S3E5 – How Many Thoughts Does It Take To Become A Thought Leader?

Discussion Topics: How many thoughts does it take to become a Thought Leader?

• What is identity?
• What are some of the interests we may hold?
• Differentiating identity and interest
• Co-existence of different personas

Transcript: How many thoughts does it take to become a Thought Leader?

Subha: Hi, small talkers. I woke up today wondering about something. And I’m going to ask my dear friend  Hasita. Who are you?

Hasita:Oh, I see jumping into the big questions, first thing in the morning. I am a marketing consultant at work. I’m also a model. I have been a copywriter. I like to believe that I’m a decent sibling, a daughter, all of those identities that make up the personal me. I’m also a baker and a swimmer from time to time and more recently, I think about six months ago, I’ve realized that I want to be doing some work in the sustainability space. I don’t know what that’s called though. So there’s that.

Subha: Yeah, We’ll call you a sustainability champion for now because everything should have a label.  So actually I asked you this because I was thinking about the concept of identity. I was doing some work around leaders and what kind of identities they show or portray in their day to day. And I was wondering what our identity really is. James Cleo has this kind of simple notion that what you repeatedly do is your identity. So if I pick up a brush and I paint every day, then I’m a painter and he uses that well to say that if I want to become a painter, then I should pick up a brush and paint.

Hasita: Yep, makes sense but then so when you are juggling between state and different identities and all of us are doing different things at different points in time. It’s not just the simple act of picking up a brush. For some days I might want to be X and some days I might have energy for a Y, as you put away today more recently, one of us has become a, for lack of a better word creator because we now have this podcast and we are podcasters but the fact is that we don’t podcast on a daily basis. We don’t record on a daily basis.

So my question really is what identities make up who I am? And how do I go about representing this? Because I think we all want to be honest and I think social media has only made us want that a little bit more right now that so many people have our attention.

Who am I being in that context? And I think initially there was a certain amount of interest in showcasing the perfect life and talking about all the good things, but over a period of time, I think people including myself have become more aware of the fact that it’s about being as genuine as possible. So when I have 10 different identities, which one do I really got to latch on to in a way?

Subha: But that’s an important question because I think it goes back to the concept of identity and why we should have a certain identity on a certain platform itself. And I’ve been thinking about that and I think it was a lot, maybe easier some years ago where you had very few channels to really share your work or your interests. So largely I think once we got onto the online bandwagon. It was about blogging. So whatever somebody wrote about often became their identity.

So people were travel bloggers, food bloggers, marketing bloggers, et cetera, and then more and more channels opened up. And I think, why am I on a few of these platforms? Because, one, I want to get to know better about people I already know or knew in some way. And I think I definitely do want to meet new people.

New people that I do work with and learn something from, just have a good conversation with. And so to that end somewhere, I also need to let them know who I am, what interests me, and what my identity is, at the end of the day. So I think that’s why it is even important to think about this because somebody may ask the question that just is you. Why are you talking about identity on a platform, et cetera?

Hasita: Yeah, But then that’s the thing, right? The meat itself is such a complex organism and I think that’s true of all of us. So when you say it just be you, who is that I know, and how much of it is palatable to a large extent.

Subha: Let’s say both of us, most of our days, just being a mom and I can’t carry that to every platform, but I want to interact with others. Because that comes with a very different, particular mindset let’s say. So I think also to differentiate between what is an identity. And something we want to pursue when something we want to look at, not only the width but also the depth versus a simple interest.

Hasita: And those two things are so different, right? An interest is something that you do more to cool it off in a way, and it’s not necessary to get consistent with it, but identity is who you are and in a way, you will be living those values on a daily basis.

Subha: And even the notion of identity doesn’t have to be very straight-jacketed or boring, or it doesn’t have to be standard existing labels. I think one of my identities is that I’m a fan of Snoopy and the Peanuts and anyone who knows. Odd has even exchanged one WhatsApp message with me, knows that, and why I’m choosing to call it an identity and not an interest is because for me it’s a philosophy, right? It’s something that I buy into and I enjoy.

And also because a lot of people have reached out to me or shared things with me saying, Hey, I think you like this because you’re a Snoopy fan. And it’s not just much in days. It’s not about, Hey, there’s a new cool Snoopy t-shirt, but it’s about, let’s say something that Charles Shells did or his style of working or an anecdote from his life.

Or sometimes just someone else who has talked about how it has meant a lot to them during their growing up years. So it’s interesting and I think that’s why it’s a part of my identity. So those who know me know, I change my DP regularly to just showcase my mood and my thoughts on that day.

Hasita: For weekends and long weekends and festivals and Christmas and time off. Yes, a lot of fun.

Subha: So identity doesn’t have to be boring at all, because like you said, there’s also the coach identity for me, the writer identity for me, the podcast to now, and all the other stuff. The ex-banker the mother does that, et cetera. So all of that can coexist. When we do need to think a little bit seriously about it is when there is this need that you feel to become what is an off-to-use, but also abused term of thought leader.

Hasita: Yeah. In fact, I was just going to ask you how this is play out on a professional platform because I think the stakes are so much higher on a personal platform. They’re okay to be seen one way or another with digital. We do want to put our best foot forward in that sense particularly on, on platforms like LinkedIn, say for example, you and I have met a lot of people and we ourselves have thought about it as well, in terms of seeing or rather creating thought leadership content.

