Thought Leaders helps clever people be commercially smart.

#tlmagupdate from the leadership council - p.1making your writing shine - p.2why we are exposed if we don’t proprietise our practice - p.3the power of positioning - p.4awareness enhances attitude - p.5commitment - make a stand - p.5hidden value in organisational thought leadership - p.6develop an idea bank - p.7do you have a blue card - p.7are you correctly valuing your thought leadership? - p.8going from white belt to black belt as a million dollar expert - p.9is anybody really hearing your really important messages? - p.10the biggest product mistake you can make - p.11what’s your mojo manifesto - p.12thought leaders summits - p.13thought leaders online world - p.14

SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2010 | #tlmag

Just the other day

Dan Gregory, the Creative Director of Smart - one of Australia's leading advertising agencies and the man behind the phenomenal turn around of the Coke Mother product re-launch, was describing Thought Leaders to a major international bid team. He described Thought leaders as...

A cross category, multi disciplinary think tank who drive innovative solutions to social, political and economical challenges.

This is a grand statement of intent and a definite possibility in our near future.

Driving Thought Leadership Globally

Thought Leaders is a group of loosely coupled networks each centered around a Mentor. We are a live community that meet physically.

Our digital platforms facilitate live conversations. Each City (Dojo) will have at least 10 active mentors who each are supporting a vibrant community of 5-150 people. We will be in at least 20 locations around the world, all City (i.e. New York, not country based as in USA) and are focused on the Developed World.

The idea is that in time these communities can come together as a cross category, multi disciplinary think tank who drive innovative solutions to social, political and economical challenges.

For this to happen we need to be ‘more than just talk’.

My focus for the next 12 months is to assist the Thought Leaders Leadership Team (i.e. our mentors) to grow their local communities by

assisting every great thinker they meet to be commercially smart.

Thought Leaders Structure

Thought Leaders is a co-operative (no shares). It can’t be sold or bought and while I founded it, I don’t own it.

The Mentors are the members of the co-operative and we have two levels of mentor, Associate and Partner Mentor.

The Partners are the operational leadership team and hold a member status in the co-operative structure. We

operate in a decentralised business model in that there is no head office and mentors are empowered to make decisions that advance our interests at a local level.

What can you do to be involved?

1. Keep focussing on being commercially smart as a Thought Leader

2. Keep developing your intellectual property and refining your thinking

3. Get engaged with your community at a local level attending Monthly Mentoring sessions and Summits

4. Drop me a line if you think you have what it takes to be a Thought Leaders Mentor

Keep thinking!

M@

Founder of Thought Leaders

(Matt Church)

update from the leadership councilthe SPIRIT of belonging to Thought Leaders...

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -1-

Writing articles for publication is a great way to raise your profile and let people experience your thought leadership. But the world is suffering from information overload. What can you do to make your article easy and interesting to read, and easy for an editor to publish?

Choose a topic that addresses a problem your audience would commonly experience. Raise this problem in your opening paragraph. A question is a good way to attract a reader’s attention and motivate them to read your article.

Focus on the reader, not on yourself. For example, asking “Do you wish you could have a long weekend, every single week?” is more engaging than saying “I’m

obsessed with helping people to improve their lives”.

Don’t try to cover too much in your article. You don’t have to cram everything you know into a single piece. To position yourself

as an expert, it is better to cover a smaller topic area, in more depth. Can you summarize your article in one sentence? If not, you are probably covering several different ideas. Choose one, and save the other information for future articles; you now have topics for several more pieces.

Structure your article clearly. Use headings to break up the text and to give the eye some easy points of access. For your headings, use questions or short statements, rather than single words. For

example, instead of “Happiness”, use “Happiness is a Choice” or “Can you Choose to be Happy?”. Headings of this type keep the reader thinking and wondering what comes next.

Offer several pieces of practical advice. Your article needs to offer value in exchange for the reader’s time. It should not just be an advertisement for your services. Articles that hold back the “magic formula” leave the reader feeling

cheated and that they have wasted their time. However, don’t go to the other extreme and provide a list of 50 pieces of advice – this becomes overwhelming, and cannot be absorbed all at once.

Include some paragraphs that are very short and succinct and that make an important point. These can form “pull-outs” for the editor to enlarge, to catch the reader’s eye. These are like “sound-bites” for radio or TV – they are “write-bites”.

