Leveraging Thought Leadership With Peter Winick – Episode 17 – Shannon Huffman Polson

Peter Winick

Leadership matters. A good leader not only makes an organization better, they also make people better.

We’re proud to host Shannon Huffman Polson on this episode of the TLL podcast. After becoming one of the first women to fly the Apache helicopter in the U.S. Army, Shannon spent almost a decade as an Army officer and attack aviation leader around the globe. Most recently, she’s spent more than five years leading and managing in the corporate sector at Guidant and Microsoft.

Shannon discusses her journey to thought leadership; from her military service, to running a business group at Microsoft, to authoring a memoir and business book. She shares the advantages of developing a strong business model (and gives a glowing review of TLL’s assistance!).

Further, she shares her insights about having diverse product offerings, and going beyond keynote speaking to create a hub for her content: The Grit Institute. Shannon talks about investing in the right mix of products (for her and her clients), targeting and segmenting the audience, and the entrepreneurial spirit at work as a thought leader. Listen in, and get advice from one of the world’s best up-and-coming thought leaders!

If you need a strategy to bring your thought leadership to market, Thought Leadership Leverage can assist you! Contact us for more information. In addition, we can help you implement marketing, research, and sales. Let us help you so you can devote yourself to what you do best.

Transcript

Peter Winick And welcome. Welcome, welcome. This is Peter Winick and welcome to Leveraging Thought Leadership with me Peter Winick. I’m the founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage. And today my guest is a good friend, Shannon Huffman Polson. Say hello to Shannon.

Shannon Huffman Polson Hi there. Great to be with you.

Peter Winick Thanks. Thanks so much for making the time to. Let me give everybody a little bit of your background because it’s impressive. So you’re an author, speaker, adventurer and veteran. You graduated from Duke. You’re one of the first women to fly an Apache helicopter in the in the Army. You’ve served on four continents. You’ve led two flight platoons, including one in Bosnia years ago. Here’s a governor that’s a tough one and commanding a light company in Korea. Then you then got an MBA, a tux. You were a high in the high potential group at Microsoft. You got an MFA. You’ve skydive on three continents scuba dived on to in some of the highest mountains in North America, Africa. You’ve traveled to six continents. Pretty boring. Just sort of stay home and watch Netflix kind of life, right?

Shannon Huffman Polson I do some of that, too.

Peter Winick Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You’ve written a couple of books and you’ve got a couple more in the pipeline and we’ve had the opportunity to work together a bit. So I guess why don’t we start with, you know, the focus of this is really on the business side of thought leadership and the things that people go through when they’re when they’re building out their world and their platform, etc.. So, you know, you’re at an interesting inflection point that I have, you know, been behind the scenes, too. So why don’t you tell folks sort of where the background, how you got to where you are in the speaking and sort of some of the decisions and things that you’re wrestling with really right now as we speak?

Shannon Huffman Polson Yeah, that’s a thanks, Peter, very much. And I have to say, you you’ve really prompted a lot of the velocity in the last few months, so I can’t thank you enough for that and for all of the inspiration that you’ve given and have offered and working together with you has just been a huge help and a huge prompt for me. But I got into this speaking a number of years ago that you have so good. I was at Microsoft and left Microsoft to write my first book, which is called North of Hope. And it’s not a business book. It’s a memoir about a really difficult trip up in Arctic Alaska at that time where I followed the footsteps of my father and stepmother who had been killed the year before by a grizzly bear. So not your typical topic for a thought leadership business podcast. But I left to write that book. And in the in the course of writing it, I love the literature part of my life and the creative part of my life. But I also realized I really loved the business part as well. And so was looking for ways to plug back into that world and did a couple of free webinars through Elevate used to be 85 runs and on taking control of your narrative, right? And it really resonated and I ended up flying back and speaking net at New York Life and started to realize that this was something that could be worked into a business. And I loved the speaking as well. Like I just have always loved it. I was a debater in high school and that was kind of my thing. So and so it has blossomed now. And Blossom is maybe the wrong word. It has developed with a lot of work in sweat equity right into career. And I realize too, there were so many great lessons from these eight years in uniform, from the time in the corporate world as well. And there were a lot of things that I wish that I had known. And so it was really an opportunity to start to share those with organizations and companies around the country. So that’s how the speaking began.

