Be A Thought Leader Not A Follower

Making the impact we desire with our business is not something that just happens. It is something we can orchestrate. I have chosen to share with you my five pillars to setting the world alight with your business this year, so you can learn exactly how you can make your business the success you desire it to be.

In previous blogs in this series I have shared pillars number 5 and 4, why it is important to have fun in your business and to take inspired action. In this article you’ll learn about pillar number 3 to setting the world alight with your business this year.

This pillar is all about being a thought leader and not a follower:

Pillar No #3 – Be a Thought Leader Not a Follower

Being a thought leader is all about forging your own path with your business. Being who you are and being your own person in business. It is about following your heart, rather than doing what you think will make you money, gain you clients or meet other people’s expectations of you.

Another aspect of being a thought leader and not a follower is staying ahead of the curve. You want to be looking at the trends in your area, talking to your clients and coming up with your own solutions.

So rather than coming up with a solution very similar to what someone else is offering – look at what you see as being the gaps so you come up with your own solutions. You are constantly thinking about how you can improve what you do to better meet the needs of your clients so they can have the best experience with you and achieve their goals in the fastest time possible.

It is about not following the mainstream – most of us have had experiences at school where we have been through difficult patches. When I was at school I couldn’t follow the trend with others at the school girls. I was seen as being very different at secondary school, so I started making friends outside of school. My friends outside school were very creative and of many different age groups and backgrounds.

Everyone at my secondary school every thought I was quite weird and odd but I had these friends outside of school who seemed to accept me even though I was really shy and quiet.

So, when I got to sixth form college, I choose to go to the arty sixth form college instead of following what everyone expected of me, which was to go to the sixth form college that all the girls from my private secondary school were going to.

Read also: Take inspired action

The thing was that when I got the sixth form the strangest thing happened…I realised that loads of the students knew who I was, and because I was really shy that was really good for me.

These students thought I was really cool because I had all these friends who they thought were really cool.

It was so odd to be dropped into a place where suddenly I was really cool especially given that I had been at a secondary school where I had been bullied because the students thought I was weird.

I am sharing this because this epitomises what being a thought leader is about. If you follow what other people expect of you and you try to fit in with everyone else, what will happen is you will end up being the same as everyone else, and whilst that might feel good in the short term, it won’t feel good in the long term because you aren’t going to be true to yourself.

People are fickle, so in my situation one crowd of people thought I was strange and weird and odd, and then another crowd of people, the same age group, thought I was really cool and my friends were awesome.

This is the best example of why you need to be yourself because you might be in one environment and be getting one response from one group of people, but a different group of people will respond entirely differently.

The key thing is your ideal clients will appreciate you being you, and will love what you do. You don’t need to try to please everyone.  Your ideal clients will get the message that you are saying. Being a thought leader is being willing to experience criticism from those who aren’t your ideal clients, so that you can get your make an impact on the people you are here to help.

How can you become a thought leader:

1. Be true to who you are and not try to be anyone else
2. Listen to your heart and follow your own guidance
3. Research your industry and find out what the upcoming trends so you can stay ahead of the curve
4. Speak to your clients regularly to find out what they need from you
5. Have an open door policy where you freely help your ideal clients as much as you can by providing valuable content for free
6. Strengthen your inner confidence to be you
7. Be a rebel with a cause, and be on a mission, so you share what matters to you and why you do the work you do with your ideal clients. Your fire will get people excited about your business.

Read also: Have fun in your business

If you’d love some help in planning out how you can get your Coaching business off the ground – then book in a call with me, and my team.

“Together we can make your business dreams a reality!”

Shelley Hutchinson is founder of Client Nectar, she combines mindset coaching, with online marketing and heart-centred selling to provide Coaches and therapists with powerful, easy to follow and life changing business and marketing programmes.