I have the privilege of working with some of the greatest thought leaders of our time. I learn something from each of them during every interaction and hopefully, more often than not, they learn something from me as well. The range of expertise that my clients have is vast; sales, leadership, management, communications, strategy, marketing, finance, emotional intelligence, innovation and relationship development, to name just a few. Someone asked me the other day what they all have in common. Great question! (I love great questions.)

From a personality perspective, educational perspective and professional background prospective, the thought leaders I work with and have met couldn’t be a more diverse group.  Harvard MBA’s to high school dropouts, introverts to extroverts, academics to CEOs and founders of incredible companies and organizations, warm and fuzzy types to brutally direct and analytical. The traits that they all share are:

1) They are all incredibly smart (in some cases scary smart). The smarts may be the result of a stellar education or life experiences or a combination of both, but intelligence is certainly a common characteristic amongst all thought leaders.

2) They are all very curious. As adults, our innate sense of curiosity seems to diminish over time. Kids are insanely curious. The authors and thought leaders that I’ve known all tend to have an almost childlike sense of curiosity. They’re constantly asking questions, learning new things, voraciously reading and learning. Some of them have a more focused type of curiosity; meaning that their heightened sense of curiosity is centered on their content and work. Others have a broader sense of curiosity and seem to be interested in wide ranges of things. They have an uncanny ability to learn from seemingly unrelated disciplines and gain insights that are relevant to their work.

3) They are all passionate about what they do. You can be incredibly smart and curious which is obviously better than not being smart or curious, but adding passion to the mix is key. You can’t fake passion (and if you can that’s the subject for a very different conversation). Every person who is a true thought leader is incredibly passionate about what they do and how their work impacts individuals, teams or organizations. Some are literally changing the world, some have developed models or methods to help people sell, market, manage or lead more effectively.  Some have deep expertise in finance or business. The domain of the expertise isn’t relevant. The passion is.

So here’s what I’ve learned from having someone ask me a really good question. Smarts, curiosity and passion are essential characteristics for authors and thought leaders. Having all of these is not a guarantee of any kind of success (sorry, I wish it was that simple). However, not having all of them will clearly be a hurdle that I’ve yet to see anyone overcome. If you’re about to invest your time, energy and effort into becoming an author and thought leader, spend some time being introspective to be sure you’ve got the right levels of all of these characteristics.

There comes a time that every author or thought leader has to ask themselves if their work and their passion is a hobby or is it a profession?  There are no right answers to this question.  In some instances its a progression from one to the other; a passion becomes a hobby and you’ve found a way to market it and serve your clients.  In other cases you’ve assumed that it can be a profession but it’s not happening fast enough. It may be a struggle to make a living at it’ it could be that the the content isn’t positioned properly or that you lack the skills needed to successfully  bring i to the market.

Let’s look at a few scenarios.  In the first case you’ve got a career that is humming along (which may or may not be related to your IP) but your content is your true calling or your passion.  You dabble with it when you can, writing an article on occasion, maybe you’ve self published a book and  maintain a blog, you may even have a few clients that you work with when you can.  You love doing the work, seeing it resonate with those that are exposed to it, solving clients solutions with your unique model, process or methodology.   In a perfect world you’d figure out a way to use your content to make a living but you need to be logical and practical.  Mortgages, responsibilities and reality keep you where you are.  What will it take to be able to do what you love and be able to support yourself doing it?  It’s a scary question, and the path is by no means any easy one but if you are aware of your personal strengths (and weaknesses) get the help you’ll need along the way it is possible.  The happiest and most satisfied people I know are thought leaders doing what they love and typically making a great living doing it.

The other scenario starts at the opposite end of the spectrum.  What if you’ve made the investment of your time, your energy and your resources to build a practice or a business based on your content and you are not where you want or need to be?  How long has it taken? Is there real momentum and traction that can be measured?  I’ve worked with several clients that are in this exact predicament and the next steps in the journey lead them to one of two possible conclusions.  One conclusion is that it’s a hobby, as much as they love the work and have the passion for whatever reason it’s not a viable business and they need to treat it as a hobby.  The other is that they need to very closely examine what they have been doing, what’s working , what’s not working, what the market for their solutions is and what will it take to grab a large enough slice of that market to make it worthwhile.

These are very difficult questions and I’ve yet to meet anyway that can truly answer them without getting some outside help or guidance.  The single biggest factor that I see is that gurus are experts at something very specific.  Perhaps masters at it and in many cases maybe even absolutely best in class.  Most are lacking the skills or experience to develop and execute a sound business strategy that will give them a roadmap, with clear expectations so that the journey will be one that isn’t so uncertain or unclear.

I’m inherently an optimist but one grounded in reality.  If you have clarity around the potential markets you can serve, a content roadmap and a long term plan as well as drive, passion and commitment you absolutely can be doing what you love and making a great living along the way.  If your work is the greatest content ever developed but you are not able to productize and go to market and ultimately get paying clients than you are not doing yourself or your work justice by continuing to struggle in vain.

Hobby’s are great, they give us a way to express or creativity, to gain expertise to experience joy and satisfaction.  Being able to monetize your content means you need to be professional, to have a solid strategy, the necessary resources and the tools that you will need to master your craft in the marketplace. Don’t confuse one for the other and don’t fool yourself that they are interchangeable or that “if you build it they will come”.  A Field of Dreams was a great movie, I’ve yet to see a Field of Dreams strategy turn a hobbyist into a professional.

Not sure where exactly you are?  Feel free to contact me, I’d be glad to help.

Great stories and great questions are the key to engaging with others and they are skills that we all should concentrate on refining, developing and improving every day.  For example if I asked you to tell me about your recent trip to Europe I’d probably hear about an amazing meal you had at a cafe, a visit to a world renowned museum, beautiful buildings, music and the people you encountered.  I doubt that you’d start by telling me the population statistics of Barcelona, the exchange rate of the Euro or how many people visit the Louvre on an annual basis.  Those are all facts, but facts alone don’t do the trick.  Describing in detail your walk through the Left Bank, the sounds, the smells, the sights will paint a much better picture.

Most people prefer to tell stories, the way to get them to do so is to ask great questions.  A great question should put someone on a quest to tell their story;  it will cause them to search, to seek and to pursue a way to communicate their issues, concerns, struggles and experiences in a very intimate way.  Asking questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no or with a statistic will not do the trick.

I’d like to suggest that you craft a handful of questions that you can use and put them through the “quest test”.  The quest test simply asks that as a result of answering that question will it cause them to search, to seek or to pursue a way of framing their answer that will force them to be thoughtful and to frame the answer in a way that will deepen the interaction.  There is no simple formula for this, it could be about their passions, fears, dreams, struggles or aspirations.  It could be a question that has them explain what the impact of their vision or work is to a specific stake holder group.  A question that allows them to speak openly about a lofty goal or a painful experience.

Once you’ve developed a few of your own try and ask quest questions during meetings, conversations, sales calls, presentations and ordinary interactions.  Not only will you benefit from being privy to much deeper stories but the benefit to the person you ask the question of is immeasurable.  I know that I’ve succeeded when I follow up with a client or colleague a day or two after we’ve met and they tell me that they’ve been thinking about a particular question that I asked them and it really stuck in their head.  It’s lazy and easy to ask ordinary questions, and the results are that you’ve wasted an opportunity to separate yourself from the herd.  It doesn’t take resources or a PHD in communications.

What are some of the greatest quest questions you’ve asked or been asked lately?