processing work that doesn't lead to actionable insights, consumer level marketing that focuses on personality over expertise and being asked to be vulnerable just for the sake of building rapport, instead of illustrating a point. If you felt drained by advice like that, to share more behind the scenes moments or create inspirational content that doesn't demonstrate the way that you are able to think, that's because you're trying to build credibility around personality instead of intellectual rigor. The mistake I see a lot of strategic advisors make isn't about being too analytical. It's about not recognizing that their approach is their competitive advantage. You shouldn't be trying to compete with personal brands and motivational speakers lifestyle influencers. You should be showcasing the sophisticated problem solving that you have at your fingertips that creates measurable results. So here is your fastest path to results. If you are a strategic advisor, this is where I want you to start develop your signature approach to bring clarity to the specific type of challenge you solve best, not a generic diagnostic, but something that helps leaders quickly identify what is going wrong in their situation.
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I learned this as I've tried to systematize my own strategic thinking, I kept trying to create one size fits all frameworks that we get to this point in your process, and we're going to go through this framework, and then we're going to go through this framework. And what actually worked was getting specific about the type of transformation I created and looking for patterns beneath the surface, instead of trying to force people through frameworks just for the sake of going through them, you might create a visual thinking tool that maps out an organizational challenge you're known for solving. You might make something substantive that demonstrates your unique analytical approach and.
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Think beyond what someone could easily Google or get from chat GPT, you need content that demonstrates analytical depth and connection, because your credibility comes from executive networks and strategic relationships, not from mass market appeal. If you have a referral based business and you're a strategic advisor, that is amazing, let's figure out how to get you more referrals, because you don't need to have mass market appeal, unless you want to. We want to build your reach, but we don't want to do it in a way that doesn't feel like you, that feels like personality and pandering instead of leaning into what you are great at your website should be validation of the fact that you operate at a senior level. This isn't about being intimidating. It's about demonstrating the type of guidance that you offer in story brand speak, we talk about a guide being someone who has empathy and authority. That empathy and authority needs to show through that website should be validation of the things that you're able to do, not shoving someone into a funnel, because that's what you think you're supposed to do with a website. That website, if you're a strategic advisor, should be clear about who you serve the level of problems you solve. A credibility focused platform with case studies that show measurable results, thought leadership. Content, if you would like to write some that demonstrates your strategic depth, maybe an assessment tool that showcases your analytical approach and uncovers that diagnostic ability that you have. You want exclusive access systems for qualified clients, because you're not trying to attract everyone, you're trying to attract the right leaders, the right executives who recognize sophisticated strategic thinking when they see it. And as far as building your audience, thinking about your connection strategies, executive networking, high level speaking opportunities, strategic content, potentially in publications where decision makers are actually reading the articles and then just direct outreach to organizations that fit your ideal client profile. You don't need to build a massive following. You need to build relationships, the right relationships, with people who control budgets and make strategic decisions. I would much rather have 500 people on my email list who can actually hire me than 500,000
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people who think I'm interesting but will never invest in strategic work if I was a strategic advisor,
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but that's hard to do when we see people who have these personality based tactics, and it seems like they're succeeding, but it can cost you premium opportunity trying to simplify your thinking to appeal to a broad audience. Your intellectual depth is your competitive advantage. You can take pieces of that intellectual depth and share that if you would like to in small bits, if you want to be on social media, but don't feel like you have to be
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and don't feel like you're going to fail in what you're trying to accomplish if you decide that you don't want to do social media at all, when I talk about connection, that is about making strategic decisions around how to connect with people who can buy, people who can amplify and people who can do both, and that does not require some of the typical content you see as you're scrolling through social media. You're looking for leaders with sophisticated challenges, who are ready to invest in heavily sophisticated solutions so your revenue strategy in this situation, you want your primary business model to be based around high value consulting and advisory relationships. If you are wired for long term advisory roles where you're part of the strategic decision making process, you could step in as a fractional Chief Strategy Officer. You could create organizational development programs, you could license your methodology, any combination of those things, looking at business models of people like Jim Collins or Patrick Lencioni, some of those other folks that I've mentioned, who are primarily these strategic advisors. But here's the thing I want you to remember about. You know, there's the business model, but then there's the pricing right. You need to price for the organizational impact of the problem you solve, not the time spent a strategic insight that can save a company from a costly mistake, or a strategic insight that can unlock significant growth, should be priced accordingly. When I think about Jim Collins and and hearing how he's built his entire business around helping companies achieve that level five company leadership, that good to great research that he does, organizations invest heavily in his methodology and in going to meet with him in person in Boulder, Colorado, where he lives, because just spending a day with him in the investment of time and money that it that it is to have your team go in and work with him. I heard him talk about this on Tim Ferriss podcast a couple of years ago. It's a significant investment, but he can unlock a significant return because of how he thinks and the research he's done and the way he applies that research to.
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Your specific problem. So you might offer retainers, you might create assessments, you might do executive team development. You might license diagnostic tools that other consultants can implement in what they're trying to do. Like I'm certified in working genius, which is one of table group that's Pat Lencioni company. I really love using that with my clients. It's super helpful in terms of self awareness. It's really helpful in terms of Team interaction, and that is all part of and rose from him going in and working with teams all over the world and using his strategic advisory skills, he then creates books that expand the reach from there, but the real revenue comes from that applied strategic work. He goes out and does those types of engagements. He has facilitators on staff that take his methods and go out and do those types of engagements, and it just builds from there. There's lots of possibility with this archetype. So
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here's what I want you to do, to take action if you are a strategic advisor or you have that near the top of your archetype results, here's what I want you to do this week. Think about the organizational challenges that you have encountered. Is there one challenge you can map out visually to help leaders understand the problem and your approach to solving it. You don't need to make it generic. You don't have to get super fancy with with the shapes and how you map it out, but just map it out. It could be something around clarity in the face of confusion. It could be something around team dynamics. What is something that you feel like you are equipped to solve and start to map it out. You have a specific approach to solving these problems, and you don't have to wait until someone is right in front of you to start making magic at the whiteboard. You can think through the people that you've helped and see where those commonalities are, and start to outline your signature, or one of your signature approaches to solving strategic problems. Now, if you're a strategic advisor, but you also scored high on other arche types on my quiz, understanding how those combinations work together and shape your unique positioning is really crucial for that executive level credibility, so that you know how to position yourself accordingly in my live workshop, beyond your primary archetype coming up on August 6, and there's a few more dates after that. If you go to Macy robison.com, forward slash workshop, I walk through analyzing these patterns using your specific test results, your expanded archetype analysis in ways that are only available to my clients, but if you attend this workshop, we'll walk through at that level with you. It's really helpful to understand how all of these pieces of your core resonance work together so that you can build something that feels like you, that feels like the expertise that you bring to the table, that aligns with the way you express yourself that leans into the essence of who you are and how you want to work. So you build something that can cut through the noise and feels exactly like you. So I would love to have you there. Macy robison.com, forward slash workshop, and remember this, your ability to see what others miss and bring clarity to challenging situations, is exactly what so many individuals and organizations desperately need. You do not need to dumb down your thinking. Just start showcasing the sophisticated problem solving that is easy for you. That is the way you create transformation, the way you express your ideas, because that's what creates real organizational transformation.