Keep your sentences short. Breaking a long sentence into two can give your writing more impact.

Use bullet points for lists, rather than stringing the items together in a long sentence.

Include a story or case study to show the reader how your advice can be applied.

Use active rather than passive language. This helps the reader to picture some action occurring. Instead of saying “A plan can be developed”, say “Make a plan”.

When you have finished the article, see what you have said. Now rework your opening paragraph – this is what will hook your reader!

Shelley Dunstone helps people win in a world without precedent, and is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Adelaide. She has published countless articles, has contributed chapters to two of the Ideas Books (published by Thought Leaders) and is also the author of a best-selling textbook for lawyers.

Contact details:

Web www.shelleydunstone.com

Email shelley@shelleydunstone.com

Phone 0417 846 108

making your writing shine!

“ ”Focus on the reader, not on yourself...

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -2-

It was Michael Gerber, author of the business book classic, The E Myth, that popularised the term “proprietisation” in a business context. I first read this life changing book nearly 20 years ago and its principles excited me so much that I founded a highly successful franchise business partly to prove the principles set out in the book. The Tap Doctor (those little cars with taps on the roof) has become Australia’s biggest plumbing franchise and this largely due to its proprietary uniqueness.

Gerber suggested that, irrespective of whether you intend to franchise your business or not, you should always think in terms of proprietisation. I interpret this to mean the art of capturing the look and feel of your business as well as the positioning and systems (hard and soft) that make your business stand out from others in the same space.

Most people in our Thought Leader community are principally technicians running businesses. Actual business skills are sometimes secondary, often something we acquire through painful lessons that can cost plenty of time and money. As Gerber said, we need to understand the difference between our business and the technical work of that business. The idea of proprietisation addresses with the fact that we may not always be as passionate tomorrow about what we are doing today. As infoproneurs we become vulnerable when we lose

our passion or become sick or incapacitated

Proprietisation ensures that you will not always have to trade time for money. As thought leaders it may be difficult to think in terms of proprietisation but at some point in the life of our business it is important to consider how your business will carry on without you. In some cases it may seem impossible to separate the business from the individual, whilst you can choose to create a business name outside of yourself there are many examples of individuals who have turned their name into a brand and in some instances an institution, including Jim’s mowing, Dick Smith, Harvey Norman, Myer and Charles Schwab.

I recently participated in the Mentor Accreditation Program where we were given a graduation jacket embroidered with the Thought Leader’s logo. Various other items that sported the logo

included a thumb drive, a set of note files and a carry bag. It seems Thought Leaders is now taking the idea of proprietisation seriously, which not only helps build the brand but also helps everyone identify more strongly with what Thought Leaders is. In the accreditation we spent some time analysing the logo and why it properly represented the Thought Leaders mission of helping make clever people commercially smart. As in the case of the Thought Leaders logo, it is important that the look and feel of your business properly reflects your mission statement.

The point at which you choose to proprietise your business is a personal choice. Getting money through the door for the service we provide is obviously the priority but don’t forget about the “P” word, it could be the key to you future freedom and leverage.

If you’re a clever person it is always commercially smart to Proprietise!

Why we are exposed if we don’t Proprietise our Practice.

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -3-

Tim Wise is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Perth. with a wealth of hands on experience in SME’s, Public Companies and Franchising.

Contact Details:

Web: www.wisespeak.com.au

Email: twise@westnet.com.au

Phone: 0413 056 880

Location, Location, Location! For thought leaders in-residence, our mantra should borrow from this intent, but the purpose should be different: Position, Position, Position. That’s what I say!

Let me unpack that last sentence:You will notice I have used the term, thought leaders in-residence and by this I mean thought leaders who are already operating an established practice where business is coming in the door. Perhaps you are generating between $80k-250k and working hard and wondering how do I make $500k or even $1,000,000 each year. If that’s you, then read on.

Positioning can be used as a strategy at any time but for it to work best, you must have an idea of what you do and can demonstrate you can do it.

The second key term in my opening was the catchcry of Position, Position, Position, used to emphasise the key strategy that too many thought leaders forget early in their practices. If you want to move out of the 70 hour weeks, earn more money, and specialise or ‘niche’ further, you need to re-position yourself. I mean how else can you go from $1,500-2,500 per day to

$10,000 per day with the same client? The fast track is positioning.

