Hi there and welcome to the Everyday Entrepreneur podcast where I, Caitlin Fritz help you reach your entrepreneurial potential. Together we can build your dream social impact business so that you can leave a legacy beyond your nine-to-five. Hello, hello, and welcome to this episode of Everyday Entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Caitlin Fritz. I'm an award winning entrepreneur, enterprise educator, and business coach who supported over 700 founders throughout build, grow, and scale their impact led businesses. Here on Everyday Entrepreneurship, we talk about the tried and true lessons of building a business and taking it to the next level. It's made for Impact entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and small business owners so that you can get the inside truths, lessons, and inspirations to build your dream biz. And today I'm really excited to talk about a concept or theme that has been going around Probably since LinkedIn became the new business Instagram. Thought leadership. So, thought leadership is really important because, first off, just from defining it in my own words, it's making that connection from an industry, a niche, a vertical, and associating it to a business. With an individual. So, for example, if you were going to think about marketing, you might jump to Simon Sinek, just as an example. And why it is important for entrepreneurs, you might be asking. Well, this is almost a way for you to introduce your business. Because before someone ever meets your product or service, they're going to meet you. And for you to have that credibility and trust, it's important that you are leading the way, pioneering, spearheading the charge in that business. Niche of your business. Also, thought leadership allows you to have a really unique edge by having a viewpoint, and it's almost like a competitive advantage both for you and your business. It's part of building your business brand, because guess what? When you are an entrepreneur, you will always be hustling, always be pitching, and really always kind of being the face of your business. So if you're able to share these insights, you're going to be able to take a leading role in the industry. And that's the goal, is to make you be on the forefront of Now, I say this, but most people look back and give me that cringe of, uh, okay, you want me to talk about my take on cultural foods or e learning for career development, okay? I don't really feel like I want to, or have to, or need to put myself personally out there. That's the number one response I get is that cringe, that fear of being judged, fear of failure, and also the fear of not even knowing what to talk about when it comes to being a thought leader. So I want to share with you a few easy tips that can help you build thought leadership without feeling totally gross and slimy about it. So tip number one, research. And be on trend in your niche. If you are working in impact marketing, or if you are an ESG consultant, I would expect you to know what's happening in those businesses. What's happening in your local region or country in those sectors. An easy way to be up to date is have a Google alert for when ESG consulting trends. Or something like that comes up on the internet, and it will be shipped right over to your inbox. And, I recommend everyone, depending, I mean, the news can be a pretty scary place. But I do recommend everyone trying to stay up to date on what's happening in current affairs, because there are probably touch points that affect your business. So, for example, I'm recording this on Earth Day, so an ESG consultant, uh, might be sharing their thoughts on what's happening in regards to Earth Day. So that's number one. Number two, low hanging fruit. So if you do your research, you have your Google Alerts, maybe you have a notebook or a Google Sheet document with all of the kind of trends, re share That's one of the easiest ways to be a thought leader. Share articles on LinkedIn, in your newsletter, or maybe even to a potential client that are relevant and add value to the conversation. All you need to do is do it. One or two sentences on why this is really important right now, and then click the re share button. Now, tip number three, if you want to go a little bit more advanced, which I encourage all of you to do, because putting yourself out there is a muscle. The more you do it, the absolute, you will think about it less. Stretch those muscles. And how to do that is really simply finding your voice in the way that is right for you. So I'm someone I like talking, I like writing, It is easy for me to draft up a 1, 500 word blog article, but for other people who hate writing, that might not be your style or your voice. So ask yourself, how do I like to communicate my ideas? Is it through video, audio, written, short form, long form? Just take a few minutes and ask yourself that. And then two. What is your voice? Are you optimistic? Skeptic? Are you a realist? How do you like to communicate? And test that out. So what that looks like in real life is if I'm someone who likes to talk a lot, and I am a peppy chipper person, maybe I will start a podcast, or even easier, be a guest on someone else's podcasts. That is a way for you to find your unique style, find your unique voice and make it fit into your life. The last tip I'm going to share with you is try to be consistent. Trust me. I know I'm guilty as charged. Life happens. Things get in the way, but consistency allows you to be consistent. visible and recognizable and create that pattern of recognition and trust. So you can start by posting a LinkedIn article once a week, see if that works in your cadence in your workflow. And if you're enjoying it, maybe up it once or twice a week. Or, if you are a video person and love being in front of the camera, maybe you are posting a video, or a YouTube, or a short every other week. Once a fortnight. And yes. I'm referencing Tay Tay there, but no, every two weeks to create that cadence in your audience because most people are going to need to see you post 6, 7, 8, 10, 20 times to make that association from industry vertical to commercial. to you. And consistency is key. Now, to be a thought leader, you do not need to do anything totally crazy. Be something that you are not. All you need to do is showcase that you are an expert in your field. That does not mean you are the expert, but you are And expert in this field, you have authority, credibility, and trust in the topics you are raising. Because I know that was one thing I felt like I struggled with. You know, I was a new female founder in a foreign country. What could I add? It was my unique take, my unique voice, the hundreds of mishap fails, hurdles, and highs that allowed me to shape honestly the foundations of what I do today. So if you need some additional support. some thought leadership prompts, then be sure to sign up for my newsletter, which is in the show notes, because we will be sharing my favorite thought leadership tips. Easy peasy prompts this week. That is it for me today. I hope you are enjoying everyday entrepreneurship. If you haven't yet, have a listen back at some older episodes. We have some really great interviews, tried and true tips, as well as some practical advice scattered throughout the past couple of months, and be on the lookout for new guest interviews and inspirations coming up really soon. Bye for now. I am looking forward to that. If you can, give me a rating, um, subscribe, share with an entrepreneur who you think is in need, and if you want one to one thought leadership advice, then drop me an email, which is also in the show notes. Until next time guys, this is Everyday Entrepreneurship. Thank you for joining me for this episode of Everyday Entrepreneurship. To stay tuned and most up-to-date, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow me Caitlin Fritz on Instagram. And if you have any questions about building your business with Impact, drop me an email with the link in the show notes.