How Thought Leadership & Personal Branding Fuel Company Culture

Emily Smit

It's always fun when I start talking, then that goes off. So good morning, everybody. Welcome to Culture community. We are so, so excited to see you all and we're super excited for our presentation today. So let's chat a little bit about who we are. So, culture community. We are a group of people passionate about being great leaders, intentionally building great cultures and community d and this is really a space for people to learn, develop and grow, connect with one another, and be inspired and activated to make a positive change in the world. We absolutely love all the connection and the conversations that happen during these calls, and it warms our hearts to hear all the connections that are built outside of these calls. So feel free to ping, people get coffee. Everybody is just so welcoming to that and loves sharing their stories and learning from one another, as you can hear from our conversation this morning about all the fun books that we're reading. So we meet online monthly and we cover topics that help us become better leaders and build better cultures. So join us next month where we have our very own Leah Rowe, where she is going to be talking about trust by design, how to scale, trust to maximize belonging and results.

Emily Smit

We've talked about trust in the past, and this is just something that continues to come up in all the work that we do and the conversations that we're having. So I think there's going to be a lot of great takeaways with that session. Next month, I'm going to turn things over to steph to talk just a little bit about the perk, who we are and what we do. Yes.

Steph Llano

Thanks, Emily.

Steph Llano

Okay, so the perk who we are.

Steph Llano

We are a premier leadership and culture development studio. And what we're really trying to do in this world is just build the world's best leaders. So any way that we can do that through one on one coaching team, coaching team workshops, custom leadership programs, any way that we can be helping and creating an impact with leaders, that's really what we're trying to do. We love to show some of the amazing companies that we work with because there's often some familiar faces on the call that have worked with us, which we always love to see, but we just love working with people who have that growth mindset who really want to become that world's best leader, but maybe just need a little bit of help understanding what it is that they need to do to do that.

Steph Llano

So me, Jess, Isabel, Dan, Emily. We're all the perk team. We're all on the call today. If you're interested in learning a little bit more about who we are, what we do, or you just want to get coffee with us, feel free to shoot us a message and we would love to meet with you.

Emily Smit

Amazing. And if you like seeing how we do, what we do, coming next month and seeing Leah's talk will be a great representation of that.

Steph Llano

Yes.

Emily Smit

But jumping back to this month, we have the amazing Mel rip with us and she's going to talk to us all about how thought leadership and personal branding fuel company culture. So I just want to do a quick introduction so we all know a little bit more about Mel. Stop sharing my screen so Mel is the founder and CEO of Pepod Marketing and PR Consulting, fueled by the notion that everyone has insights and expertise to be a thought leader in their industry. Specifically, women entrepreneurs and executives who may have shied away from shining light on themselves for a variety of reasons. Mel specializes in thought leadership, personal branding and ghostwriting that helps business owners and leaders that want to be visible in a way that balances all their own stories and perspectives with their values, their comfort levels and their goals. In moments when she's not creating content or shaping strategy for her clients, Mel is most likely resisting the urge to purchase another fancy candle. Aren't we all donating on the many house plants in her house? I love seeing a couple of them in your call already and hopping a flight to the next destination on her list.

Emily Smit

I think you crossed off Morocco last year on your list, so that's super cool. And that's it. Without further ado, I'll turn the things over to Mel. And we are just so excited to learn from you today.

Mel Ripp

Awesome. All right, well, I'm going to share my screen and get all of this going. So can everyone see my full screen? Looks good. Good. Perfect. All right. Okay. So when I was kind of figuring out what I wanted to talk about this week, even though I've had two months to put this presentation together, I started to realize that while the title that I gave to the perk is on point, I'm a little bit of a dissenter. And so now I have a new title because I believe that thought leadership absolutely can fuel company culture. But I think we can't talk about thought leadership without talking about individual people, without talking about you all. So the new title of this presentation is how thought leadership and personal branding can level up you and your company and how to get started. And I see a couple people I know in the audience, which makes me really happy that I have a completely different presentation for you. So, hi, I'm Mel so as Steph and Emily already said, so obviously you all know what I do from that introduction. Favorite part of my job is I love helping women entrepreneurs and executives.

Mel Ripp

I do work with men as well and I help everyone really create their content. I live in Dor county, which for those of you who don't know, is the thumb of Wisconsin. And I, of course, like plants, fancy candles and making music playlists. I dislike designing presentations. So you will see from my presentation that there's a lot of color, a lot of words, and I apologize in advance, but at least it'll wake you up this morning. Okay, so, dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, prince style, to talk about what is a personal brand. We hear this phrase all the time. It's become so repetitive in our culture, in our professional lives. What the heck is it and what is a thought leader? Are they the same thing? Are they different? We'll explore what are the ways that personal branding and thought leadership can help improve my leadership as well as my company culture. So we're going to go into a few examples of that. And then for those of us who want to kind of get started with thought leadership, like, how do I get started with sharing my expertise and my perspectives. Okay, everyone can still hear me, right?