How to use positioning to advance your businessPositioning can be achieved through a number of channels or mediums, such as advertising, press etc, but I believe the simplest and most effective form of positioning that actually makes you money rather than costs you money, is what I call ‘Thought Leadership Partnering’.

Thought Leadership Partnering is where you take an existing client you have had individual success with, and introduce ‘talent’ to them that will rock their world. Quite simply, you bring an established thought leader into their business, and watch them strut their stuff, and rub shoulders with them the whole way; in effect, bringing great expertise to your client, bringing work to a fellow thought leader, and bringing yourself the power of positioning all whilst being paid!Now obviously you need to broker a match of thought leader to the organisation.

In your favour is within the Thought Leaders network we are blessed to have a group of talented Mentors who know ‘the code’ of positioning. That is, Mentors position you back, big time. The net result is your existing client is impressed at the people you know, but more so with the great regard in which you are held.

5 Tips for Thought Leadership Partnering1. Choose an established thought leader who complements, but offers something different to your work. The Thought Leaders Mentor group is the best place to start with demonstrated experience , and an intricate working knowledge of ‘the code’.

2. Always introduce and close. Whilst you have brought in the talent, never give away the space you have worked hard for. Do the introduction for the day’s training,

MC the conference etc. It helps if you are physically positioned as much as intellectually.

3. Use the time wisely. By bringing in an established thought leader into your space, spend as much time with them! It is the cheapest form of mentoring you will find. The lessons you learn will be worth more than the gig.

4. Work with your positioning partner to leverage more investment. If your client has had a great experience, they probably want more. If you don’t offer, you miss out, but more importantly the client misses out!

5. Enjoy the experience! Sometimes working on your own gets tough. Working in collaboration with someone is great fun and you will have a blast.

Darren Hill is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Darwin, who brings something different to the table. A behavioural scientist, entrepreneur and highly sought after speaker, Darren assists organisations in putting people first at work.

Contact details:

W: www.changeworksnt.com

E: darren@changeworksweb.com

P: 08 8945 3199

the power of positioning

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -4-

The Thought Leaders community is chock-full of clever people who are passionate about changing the world one idea at a time! We have fabulous conversations exploring these ideas and how to bring them into practical application in the different arenas in which we operate. We also generally understand the importance of having the right attitude as we expand our thinking. Knowing the theory is one thing, but knowing what to do on a daily basis to keep our spirits up is sometimes a very different thing indeed.

As we work on developing our thought leadership including clarity of topic, offering and delivery modalities, just being positive is not going to cut it. We need an ability to realistically assess our current situation then implement steps to identify & deliver ‘best possible’ results. As I explored in last month’s edition, I believe that the key success criteria is the ability to maintain a sense of optimism in our approach.

So, what does that take? The first of three vital elements to optimise our thought leadership journey is attitude awareness. This includes being alert to the triggers for ups and downs in our mood, as well as having an ability to recognize cycles during the day/week/month. Scheduling “tough” work for peak attitude times and easing off in the lulls can massively increase your effectiveness.

Stay tuned next month for keys to boosting the optimism in your Thought Leadership through activity management.

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -5-

We all want our customers to be so in love with us that they are prepared to line up for hours or days for our new products like they do at Apple. Or to want to work for us so badly that a resume is sent every 25 seconds like they do at Google. The reality is that generating commitment in an organisation over a long period of time is tough to do. We hear how we need to be creating movements and tribes of devoted followers, but some days it feels like an achievement if we can just get people to show up.

What is the magic that makes the difference? Institutions, organisations, tribes or movements that are able to sustain commitment from their people over time are generally successful at doing one of two things – making a stand against something or fighting for a cause. There is a third option of course – fear. And while some organisations and managers might still try to operate out of this paradigm, the reality is that it doesn’t work.

Tribes from the bohemians of the early nineteenth century through to hippies and rock and roll were all founded on the magic of making a stand or fighting for a cause. Or both. It’s a more elegant way of thinking about the idea of creating an enemy, mooted in the old leadership and organisational theory literature.

I once worked for a plaintiff personal injuries law firm. As far as being a lawyer goes, this is a pretty tough gig. The media and the public are not very enamoured of the practice area and the tag of ‘ambulance chaser’ is never far away. It’s hard to attract staff and hard to maintain enthusiasm amongst a constant flow of negativity from media, colleagues, family and friends.

