So you want to be a thought leader

Find Your Superpower newsletter 040

Read time: 8 minutes

Topics covered: Branding, thought leadership, credibility and authority

I must read at least 300+ LinkedIn posts per day.

To keep it interesting and to level up my ability to predict social media and behavioral psychology, I've started playing a little guessing game with myself.

I guess how many likes a LinkedIn post will get.

I first look at the lede (the hook of the post), followed by the introduction, the body text and the photo (if any).

And I am usually in the ballpark.

The only time I am completely wrong is when that person is from an industry outside my range of view, and if they have some kind of unique contextual industry leadership role (like being the director of a 500-pax division) unbeknownst to me, such that even the most poorly worded, poorly formatted post gets 100+ likes.

An analogy to that kind of natural advantage on LinkedIn would be being born rich—but because the rest of us on LinkedIn don't have 100+ likes in our pocket, my goal here is not to worry about them and instead show you guys how to get there organically!

Over the Christmas season, I wondered how I could help more people via my LinkedIn coaching, and I realized that I wanted to show you a logical and stepwise path to becoming a thought leader on LinkedIn.

This left-brained research scientist has created an idiot-proof roadmap for all of us to follow. Nothing too technical or complicated; as a university assistant professor until 2018, I've always preferred to make any subject I lecture on appear as easy as possible.

Unveiling... The 12-month LinkedIn Thought Leadership Roadmap

In last week’s newsletter, I shared The 9 archetypes of people you can find on LinkedIn and will discuss it further at my LinkedIn Branding Basics workshop on January 26.

I didn't create the 9 archetypes for fun, by the way. It is part of my curriculum for my 12-month LinkedIn Thought Leadership Roadmap. I needed a noob-level, universal set of vocabulary to label the brand personas that we want and don't want.

Without a universal set of terms, I wouldn't be able to communicate easily what is good and what is bad with my course participants.

My 12-month thought leadership roadmap is a simple guide to going from a relative unknown on LinkedIn to a thought leader on LinkedIn.

PS: Now there's a lot of assumptions that have to be made here. I am assuming that you have the client portfolio, industry experience, online temperament, credibility and authority to back it up.

And if you do, then join me at my workshop (which will also be recorded and placed in the directory for on-demand viewing) on Jan 26.

Here's a teaser in this newsletter of some of the mistakes that could hurt our thought leadership journey on LinkedIn:

1/ Curse of knowledge

The more intelligent, educated and professionally senior we get, the bigger the curse of knowledge.

In a LinkedIn post yesterday, I said that I believed 9 out of 10 of LinkedIn content creators suffer from the curse of knowledge, a phrase popularized by Harvard Professor and cognitive linguist Steven Pinker, to describe a cognitive bias where we incorrectly assume others have the same knowledge as we have.

This "curse" also causes us to use jargon and acronyms that nobody outside our industry uses. I coach MNCs and government agencies on this.

On LinkedIn, I read post after post giving work and life advice.... posts titled "10 things you need to do to be a better leader".

But who are you? Have you run a business? Have you balanced P&L? Why should we trust you?

We forget to remind our followers in each post of (1) who we are, (2) the experience which gives us credibility and authority, and (3) the context in which we are offering us this advice.

To give you a hypothetical example, if we want to write about "3 tips on raising a seed funding round", we must explain clearly that (1) we are a startup founder in X industry, (2) our experience raising a $500K round, and (3) that we raised in the recent challenging funding winter of 2023.

Just imagine if someone you don't know bursts into your office, saying, "5 reasons why you are not getting promoted at work..."

I don't think you'd like it very much, frankly.

I think I would be quite annoyed.

Therefore, in 2024, here's one tip for you: assume your followers have zero knowledge of who you are, and provide them the necessary context to appreciate your advice. You need to win their hearts and minds in every post.

2/ Our brand begins on the inside

Most of us think that our LinkedIn brand is everything that happens on the outside.

I can guarantee that it couldn’t be further from the truth. Your brand is an inside job. Once you look better inside, you look better outside too.

To build a great brand, we need the rehaul the insides first, because our brand is how we do business with others and communicate with the world.

What is our brand purpose?

And as we observe the rise of “the person as a brand” in this influencer era and attention economy, it is about the entire customer experience. We need to create powerful, authentic connections with our followers, who want to have special and memorable experiences with us.