Peter Winick Great. And, you know, unlike business where you get an MBA and then you go to work at Microsoft or in the military where it’s a very linear and obvious progression in terms of rank and roll, etc.. There’s no application that you fill out to say, Today, I’d like to be a professional speaker, right? You sort of a that’s in your language. It’s your own narrative, right, to say, Wow, this, this even exists as a thing, as an option. I’ve got the good parts and I want to do that. So tell me a bit about, you know, obviously you just mentioned elevating 85 Broads and all that, but how did you decide sort of what the message should be and whom is most impacted by what you have to say? Because a lot of that’s an editing job because you have so much that you could talk about what’s the most poignant or the most marketable.

Shannon Huffman Polson Yeah, you know, it’s an interesting that’s a great question because my current primary signature presentation is called Leading from any Seat Stories from the Cockpit. And I talk about leadership and grit. Those are kind of my key touchstones have been grit and a lot about narrative as well. And I really developed it for a specific audience at a specific presentation and literally the title of their conference and this is a number of years ago was leading from any seat. And it turns out, as I started to think more and more about my own leadership philosophy and the exposure that I’ve had to really great leaders, that it really resonated. And it’s interesting because as I’ve started to develop some additional products recently and I’m in the midst of that development, one of the things I heard somebody say is don’t just develop it, but develop it for somebody. And then you actually have that. And actually you’ve mentioned this to Peter, but you you’re working through it with somebody. So you’re meeting their specific needs. And in doing that, you realize and as I speak to different organizations and every industry you can imagine across the country, you realize like some of the primary challenges and problems are the same across industries. You know, it’s the millennials are it’s getting people to take responsibility or it’s really owning your own narrative. And those are things that apply up to the C-suite, down to entry level workers and across every single industry. And obviously, there’s some particulars in each one of them. But I guess the short answer to your question is I developed it for a specific audience at a specific time, and I’ve now modified it as I speak to different audiences depending on what their needs are.

Peter Winick So I love that because one of the things that I do in my work with authors, leaders and thought leaders and speakers is create sort of this this avatar, if you will, or a client profile, because, you know, it’s one thing to say that everybody could benefit from this or everybody needs some leadership stuff, right? But, you know, if you develop for everybody, you make sacrifices and it becomes bland. And I love the fact that you developed a specific speech for an audience. You probably did your homework. You knew what they were about, what their struggles are, etc.. So it rocked and they said, wow, it could go a little bit broader than that. And I love the idea of developing with the end user in mind and a high level of specificity because a lot of folks sort of create in a in a vacuum in their own head and put it on paper. And, you know, I would imagine that from when you first delivered that speech to now, I’m sure you’ve made some tweaks and modifications based on audience reaction and experiments and such and touch on that a little bit, how you’re constantly sort of testing it, tweaking it, evolving it.

Shannon Huffman Polson Well, yeah, and that’s a great that’s a great point. I think one of the things and I do this for every presentation, even though I do a lot of presentations, is I typically have a conference call or more than one conference call with the client. And so I really and again, I love business. I was in business. I love it. I love to know how it works. I love to know how people work. And so I work really hard to understand what their specific industry challenges are, their specific industry opportunities, and then the specific concerns of this of the conference itself. And I really work to make sure that that message meets those needs, because at the end of the day, I feel good about it. If I’m meeting those needs, if I’m actually adding value and giving them things to take home, real practical things for them to take home, then I feel good about my work. And I think that you’re going to become so. So each time there are modifications that are that are made for the client and done. And I would say over time, you’re right. You realize, okay, hey, this works regularly with audiences, this doesn’t work as well. And so on a more general basis, I’ve made tweaks to it as well that are more kind of general.

