Matt Church is the founder of Thought Leaders Global, and is without a doubt Australia’s and possibly the worlds foremost authority on the topic of Thought Leadership.
In this 10-minute video, Matt has a slightly different take on how you can Work Smarter. Packed with 15 ideas to get you on track to working smarter, just click on the image below to get started.
This month's White Paper is Million Dollar Expert; How to capture, package and deliver the ideas in your head.
A million dollar expert is an infopreneur who has successfully commercialised their thought leadership and is running a practice that is turning over a million dollars or more a year with only one or two support staff.
Most infopreneurs think this is impossible when they first hear this definition. “Make a seven figure income selling my expertise?” And it does sound a bit preposterous. How could you possibly charge a high enough rate and sell enough hours or days to make a million dollars in a year?
Matt Church has developed a systemic methodology to grow a practice to a million dollars based on diversifying modes of delivery and taking the appropriate steps at each revenue level. It’s a method that has been proven to work – at the time of writing about 1000 people have been exposed directly to this methodology, and over 50 of them have reached $720k or above in their practice (what we call “black belts”). Most of them are now million dollar experts.
In this e-book, we are going to share the heart of this methodology with you.
Leaders today need to go “old school”. They need to get out from behind their strategy and bring leadership to life. They need to be able to make a difference personally. Their very role as leaders, the purpose of their existence, is to make a difference and the difference they make is one of amplification.
They need to be able to make more out of what is going on. They amplify the messages that matter, they amplify the commitment to getting things done, they amplify the positive mood in a culture and they amplify the results we get.
Amplifiers are those leaders who make a difference at all levels within a business, a community or a family.
The challenge is that being an Amplifier is a choice you make, more so than a promotion you get or a set of capabilities you develop.
We desperately need leaders who can lead. We need Amplifiers - those leaders who can reduce fear and replace it with confidence, reduce confusion and replace it with clarity, mobilising us all in pursuit of a better future. It's not a “nice to do”, it's a necessity, and one that becomes increasingly so as we move further into a technological age where we find ourselves time poor and information rich. We need leaders who can take this data deluge and provide meaning, engagement and relevance around all the stuff that matters.
Amplifiers are a new level in the leadership ladder, distinguishable from other levels by their ability to develop motivators and inspirers and not just be one themselves. In tech terms they are the new operating system. They take all the best bits of the previous five positive stages on the leadership ladder and add a final quality multiplication. They are not only motivating - they create motivators; they are not only inspiring - they inspire inspirers. They go from being the smartest and most inspiring in the room, and actually breed those qualities in others. As a result their effect is exponential. If one motivator can reach 150 people and an amplifier creates 150 motivators - they then reach 22,500 people indirectly. They become 150n. They have exponential and immeasurable impacts on communities and businesses.
Learn how to use motivational leadership to get things done in and around you. Get really good at being an Amplifier, it's not just talk and you do make a difference! We need Amplifiers!
M@
When speaking in public, there are 15 questions in the minds of your audience members that need to be answered before you deliver the content of your message. These questions are often unconscious, but answering them in advance means that people are more receptive to what you have to say and more likely to remember what you said.
The first set of questions are all about making your message a priority:
1. Why this message? I read a piece recently that suggested that there are 3,500 books being written every day, and the question is not "How will I find time to read them all?", but rather, "Of those I choose to read, which ones are worth my attention?" Sharing information any other way is much the same; the audience gives me an hour of their time, so I had better give them something worth listening to. (IMPORTANCE)
2. Why this message now? Almost every audience you will address will feel that they have a lot on, and that all of it is all-important. This is something you need to navigate every time you are attempting to gather people's attention around your idea or cause. They must give it a sense of urgency! (URGENCY)
3. Why are you the person to tell me this message? This is where you begin to build credibility around who you are and your message. If you get a great response to your first two pieces around the message and the urgency of it, you can spend less time on the third credibility piece. (CREDIBILITY)
The second set of questions are all about positioning who you are and what you do:
4. Who are you? The critical thing whenever you talk about yourself is to do so humbly. Make sure you own your success but be quick to share how you have learnt from mistakes and failures. (DISCLOSURE)
5. What do you do? Think like an engineer as you talk through what it is you do and how you go about doing it. See if you can elevate others. State the fact that you are surrounded by some seriously smart technical cookies. Then proceed to explain how person X's genius allows you to get Y done better than others. (PROCESS)
