Goals for Thought Leaders to Think About

Transcript

Hey there! It’s Peter Winick. I’m the Founder and CEO at Thought Leadership Leverage. And today, I wanted to talk to you about goals. Right.

So, there’s a lot of information, work, literature out there on goals. But when it comes to thought leaders, I find that a framing that we use when when talking to our clients early on helps them really think about goals. in a little bit of a different way. And I’d like to share that with you. So, I believe from my experience in working with hundreds of thought leaders over the last 20 years that there are three different types of goals that need to be treated and thought about differently.

So, the first type of goal is intrinsic. It’s the value that you get from doing the work from the writing, from the researching. That smile on your face when you get an email from someone that saw you speak or read your book. Days, weeks, months later. That’s important stuff. Doesn’t show up on a balance sheet. But just because it doesn’t show up on a balance sheet, doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. So, the first is to understand what your intrinsic goals are.

Second, is income. You know, income is pretty straightforward. I’m making x. I want to make 2x or 3x. Or I’d like to continue to make x but work a little bit less. What is that number? And get real. Get specific. Get tangible. What is it on a monthly basis, annual basis, etc? And then, figure out how you’re going to get there.

And then, the last is to think about the goals with with respect to what might an exit look like. What is the asset or assets or subset of what I’ve built, what I’ve developed, what I’ve worked on over the years, that might have value at some point in time in the future to another organization, to another entity if and when I choose to stop doing what I’m doing? Or even if I continue to do pieces of what I’m doing, putting it in a different format to have an exit to others.

So, I’d love to hear your thoughts about what your intrinsic goals are, some discussions on your income goals, and then reflections on what exit looks like, and what those goals might sound like. Thanks so much.