The firm however had an amazing culture, every employee felt part of a fight for the cause of justice and individual rights. They recited speeches by the great US attorney Clarence Darrow. They were phenomenal at building a culture of success around the stories of their work, of celebrating being in David and Goliath battles. They fought some of the most high profile litigation in Australia. They even formed an association with Erin Brokovich.

Is Apple making a stand for great design? Is Google fighting for the cause of instant information access? Think about what your business does. And then re-think it. How are you making a stand or fighting for a cause? Fear is not an option.

awareness enhances attitude commitment - make a stand

Helen Macdonald is Australia’s Corporate Optimist and a Thought Leaders Mentor

W: www.helenmac.com

E: helen@helenmac.com

P: 0419 930 864

Libby Sander is a Thought Leaders Mentor in Brisbane and is an expert on organisational design and performance.

Contact details:

W: www.libbysander.comE: libby@libbysander.comP: 0409 436 650

Commercialising intellectual property for strategic advantage and better business results is a key role for thought leaders within organisations as it provides for strong brand differentiation in the market place and enables the organisation to use the thought leadership approach to champion strategic initiatives.

Two often overlooked or hidden benefits of Organisational Thought Leadership are:1. Recruitment and retention of

talented staff; and,2. Converting existing knowledge

into systems and processes while at the same time developing shared vision and commitment.

Both these benefits are of significant value as they provide the foundation for doing better business by reducing costs, increasing productivity and delivering the ongoing improved performance that comes from a workforce with a shared commitment to great results.

Thought leaders in organisations come in many shapes and sizes and one useful lens is to look at them as either individual or group thought leaders. Individual thought leaders see the world differently and can be viewed as mavericks or misfits. However, when identified and managed as thought leaders these people become strong advocates for areas of strategic importance and make a major contribution to organisational success. Alternatively, group thought leaders are often referred to as team players, yet their ability to facilitate group learning and capture organisational knowledge is overlooked and opportunities fall by the wayside.

When ignored or left untapped, individual and group thought leaders at best underperform and can often undermine performance or leave the organisation in search of a role that makes use of their special talents. Identifying and harnessing the talents of individual and group thought leaders in organisations is a vital task for CEO’s and executive leaders as they seek to optimise business results.

In my 20 years as a CEO, one of the most effective development strategies I used was to form project teams of prospective thought leaders. By combining individual and collective thought leaders with other staff we were able to capture “what we do around here” and “how we can do it better” and turn this knowledge into models for implementation. As well as making the most of our people we gained a real performance boost for using “our service model” and the process developed a passionate group of thought leading advocates who took responsibility for implementing change throughout the business.

Developing thought leaders in organisations is a win - win strategy as not only does it provide a point of difference in the market it also enables the hidden benefits of better performance in the existing business to become a reality.

Dr Andrew O’Brien is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Melbourne whose focus is on Organisational Thought Leadership and working with executive leaders to nurture Thought Leadership for commercial advantage..

Contact details:

W: www.andrewob.comE: andrew.obrien@orgsthatmatter.comP: 0417 552 135

hidden value in organisational thought leadership

“”

Developing Thought Leaders within organisations is a win-win strategy...

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -6-

Thought Leaders develop a bank of thoughts or ideas that can be accessed in a moment and can be instantly customised to any audience or situation.

For this to work though, you need to capture the essence of an idea quickly and have a system for depositing ideas, reviewing them and withdrawing them as required.

I believe that you should never speak about something unless you have given it considerable thought. Even when faced with a spontaneous request to speak, you can still speak from a well considered space, assuming you have done some prep work on your Idea Bank.

An Idea Bank is constantly being enhanced, re-worked and customised. It is a well organised, chunked down catalogue of mini presentations. The IP snapshot system we teach in the Million Dollar Expert Program allows for different people to deliver the same message and adjust it for their style and environment.

7 benefits of an Idea Bank1. You can speedily prepare a great speech2. You are free to customise content whilst preparing3. The message can be picked up and effectively delivered by others4. You don't have to rehearse speeches word perfect5. You demonstrate your knowledge impressively when asked to speak6. Others can present the same message and adjust the content to suit their personal style

7. You can extend or shorten the speech duration as required

In short, it's about creating a set of key ideas and messages that you draw upon at different times and present in a different sequence depending on the outcome you are looking to achieve. The ideas in your bank are all valued differently, some are big ideas, some lesser. A presentation may need a few smaller ideas to make the big ones work.

