Did you know that the knowledge that you take for granted could be worth three times your current revenue? My first book Stress-Free Self-Publishing, in which I simply shared the steps I use to publish my clients’ books, tripled my business in two months.
When I was writing that book, a lot of people would tell me that I was crazy for practically giving away my knowledge for the cost of a book; and in many cases completely for free. They would sagely predict that anyone who read it would not hire me to publish their book for them because I had told them how to do it for themselves. At several points during that writing process, I myself wondered if I was in fact committing professional suicide.
Are You Holding Your Business Back?
The reality is that the very act of sharing thought leadership and expertise; whether through a book, an article, or a video, establishes authority and credibility, which often results in more business opportunities instead of less. The reason for this is that even if you explain in detail the unique knowledge that you have acquired during your years in business, you cannot so easily impart the ease and familiarity that comes from experience.
Take SFSP as a perfect example. I walk readers through the process of publishing a book step-by-step in an easy-to-follow, logical, how-to guide complete with screenshots. But it will still take a first-time author at least twice as long as it does me to get a book through the publication process. They will also not have the benefit of the 15-plus years of publishing books to know the little tricks and nuances that go into optimising book listing metadata to increase organic search success or setting a cover price for their book that carefully balances affordability for the reader, value of the content, and earning potential for the author. These things come from practice and experience.
The Impact of Sharing Thought Leadership
But don’t just take my word for it. A study conducted by Edelman.com in 2021 titled the Thought Leadership Impact Report asked decision makers and C-Suite executives their views on individuals and businesses that publish thought leadership content (primarily business books). Here are the headline findings from that study:
- 54% of decision-makers and 48% of C-Suite executives said that they spent more than an hour per week reading and reviewing thought leadership content.
- 42% invited the author to bid on a project when that organisation was not in their original consideration pool.
- 48% awarding business to the author of the thought leadership content.
- 53% said they would increase the amount of business they did with a thought leadership author.
- 54% would purchase a new product or service that they had not considered buying before.
- 47% said thought leadership led them to discover and ultimately purchase from a company that was not considered to be among the leaders in a particular category (i.e., a challenger brand).
- 65% said thought leadership significantly changed the perception of a company, for the better, due to a piece of thought leadership.
- 64% said that an organization’s thought leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competency than its marketing materials and product sheets.
- 63% said that thought leadership is important in providing proof that an organization genuinely understands and can solve its specific business challenges.
How to Get Started Sharing Thought Leadership Content
So what knowledge, expertise, or experience do you have that you could share with your audience? Here are some questions to ask yourself to get you started:
- What unique knowledge, expertise, insights, or passion have you acquired during your career so far?
- Which of those passions or insights may be helpful for your audience to know?
- What common challenges or pain points do you commonly see before people start working with you?
- What problems are you uniquely qualified to solve?
- Looking at the content already in the market about your area of expertise, are there any gaps that you can fill?
- Are there topics that you know to be important or valuable to your audience that are not being discussed by the marketplace?
Once you’ve got a good list of thought leadership topics that you can start sharing, test to see which ones resonate the strongest with your audience. Start writing blog articles, social media posts, or short videos on your topics and see what generates the most engagement – that then becomes the topic for the book that you can leverage to double, triple, or even quadruple your revenue.
Overcoming Doubts: Push Past the Common Hurdles
[Image: Energetic Workshop Discussion]
It’s usually at this point in the conversation that the common roadblocks to authorship start to bubble to the surface. Objections such as time constraints, not feeling expert enough, or worrying about the saturation of business books on your subject that are already on the market. I can reassure you that every author worries about the same thing, but if these challenges weren’t easily surmountable, we wouldn’t have the wealth of great business books that we have today. So here are some articles that I have previously published that address these common writing hurdles:
- Time constraints? Read How I Wrote My Book with Just 30mins a Day
- Feeling a bit of Imposter Syndrome? Read 5 Common Roadblocks to Becoming an Author & How to Overcome Them
- Worried about market saturation? Read Beyond Copy Sales: How Publishing a Business Book Can Generate More Than Royalties
Why Sharing Thought Leadership Matters
[Image: Office Motivational Poster]
The benefits of sharing thought leadership in the form of a book cannot be overstated. Not only does it have the potential to increase your revenue, but it also has the power to transform you from simply a business owner into a recognised thought leader in your industry. It proves to your audience that you know what you are talking about, that you are confident in the value of your knowledge to help others, and that you are best suited to solve their problems and give them the solution they are looking for.
I encourage you to take the first steps towards writing your business-building book. There are loads of free articles on our website that talk about my personal writing journey as well as authorship best practices. Be sure to stay informed of new articles that we publish by subscribing to our monthly newsletter below.
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