Do you want to become a thought leader?
Thought leadership isn't just about having groundbreaking ideas — it's about having enough influence to share them with the world.
That's something we can help with.
Let's explore exactly why strategic self-publishing should be a major part of your thought leadership strategy.
This thought leadership strategy guide includes:
Section 1 – What is thought leadership?
Thought leadership is the process of positioning yourself or your organization as a key voice in your industry.
It involves being recognized as an authority, with expertise and opinions that are valued to the point of influencing and shaping industry trends.
We live in a time where everyone has the ability to share their ideas and beliefs online.
Thought leadership is your way of ensuring that your voice is not only heard above the crowd, but actively sought out and listened to.
What is a thought leadership strategy?
A thought leadership strategy is a deliberate approach to creating and sharing ideas that establish your reputation as an expert.
This consists of carefully crafting your message, choosing the right platforms to amplify it, and engaging with your audience in a way that reinforces your position as a leader.
This strategy is not about volume — it’s about the value and impact of your ideas plus the consistency of your message across all channels.
In a world where everyone thinks they're an influencer, you need a way to differentiate yourself.
Publishing a book is a proven path to achieving competitive advantage and standing out from the crowd.
Why self-publishing a book turbocharges your thought leadership strategy
You might be wondering if the time needed to publish a book is justified by the benefits it will bring.
Time and time again, we have seen an exponential return on investment for people who choose to self-publish.
We believe the following three factors make book publishing a powerful pillar of any thought leadership strategy.
1 – Total creative control
You decide what to say and how to say it, ensuring your message is perfectly aligned with your wider approach to thought leadership.
2 – Brand amplification
A book enhances your personal brand, serving as lasting proof of your expertise and an extension of your professional identity, ideas, and values.
3 – Revenue and opportunity
Not only can a book generate income, but it also opens doors for speaking engagements, consulting work, and priceless networking opportunities.
Those are just three of the many reasons publishing a book is one of the most impactful decisions you will ever make.
Section 2 – How to find the best niche for your thought leadership
Finding the right book idea to accelerate your path to thought leadership is a lot like founding a business — you need to be laser focused on a particular niche in order to succeed.
If you want your book to have a large impact on your chosen niche, you must first identify where your expertise lies and the unique perspective you bring to the table.
You need to recognize the challenges and pain points your audience face, and position your book’s message as the solution.
Here is a five-step process to define your niche.
Step 1 – Evaluate your expertise
Methodically audit your knowledge and experience to pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses.
Step 2 – Research existing books
Investigate the existing books in your space, the solutions they present, and the audience they serve to find gaps you are best positioned to fill.
Step 3 – Pinpoint your ideal audience
Clearly identify who will benefit most from your insights.
Aim to serve a narrow audience, but not so narrow that there is no commercial viability.
Step 4 – Test and validate your book idea
Just as you would validate a business idea by launching a minimum viable product, you can test the real-world response to your potential book concept in smaller forums, like blogs or webinars, to see if your intended audience values what you have to offer.
Step 5 – Refine or pivot your book plan
Rework your intended book idea in accordance with the feedback you receive.
This ensures it’s better aligned with your future readership’s needs, preferences, and pain points.
Avoid the sunk cost fallacy and don’t be afraid to pivot entirely based on market feedback.
If you want to become a successful thought leader, you need to go beyond simply identifying the people you seek to serve. You need to understand their hopes and struggles intimately.
Becoming an authority requires you to present your ideas as powerful solutions rather than mere commentary.
When your book focuses on strong, actionable content, it establishes trust, laying the foundation for your status as a thought leader.
One final consideration is how you can express your ideas in a way that authentically showcases who you are as a person. This is the only way to truly resonate with the right people and impact them on the deepest level possible.
How to craft a unique value proposition for your book
Before you put pen to paper, consider what unique insights your book will contain. The marketplace is crowded with voices — yours needs to be more than just a forgettable echo.
The following questions will help you gain precise insight into the one of a kind value your book will provide.
1 – What aren’t people saying at the moment, and what are they overlooking about the future?
Scrutinize the subject matter of your industry’s leading books.
Where are others silent about the challenges your audience are currently experiencing?
Your book is a chance to shout before others even whisper.
Also look further ahead than others are willing to.
Being able to anticipate the future challenges your audience will face is the sign of a true thought leader.
2 – How can you leverage your unique story?
Draw from your personal entrepreneurial journey.
The lessons you’ve learned are unique — find ways to share them, because you’re the only one who can.
If you can do this in the form of stories and anecdotes, even better.
Tapping into the innate human need for storytelling makes your message even more memorable.