The more ideas you have in your bank the better, but only if you can access them easily.

If you are not currently in possession of a Thought Leaders blue card, then what are you waiting for? The Monthly Group Mentoring with a Thought Leaders Mentor is extremely high value and should not be missed out on.

Each and every month, Thought Leaders blue card holders join a monthly group mentoring session and spend an hour with a Thought Leaders Mentor and other members of the community, specifically to learn and share in Thought Leadership.

The sessions are invaluable, and not only do you get to attend the sessions of the Mentor you signed up with, but you can also attend ANY and ALL of the Thought Leaders Group Mentoring sessions on the planet!

So, for example, there is a high possibility that in your nearest capital city, there are several sessions each month, run by different ThoughtLeaders Mentors. The Monthly Group Mentoring are held in locations and venues of the Mentor’s Choice.

The mentors list out their Monthly Mentoring Sessions in the events calendar on Thought Leaders Central, so keep an eye on the calendar, and get along to experience some time with a mentor and other members of the Thought Leader Community.

Get along to the next session in your area!

1. Go to http://www.thoughtleaderscentral.com and click on the events tab.2. Find the Monthly Mentoring events with a Thought Leaders Mentor.3. If you don’t yet have a blue card, come along and attend a session with one of the mentors.

4. If you enjoy the monthly mentoring, sign up for 12 months and get your own blue card.

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -7-

do you have a blue card?develop an idea bank

Matt Church is the founder of Thought Leaders Global and continues to be the driving force behind many of the country’s leading thinkers.

www.mattchurch.com

mattchurch@thoughtleaders.com

P: 02 8966 4700

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -7-

Getting clear on your IP or unique

thoughts is one key step for your

thought leadership. But it is only part of the story. Working out the

commercial value, or what to

charge clients and customers for this knowledge, is the other part

of the equation.

Many thought leaders struggle with placing an economic value

on their knowledge, and when

they do try to put numbers around their knowledge they fall back into

approaches such as:

Time – where you work out your

fees based on an estimate of

how many hours work you do (in effect, charge by the hour), or

Market rates – where you work

out what others in your industry are charging and do the same.

Both these approaches are

fundamentally flawed, and will see you charging a lot less that you are

worth.

You see, fees are all about the other person and the value they

place on the object or service. If

they see the value, they are willing

to pay higher fees. What you need

to do is to "sell" the value you add to the business. If you can't define

the benefit of your thought

leadership, then you will struggle to convince a buyer it is valuable.

To understand the value you add,

you need to look at your thought leadership through your

customers’ eyes. Businesses buy

outcomes. They want to solve a problem, find solutions and make

more profit. Your job is to help

them do that. As a thought leader, you are not selling ideas, but the

benefits of your ideas to the

bottom line of the business.

Where you provide outcomes, you

are instantly worth more than a simple wages employee who is

paid by the hour, and more than

the competition who merely provide activities not solutions.

I often hear thought leaders

comment that they find it difficult to measure the impact they have

on businesses. This is often a

smokescreen for emotional blocks to being accountable for

outcomes. If you are serious about

stepping up into thought leadership, then there are always

ways to measure the impact you

make on businesses. If you collate detailed case studies, conduct

surveys or gather qualitative and

quantitative data on the impact of your thought leadership. It will

add a zero to what you charge.   

And because ideas have a different value to different people,

there is no reason for your fees to

be the same across the board. Your fees can vary as you add

different value to different people.

This may not always be possible, but don’t rule out the option of

charging different amounts to

different clients. This is particularly relevant when you are delivering

extended programs internally.

Another trap thought leaders fall into when valuing their

knowledge, is their own "stuff"

around money. Don’t let price be a judgement of yourself as a person.

So, as a thought leader, you need to balance your knowledge with

your commercial success, and make some smart decisions about

what you are truly worth. You are a

thought leader – charge accordingly.

Steve Major is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Brisbane. He is an expert in helping thought leaders make smarter decisions.

Contact details:

Web: www.decisionhq.com

Email: steve@decisionhq.com

Phone: 07 3298 6583

are you correctly valuing your thought leadership?

“”

If they see value, they are willing to pay higher fees...