Mel Ripp

Rural Internet is a thing. Okay. All right, perfect. So what is a personal brand anyway? So I love this comic from marketunist and I share it all the time because I think it gets to the core of why personal branding is so misunderstood is because when you look on LinkedIn or when you read an article from a thought leader, it kind of starts to feel the same, right? They want to be authentic. Their product is thought leadership, they have to have content, they want to get people influenced. And then I just love the woman at the coffee shop. She's like, I just need a name for the, you know, Bob, you're more than that, but let's explore how you're more than that. Right? So personal branding. So I always love to give a few different definitions of things because obviously our experiences lead us to have different definitions for some of the things that we're talking about today. And so one of the definitions of personal branding is from someone that I really admire. He's a digital marketer and an entrepreneur. His name is Neil Patel. He says personal branding is the process of intentionally creating a public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority in an industry or differentiating them from their competition.

Mel Ripp

Okay, 100% true. Everything Neil is saying is true. And yet it feels very jargony to me, just like a lot of marketing things, it feels very jargony. So Mel decided to throw her hat in the ring. On this definition, I feel like personal branding is actually promoting all of the things that you already possess and only you possess and the things you already have. Right? So it's your core values, it's your skills, it's the personality that you have, it's your tone and voice, it's the experiences you have, both life experiences and professional. It's the insights, it's the things that you think about on a daily basis and go, wait, is that right? How do I really feel about that? So we all have these pieces of a personal brand. It's what you want people to know about your story and how you want to tell it. And the reason that I wanted to kind of refinele this definition is because I talk to a lot of people about personal branding and thought leadership every day. And one of the things I constantly hear is personal branding feels manufactured to me. When we think of branding, when companies brand themselves or they rebrand or they do a brand refresh, they are wanting to create a particular perception in somebody's mind.

Mel Ripp

Right, in the mind of their audience, their customers, whatever that might be. Right. And what I want to get through or what I want to convey is that personal branding, when done correctly, does not have to feel inauthentic. It can draw on the things that already make you. Wait, wait, Mel, isn't this stuff really just your reputation? Isn't that what personal branding know? We talk about how our reputations are, the things that people say about us when we're not in the room. Isn't that kind of the same thing? Well, not quite. Your reputation is how people see you. It's the first impressions you make, it's the relationships you build. It's your community, it's how you take people along for the ride. Right? Your personal brand is how you want people to see you. And again, this isn't artifice. This is simply shining a light on things that people may not know about you. So I just want to kind of talk a little bit about that difference because there is a nuance there. So does that make sense? Does anyone have any questions before we move on to thought leadership?

Participant

Hey, Mel, it does make sense.But to me, this points out that your reputation and your brand can be so, yes, great question or a great comment, Michelle.

Mel Ripp

So I think that your reputation and your personal brand, like, I think about this as a ven diagram, right? And I don't think about it as two separate things. I think about it as kind of this combination of how people see you already and maybe on what's outside of that is kind of what you're not letting people know about you, what you're not letting people in about, or what you're not sharing that maybe you could. Your reputation is kind of how you present yourself at face value. Right. And so I think your reputation, with the help of your personal brand, can change over time. Right. But I think about them as more of a ven diagram rather than kind of things that could operate on separate planes. Does that make sense?

Participant

It makes perfect sense.It's a great explanation. Thank you.

Mel Ripp

Awesome. Cool. Okay, so how is this different from being a thought leader? Right. Don't you have to have a personal brand to be a thought leader? I was talking about this with my husband, who sells wine and spirits for a living. And he was like, well, it's kind of like how all bourbon is whiskey, but not how all whiskey is necessarily bourbon. And I was like, well, it's not quite the same thing, but good try. And I love this cartoon as well. I don't see myself as a thought leader. I see myself as more of a thought manager. I often feel that I'm more of a thought manager because I feel like there's all these thoughts in my head that I'm trying to manage and get out into the world. So thought leadership, I had a really hard time coming up with somebody, like, somebody I could actually name that wanted to give a definition of thought leadership. And so I found this completely jargony one from Forbes Media, which is still correct. A thought leader is an individual that their prospects, their clients, their referral sources, their intermediaries, whatever that means, and even competitors recognize as one of the foremost authorities in a selected area of expertise.

Mel Ripp

Right. And really, it's about becoming that go to individual for said expertise. Right? Again, this is 100% correct. But I think what frustrates me the most when we talk about thought leadership is I think that a lot of people don't want to share their thoughts or how they arrived at those thoughts because they feel like it's already been said. How could I possibly add something to the conversation that would not force but get people to think differently or share a point of view that hasn't been said? And I think we get really bogged down and like, oh, if I'm not the primary thought leader on this, what's the point, right? And so I kind of like this definition better. Of course, I'm biased because I came up with it. But being a thought leader means having a strong, unique point of view, consistently demonstrating it and connecting with people through it. So thought leadership for me is really a two way street. You're not just shouting your point of view from the rooftop and dusting your hands off and going, okay, everyone knows what I think now. It's really building a community of people that can understand and relate to your thought leadership and become inspired by it.

Mel Ripp

And one of the best ways I think to convey thought leadership is it isn't even your expertise. It's almost how you arrived at. Right? Like, I remember having a conversation with Leo one day and know I actually care less about what you think and more about the steps you took to get to that thought. I think that's just as important. So just a little bit of nuance. The so then how are personal branding and thought leadership related? Right? And I think I wanted to highlight leah. I was going to embarrass her if she was on the call, but now that doesn't get embarrassed. So when I think of thought leadership and the relationship between that and personal branding, I came up with this really admittedly kind of dumb example, but I will share it anyway. So think about a photo that's in a frame that's on your desk, right? The photo is your thought leadership. It's the experiences you've had. It's what you hold dear. Maybe you have your family in the photo. Maybe you have a picture of a trip you just took. Maybe you have a close up view of a flower from an interesting angle, right?

