will you create, curate or both?
by anthony glomski and russ alan prince
becoming a thought leader is one of the most effective ways to effectively position you and your practice to the ultrawealthy and the other professionals who serve them. think of it as complementing and augmenting the powerful relationships you are building using the everyone wins process.
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while there are different ways people define a thought leader, the following captures the actions and outcomes of becoming a thought leader:
a thought leader is an individual recognized by clients, prospective clients, referral sources, intermediaries and even competitors as one of the foremost authorities in selected areas of specialization. as a result, that individual is their go-to expert.
but, in the context of business, there is more to being a thought leader:
a thought leader is an individual who significantly profits from being recognized as the go-to expert.
key advantages of being a thought leader
probably the most significant advantage of being a thought leader is that the positioning validates your expertise. for instance, it is much easier for lawyers to refer you to their wealthy clients when they can show those clients you are one of the best of the best in the field. when your reputation for exceptionalism precedes you, the wealthy are more receptive and positively inclined to engage you.
your thought leadership content can be one of the ways you add value to the practices of professionals who refer you wealthy clients. by helping them leverage your thought leadership content, they can raise their professional stature and generate new business for them.
most likely, both your clients and other professionals are not very adept at making a case for you and your expertise. by showing them how to use your thought leadership content, you are likely to be introduced in ways that lead to more business, faster.
another advantage of being a thought leader is that it creates unanticipated opportunities. the wealthy will occasionally initiate contact with you because you are a thought leader. this occurs more so than ever among the super-rich and single-family offices.
it is essential to recognize that you are unlikely to be a thought leader because you say you are. when other people from your clients to professionals proclaim you to be a thought leader, you become a thought leader. meanwhile, there are methodologies you can employ to become a thought leader.
becoming a thought leader
there are three major steps to becoming a thought leader:
- define your audience
- develop and implement your thought leadership program
- follow up to monetize your thought leadership content
define your audience
your thought leadership content needs to be geared to the audience you want as clients or referral sources. our focus herein is the wealthy. you may also choose to refine your audience further. the super-rich can be exceptional clients for your high-net-worth practice. thought leadership for them and single-family offices is very different from that of the business owner with a net worth of $50 million.
you might want recognition as a thought leader by other professionals who can refer you wealthy clients. in this regard, being able to share with them thought leadership content explaining best practices for working with the wealthy could be very rewarding.
in sum, you want to specify what audiences you want to think of you as a thought leader. at the same time, you need to determine your areas of expertise. this is why these cohorts will turn to you for your services.
keep in mind that as circumstances change, you will want to readjust your positioning, which means modifying the thought leadership content you provide. therefore, it is essential to always be attuned to the needs and wants of your audiences.
develop and implement your thought leadership program
becoming a thought leader requires continuity. to become a thought leader, you most likely have to work at it regularly. to be well known and top of mind with your chosen audiences tends to require a great deal of outreach.
you will most likely need to be able to provide a steady stream of thought leadership content on an ongoing basis for your audience to see you as a definitive expert. consistency is a necessity.
there are two non-exclusive approaches you can take to providing a steady stream of thought leadership content:
- curate thought leadership content: here, you are carefully selecting ideas, concepts, best practices and the like that are meaningful and of keen interest to your chosen audiences. this is a much less costly approach and tends to ensure a constant flow of content.
- create thought leadership content: here, you are developing new insights and solutions for your chosen audiences. creating thought leadership content ensures it is unique to you. however, there are some possible drawbacks, such as cost and the need for specialized skills.
your understanding of the two approaches – curate and create – is crucial as it will help you make decisions on how to identify and provide high-quality thought leadership content. to determine what approach you might want to take, consider the key characteristics of each:
curating compared with creating high-quality thought leadership content
| characteristic | curate | create |
| competitive advantage | moderate to very high | low to very high |
| nature of content | repurposed | potentially unique |
| cost of content | low to moderate | moderate to high |
| time to use | immediate | extended |
| amount of content | considerable | limited |
competitive advantage: when you create thought leadership content that resoundingly connects with your audience and is unique in meaningful ways, you gain a significant competitive advantage. compared with curating, creating thought leadership content has the potential to give you the biggest successes – but there is also the potential for the biggest failures.
when you curate high-quality content, the downside is minimal, and the upside is often just as impressive. when you skillfully curate and deliver high-quality thought leadership content, you can gain the competitive advantage associated with it being unique – especially to the people you provide it to. generally speaking, you do not need to create the high-quality thought leadership content; you just need to be the one delivering it directly or providing it to your centers of influence for them to deliver.
nature of content: when you create high-quality content, it has the potential to be unique. to create outstanding thought leadership content often requires skills and the knowledge of experts outside the legal and financial spheres such as empiricists, digital media specialists and branding experts.
when it comes to curating high-quality thought leadership content, the material is artfully repurposed by definition. someone else created it. you therefore can judge its value by evaluating the material against its ability to resonate with your audiences. no other types of experts are required.
also important is the material’s perceived uniqueness. curating high-quality thought leadership content could result in a tremendous impact if you share it with wealthy individuals or other professionals who are not very familiar with the information and insights addressed.
cost of content: creating high-quality thought leadership content can get expensive. it can be very expensive. if you choose to conduct primary research, think in terms of six figures to start, and the numbers can go into the stratosphere. million-dollar costs are typical.
researching the wealthy, for example, gets exceedingly expensive very quickly. meanwhile, researching other professionals is usually considerably less costly, but certainly not by most standards inexpensive.
curated thought leadership content, in contrast, is exceedingly economical. repurposing or using an ongoing system for curating high-quality thought leadership content is astoundingly cost-effective by comparison. the cost gap between curating and creating high-quality thought leadership content is one of the biggest differentiators between the two approaches.
time to use: when you curate high-quality thought leadership content, your time to use is virtually immediate – you have access to material that you can use instantly. because you are using previously developed high-quality thought leadership content, you can be very responsive and flexible. as new clients and centers of influence opportunities and possibilities arise, you can expeditiously position yourself as an expert in relevant matters.
creating high-quality thought leadership content, on the other hand, could be laborious and time-consuming. you might have an idea to provide thought leadership content that fits particular client needs, but it might very well take you months to produce something appropriate. most of the time, there is a long cycle from the decision to develop high-quality thought leadership content to usable materials.
amount of content: curating high-quality thought leadership content is a simple and effective way to have as much diverse material as necessary. to become a thought leader and to help centers of influence become thought leaders requires a great deal of material. consistency is of paramount importance. that is, to get consequential results often requires campaigns.
for the most part, creating a continuous flow of high-quality thought leadership content requires extensive resources and time. it is a major undertaking to produce a considerable amount of high-quality thought leadership content regularly.
the best approach
all in all, creating high-quality thought leadership content is the more complicated of the two approaches. it is also habitually more costly, requires specialized skills outside of the field of accounting such as market research, takes longer to put in place and is less conducive to having a steady supply of new material. the significant advantage of creating your own high-quality thought leadership content is that if you do it well, it can be truly unique – thereby substantially differentiating you and your high-net-worth practice from all competitors.
curating high-quality thought leadership content is a much faster, less expensive, lower-risk approach. because the material you use is not inherently unique, you can often, through skillful distribution and follow-up, achieve the same impact as creating thought leadership content.
you can always both curate and create thought leadership content. this approach can be the most complicated and costly way to provide high-quality thought leadership content. however, when you capably use both methods, you potentially offset the weaknesses of each.