Serving Your Audience’s Appetite for Thought Leadership | Org TL

Transcript:

You need to understand your audience’s appetite for thought leadership before you start serving them. Let me explain through a metaphor.

When I go running each day, I typically pass a construction site. And there at the edge of the site, almost every day, there’s a taco truck parked. And they’re doing brisk business. Why? Because they’re serving exactly what those construction workers want. Meals that are quick, easy, tasty, and you can hold them in your hand.

Now, if we replaced that taco truck with a two-star Michelin restaurant, the restaurant would struggle, because they’d be missing the needs of their target audience.

And I think that fits exactly with the challenge that we face in thought leadership.

We’re producing great amount of long-form thought leadership—whitepapers, research studies, conferences. Much like a Michelin star restaurant, we’re preparing complex ideas and plating them with love when we serve them. Yet, our audience doesn’t often have time for a four-hour immersive experience with an idea. Instead they’re looking for quick access to ideas. Something that they can consume quickly – whether they’re sitting at their desk during lunch or scrolling through ideas during a break between meetings.

This week, I want to challenge you to think about the meals that you’re preparing through thought leadership and the meals that your audience is looking for. Are they aligned? And if not, what can you do to adapt?

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