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -8-

Matt Church has developed a great model for strategising and achieving the growth of your practice. You can see the different levels, and their associated belts in the picture. Each additional $10k per month income into your practice gets you another belt, just like progressing through the belts in a martial art.  The key to the model is to have the focus and take the actions that are appropriate to your level. 

I’ve actually got a black belt in the martial art that I study - Aikido. There is a particular throw called koshi nage (translates as 'hip throw') which can have you flying through the air upside down and a long way off the ground. It's not something that a white belt should try!  It’s the same in your practice. There are some things like writing a book which are a bit like koshi nage, you want to have at least a blue belt before you attempt it. 

 Yellow - Nice One!  If you have made it to yellow belt in your practice, the first thing to do is acknowledge how far you’ve come. The vast majority of writers, speakers, coaches and trainers never get to $20k a month. I read that when I made it to white belt in my practice and had generated a six figure income through my coaching, that put me in the top 9% of coaches. In other words 91% of professional coaches aren’t even at white belt.  

It’s easy to get so caught up in how far there is to go that we forget how far we’ve come. If you have made it to yellow belt that is a pretty cool achievement - give yourself a pat on the back.  OK - enough with the self congratulations - time to get to work and earn that green belt! Focus - ValueThe focus for moving from yellow to green is value.  Firstly, value your expertise and charge for it accordingly. I used to charge $150 an hour for my coaching. Just quietly that was never going to get me to green belt (let alone black belt). I did the maths. Almost overnight I put my

fees up to $500 an hour. Then a very strange thing happened. People paid me. It made me realise that it was what was going on between my ears that was keeping my income where it was, not what other people were willing to pay. Of course I then had to deliver that much value.  Also value your time. Green belt means selling and delivering $7500 a week - $1500 a day. You are going to be busy, and it's time to cut out any activity that is valued at less than that. It’s also time to get some admin support to allow you to focus on your high value activities.  Good luck! 

Going from White belt to Black belt as a Million Dollar ExpertPart II - Yellow Belt to Green Belt

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -9-

Peter Cook is a Melbourne based Mentor and an expert in the White Belt to Black Belt journey.

Contact Details:

W: www.petergcook.com

E: petercook@thoughtleaders.com.au

P: 0407 077 210

have the focus and take the actions...”

“

Tom’s job was to read the dials on the equipment and to write down what it said, and so he came to be in the Dyes chemical plant on a Sunday, when all other Yorkshire men were tucking into Sunday roast. Luckily for Tom he was at the other end of the site when the Pfaudler reactor ruptured and shot its lid through the roof of the building like a rocket and landed ignominiously against the wall of my office. Luckily, for me I was home eating Yorkshire pudding! The point of this tale was that either no one told Tom what to do and why, or alternatively he did not hear. Whatever the answer, Tom duly recorded the increases then carried on down the yard while the chemicals ignited.

Organisations have to deliver ever increasing numbers of compliance, health and safety and regulatory messages but many continue to deliver these in a way that does not resonate with audiences and does not hit home.

The tolerance of regulators of incidents and compliance breaches is waning and now more than ever before, directors and executives are being held personally responsible for anti-competitive activities, accidents,

incidents and deaths, many of which were avoidable.

The thought leadership competency of Mindsets is all about ensuring messages hit home. In a one to one environment its all about finding people’s preferred way of receiving information and targeting your communications that way, but in a group environment, particularly with your critical messages, it is about covering all the bases.

If you can find ways to communicate with “most of the people most of the time” you will be streets ahead of other leaders.

In the Organisational Thought Leadership Programme we use a

nine box model which builds on and beyond the work of Howard Gardiner, to map out what is going on for your audience.

To introduce you to this, there are effectively 3 levels in which your audience is sitting. There are those who are fresh to the topic, the beginners who are going to be gathering information and trying to make sense of the information. At the next middle level there are

the people with intermediate knowledge who will be busy in their minds arranging the information, seeking patterns, examples and looking for meaning and distinctions. Finally, there are those with an understanding of the topic who are seeking a deeper meaning and context.

I challenge you now, next time you are structuring an important boring communication piece, think deliberately about these groups of people and the stages they are at, considering their needs to receive, rather than yours to deliver.

