Want to Be a Thought Leader? Here’s How to Stand Out and Be Noticed

But, because you’re trying to be liked and respected, you may be making a common mistake: playing it safe. In an effort to sound impressive and to ensure you don’t offend anyone, you run the risk of creating content that’s . . . well, boring.

“Playing-it-safe content is very vanilla,” says Peter Winick, founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage. “And it may seem very smooth, but it lacks texture and flavor.”

I’m reminded of a quote from our most clever founding father, Benjamin Franklin, who, in addition to everything else he accomplished, was a publisher: “If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.”