Are you planting and not harvesting?

Transcript

Hi there! It’s Peter Winick. I’m the Founder and CEO at Thought Leadership Leverage. And here’s the thought I’d like to share with you today and that’s this: there are times as a thought leader that you should be planting and then there are times as a thought leader that you should be harvesting.

What do I mean by this? I find in my work with author, speakers, academics, consultancies, thought leaders from around the globe, that they’re really really really good at planting and not quite as good at harvesting. So, by planting, I mean they’re building the relationships. They’re putting high quality content out there. They’re getting their thought leadership out in front of those that matter. They’re answering the questions of those that come to them, etc. That’s planting. That’s planting the seeds. That’s enabling, you know, sort of the roots to set so that, you know, if you stay with me on the farming analogy here, you can harvest.

You know what do farmers do at the harvest. They, you know, reap what they sow. They pull out what they’ve planted. They, you know, get the crops out and take it to market. And most thought leaders aren’t as good at harvesting, at going back into the network that they’ve nourished, at going back into those relationships they’ve worked on and worked with, and pulled business from it, and asked for an introduction, and asked for an opportunity, and, you know, gotten the benefits of all that hard work of planting.

So anyway, what I would do is ask yourself this, you know, what is the ratio that you’ve got in your work of planting to harvesting? And it doesn’t need to be one to one. But if it’s you know, eight planting and one harvesting, I would suggest that you adjust that ratio.

Love to hear your thoughts as always. Thank you.