Peter Winick You know, And given that you’ve got an Ivy League MBA, your level of understanding of business is higher than most. But even if you don’t have that because many, many speakers are so focused on their own universe that they sometimes, you know, they’ll use the fact that they don’t have business experience as an advantage. But I think there’s a level of understanding of just basic business, of how does that client make money, right? How do they serve their clients? What are they struggling with, whether it’s the talent attraction, whether it’s customer engagement, whether it’s product development, being collaborative, whatever. And I think the fact that you can sort of speak that language and speak it proficiently and fluently helps you be a better speaker.

Shannon Huffman Polson Yeah. And it’s really a lot of fun, right, Because it’s problem solving in a way. Exactly. And I just think that’s a lot of fun to be able to really meet them where they are. And it’s, you know, it’s funny, it’s the same thing in writing and any creative pursuit, which this really is, although it’s business and I say, although I shouldn’t even caveat that business is a creative right Well and it’s meeting the needs of the audience. And that’s what a speaker’s role is. That’s what a consultant’s role is. That’s what a businessperson’s role is in them. And I love doing that role.

Peter Winick So you’re in the midst of a transformation of sorts, right, of trying to figure out or figuring out sort of what to do next. Because one of the things is you don’t want to be speaking. I mean, I always joke that there’s only two types of speakers, those that want to speak more and those that want to speak less. You’re in the very few that are in the just right camp. You don’t want to be doing 100 gigs a year and being away from your family all that long and all that stuff, you’ve got enough to keep you going. But you know, we’re working together to figure out best ways to get the content to scale, increase the ways that you monetize that, that they’re not dependent of you jumping on an airplane and, you know, flying to Scottsdale or wherever. So tell me about the thinking that’s going on underneath that and then some of the decisions that you’re making and some of them that you might be struggling with in terms of moving forward.

Shannon Huffman Polson Yeah. And I again, I want to just thank you for really prompting me in this direction. And I one of the things that I love about really expanding the product suite really that I’m offering. Right. And I think you helped me to understand the pay stickiness is one of the products in the product suite should be much can and should be much broader than that. And what I love about that is that I think there is. So much material. There’s such a great opportunity to really deliver value, and that value is only enhanced by additional offerings. And so I really am looking at this as a way to better meet the needs of the clients that I’m certain. And so the so what I’m working on now and as you know, I’m in the early stages of this, but building out by the time this this podcast airs the great Institute will be live the Grit institute.com and what that is is a clearinghouse for all of the information that I have been researching and gathering and putting together over the past now several years on leadership and grit and narrative. And I’ll have a number of course is available online. There will initially be free and then they will come at a fee and there will be some parts of it that would probably be membership based. And so I am wrestling right now with what’s the right balance there, what’s the right balance of access versus membership and what’s the right pricing plans and that sort of thing. So that’s one of the things that I’m working on. And the second part that I hope that will develop out of that and then and again prompted a lot by some of your ideas, is looking at offering that enterprise solutions that can be offered to organizations that would be potentially coupled with small workshops that could go along with those talks and or some. Some selective, very, very selective coaching that could go with some of the C-suite folks that I have a chance to work with.

Peter Winick So there’s a digital path in this community that you’re creating, the Great Institute, which is cool. You’re figuring out the sort of business model side, is a membership, is a subscription, monthly, whatever the case may be, but basically that is a digital knowledge center of sort of all things great based on research that you’ve done and things that you’ve compiled there, courses that you’re putting together, etc.. So you, you build that once and you know it, it gets delivered forever ultimately. I mean, you revise it again.

Shannon Huffman Polson Yeah. And this other book that is based on I’ve been interviewing other women in the vanguard of their military fields as well so early general officers, early aviators, early submariners and I have a leadership book that I’m really excited about that is right now in the process of pitching along with an agent and actually talking to a publisher this afternoon. So I’m hopeful that that great institute as well will become a place where we can also share those stories, those interviews that I’ve been doing through what I’ve called the Grit Project, and then ultimately be a place where that that book, as well as associated products, will be able to be able to be found.

