What is the so what of your thought leadership?

- Hi there, here's an idea that I'd like to share with you today, and that's this. What is the so what of your work? What do I mean by this? In my work with lots of authors and speakers and thought leaders and academics, oftentimes what I'll do early on in the relationship is ask them, what's the outcome? What's the benefit? What does their work actually do for the people and to the people that embrace it, that use it, that internalize these ideas? And far too often, what I get is a description that's technical, is a description that is academic, is a description that is abstract. So, how do I ask them to work through that? Well, what I'll say to them is, think about this from the standpoint of an individual or a team or an organization that's going to invest their time, their energy, their resources, their money into their work, and think about what happens on the other side of it. What is the before and what is the after? And if you can't clearly articulate kind of what that other side looks like, you're at a big disadvantage. So you need to be able to think about what the so what is. So what might be your team will be able to communicate more effectively. They'll be able to collaborate better. You'll be able to serve your clients better. You'll be able to ideate in a more efficient way. So again, my challenge to you is to think about the next time somebody asks you what your work does, answer it in a definitive way and tell them in such a way that they know what the so what is.