In this episode of the Sunny Ray Show, host Sunny Ray talks with Peter Winick of Thought Leadership Leverage about what happens behind the scenes of a successful book and how an idea finds its audience. Peter explains that his firm works with non-fiction authors, keynote speakers, academics, consultancies, founders and executives, guiding them through strategy, brand, platform, productization and monetization. He traces his path to a role he started nearly 18 years ago, after building speaking and training businesses around a bestselling book for another thought leader. The conversation covers the hard truths he tells clients, how organizations adopt a thinker's frameworks, and the three ways new clients find his team. Peter also describes how a keynote at a Fortune 50 company became a six-figure licensing deal, why he moves clients from a practice to a scalable business, and the red flags he screens for. He closes with advice for people who have a strong idea but no audience yet, and a look at his new book, The Thought Leadership Handbook.
Peter Winick explains how a great book idea becomes a scalable business, and why clarity beats activity for thought leaders.
What problem are you solving at Thought Leadership Leverage?
We work exclusively with non-fiction authors, keynote speakers, thought leaders, academics, small to mid-size consultancies, and founders and senior executives. Everyone shares an interest in creating thought leadership that is valuable to the business community. We guide them by developing strategy, shaping the brand, figuring out the platform and productization, and ultimately working out how to monetize it.
What is the hardest truth you have had to tell one of your clients?
Sometimes I have to tell a keynote speaker that they are acting in a way that is not aligned with their brand or not customer centric. The travel, the standing ovations and the limousines can make people a bit delusional. The goal is to make the client successful, not to be the center of attention. I joke that my job is to demotivate the motivators.
Who inside an organization has to say yes first when a framework is adopted?
It depends, but I see three common patterns. A senior leader, like a CEO, falls in love with a thought leader after reading their book or hearing them speak. Or it comes through the learning and development and HR channel, where much of the budget sits. Or a division, P&L or business unit leader uses their own agency to bring in something new.
What does a client walk out with from Thought Leadership Leverage?
Clarity. Our initial engagements are strategy development, and with clarity you can prioritize what you could, would and should do against clear goals. Most of our clients are hardworking, wicked smart people who confuse activity with productivity. If they are not doing the right things in the right sequence, they do not get the outcomes they want.
How do the clients you want most find you today?
Three ways. Inbound, where content like our book, podcast episodes and talks acts as a strategic mousetrap. Targeted outbound, where we follow the breadcrumbs people leave and reach out on LinkedIn and by email. And referrals from non-competing partners such as publishers, publicists, intellectual property attorneys and speaking agents who transfer their trust in us to their clients.
What signals that a book can become a business, not just a bestseller?
Those are two different things. For a business, I ask whether the work is scalable and replicable. Is it built on models, methods and frameworks rather than a bunch of stories? Is it based on valid research? I ask how the person developed the model, what is underneath it, whether there are use cases, and how they know it works.
Can you walk me through an idea that became a product people bought?
A client moving from keynote speaking into their own book and thought leadership gave a 45 minute session to a leadership team at a Fortune 50 company. We showed them the models and frameworks behind it, and that became a six-figure licensing deal. Now tens of thousands of people there have been trained on those ideas, which is the democratization of thought leadership at scale.
What should someone with a strong idea but no audience do first?
Work backwards. Ask who the idea is for, refine it so it is relevant to them, and then go test it. What you need to validate is whether people will exchange their time, energy, resources and dollars for derivatives of that idea. You will not know until you have those conversations in the marketplace with an open mind.
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