Peter Winick So, so one thing that’s interesting from a content slash model perspective on the Grit Institute is you’ve got a fascinating background, but it’s just you write. So the fact that you’re interviewing all these other women out there that have equally fascinating backgrounds, you know, sort of exponentially make it exponentially more interesting, right? Because now it’s just not. Here’s Sharon’s perspective, Sharon Shannon’s perspective story, life experience, etc.. But here’s ten other people that are equally fascinating, interesting, etc.. And you and you’re threading the pull through is really through the lens of grit.

Shannon Huffman Polson Yeah, I think that’s right. It’s grit, it’s leadership, it’s narrative. And I think exactly. I think that what I love about the leadership book is, you know, I think there’s a lot of different takes and a lot of different experiences. And many of our experiences are unique to us because of who we are as people. And I really have been excited to not only help to highlight other outstanding leaders stories, but also to really try to then take that data that comes from, you know, a couple dozen interviews and to be able to say, Hey, what’s common in this? What can we pull out? What kind of threads can we pull out from these incredible leaders that have worked in really challenging situations and circumstances that were made even more so by, you know, by factors of being the military, by factors of being in a all male environment and that sort of thing. So I think it really is valuable information that I wish that I’d had access to when I was a young leader.

Peter Winick So which, which I mean, that’s a great way to frame it. What did what do I wish that I had, you know, ten, 15, 20 years ago? The other piece that you mentioned, which is a different model and a different way to put content out there and scale and leverage, it is more enterprise focused. Meaning, you know, you talk about expanding beyond the keynote, you know, very, very selective coaching. I’m assuming that’s at a premium price point, right, To do that, you’re not going to do that for, you know, career transition or whatever the case may be. Excellent workshops. So you’re looking to basically I don’t to put words in your mouth but take what is ultimately an event slash transaction, a keynote. Right. Can you come in and be in Scottsdale on July the 7th or whatever and expand beyond the transaction of Yes, this is what I can do on stage for an hour. So tell me tell me how you’re testing that in the marketplace.

Shannon Huffman Polson Yeah, and I’m just in the very early stages, you know, and I’m really excited about it. But I will say, like at a very recent event, actually, two recent events that were back to back this last week, one was with a new CEO who asked me right before I went up, he said, Hey, by the way, do you do any coaching? So I feel that could be a better entree. And I said, you know, yeah, on a limited basis. And I’ll reach out to him and then we’ll see if there’s a good fit there for him. And then at the next event there, you know, it’s often an education, a director that is sponsoring or managing the event. And we were talking about the needs and how they’re really trying to work on leadership development in their industry. This was an industry conference. And she was absolutely thrilled about the opportunity to do some online courses or some webinars that might follow up from this keynote. And so and so those are places where I’m just talking to the clients as I’m working with them on the on the keynote and what’s to meet those needs in the keynote product line, I guess you’d say, and something that can really help to add value in a really meaningful way that goes beyond that as well. And so right now I’m doing that. I’m kind of a case by case by case basis.