How they experience us via our content is intimately connected to their brand perception of us.

TL;DR: you can't put lipstick on a pig.

And that’s why I started reading about the abundance mindset and implementing it in my work and life.

In my masterclass, LinkedIn Success Mindset (notice it is not called LinkedIn Success Action), I discuss three age-old laws that will help us become more gorgeous inside and outside:

• The law of abundance

• The law of attraction

• The law of reciprocity

Just a reminder why we need to fix our core before we can fix ourselves aesthetically: if not, the more we post on LinkedIn, the more our true personality will emerge.

You can't hide your true personality. It will appear some day in some shape or form.

And if you show up on LinkedIn as the Humble Bragger, Toxic Troll or Shock Jock archetype, it sure ain't a pretty sight.

3/ Do you have the receipts?

I feel like someone has to be the adult in the room here, and say this unpopular truth.

Not all of us are ready to be thought leaders... yet.

Many of us are sharing ChatGPT-quality aphorisms and advice like “5 ways to be a better leader” but we don't have the business or leadership chops to back it up.

Now, this is a fundamentally different point from the curse of knowledge. The curse of knowledge occurs when you are qualified and experienced, but don't feel the need to share proof-of-success with others as you assume they already know how amazing you are.

Here, I am saying… do you have the receipts?

If not, let's get the receipts!

If your community is to accept you as a thought leader, they want to see evidence of your real-life achievements.

For that, you would need to create proof-of-success content aligned with your domain expertise and niche.

This could be your client portfolio, awards, case studies, client testimonials, MNC brands you are consulting for, behind-the-scenes industry knowledge, events you are speaking at.

And if you don't have a substantial enough portfolio, it is time to make a 2024 resolution to build up your work portfolio to pace your digital branding journey.

Some New Year's Eve updates from me

On new year’s eve, I received two signals that 2024 was going to be an exciting year.

First, my virtual LinkedIn bootcamp sold out in three weeks, and considering the time investment (six weeks) and non-trivial cost ($$$), it was a sign that many of you have faith in what I have to share.

Since it sold out, I've gotten 30+ messages (nearly the same number of spots as the camp itself) asking to join. I'm doing my darndest best to squeeze a few of you in.

My email waiting list for a future bootcamp is now a few hundred people long. I will do my best to create another bootcamp sometime in 2024 and offer you early-bird discounts to thank you for your support.

Second, Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam posted his first post on LinkedIn, and while everyone was busy preparing for their countdown parties, I was on LinkedIn (obviously, haha!).

This meant that I was the first to comment on his post. But what I did not expect was what came next: he also made his first comment, replying me, then posted ANOTHER comment, this time on my post, confirming that it was him on LinkedIn and not a social media manager.

PS: congratulations to President Tharman for getting a LinkedIn Top Voices badge to verify his identity.

Slaying in 2024

If you want to hear more about my 12-month LinkedIn Thought Leadership Roadmap, join my LinkedIn Branding Basics with Juliana Chan workshop on Jan 26.

🔴 LinkedIn Branding Basics with Juliana Chan virtual workshop

🔴 DATE: Friday, 26 January 2024, 11AM - 12PM (GMT +8)

🔴 LOCATION: Zoom webinar (an invite will be sent closer to the date)

Simply purchase any online course from: https://www.julianachan.org/courses

Let's slay in 2024!

#newyearnewme

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Thanks for reading issue 040 of my weekly Find Your Superpower newsletter.

For those of you who are new to my newsletter, Find Your Superpower is subscribed to by 30,000 people, and discusses the following three goals: (1) Making a career transition, (2) Professional branding on LinkedIn, and (3) Reinventing ourselves for the future of work.

Here's how to slay on LinkedIn in 2024:

1. I would recommend you purchase my course, The LinkedIn Success Mindset. In this all-in-one guide to LinkedIn, we will learn how to manage our mindset, take action and avoid making cardinal sins on the platform. I will be giving course buyers a LIVE branding basics workshop on 26 January 2024.

2. If you are very new to LinkedIn, consider my masterclass on LinkedIn professional branding, Find Your Superpower: How to Rebrand Yourself on LinkedIn. This 1h on-demand video course that will help you identify your professional brand, write a brand statement from scratch, and launch your brand on LinkedIn. Don't muck around for years on LinkedIn, sort your profile out today.