My friend and Thought Leaders founder Matt Church says that thought leaders running a practice are more like da Vinci than Henry Ford.
I love this.
Business experts tell us we need niche. Pick one thing for one market and do it well. Good advice for a business.
But for clever people that can feel like a death sentence. Go and spend the next 20 years teaching the same people the same thing … no thanks.
At Thought Leaders we teach clients to pick 3 – 7 different domains of expertise to take to market. It’s OK to be an expert in leadership and communication and sales etc etc.
But …
The problem this creates, of course, is one of confused positioning. What would Da Vinci put on his website?
I actually don’t want the sales expert talking about leadership at my conference. Or an anatomist painting the roof of my chapel.
So the balancing act becomes how to position yourself in market in a way that is both useful for you commercially and congruent with you personally.
The way we do that is by choosing a big word that sits over the top of everything we do. Here's a short excerpt from our online curriculum where I unpack that concept, and talk through how to come up with your big word.