Mel Ripp

And so that's your perspective. It's what you deem important, and it's what you want to inspire other people with. Your personal brand is the frame that holds that photo in place. It's those foundational elements of what do I believe and how can I prop this up for people to see? So when we think of Leah's personal brand, I think of a walking jar of confetti. I think excited, supportive, your absolute biggest cheerleader. And then this is just one component of Leah's thought leadership. But Leah believes, and the perk believes, that leadership development should be fun and fresh. And we're going to tell you how to make that right. So again, it's not the same thing. There's again, kind of that Venn diagram between what are my values? What do I want to talk about? And I'm hoping that by this example, you can kind of see that nuance. So we talk about thought leadership all the time. There's no shortage of people on LinkedIn pontificating about a bunch of different things, right? And we see them, we maybe scroll by, we maybe stop the scroll and read. And one of the questions that I get all the time is, well, how does this really benefit me?

Mel Ripp

Am I just shouting into a void? Do people think I'm egotistical? How is this actually going to serve me? And there's seven ways that I feel that honing your thought leadership can really be a benefit to you. Even if you don't want to be on the Forbes Communication Council, even if you don't want to give a talk to 300 people, there are still ways for you to benefit from it. So the first one is influence. Obviously, anytime that we can influence people's point of view, people trust us. They feel that we know what we're talking about. And I think influence is a really big part of business. Right? Visibility. When you are out there sharing your expertise, there is a light shown on you. You shine a light on yourself, right? And if that is something that's interesting or compelling to you, that's absolutely a benefit. Credibility. When you have something new and fresh about your industry or about your niche, you're seen as more credible community. So one of the things that I love about, and I always hesitate to call myself a thought leader, but I feel like maybe I am. I write a lot about entrepreneurship and thought leadership and the importance of getting your words out into the world.

Mel Ripp

And because of that, I've created a really wonderful community that consistently tunes into what I have to say. They share their own insights and we all get better as a result. Access. Right. I think that when we start to share what we know and what we've experienced, it opens up other opportunities for us that we might not have considered. We might get invited to an industry association, we might get invited to speak, we might get invited to put our thoughts together for a piece of content, right. For our company. So I think that those are all things that are benefits, legacy. This is one that I don't think people talk about enough. But I've really been exploring lately about what's the legacy that I want to leave with my work. And I'm nowhere near retirement. I would love to do this for as long as I can, but I'm thinking about legacy now because I think what can I convey to people? How can I change my industry even in the tiniest way, right? And I think it's all part of our purpose. When we feel like we have purpose in our work and kind of what we believe it's easier for us to think about that long game and finally impact.

Mel Ripp

So impact and influence are similar, but they're not the same. I think of influence as like gently nudging someone to think differently. And impact is when a light bulb goes off and you're just like, my entire perspective just got shifted because of something that someone said that happens so often. I'm sure that you have all seen that happen. So I really love that thought leadership can create that impact. So one thing that we talk a lot about individual thought leadership, and when I was in the corporate world before I had my full time business, we talked a lot about thought leadership organizationally. How can our organization start to become a thought leader? I worked for Renaissance learning, which is an education technology company. So we talked a lot about how can we start to become thought leaders in k through twelve assessment and personalized learning and kind of all of these things, right? So I think that company wide thought leadership and being known for key themes or key content pillars, I think that's very important. But I'm talking about organizations benefiting from thought leadership through individual thought leadership. So what happens when you share your expertise?

Mel Ripp

What happens when you're on LinkedIn talking about an experience you've had and what you've learned? Right. And I think that's the most obvious example, just because I know so many of us are on LinkedIn and always kind of seeing that stuff. So the first is that I think it increases the motivation of your current employees. When I used to see, now I'm my own CEO, so it sounds a little weird, but when I used to see the CEO of Renaissance learning posting on LinkedIn about why he decided to go into education, what role technology plays in our society and in our education system, and how it needs to be a balance, I felt really invested in the company's success. I felt like I was a part of something, that it was more than just selling a product, right? So I think this increases employee motivation. I think the second piece is it encourages more and better ideas. And so I know we talk about innovation a lot in our companies and wanting to make sure that we're constantly thinking about fresh ideas and new perspectives, and we do have to kind of innovate or we'll get left behind.

Mel Ripp

Right? And so when employees see other people in their companies, whether it's leaders or their peers, when they see ideas, I think it becomes safer, psychologically safer for them to do the same thing. I think it helps potential employees identify company culture and leader fit. So I think about thought leadership actually as lead nurturing for potential employees, those interested in your company or you, because we're now in an age where people are listening to individuals of companies more than they're listening to the brand itself. And so I think about all of the people that I see, and even in my industry, I have a couple of people that I'm like, wow, I would love to work for them if the opportunity ever arose. And that's really saying something, because I am happily self employed. So anytime somebody can get a sense of who you are, what you value, and why you personally do what you do, it will be a lot easier for them to say, I want to work with that person, I want to work with that company. I want to build something great. And then four, I think it just contributes to a more authentic and trustworthy brand.