3 – How can you teach people something useful?
Imagine ways that your book will be a useful tool in your readers’ lives.
Aim to write a book that they not only keep coming back to but also want to share with others.
Ultimately, most people don’t even finish the books they buy, let alone integrate them into their life.
When you offer something useful as opposed to just food for thought, you set yourself up for success as a thought leader.
Section 3 – How to avoid the fate of forgotten authors
Many people dream of becoming an author.
For such people, publishing a book is their end goal.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but your motivation is different. Your book needs to reflect that difference.
To avoid becoming just another forgotten author, you need to take a strategic approach when deciding the content of your book.
Read on to discover the way to craft a book that makes you stand out from the crowd.
How to structure your book for maximum impact
One of the fastest ways to write an ineffective book is to meander from idea to idea. That type of books runs the risk of boring readers at best, and destroying your credibility at worst.
Instead, your book should guide readers through a logical progression of ideas, building your argument step by step, causing its cumulative impact to snowball.
Here’s a tried and tested formula that many of the most effective books follow.
1 – Identify a painful problem and offer a compelling solution
You need to precisely articulate the problem your book addresses as early as possible.
Your reader should recognize their own pain point immediately and feel an urgent need to discover the solution your book has to offer.
Then, state your central idea succinctly.
Readers should easily grasp the core message of your book and how every idea it contains relates to it.
2 – Leverage the power of authority and social proof
Your reader is far more likely to invest their time into your book if they trust your ideas.
Provide research data, case studies, and social proof that demonstrate the truth of your ideas.
The key is to offer the type of evidence that your readers will respect and value. It’s also essential to offer just enough validation to earn your readers’ trust without losing their attention.
3 – Positively differentiate your ideas
It’s important to remember that your book is one solution among many.
You gain credibility with your readers when you convince them that other solutions might exist, but yours is the one that will solve their specific problem in the most effective way.
4 – Harness the power of varied repetition and powerful endings
Reinforce your main ideas through repetition — but ensure there is enough variation to keep your readers engaged.
Many people need to hear something multiple times before it sinks in. However, you owe people an enjoyable book. Find different ways to express your core idea so that it can be absorbed but also enjoyed.
Always end your book sections or chapters with a powerful and clear conclusion.
Don’t be afraid of explicit summaries and links to your core idea.
Look at the sermons and speeches of history’s greatest thought leaders — they use repetition to great effect.
Section 4 – The logistics of successful self-publishing
As a first-time author, it’s essential to study the practical process of getting your book to market, and the factors that will impact its success or failure.
To help you understand factors worth considering, we’ve put together a quick guide to evaluating publishing platforms.
How to select the right publishing platform
Like any product, your book will only achieve the impact you desire if people are able to find and purchase it.
If you want the simplest option possible, just publish on Amazon. You’ll reach the majority of readers without the need to learn and use various other platforms.
However, if you think a more complex approach is the right one for your book, here are some factors to consider.
1. How easy is it to upload your book onto the platform?
2. Will the platform offer the book in the format your readers prefer?
3. Does the platform have a clear user interface that will allow your book to be discovered?
4. Can you offer your book in multiple formats on the platform, such as ebook, hard copy, and audiobook?
5. Does the platform offer any marketing features, such as organic promotion or paid advertising opportunities?
6. Are the royalty rates or fees associated with the platform fair and aligned with your financial aims?
7. Perhaps the most important question of all – does the potential to reach additional readers through any given platform outweigh the time and other resources needed to offer your book on that platform?
Now let’s consider how design factors come into play.
How to design a book that boosts your brand
As a future thought leader, your book is a reflection of you and your business.
Just as the way you present yourself to a client says something about who you are, so does your book’s appearance.
The difference is that a book is a lot harder to change.
Even if you go through the expensive and time-consuming process of revamping your book, you will never get a second chance to make a first impression on people who already saw it.
With all that in mind, it’s important to get your book design right the first time round.
Here are three important book presentation factors and how they impact your brand.
1 – Cover design and images
Ensuring your book has a high-quality cover is the bare minimum required and not our focus here.
Instead, you should consider how your design choices align with your brand.
The tone and emotional impression of your book design should align with who you are and the type of information you offer.
If you want to be perceived as a fun and friendly thought leader, your book design should reflect that, with the opposite also being true if your image is more serious.
Finally, your audience should have a similar experience if they check out your website, your book, or your social media.
Consistent design choices solidify your brand and enhance your professionalism.
2 – Text and image layout and quality
Your book might be your first and only chance to convince someone your ideas are worth hearing.
