The silent killer(s) of actual thought leadership
"This is working just like you said it would..."
This is what a client shared with me after the first week(!) of investing in herself on LinkedIn.
She landed a podcast invite and three inbound calls simply because she started sharing her own experiences and perspective.
She didn't chase keywords.
She didn't perform cold outreach.
She didn't recycle content and/or strategy from her competitors.
She led with herself –– her own experiences, observations, and points of view –– as a differentiator.
Her story is a common one...
The 6 silent killers of thought leadership
Some of the smartest founders and marketing leaders I’ve worked with had very little to say online.
Not because they didn’t have ideas. These are brilliant thinkers and operators—but none of that ever made it to market.
They’d either get stuck or defer to others and wind up publishing more undifferentiated content.
Here’s what I’ve noticed gets in the way most often:
🚫 They’re too close to their own thinking
To them, their insights feel obvious. But what they view as common/obvious is often a revelation to others.
🚫 They default to industry norms
Most industries run on a set of unspoken best practices. It’s easy to assume your ideas should fit within the same mold.
🚫 They think their ideas need to be “big” to matter
They’re waiting for a groundbreaking framework or hot take. But some of the most resonant content starts with a simple story, a pattern they’ve noticed, or a decision they made and why.
🚫 They assume their ideas are already out there
They’ve read so much content, it all starts to blur. So when they have a thought, they assume it’s been said before—even if their lens or context is completely different.
🚫 They overvalue the customer’s perspective and undervalue their own
They assume the only “valid” insights come from customers. In doing so, they downplay their own lived experience—the patterns they’ve seen, the decisions they’ve made, the instincts they’ve developed.
🚫 They treat content like a final product, not a work in progress
They treat thought leadership like writing a whitepaper—dense, polished, and only worth sharing when it’s “done.” But the most effective content often comes from sharing ideas while they’re still forming.
Start with the obvious
The most valuable content you could be sharing is probably the stuff you’re overlooking for all the reasons I shared above.
You don’t need a breakthrough idea. You already have them.
Start with something personal. Your experiences are inherently unique to you. No one else can write or share them.
Start with your own observations. Much like your own experiences, your observations are your own. No one else can own those.
Start with what feels obvious. The things that seem so basic to you, you assume no one else would find them helpful.
But, most importantly, just start. You never know what could happen in week one.