Peter Winick And, you know, my observation over the years have been, you know, if you’re a keynote or want to do more keynoting and you only see the world through the lens of keynote. Right. You’re missing the point, right? Because it’s a very, very interesting business in the fact that prior to the event, you have access to sort of all these amazing people at a company. They’re doing everything they can to make you be successful because they’ve got, you know, 500 or 1000 people coming in. It’s their annual event. It’s a big deal. They’re spending a lot of money. Then you create this emotional connection to people that they remember. You know, the stories that you tell, you know, talking to their colleagues that were standing next to it. So there’s a bonding experience. And then you have a choice. You either, you know, jump on a plane and go home and never see them ever again. Not a good choice. Or now they’re they’ve leaned in right to steal an expression there. They’re primed. They’re engaged. They know what you’re about. They know what you stand for. They know what the content about. And they’re basically standing there. And the burden is on you as the thought leader and speaker to say, and here’s where we take this from here, You know, they’re not going to stay up late at night trying to figure out how to scale your content and put more money in your pocket. And I think that’s you know, it’s taking that strategic pause and being thoughtful and saying, what else can I offer to be of service, right? To get the message out to more people and quite frankly, to better my own situation, to make more money from the work that I’m doing, from the work that I’m proud of, from the work that I’ve researched. So, you know, I love the fact that you’re in that sort of transition in a place, trying new things, experimenting, listening to the market. The other piece that I would, you know, I can’t reiterate enough is listen to more talk to the market. The beautiful thing about content is, you know, if you have a client that tells you, you know, hey, here’s a specific population that we’d love to see you do ABC. And before you could look at that and go, that’s not going to work, and let me tell you why. Or holy cow, I never I never thought of that. Thank you. And man, we would be totally awesome in that circumstance. And the market intelligence is there is if you ask for it. Right. So let me ask you this out there today. And I asked a few people this sort of similar question, you know, is you minus ten years or 8 or 15 years. Right. Someone that’s first trying to figure this space out, this sort of wacky, crazy world of content and thought leadership, what would you advise them? You know, you said, I wish I knew now a little bit before, but what would you advise them to do less of or more of? Or what would you say to them?

Shannon Huffman Polson Well, I mean, I think there’s a few things that are a given, which is that you’re just going to have to hustle a lot, right? If you’re any kind of an entrepreneur at all, you that has to be part of your DNA or it just isn’t going to work. But I think the other piece that is really important and this is kind of both a creative exercise as well as a leadership exercise in a way is really and you’ve mentioned this now a few times in this in our conversation, but it’s really learning to listen. And when I say listen, I mean really do your homework and understand what the needs are that you can meet. Because I think all too often and this is true in marketing communications, it’s true. It’s true in so many things that people go out there and like it’s all about me and this is so great, but it’s not about what you need. And so you have to be all about the other person and you’re got to be all about the client or else it’s just not going to work anywhere. And so learning to be I mean, certainly have to be confident, obviously, and you have to have a message worth delivering and you have to have a niche and a reason that people should want to listen to that message. But at the end of the day, they’re going to want to listen because you are meeting them where they need to be met. And I think that’s a hard lesson for young folks to learn sometimes, but it’s a really critical one.

Peter Winick So let me recap that, because you put a lot. In their high quality product. So you can’t phone this in. Right. The market is packed right now. The market is very crowded with incredibly smart and brilliant people. Things to say. So put the effort in to differentiate and have something that is of quality. You got to hustle. A lot of people don’t want to hear that. But, you know, this is not an easy game to get into. And the hustle and the determination and, you know, doing gigs in Podunk to try something out and, you know, all that sort of stuff that you look you look back on. Finding your niche is another piece to know what the higher the level of specificity, you know, the better. Even though, you know, the converse of that is, but I’ve just shrunk the market. Find your market. Find the market that you are the best that or best suited to knock it out of the park for. And then the listening piece is, is, is that you can’t underestimate the power of listening loudly. So that’s great. Any how do people find you? So tell me. I’m out there and I’ve got a conference coming up and yeah, how do I find you? How do I get in touch with you?

Shannon Huffman Polson Yeah. Great. My website is Shannon colson.com and I’m right now I’m booked exclusively through Kepler speakers so but you can find that contact information at my website and I’d love to love to hear how I can meet their needs.

Peter Winick That’s great. Well, I appreciate so much you not only saying flattering things about me. That’s always lovely, but you might. My head is bigger than my headset today, so that’s always a good. But thank you for your time. And I very much enjoy not just our time today, but our time working together over the last couple of months.

Shannon Huffman Polson Absolutely. I have as well, and I look forward to a lot more. Peter, so thank you.

Peter Winick Thanks so much.

Shannon Huffman Polson Thank you.

Peter Winick Take care. To learn more about Thought Leadership Leverage, please visit our website at Thought Leadership Leverage dot com. To reach me directly. Feel free to email me at Peter at Thought Leadership Leverage dot com. And please subscribe to Leveraging Thought Leadership on iTunes or your favorite podcast app to get your weekly episode automatically.