Mel Ripp

I think that when your audience, whatever they may be, and there's a ton of people in your audience, right, employees, leaders, customers, investors, job seekers, when they see people in your company sharing knowledge, it's such a boost to your trust factor, right? And people trust people way more than they trust brands or companies. And so I think that having those individual voices is helpful. So before I go on, I want to kind of tell you that I understand something, which is, I know many of you are probably working for companies where maybe there hasn't been an encouragement for thought leadership, or you might be wondering, how can I even get started with this? I'm not even sure if my company would be okay with this. And I think the only way that we really know how to do that is ask. But again, I'm a little contrarian, so I do feel like your personal platforms are your personal platforms, and I wouldn't want you to post anything wildly different than your company. I always say that when you're working at an organization, really try to augment and think about your company's values and align them with your own.

Mel Ripp

But I am very aware that you can't just wake up one day and go, some of you might not be able to wake up one day and go, I'm going to post a big diatribe on LinkedIn and see how many people agree with me. Right? So I just want to let you know that I understand that, and I know that this isn't as easy as just maybe opening up your LinkedIn or deciding to give a talk and going forward with that. Does anyone have any thoughts, any questions before I go on? I feel like I'm just talking a lot, but I guess that's what presenting is. Right. Are we good?

Participant

Melissa, I have a question.

Mel Ripp

Yeah.

Participant

As it goes into, so I'm a company of one, right? Like, it's just me. And so I do everything through my own personal LinkedIn and stuff. But how would you suggest divvying up space and time between my company brand and my personal brand? And maybe you can get into that.

Mel Ripp

We can get into that later, but we can certainly talk about it now. I have a lot of different thoughts about this. And so I think, number one, you have to really think about what's feasible for me. So, Diana, if you feel like you are like, look, I can't possibly keep up in a company page and my own, you know, and I know that this isn't the question you asked, but I always ask people like, if you're a company of one or you're a company of one and a contractor or two, really think about what you're able to do. For example, Peapod has a company. My company, Peapod has a company page. I don't post very much on that company page, and I'm very honest about that. It's not because I don't want to. It's just because when I think about my, because I'm a company of one, I am my brand. And so it's easier for me to be like, look, I'm just going to funnel everything through the context of my own personal LinkedIn, my personal experiences. I definitely name drop my company a lot. So that I'm being very honest about the fact that, look, this isn't just me flitting about with press releases.

Mel Ripp

I have a bona fide organization here where I help people. But one of the things, so I do work with a company where I manage both their company page and the CEO's thought leadership. Right. And again, I hate to keep bringing up the Ven diagram. I'm not a diagram person, so I'm not sure where this comes from, but I think that there's a little bit of, like with this company, we share a lot of how to. Right. We share a lot more of the expertise, for example, with the perk. Right. If you want to build trust with your company, here's three ways to do that. Right. And then a post on my personal page might be more about my experiences, where I felt that I didn't have that trust and what it meant. So I hope that makes sense. But I think that there's ways to kind of build on those things and not have it be so much work. If you think about what you believe from a personal perspective, how can that be turned into expertise or a lesson learned over on your company page? Does that make sense, Diana?

Participant

That makes total sense. I like the.

Mel Ripp

I just. I want to make sure I answered your question, because sometimes I can babble.

Participant

Okay, I have a quick question. Yeah. I always feel like thought leadership, to me, is still a pretty new term. I feel like it just came out, like, five years ago, and someone made it up and they were like, let's go with this. I usually see it when it is on higher level job descriptions or looking more at leadership roles. And I'm wondering, maybe you'll talk about this as we go, but thinking about how can you encourage people who maybe aren't at that level in your company to have their own style of thought leadership or encourage them to grow their thought leadership when they're very new to being a professional?

Mel Ripp

Absolutely. Sorry. These foundational questions, I think, will answer your question, because one of the things that I cannot stand about thought leadership is that people are just like, oh, well, I'm not a CEO. I'm not even a director. I'm not even a manager. I shouldn't be sharing anything. And I am of the firm belief. There are so many people that are like, oh, thought leadership, you have to be given that title.

Mel Ripp

You can't give yourself that title. And I'm like, with all due respect, no, that is not personally what I believe, because I do believe that people have elements of their personal and their professional lives that can lead them to being a thought leader. Right. I do believe that everyone has the capacity to be a thought leader. And it doesn't matter where you are in your industry, what your title is, where you are in the process. I could shout that from the rooftop all day. Right. But I do feel like there's just like, well, how do I even get started? Right? And so I always say that if you do want to explore thought leadership or if you're a manager or a leader that's wanting to kind of cultivate more of that thought leadership ethos in your team's minds, here's some questions that we can kind of ask and go through together. So I'll just hop into the questions right away. So here are seven of my favorite questions to begin exploring your thought leadership. So some of these are going to be really obvious. You're going to be, like, dumb Elle, of course. What am I passionate about?

