This podcast is sponsored by DIY Influence, where leaders learn to become thought leaders in a supportive learning community. Check it out with a free week pass. Thought leadership opens doors, but overly creative services close them. This podcast guides ex-corporate consultants on how to use thought leadership to attract clients while offering familiar, easy-to-understand services they can immediately say yes to. Learn to balance innovative ideas with practical, marketable offerings to monetize your expertise and build a sustainable consulting business quickly. The reason people come to thought leadership is not just to make an impact. Often, they're kind of dying inside, having lived a life in corporate. You walk out with a little runway, some severance. Hooray! That runway won’t last, though. But now, monetizing your subject matter expertise and thought leadership is on you. You've got big ideas, but when you're first starting out, we need to think differently. Take that innovative thought and bucket it into something familiar. Clients need to say, "Oh, that's exactly what we need." Thought leadership is your bridge, anchoring an exchange of value. But right now, you need wins. For the initial term, until we have our feet under us, we need to back off being creative in the name of putting food on the table. Be pragmatic about what people can say yes to. They have to go to bat for you, after all. It's time to package that expertise so people can't overlook you. Balance your big ideas with practical, marketable services. That's how you'll build a sustainable consultancy and truly make an impact. Keep that thought leadership going strong, too. If you do, you’ll know what to say, how to say it, why you're here. About me: Julie Michelle Morris helps leaders become thought leaders, and drags the genius out of organizations and their leaders across cybersecurity, philanthropy, social good, policy, for-profit including Center for Internet Security, World Economic Forum, Asset Funders Network, UC San Diego, along with founders, authors, speakers, and consultants from across the globe. Julie speaks on developing your visibility toward service at scale, monetizing your expertise, and the how-to of thought leadership. Her podcast, 'How To: Thought Leadership' shares tactics of personal PR and growing your audience for experts who need to market themselves. Julie is mom to two amazing daughters and wife to a financial analyst turned YouTube woodworker. LinkedIn | Reply to this note and I’ll send a link to my calendar for an intro call. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit juliemichellemorris.substack.com