Tom at least still had a job to do after the destruction of the plant: cleaning the 300 local cars sprayed with fluorescent dye particles floating on the Yorkshire breeze. But... will we keep ours, if our compliance messages float off in the wind too?

Jenny Vickers is a lawyer expert in helping businesses do compliance differently and is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Auckland.

Contact details:

Web www.zeopard.com

Email jennie@zeopard.com

Phone +64 9 529 1500

is anybody hearing your really boring, important messages?

“”

Consider others needs to receive, rather than yours to deliver...

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -10-

The major challenge of being a Thought Leader is to leverage your ideas. And, one way you can do this is to create a product.

They allow us to express our ideas, earn more money and build our reputations without us being there to deliver the benefits in person.

When creating your products, choosing the right one at the right time is crucial. The key is to know your place in the food chain. At the bottom are simple ideas with simple designs. As you move up the food chain your products become more complex and so does the design cost plus the leverage you receive.

Four factors determine where you are on the product food chain:

1. Your income and design budget,2. The depth and breadth of your intellectual property,3. The spread of your delivery modes, and4 . The quality and size of your client base/audience.

The biggest mistake you can make is to choose a product that doesn't fit your food chain level. For instance, when you start out you might love to have a custom designed board game. And, this is simply not going to work. You're not realistically going to be able to afford it, you won't have the quality and breadth of ideas to base it on and you won't have the client base in place to take advantage of the end result.

A simple framework for choosing the right product for your Thought Leaders practice is the three Cs: Capture, Create and Congregate.

1. CaptureThe first level of product creation is to capture what you're already doing. For instance, in Speaker mode you can make an audio or video recording of you in action. The beauty of 'capture' mode is that it’s affordable, takes very little time and builds upon your current activity.

2. CreateThe second level of product creation is to combine a number of your ideas into a single artifact.For instance, a trainer may create a card or board game. The aim of 'create' mode is to take your current activity to a new level. It builds a different level of service and delivers it in a new format.

3. CongregateThe third level of product creation is to build your own community.

For example, a membership site where you charge a monthly subscription fee filled with ebooks, audio and video resources. This level requires a considerable collection of intellectual property and an existing pool of fans to draw upon. In the early days of your practice, this is too resource hungry to be effective plus you won't have the numbers to make your online space come alive. Instead, you can build to this level by compiling email lists, connections on Linked In, friends

on your Facebook fan page and Twitter followers.

To avoid making a big product mistake, review where you're at on the food chain before deciding whether to capture, create or congregate.

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -11-

Geoff McDonald is the creator of the Bookrapper concept and is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Melbourne.

Contact Details:

W: www.ideasarchitect.com.au

E: geoff@ideasarchitect.com.au

P: 0407 830 902

The biggest product mistake you can make

Rapidly manifest great results by just being you in ways that others value!

Ever been in this situation?

You are keen to create more business or clients.

You are at an event such as a social event, a training course, a networking event or a conference & you meet someone new and they ask:

“So, what do you do?”

“Umm… err… well… I sort of... do some stuff… I’m really good at… cough, splutter, sip your drink … (change subject)“... So, what do you do?”

Or,

You start to talk about what you “do” and three minutes later their eyes glaze over, they politely stifle a yawn & start looking for somewhere else to go.

Of course, this has never happened to me and I’m sure wouldn’t have happened to you!

But it did happen to a friend of mine once. Maybe one of your friends had a similar experience

Step 1: Creating your Mojo Manifesto

Your Mojo Manifesto is a simple four to ten word declarative statement which consists of two elements:

1. It captures the essence of who you are, at your best, when you are in service of others and the planet.

2. It is one idea expressed in a way that creates your key message as a compelling benefit for others.

It is not a slogan or motivational saying. It is not a way of trying to get people to buy your ideas/services, it is an authentic way of proudly communicating what you are about in a way that is simple and relevant for others.

The cool thing about capturing your Mojo Manifesto is that it expresses who you are as unique and valuable to others while

liberating you from insecurity and neediness.

It feels good, and is very attractive.

An example of a Mojo Manifesto is: Thought Leaders: “Helping clever people be commercially smart”.

Step 2: Rapidly manifesting great results

The three levels of Manifestation:

To create or bring into reality the existence of something in our lives, there are three levels of power in which we operate. These things are going on constantly, and for us, mostly unconsciously, whether we like it or not, or whether we like the results or not.