Mel Ripp

I need to know what I'm passionate about. Right. But for me, passion is way more important than expertise at the outset. I want to know what you could talk about for hours without getting bored. I want to talk about what raises your blood pressure. Honestly, my blood pressure is raised right now and know sweating a little bit, which is always a really good sign that I am talking about something that I'm super excited about. But just think about that when you see something on LinkedIn, when you see a quote in a Forbes article, do you get fired up? Are you like, wait. I don't think that. I think this or what really does light me up in my industry, because I could talk about 20 different things within marketing, but it's this particular thing that I'm honed in on. And the reason I'll just share my personal story about why I'm passionate about thought leadership is when I was in leadership or when I was wanting to become a leader in my corporate role, I kept waiting for someone to see how awesome I was and see how many great thoughts I had and see it and promote me.

Mel Ripp

And it happened, right. It actually happened a little sooner than I would have liked. I kind of got thrown into leadership without a raft. But I remember the way I felt. I remember thinking that, wait, why isn't anyone noticing how hard I'm working and what insights I have? And I realized that I'm the one that can control my own narrative, right? I'm the one that can make sure that people understand what I'm talking about. And so that's why I'm so passionate about helping other people do that, too, because there's a misconception that someone has to kind of bestow this title upon you. Like, you are now a thought leader. And for me, I feel like, look, as long as you're passionate about something and could talk about it ad nauseam, that's a great start. So the follow up questions here are like, what are the topics within my industry that light me up? And again, what could I talk for hours about without getting bored? What do I have expertise in? Again, a Venn diagram. I feel like the perfect thought leadership is this combination of expertise and passion. What are you excited? Because obviously you have expertise in 20 different things.

Mel Ripp

Do you want to talk about them? There's some parts of marketing that I think are so entirely boring that I would never want to talk about them. And so when we talk about finding your niche within your industry, this is what I'm talking about. So I want to just tell people to not let this question trip you up. Expertise is really a loaded word, and being an expert is a loaded word because my impostor syndrome personally goes right away to, oh, I don't know 100% about this topic. I guess I can't share anything about it. No, you don't have to know 100%. You just have to have a strong conviction about what you believe. And so the follow up questions here is like, how can I convey why others should care about this topic? How did I arrive at this area of expertise? What do I want to talk about? Three, what might I know or think that others don't? So this is where having a point of view is important, because it's one thing to just kind of be talking about expertise, but it is another thing entirely to have expertise and then say, and this is what I think about it.

Mel Ripp

Obviously, that is the whole definition of thought. Leadership is like, what do I think about this? Not what it is. What do I think about it? So when I think about this follow up question, I think about when I go through my LinkedIn feed and I see an absence of something. Sometimes when you look at something, it's very clear about what's missing. And so I'm always like, what is something I never hear being addressed in my niche? What's my take on it? So for a long time, because I was more of a marketer than a thought leadership expert, I had a whole thing about marketing agencies and how so many marketing agencies required agency experience. But you couldn't get that agency experience unless you had a chance to work for an agency, which nobody wanted to give you. So it was one of those things where I was like, why is no one talking about this? Everyone wants agency experience, but nobody's willing to let a non agency person be a part of an agency. So it's just stuff like that that I was just like, wait, why is this not being discussed? It's like Will Ferrell in Zoolander when he's like, is everyone on crazy?

Mel Ripp

Like, this is the part where I'm just like, I want to know what you think about that. Others may not think about, sorry, what is part of my industry that I don't agree with or needs to change? So we call this the spicy take, right? The controversial opinion. And your spicy takes don't have to be super spicy, but they have to cut through the noise. And again, it's kind of similar to question three. I'm always saying, why is no one talking about x? Or what do I think about x that other people would vehemently disagree with? If you can figure one of those out, that's your spicy take. Now, your thought leadership doesn't just have to be about that spicy take. But I think it's always important to have something that's a little bit controversial because that's where you can kind of start to have those conversations. Who is my thought leadership expertise meant for? So normally people put this at the beginning. They're like, well, I need to know my audience in order to know who I'm speaking to. Absolutely. But I feel like it's actually more important to cultivate your point of view because it's your own point of view.

Mel Ripp

And then think about the way that your audience intersects. Right. And so are they other industry leaders that you're trying to attract with your thoughts and expertise and insights? Are they potential employees? Sometimes it's a past version of you. One of my audiences is the people who are just starting out in their businesses, the people who are just starting out on their thought leadership journeys. I want to speak to those people because I've been where they've been and I can help them. Right. So really, that follow up question is, who am I hoping will jump up and say, this person gets it and this person gets me? Because that's really where you can build a community and a following, if that's what you'd like to do. What are stories? I'll share to demonstrate what I learned and how I learned it. So I had a boss, one, when I was a teenager, I worked at a bed and breakfast, and we would always talk about some interesting things we learned about the guests or some funny thing that happened. And she was always like, Mel, it's all writing material. It's all things you can put in your head.

Mel Ripp

So all of the stuff that you have been through in your career, it's all thought material. So your education, your training, who you were as a six year old, I tell a story about how my love of curiosity led me to basically do, like, a blind point into a dictionary. And I wrote a creative writing story about what I pointed to, which was a laughing hyena. So I wrote a story about a laughing hyena that lost its laugh. I was in third grade, and the steps it took to get its laugh back and that to know it's not so much a thought leadership thing. It is more of just a story of why Mel is the way she is. But I think it does help people understand that I'm curious, and that has never gone away. I'm a little funny and irreverent, and I'm always looking to say something in a different way or to tell a story in a different way. So I have a bunch of questions. I have a bunch of prompts, which, if anybody wants them, please email me. I'll share my email at the end of the presentation, and you can email me for the prompts.