6. Why should I care? You need to link what you know to what people want. If you can link how what you propose helps the audience get what they are in business for - people get that you are delivering a message just for them - that addresses their real work challenges. This makes you super relevant. (BENEFIT)
The third set of questions are all about knocking down barriers and subconscious objections:
7. What's wrong with you? At some time in your life you will be the odd one - maybe you are short, maybe you are bald, maybe you are white and the audience is not. Be careful that you don't come from insecurity when framing out a what’s-wrong-with-you concern. (PERSONAL)
8. What’s wrong with them? Think through your audience and see if they have a professional bias or some such. Eg. Engineers over specify things (like bridges so they don't fall down), accountants analyse things. Frame their bias in a complimentary way and position the disruption or change that is instructing your thinking. Ask for thoughts - then position your message. (AUDIENCE)
9. What's wrong with your message? If a message is hard to swallow or you know something might be poorly received it’s useful to get that elephant out the front of the room and name it. (MESSAGE)
The fourth set of questions switch the smart cookies on to your talk:
10. What's it like? This question is basically addressing the need for referencing. This helps people to see that you are not passing off ideas as your own. Quote others, hold up books, references, shared experiences and use analogies to start your conversation. (ABSTRACT)
11. What's it about? This is a question that positions your message into a primary overarching context. Basically pick a word that sums up what you want to discuss and share it at the outset. Then, what you want to do is build a memorable phrase that anchors that word in a way that's easy to recall. (EXISTENTIAL)
12. What's in it for me? The ‘me’ in this case may be 'my group' or 'my division' or 'my family' and it’s not an unreasonable question for someone to ask. Take time to get really clear what the pay off is for your desired audience. (INTRAPERSONAL)
The last three questions are about action and driving change:
13. What's your point? Make sure that your point is clear and well articulated. Your three or so great points nest under your primary context, (question 11) and make it real. (CLARITY)
14. How is it unique? Make sure you can explain how your idea is unique - look for a point of difference. (DIFFERENTIATION)
15. So what should I do? Our final frame is the action frame. Pick three, five or seven simple actions that people can take. Make them practical as well as conceptual. (PRESCRIPTION)
If the message you deliver is relevant, thorough, elegant and unique - then they just might act on it.
M@
What is Thought Leadership?
An expert knows something, a Thought Leader is known for knowing something. Thought Leaders are professionally famous experts. There are three domains where thought leaders stand out;
Why does it matter?
As the worlds information continues to become more accessible to all, it’s critical that we know how to apply it. Thought Leadership is about sharing wisdom in a way that is relevant, thorough, elegant and often unique. It's about capturing information, packaging it in a way that increases understanding and being able to deliver it in the most valuable way.
Why does it matter now?
We are experiencing a pace of change right now that is incredible and unprecedented. There is no doubt that the world is both faster and flatter than it's ever been. We have always and I suspect will always need leaders who can supply the WHY we do what we do. What’s become even more critical is someone who can provide the HOW. Motivational leaders provide WHY, Thought Leaders provide HOW and WHAT.
In the below 6-minute video, I share with you my 8 favourite books on productivity. I briefly discuss the main idea behind each book.
This month's White Paper is The Power of Positioning by Matt Church; A chapter from the first book in the Ideas Series; Original perspectives on life and business by leading thinkers.
We are not what we do – but we do need to be able to answer the question, “What do you do?” in a way that makes us better known and creates more business. As a card-carrying introvert, I find the prospect of commercial networking about as attractive as having root canal treatment. Still, I recognise that without customers, clients and attendees at my events, my business would dry up quicker than a well in the outback.
Download your complimentary copy today, after answering some brief questions.
Enjoy!
M@
Leaders today need to go old school. They need to get out from behind their strategy and bring leadership to life.
Motivational leadership is the ability to influence culture and drive change. It’s applied powerfully at home, in communities and organisations everywhere.
We need leaders who can lead. Leaders who can remove fear and replace it with confidence, remove confusion and replace it with clarity and mobilise us all in pursuit of a better future.
It seems that strategy is failing many as it is almost impossible to create solutions for futures further out than 12-36 months. Make no mistake, strategy is critical, it’s simply not all it’s been made out to be. The idea of motivational leadership trumps strategy every time.
Motivational Leadership (Rah Rah!) is the missing link between what we know we should do (strategy), the willingness to do it (attitude) and getting it done (execution). While the principles of Rah Rah are simple, the application of them requires a combination of art, finesse and courage.
One thing though is universally true, you cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without also illuminating your own.
And receive a free information pack, including a chapter from the best selling “Thought Leaders” book.
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