Level One: Thoughts - Thinking about it. Visualizing it. Getting emotional about it.

Level Two: Communication – How others hear and see you, through what/how you speak, listen, write, make requests, how you appear, how you conduct yourself, your

products and even your consistency with your message.

Level Three: Action – This is the power zone of manifestation - the greater the action you take - the faster results will manifest.

The irony of really nailing your Mojo Manifesto is that your thoughts, how you communicate and your actions will automatically align with this statement because it is a natural expression of you.

Your professional life becomes a gift and a source of fulfillment.

Ivan Waters is a Thought Leaders Mentor based in Melbourne and is an expert in helping finding effective and sustainable ways to easily get results.

Contact details:

Web: www.loveyourbody.com

Email: ivan@loveyourbody.com

Phone: 0408 625 907

what’s your Mojo Manifesto?

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -12-

It was Charlie Jones who said that the key factors that make a difference between who you are today and who you will be in 5 years time are the books you read and the people you meet.

We reckon he was right, but now, the change can happen quicker, and the ways you can learn are more diverse.

We have been running meetings for thought leaders for almost 10 years. A Thought Leaders event is so unique.

Where else in the world would you get to attend a program where the audience is as stimulating as the presenters? In the past, the only

way you could really know this was in the breaks. Those short sessions where you duck to the ‘loo’, grab a muffin, chat to some new people briefly and then, almost with regret, have to break up the chat to go back into the learning session.

Well, what if the whole program was as good as the break? What if you just had a whole event dedicated to the mutual sharing of ideas between some truly great thinkers and subject matter experts?

The Summits are built around the phenomenally successful Open Spaces format. This structured approach to unstructured

meetings has been used in the United Nations assembly discussions and in small regional communities in the outback. It works!

Of course you have to take our word for it the first time. After a few minutes though, you will come to see this as one of the most natural and effective ways for people to get together to share, learn and meet.

There are four principles of Open Space...

1. Whoever comes are the right people

2. Whatever happens is all that could have

3. Whenever it starts is the right time

4. When it is over, it is over

And, there are two laws...

The Law Of Two Feet implies that if, after being part of a session you are no longer interested in it, you have permission to leave. The law

puts responsibility for your own actions on your own shoulders.

Bumblebees And Butterflies are for those people who wish to use their two feet and 'flit' from meeting to meeting. These people can pollinate and cross-fertilize,

lending richness and variety to the discussions.

It’s elegant in its simplicity!

Not only do we not apologise for the likelihood that you might just think differently when you finish the day - we hope that is exactly what happens. Indeed, that is the role of thought leadership.

So what do you do? Well, go to the registration site and invest $990 and get our ‘all you meet’ special deal. That’s right. You can attend any of the advertised dates and locations. You can register by going to www.thoughtleaderssummits.com

And, come to the first one as our

VIP Guest!

a new way to share, learn & meet

SEPT OCT 2010#tlmag -13-

sydney Thursday 6 May 2010Thursday 5 August 2010Wednesday 20 October 2010

brisbane Wednesday 2 June 2010Wednesday 1 September 2010Wednesday 1 December 2010

melbourne Wednesday 30 June 2010Tuesday 24 August 2010Wednesday 27 October 2010

auckland Tuesday 18 May 2010Friday 27 August 2010Friday 26 November 2010

Where Why What to do

It’s not what you know but also who you know. This is the key place to meet, network and communicate directly with the whole Thought Leaders membership community.

• Build a profile• Join the local community group• Introduce yourself to a local mentor• Blog your thoughts• Be cool—‘serve don’t sell’

You get tonnes of great information on how to capture, package and deliver your expertise.

• Create an RSS feed to the episode list• Watch videos, post comments, share the

content with your friends, clients and colleagues via facebook, twitter etc

Read streamed articles and specific thoughts on how you go about developing your expertise.

• Set up an RSS feed• Post comments• Share the content

Get short bursts of mentoring.Stay up to date with latest networking and learning opportunities

• Follow • Re-tweet the stuff you like

It’s the one stop portal for all these different online places. • Link to all in the Thought Leaders world

They are the live, belly-to-belly, face-to-face experiences that combine the multiple benefits of sharing, learning and meeting.

• Participate

Ability for to you apply to become a Thought Leaders Accredited Mentor.

• Branding• Licensing• Positioning

Navigating your way around the online world