So how can you create four pieces of thought leadership fair enough? It’s not a badass. It’s just that, where is your starting point in a way and what exactly are you leading? So that question, I think it takes a lot of self-awareness honestly to answer that and answer that genuinely now because I have personally felt that unless you bring an X amount of experience, that is no point in trying to have opinions on that subject.

Subha: I think you’re right. Thought leadership, whether you like the word or not someone I know just said, Hey, let’s stop this and call it a voice of authority because whose thoughts that you’re leading and all that. But that aside, I think thought leadership calls for depth and it calls for deep, significant personal interest in that topic.

So I think where we struggle is when folks come to us saying, I want thought leadership articles, just because they’re in a certain role in an organization and sometimes just for a few years and they themselves are not thinking in so much depth about that topic. Yeah. So, to me, thought leadership means that there is deep expertise and also there is leadership, right?

So maybe like when you started on your marketing journey, I know you consumed a lot of content from top marketers and you shared a lot of it on your platforms and wherever you wanted to, you wrote about it and that’s perfectly fine. That’s how you start by reading others in that space, consuming their content today. As you move towards establishing greater credibility in marketing. And definitely, you want to be known as a voice of authority in this space more and more, then it becomes about new innovative ideas.

Not just rehashing existing thoughts. So the expectation is that because you are doing radical innovative stuff in that field, or you are questioning existing solutions, existing ideas, there is some form of thought leadership. It’s not really about putting everything together and saying, Hey, this is Somebody of everything that’s happening in this field.

Hasita: Makes sense. That’s quite interesting because in a way having an opinion is putting yourself out there in the most extreme way possible. And we do have a canceled culture. We do have this tendency to put people on the right side or the wrong side, and then there’s no side in between in a way. So to have an opinion and to be able to articulate that opinion itself is a major step.

And then to put it out there, knowing full well that people may agree. People may disagree just to take an example. I’m a huge fan of Marvel and Disney is a page that I follow on LinkedIn, just to see if any job opportunities come up. And yesterday for pride month, they decided to post an extremely generic message about how they stand in solidarity with XYZ and we are supporting this and so there were no specific stories, and from a company like Disney, that just comes across as a PR standard rather than anything. Everyone’s talking about it and then if you see the comments underneath people are criticizing, people are ridiculing.

So the fact is that not having an opinion is equally dangerous in today’s world, but then having an opinion also opens you up to cancel. So I think that’s where a lot of leaders and people generally in the workplace, myself included, tend to shy away from taking extreme POS. So how do you lead with authority if you’re not too sure that you should be saying something?

Subha: So I think one is that maybe don’t keep extreme as a benchmark in the sense that just share your new thoughts and ideas on, in the work, in that space from a very genuine and authentic space. Put your point of view out there and say this is what I’ve been seeing happening in my workplace over the last few years.

This is how I think we should do it differently or this is why it’s not been working. So you’re putting out something new, which you’re going to try. You’re maybe also saying that, Hey, I don’t know if this is the answer, right? I’m not claiming that I’ve invented something new. I’m open to hearing your point of view for and against it.

Subha: There’s a Marketer, Karthik, that we both follow. And I think we’ve also seen that kind of evolution from just sharing ads and marketing campaigns that he likes or enjoys to really becoming that voice of authority. Someone who is able to clearly articulate what a campaign is trying to see, who does the hard work, who does the research to say where this is coming from, what this could mean for marketing or for that industry, really putting in a lot of effort and depth to it. And that shows the kind of following that he has and it also shows in the majority of the comments that he receives and how he responds.

Hasita: Absolutely, so I think what we’re really calling out here is that identity is something that’s nurtured to knowledge, and knowing enough is really the basis for having an opinion and that it’s okay to evolve when it’s okay for that knowledge to mature over a period of time.

Subha: It’s okay to think again. It encourages you to change your point of view and to change what you feel about something.

Hasita: Yeah. I think that’s what distinguishes an identity from an interest because honestly, if you asked me today what’s the standard formula for baking? I have no idea because I just follow the recipe, but then if you ask me what something is like, Hey, no, how do you save the elephants? Then I might have at least a sentence to contribute if not more. And hopefully, that will only get better over time.

Subha: And I think what is also interesting is that these identities and interests, they start also informing the decisions that we make about things we want to do going forward. You mentioned that sustainability is an interest and I think over a period of time, We will see it become your identity because over some time you will start going deeper. It’ll start informing who you want to work with. What kind of work do you want to do? What is in your mind? Sustainability is done the right way or the wrong way. And then that starts becoming your identity.

Hasita: So, basically we evolve.

Subha: Yes. So on that note, I think just to bring it all together, we touched upon what is identity, what are some of the interests that we may hold, which we can just let grow, nurture it and see if it is something that we want to become a larger part of us and then think about how we want to put it out there in the online world or on various social channels, simply because you feel that it’ll attract for you, new and different people to meet new and different kinds of work, new and different kinds of ideas. And just let it be. And don’t overthink things too much. Let them co-exist. So be the marketer on LinkedIn, be the traveler on Instagram, be the short story writer on Facebook. It’s all you.

Hasita: – And whoever’s really in it, in that sense will see these multiple personas and recognise that they’re all essentially the same human being that in itself is quite valuable. So yeah, here’s to actually being you and letting that mean the many colors of the rainbow if that’s what it takes and not really worrying too much about what people think and who exactly am I, maybe that’s an essay and not a one-word sentence.

Subha: Awesome. Bye, guys. Catch you next time.