Mel Ripp

But I have about 30 prompts like this where I'm just really just trying to help you come up with stories that you can connect to your expertise. And then, number seven, what's my comfort level? So we're not all ready to shout from the LinkedIn rooftops right out of the gate. And I say LinkedIn a lot because this is what I do for a living. I do help people show up on LinkedIn and through emails and blogs and their websites. And the more comfortable we are with sharing our expertise, the longer we're going to stick with it. And so I always think about this as a spectrum. Am I comfortable speaking to a small group about this particular topic? Is there an opportunity for me to kind of put a question up in my company's intranet? Do I want to publish posts on LinkedIn? Right. And so I think just understanding your comfort level and being completely okay with the fact that you may not be in the shouting it from the rooftops category yet is completely fine. You might never be there, and that's fine, too. So before we get in, there's just a little practice that I have here.

Mel Ripp

And Emily and Steph, you can tell me if I'm really, am I good on time? Okay, good. Okay. So before we get to the practice, any questions on the seven questions that I shared? No. Good.

Participant

Mel, if I can be so bold when I think about those questions. Right. There's a whole slew of topics that come up for me in my personal and professional.

Mel Ripp

Yep.

Participant

And a lot of different audiences. You have to stick with one to be successful. Do you start with one and really grow a solid foundation and then branch into the next thing you're passionate about? How do you balance that?

Mel Ripp

That is the million dollar question where I feel like if I could answer that to the best of my ability, I could retire a millionaire. One of the things that I think is really important is testing this stuff. And so constantly when I work with people, they're like, well, wait, I really want to talk about this, but I work with a lot of entrepreneurs, for example, and they're like, well, I really want to talk about this, but I'm worried about alienating people because they already know they've maybe experienced this already. And I think the question isn't so much about balance as it is about testing. And just putting something out there that feels authentic to you and kind of seeing where it goes. And I know that that is super scary. That is really easy for me to say because I've been writing on LinkedIn for four years. I have no problem sharing my expertise. So I know that that's not as easy. But what I like to do is I like to kind of test out my content for my different audiences. And then I see what resonates and I see the people that are paying attention.

Mel Ripp

And if I'm seeing that there is a misalignment between the people that I'm looking to have pay attention and the people that actually are, I shift my approach and I test, again, I test another topic, I test another question that I ask. I don't know if that quite answers your question, but I think the way that I balance that is to do some preliminary testing to kind of see what works and also to use your audiences as guardrails. I'm not saying that you should try to appeal to 20 different people all the time, but I think that people know that. Think about yourself, right? And the way that you consume content. When I look at my LinkedIn feed, for example, and I'm going to go through an exercise with you all in a second, but I try really hard not to spend all my day on there. But I'll look at the first ten posts in my feed and I'll go, I really like what this person is saying, but that advice isn't for me. And that's okay. Maybe the advice tomorrow that she puts up will be for me. Right. If I consistently am seeing somebody where I'm just like, I don't really care about what this person is saying, I'll maybe make it so that I don't see as much of their stuff in my feed or whatever, but I think your audiences will, all of your different audiences will understand that you're a multifaceted, multi nuanced person.

Mel Ripp

And I guess my advice there is just don't be afraid to see what works. I don't know if that answered the question, but that's just my ramble about it.

Participant

It did. It gives me something to chew on. Thank you.

Mel Ripp

Yeah, of course. So let's do a little bit of practice. So I just picked this question because I was like, you know what? We're a community of, whether we're leading our own businesses or maybe we're managers or whatever, but we all have a perspective on what being a great leader means, right? So let's just take a couple of minutes to write down what does being a great leader mean to me? And who is someone in my life or career that inspired that definition? So I'm just going to give everyone a couple of minutes, and then I'm going to give you an example of how someone you know answered that question.

Mel Ripp

I don't know if that's quite been three to four minutes, but I'm bad at time. Does anyone want to share? I know that this is a safe space, so I know it's a little nerve wracking, but does anyone want to share what they wrote down?

Participant

I'm happy to.

Mel Ripp

Cool.

Participant

To me, being a great leader means being willing to help my colleagues and my team out of their comfort zone, to show them that growth is only possible when they're uncomfortable, but that I will be in the discomfort with them and I will help them through that process.

Mel Ripp

I like that. The discomfort. Yeah. Because that is something that we have to normalize. Right. Is that leadership is uncomfortable and growth is uncomfortable. Right. I love that.

Participant

And if I let my team stay stagnant, then I'm doing them a disservice. I have to give them the hard feedback so that I'm serving them best.

Mel Ripp

Yes. I love that. I love that. Awesome. Thank you. Does anyone else want to share? Mel? I'll go. Okay. So for me, it means inspiring people to do more or bigger or in a different way, but with a lot of joy that they see the possibility and the benefit. I love it. Love it. Nice work. One more, or should we go on? I know how pain I can share.

Participant

For the second half of the question.

Mel Ripp

Awesome.

Participant

Yes. So for me, right away, I thought of my first boss, I guess, and my first professional role. I had taken a position in a new state, moved across the country. I moved a week after graduating college. And I remember waking up like, what am I even doing here? I don't know anybody. And just instantly on the first day, he made me feel so welcome. And for the six years I worked with him, really influenced a lot of what I do today in my career. And I still go back to different things that he taught me. Still stay in touch with him today. A great mentor for me now, but just he really, I don't know, embodied leadership and making someone feel welcome, and they could know more than you even believed in yourself. So right away, that's who I thought of when I saw this question.