Whether in print or digital form, you want your reader to have a frustration-free experience with your book.
If you offer text that’s hard to decipher or low-quality images, your reader might decide it reflects the quality of you and your ideas.
Don’t let such a simple thing ruin your reputation.
3 – Market fit
Like any category of product, books tend to have similar designs if they cover comparable subject matter for a specific type of reader.
Don’t try and reinvent the wheel.
Ensure your design choices give the instant impression that ‘this book belongs’.
You can add unique aesthetic touches — just do so within the boundaries of genre convention and reader expectation.
Section 5 – How to leverage new opportunities as a published author
As someone whose goal is to execute a thought leadership strategy, your book’s publication is only the beginning.
The impact, legacy, and revenue your book achieves are only one piece of the puzzle.
To truly get the maximum return on your book, you need to use it as leverage to become a thought leader faster than any non-author could.
Here’s a simple process to use your book as a springboard to even greater influence.
Step 1 – Identify opportunities
Research authors of books similar to yours. How else are they sharing their ideas with the world?
If you want to narrow it down, look for:
* Podcasts they appear on
* Events they speak at
* Websites they write for
* Media they are featured in
* Courses they teach
* Relevant products or services they offer
* Philanthropy they’re engaged in
Make a list of any opportunities that appeal to you. Cast a wide net initially and narrow it down through prioritization later on.
Step 2 – Make a written strategy to expand your influence
Just as you were intentional and methodical in ideating, creating, and publishing your book, you should approach new opportunities the same way.
What’s the process of reaching out? What would the logistics look like to solidify that opportunity? Do the potential benefits outweigh the costs?
To achieve maximum impact as a thought leader, be strategic about the opportunities you pursue.
Step 3 – Ensure your efforts are cohesive
We all have a finite amount of time and other resources.
Given that your goal is to become a respected authority in your niche, you have less room for wastefulness than most.
Ensure all of your efforts are aligned. For example, if your goal is to reach as many new people as possible, that should be your main guiding principle rather than immediate revenue.
Also use any given opportunity to support your other efforts.
For example, if you give a talk, mention your book. If you offer a course, add a link to it in your ebook edition.
Always try to think deeper than the immediate benefits of an opportunity — going deeper is one of the fastest ways to increase your influence and impact without expending additional resources.
Section 6 – How to use strategies from top-tier thought leaders
You now know how to publish a book as part of your thought leadership strategy as well as the many advantages of doing so.
Now, it’s time to learn from three of the most successful thought leaders of our time. Each published a book as part of their strategy — proving just how effective it is.
Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss is an entrepreneur and lifestyle guru who has become a leading voice on self-optimization and personal development through self-experimentation and efficiency techniques.
His book, “The 4-Hour Workweek,” disrupted traditional career and lifestyle paradigms by presenting strategies to live more and work less, leading to a new wave of digital nomadism and lifestyle design.
Here are three ways you can emulate Tim Ferriss.
1. Distill complex practices into simple, actionable steps that you can apply to any field or endeavor.
2. Conduct self-experiments to provide evidence-based advice and create a narrative around personal optimization.
3. Build a diversified brand across various media platforms, including podcasts, blogging, and social media, to amplify your message.
Brené Brown
Brené Brown has become an influential voice in discussions of vulnerability and leadership through her extensive research, making her a guiding figure for those looking to foster stronger personal and professional relationships.
Her book “Daring Greatly” revolutionized how we perceive vulnerability, positioning it as a critical element of authentic connection and leadership.
Here are three techniques inspired by Brown's thought leadership.
1. Use personal storytelling to forge a deep connection with your audience and illustrate your points.
2. Ground your teachings in academic research to add credibility and depth to your work.
3. Engage with your audience through public speaking and workshops to extend the reach of your message.
Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek has become a leading authority on organizational success and leadership by consistently exploring the fundamental reasons behind individual and company actions.
His book “Start With Why” inspired a movement towards purpose-driven business and leadership, highlighting the importance of core values in achieving lasting success.
Let's look at three thought leadership principles straight from Sinek.
1. Craft a foundational concept that can be applied across industries to widen your influence.
2. Communicate your ideas through various channels, including TED talks, seminars, and educational workshops.
3. Create tools and frameworks that others can apply, such as the “Golden Circle,” to demonstrate practical applications of your theories.
Are you ready to execute your own thought leadership strategy?
Now you know how three of the most influential thought leaders of our time achieved their success.
It’s impossible to overstate how much of a positive difference publishing a book made to their journey.
Why not take the first step yourself, and see just how much faster you’re considered a thought leader after achieving success as an author…
