Beyond Thought Leadership and Personal Branding: Finding a New Path Forward
I’ve been writing online for a long time, and I often brush against a few different resistance points for how “showing up online” is supposed to go for people like me. For example, I’m supposed to grow my platform by showing up weekly or in some way consistently. I’m supposed to package myself in a neat and tidy way that other people can understand by having a niche. I’m supposed to be an expert in that particular field, aka a “thought leader.” I’m supposed to have a personal brand that is visually recognizable. I’m supposed to be selling something consistently. My thought leadership content in that particular niche is supposed to be a funnel that should lead to a sale.
This is all part of a formula that works well. There is no doubt about that.
But I find myself not a part of that group.
And I’m not the only one.
Through strategy calls with peers who are like me, I’ve developed more tangible thoughts on what my lane looks like. It’s not easy to find your path when it isn’t perfectly laid out before you and there are seldom examples to follow. But I think that’s part of the fun—the joys of being different.
In this blog, I’ll map out two different paths. The conventional path, and the new one I’m embarking on. I’ll share two nicknames so that we can call them something:
Branded Thought Leadership vs. Leading Through Learning (my friend Taylor came up with this name!)
Branded Thought Leadership
So what is this exactly? Here’s how I define it:
A company or personal name that is ‘branded,’ meaning the name is associated with a particular niche, like “holistic health” or “book editor.”
A brand that creates content consistently around their particular niche, establishing that they are an expert and thought leader
Their content not only reveals they are an expert, but also sells you a solution as part of a packaged experience, whether it’s a membership, course, product, or book
Their content is often created regularly across more than one platform. For example, you likely expect to hear from them via email, podcast, and social media
Leading Through Learning
The above model probably sounds familiar to you, so you’re probably wondering: What is the alternative? Here’s what I’ve been playing with:
A personal name that is less interested in establishing a brand associated with a niche, and more interested in being known as a multi-passionate person who learns and teaches
This person is less interested in establishing themselves as an expert on a particular topic and more interested in being a generalist who picks up different topics and shares them with their audience through their own interests and personal evolution. The audience is following them for inspiration, fascination, and intrigue.
This leader often doesn’t create regularly. They are more like a scholar who studies topics deeply and then returns to their audience when they have something new and important to say. Their content, albeit less frequent, is often more in-depth and valuable to their audience as a result.
Their content may occasionally promote a product or service. Yet, it’s less about this offer being a solution to your problems, and more so access to the content itself, or access to further knowledge, like a book, course, or program related to the topics they’re currently writing about.
Their content is typically offered on only one platform—as this is typically created by one creator who wants to go deep in one lane, and not be scattered across platforms like an ‘influencer’ or ‘thought leader.’ They are less interested in being ‘content creators’ and more interested in the scholarly nature of their work.
So what’s next?
If you have found that the current ‘content creatorship’ lane isn’t working for you or something is missing, you are not alone. There are a few things that have been challenging for me, and maybe you are similar:
It can be difficult to niche down when you’re more scholarly, studying various topics and love sharing it with your audience (for me that tends to be across wealth, business, money, health, and lifestyle)
It can be difficult to show up regularly in public when your work requires you to go deep, study, and disappear for awhile as you collect the new iteration of your content for your audience (providing more value in the long-run even if you have disappeared for a while!)
I found it overwhelming to try to be writing blogs, and creating reels, and making long-form YT videos, etc. etc. It felt like a one-way train to Burnout. And it just wasn’t interesting to me. I just want to write. So my one platform is writing to you (blogging / newslettering). And that’s enough for me. Yes, social media could be a marketing arm. But does it have to be? No.
My main goal with writing this down is to share: you might not be alone! If this resonates with you, you might be like me. You might be more of a Leader Through Your Learning, and less interested in being THE expert on one particular topic. Maybe you identify as a scholar. Someone who wants to read a bunch of books and then summarize what you’ve learned to your audience. There is value to be created in both identities. Leading Through Learning is valuable in this market, and people ARE willing to follow multi-passionate people who are up to cool things, simply to stay in touch with you and learn through you. Is it harder to grow or make money in this branch? I’m not sure yet. It certainly seems less formulaic. But, there are platforms like Substack that make it easier than ever to have your audience pay for access to your learnings.
I’m curious what you think - are you a branded thought leader? Or are you a scholar like me?