Mel Ripp

Oh, I love that, Kara. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. It's funny how people stick with us, right? I still think of when I was talking about the bed and breakfast. My very first boss when I was 17, I made like 450 an hour. Right. But it wasn't anything to do with marketing. It wasn't anything in my current professional life. But I just remember him being so patient and kind and making work fun. And I think there's so much that when you dig back into kind of the recesses of your life, you can really start to make those connections between who you were when you met that boss and who you are today. Right. All right. Thank you for that. So of course, I'm going to highlight Leah. Leah's going to be mad that she wasn't here because I'm just like, giving her a lot of credit here. So we obviously do not have to read this entire post, but I loved this post that Leah wrote about leadership. And it starts off with this really funny thing about her winning a lamp on the prices, right? And the fact that she was in LA for work.

Mel Ripp

She was with an old boss and he was like, hey, do you want to try to get on the prices? Right? And she's, what? Like, we can't do that. And he's like, why not? It's our one on one. Let's just see if we can do it right. And so she got to know her boss in such a more interesting know, they were waiting to get on contestants row. They were waiting to get into the. And so, you know, Leah got to talk about where she wanted to go in her. Like, Joe taught her about how important it is to make employees feel seen. And then I love this part about the fact that she gets on contestants row, she completely overbids on this chair, and she gets a lamp and a karaoke machine as a consolation prize. And the thing I love about this is that she immediately ties it to what she feels today. Not only is the lamp in her office, of course, she takes a photo with it with a thumbs up, but it's a reminder of two things. She's not great at estimating the price of furniture and that leadership is best when it's fun and inclusive.

Mel Ripp

And like, this is, this is something that if you can't do this right off the bat, there's nothing wrong with that. But I love how Leah answered this question in a really interesting way that is completely her brand. Right? Even if she almost got fired in the process. Okay, so just in the few minutes we have left, I just want to talk about, like. Okay, so I have all these know, Mel, I've written down the questions. I'll start thinking about all that. But like, when I have all these ideas, what do I do with it? Right? And again, I think that there's so many ways to showcase your thought leadership both inside and outside your company. And I think about this as a spectrum. I think about it as what's most uncomfortable for you and what's least uncomfortable for you. So this is just an example of a client that I currently work with. Right? And so for her, the very most uncomfortable thing is a speaking engagement. Right. Her least uncomfortable at the very bottom is an internal workshop or a discussion. Just something where she's with a group of people. She can just be herself.

Mel Ripp

She doesn't feel that there's a bunch of artifice and polish that she has to do, but she can still get the point across about her expertise. And there's so much stuff in between here that, again, some of this is just like, oh, this would be a wish list, right? But there are also things that you can control yourself. Right. If you did want to start adding to your internal company blog, if you have one of those, if there's an external company blog where you share thought leadership, ask your marketing team about, hey, I have this idea and I think it really fits with our values and what we're offering our customers. Can I write something about this? Your marketing team will probably be so happy because it means they don't have to do it themselves. So just things like comments or posts and industry association groups, if you have an online community there, right? And then there's all this other stuff, podcast interviews and earned and paid media. But for someone just starting out, just concentrate on kind of that internal external factor and what you feel comfortable doing both inside and outside your company.

Mel Ripp

And the seven questions I gave you, your answers are a gold mine for sharing your expertise. I had mentioned that already. But it's really when you start to dig in and get curious about that, that you're going to start to see a lot of different stories come out and a lot of different things that you can add to the conversation. So just as we kind of end, a few important reminders, because I call these mellisms, because I'm constantly telling people these, but number one, thought leadership is not synonymous with ego trip. Thought leadership is not for people who just, I mean, yes, there is an element of ego involved, right? We're human. It would be weird if there wasn't. But sharing your expertise is not the same as like, I want to be in the spotlight all the time. So just keep that in mind. Start small and mostly comfortable. So think about the things that make you least uncomfortable and start with those when you're thinking about how you actually are going to put your thoughts out into the world. Stay curious when consuming industry news, trends and the content of others. Again, I do that thing where it's like the rule of ten.

Mel Ripp

I go through ten things in my newsfeed on LinkedIn and I think, do I have something to add here? Do I disagree? Do I have a but and or like, you know, a yes? And to this, don't be afraid to test thought. Leadership is a slow burn. So don't get discouraged when I have a client right now who gets two to three likes on her posts right now. Engagement is not the only measure of an important thought or a valid thought, right? So just don't get caught up in kind of that visible part of thought leadership. And the other part is don't take yourself so seriously. Inject your personality into what you're sharing. Inject your stories. So those are my six reminders there. So thank you. That's all I've got for the day. I hope that everyone learned something. I hope I maybe shifted your perspective on some things related to thought leadership and personal branding. And of course, if you want to connect with me, if you want to get those prompts, I'm mal@workwithpeapod.com I'm Melissa Rip on LinkedIn and that is my. So thanks. Thanks, y'all.

Emily Smit

Amazing. Thanks, Mel. We do have a couple minutes if anybody has any questions that they would love Mel's perspective on before we close things off for the day.

