How to Become a Thought Leader | Tory Burch Foundation

Positioning yourself not just as an entrepreneur but as a thought leader in your industry can help your business stand out in a crowded market. Lindsay Rogers, founder of consulting firm Raw Strategy, has helped hundreds of leaders drive demand and strengthen customer relationships just by sharing their ideas. Her clients include heavyweights like Toyota, Twitter, NBC, and Aetna, but thought leadership isn’t just for Fortune 500 companies or established influencers. Rogers joined our webinar series to share how businesses of any size can use thought leadership to take their brand to the next level.

WHAT IS THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AND WHY SHOULD FOUNDERS CARE?

Simply put, thought leadership is the act of sharing ideas that make you interesting to other people, Rogers said. It’s about adding your unique insights and perspectives to the broader conversation in your industry.

“When people start to see how you think and why, they start to become advocates for you,” Rogers said. “That creates a boomerang effect where people say, ‘I’m going to come back, because what they said was so interesting.’”

As an entrepreneur with limited resources, you may feel like your energy is better spent promoting your products or services than sharing your hard-earned wisdom for free. But several studies have shown that thought leadership is a powerful tool that drives sales and makes businesses more resilient in the long run.

A recent Edelman survey of 3,500 management-level professionals at companies around the world found that 75% of decision-makers have looked into a product or service they weren’t previously considering because of thought leadership. More than half said good thought leadership makes them willing to pay a premium to work with a specific company.

Still, thought leadership tends to be undervalued by the brands that create it. While 86% of decision-makers say thought leadership makes them more likely to invite a company to submit a proposal, just 38% of thought leadership producers expect it to generate leads, according to the Edelman survey.

In today’s digital-first world, where customers can access information about you and your competitors with just a few clicks, it’s important to control your narrative as much as possible. By withholding your ideas and values, you invite the ever-critical public to fill in the gaps on your behalf.

“We want to start to shape what other people think about you as much as we can,” Rogers said.

ELEMENTS OF THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

There’s a good chance that you already have all the building blocks needed to become an effective thought leader. According to Rogers, the most common characteristics of effective thought leadership are expertise, relatability and point of view.

Expertise

You can’t be a thought leader if you don’t know what you’re talking about. Luckily, as a small business owner, you likely already have a wealth of knowledge in your industry. You can build credibility by sharing lessons you’ve learned, offering business-driven insights, or proposing solutions to common problems in your line of work.

“You recognize patterns that others who don’t have your experience don’t see. You can solve problems quickly. You know which problems are even worth solving,” explained Rogers. “Ultimately, that experience, your experience, helps you become more professionally valuable to the teams around you, to potential partners, but also to people that you are trying to attract as customers.”

Think about the questions your customers frequently ask or the challenges they face. By addressing these in your content, you establish yourself as a go-to resource.

Lastly, don’t be humble about your accomplishments. Women, in particular, tend to receive less recognition than men for equivalent achievements, but Harvard Business Review research suggests that promoting yourself more can help narrow that gap.

We need to hear your opinion, because ultimately, that is your signature.

Relatability

Becoming a successful thought leader takes more than just showing off how smart you are. It doesn’t matter how good your ideas are if you don’t present them in a way that engages people. If you want people to take the time to listen to your podcast, read your LinkedIn post, or open your newsletter, you have to transform your knowledge into wisdom that serves them. 

“People make the mistake of throwing out all the information that they’ve learned without connecting to the people,” Rogers continued. She advises clients to share their ideas through personal narratives, as people tend to trust information in stories more than they trust a list of facts.

Being transparent and sharing stories about mistakes and failures makes your audience feel more connected to you. According to a behavioral psychology phenomenon known as the Pratfall Effect, experts become more likable after making an error because they are seen as more approachable and human.

It’s important to stay professional even when they are being vulnerable, Rogers said. You should only share negative experiences once you’ve had enough distance from it to speak from an informed, but not emotional, perspective.

“Share from your scars, not your wounds,” she said.”You don’t want to make it just about you. You want to share enough about your experience to really showcase how it can help other people.”

“That’s the difference between being a thought leader and being a content creator or an influencer, she continued.

Point of View

The final essential component of a great thought leader is having something meaningful to say. Thought leaders voice ideas that challenge the status quo, highlight overlooked opportunities, and are comfortable sharing their opinions.

Rogers says it’s best to be as specific as possible when sharing your ideas. Generalized ideas are almost guaranteed to get lost in the sea of content online. Specificity showcases your confidence and mastery of the topic.

“We need to hear your opinion, because ultimately, that is your signature,” Rogers said. “Your perspective on what you’ve been through is your fingerprint.”

For example, the brilliant economist Joseph Stiglitz struggled to stand out early in his career because many of his peers were also brilliant. One evening, during a dinner with leading economists, Stiglitz casually shared a story about his upbringing in the small town of Gary, Indiana—a community deeply impacted by factory closures and economic hardship. As he explained how these experiences shaped his understanding of inequality and inspired his work in economics, the room grew quiet, and the guests leaned in. Suddenly, his peers saw him not just as a brilliant economist but as a passionate advocate for economic stability and prosperity. Stiglitz went on to become a Nobel Laureate.

When combined with expertise and relatability, Stiglitz’s point of view became a powerful tool that encouraged others to trust his insights and follow his lead in thought leadership.

HOW TO BECOME A THOUGHT LEADER

Regularly coming up with fresh ideas and unique angles may seem like a tall order, but Rogers reminded our audience that they already have everything they need to pull it off.

“There’s a reason why you’re entrepreneurs,” she said. “It’s okay to say, ‘I think outside the box.’”

Rogers shared the following framework to help you become a thought leader:

Find Your Voice  

Ask yourself, what wisdom can you share from pivotal moments, and what do you want to be known for? Be sure to differentiate your qualities, and articulate them through specific stories that highlight your own perspective. Try to be as specific as possible in answering these questions—people pay attention to fresh, relatable details that resonate, Rogers said. 

“Get as close as you can to describing your thoughts, your feelings, mistakes, wins, pains, losses.”

Next, figure out where your perspective can shift the broader conversation. Are there outdated practices or norms in your industry that you can challenge? Have past hardships shaped a valuable viewpoint others may benefit from?

Choose Your Persona

The most effective thought leaders typically fall within one of four categories: 

1. The Visionary: Visionaries are industry-focused forward-thinkers who inspire others by sharing innovative ideas and challenging the status quo. 
2. The Guide: Guides offer practical advice and how-to insights, helping their audience navigate specific challenges in their industry.
3. The Evangelist: Evangelists are passionate advocates who champion their values by supporting causes, often using their platform to drive change on a broader scale.
4. The Mentor: Similar to guides, mentors offer advice , but tend to be more focused on personal development and growth. 

While you may be drawn to two or more of these personas, it’s best to stick to one primary type  to build trust and clarity with your audience, Rogers said. 

“If you start bouncing between those personas, they don’t really know where to put you, and it gets confusing.”

Pick Your Platform 

Finally, consider where you’ll share your ideas. Social media platforms like LinkedIn or TikTok can give you a broad reach, but owning your audience through an email list is invaluable. “Every time an algorithm changes all of the social channels, you will lose something. You do not lose your audience on email,” Rogers explains. “Your relationship and your ability to build that reputation as a thought leader becomes a lot more powerful when you own your audience,” she said.