Participant

My God, I have so many questions. My first question is, Mel, will you be my new best friend?

Mel Ripp

Yes.

Participant

This was amazing. I loved it.

Participant

I connected with it so much.

Mel Ripp

I love new best friends.

Participant

So thank you.

Mel Ripp

Thank you for your time for this.

Participant

So one of the things that I struggle with is I feel like I'm too bold. And then I look at these seven questions you gave me and I'm like, oh, I'm going to be real bold. Is there like a roof that you give yourself when you're thinking about these things? Because I don't want to be constantly just tangenting on LinkedIn.

Mel Ripp

Yeah, I have a couple of questions that I ask myself when I'm posting things because I'm actually not very bold, but how do I say this? I'm an open book. So I would talk about anything and everything. And I can connect a lot of things to business that are probably like, oh my God, I don't know if anyone read that business and there's a Business Insider article that happened a couple of months ago where they were talking about how LinkedIn has become this grounds for oversharing. And there was something about, like, I can't remember, but somebody talked about their wedding on LinkedIn, where somebody got sick, or I can't even remember what it was, but I'm just like, oh, boy, I wouldn't do that. But I do talk about a lot of hard things and a lot of emotional things about business. And so, Diana, a couple of questions I always ask myself is, do I sound like a jerk? Because I think one of the things that I'm all for controversial opinions and spicy takes, but I do think they have to be delivered in a way that you're not just constantly railing at your audience.

Mel Ripp

Is there a dose of empathy that I can inject here? So even if you have something that you're super passionate about, like, words are failing, examples are failing me at this moment, but you can be passionate but still be empathetic to others point of view. There are some things that I'm not empathetic about, like when people don't pay freelancers, for example. I'm just like, we have businesses like everyone else. Why does it take 90 days for companies to pay us? But those are those things that it's just like, that seems obvious to me. That seems like something that would be good to do. So I always think, am I a jerk? And can I inject some empathy into what I'm saying? So even if it does feel harsh, I can at least say, look, I get it. I understand where you might have some reservations about this, but I still think strongly about this, and this is why. And then the third question I ask myself is, does anyone care? Or is it just me pontificating? And I've had to check myself against that a bunch of times because sometimes I have these conversations in my head that it's, know Mel on the left and Mel on the right, and we're kind of duking it out.

Mel Ripp

And then that makes its way to LinkedIn. And people are like, what is this even about? So I think you always have to have some context for why you're sharing this again without just kind of being like, here's what you know. There has to be a story or a point of view that backs that up, that doesn't just have it come out of thin air. Does that help?

Participant

Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

Mel Ripp

Cool.

Participant

Yeah, I like it.

Participant

Mel, kind of along those lines. Do you have an advisory board or a group of people that you bounce things off of before you post it publicly to kind of gut check.

Mel Ripp

Do I? Do I have my friend Alyssa Greenfield, who is a thought leadership strategist as well. We are on voxer, which, if you don't know what that is, it's like a walkie talkie app on your phone. And I'm constantly messaging Alyssa, going, hey, I really want to talk about this. Do you think anyone's going to. I am I a know, kind of like, what am I doing here? And so she's always the one that's like, no. More often than not, she's like, mel, you always hold back just like, let her rip. No pun intended. But I do have someone. I do have a few people, actually, that I ask to be like, is this because I do think that part of sharing your expertise is just kind of couching it in making sure that it's palatable for people, because if it's not palatable, you're not going to change minds, and that's kind of what you're trying to do with thought leadership.

Participant

Absolutely.

Mel Ripp

There was a question that I wanted to, Abby had said, how do you recommend delivering your spicy takes to your boss? And this is, this is a great question. So I think that one thing that I would suggest is approaching it from a, have you ever thought about x? I remember one of the takes that I gave to my boss was like, why are we always regurgitating other people's thought leadership? And why are we not sharing any original research of our own? Right? And my boss was always like, oh, it's too expensive. It takes a lot to survey people. And I'm like, right, but we're just wasting time and money when we're bringing in third party people. We're experts on this, right? And so I remember having a meeting with her and I said, hey, Tracy, what would you think about us doing a pilot of a thought leadership survey of our current renaissance educators? Right? Like, what they feel, what they get worried about, what keeps them up at night, and then we can use that. And it wasn't like a spicy take necessarily, but it was something that was going to cost time.

Mel Ripp

It was going to cost money. It wasn't in our roadmap, but it felt like something that we needed to put a stake in the ground about. And so I always kind of go back to that. What would you think about x? What would you think if I said something about this? And then I think the problem then is or not the problem, but the challenge is like, okay, well, sometimes your boss is going to be like, yeah, I don't think that's right. And so I don't necessarily have any great advice right now about how you kind of get past those hurdles, but I think approaching it from a place of curiosity and approaching it as a conversation rather than I think this. And I think this is what we should do. Right. It's a conversation and make sure that you're making your point. So anyone else.

Emily Smit

If you do have any questions, pop up, we will make sure to send this recording with the email afterwards. So you'll have all of Mel's contact information, just so you know. But I haven't seen anything else come in the chat, so we will let everybody go today. Thank you so much for joining us. Mel, thank you so much for all of, like, took so many notes, and I'm really excited to implement some of these things. So we hope to see you all next month and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Emily Smit

Awesome. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Bye.