The Science of Attention: 6 Crucial Steps to Thought Leadership

Thought leadership. Everyone wants it. Few attain it.

Yet thought leaders have become the disruptors, the non-conformists, and superhero rock stars of today.

Gary Vaynerchuk. Tim Ferris. Simon Sinek. Seth Godin. Daymond John. Grant Cardone. And others.

But what is everyone really seeking when they see one of these superstars? Attention? Likes? Adoration? Followers?

Maybe. But most of all: Influence.

The feeling of saying something that others find valuable, something that adds insight and scope to another’s life? That is pure dopamine.

It’s practically “cultural caffeine.” Or “communal cocaine.”

6 Simple Steps to Elevating Your Thought Leadership

It escapes casual observation.

But thought leaders have several traits that they each share:

1. They do things and aren’t casual observers sitting on the sidelines.
2. They interact and observe, seeing what works and what doesn’t.
3. They interact with actual people.
4. Most importantly, they share their knowledge knowing if something helped them, it has a good chance to help others.
5. As important, they don’t keep things to themselves. They’re inclusive and share what they know. A lot.
6. As a result, they create TRUST from continual content that adds value and improves the lives and careers to others.

But there’s one secret you’ll never learn if you don’t do the above: the more you share, the more you realize there is to share.

It’s like a self-replenishing ecosystem. By giving away what one knows, one then acquires new insights and thus more to share. It’s like a bottomless cup of coffee that keeps refilling itself.

That is what thought leaders do every day and have in common.

This is also The Science of Attention. It is that constant providing of insights, extrapolations, clarifications and distinctions that nobody bothered to offer others before.

It’s how I got to do 140+ episodes of One Minute Wednesdays.

I remember what it was like to do the first 10 or 20 episodes.

I had NO CLUE how I would come up with continual content. Until I started giving away the knowledge.

Then, all of a sudden, there was MORE to share.

So whether it’s a leap of faith like when Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones took that now-infamous step into space that revealed “an invisible path” to walk across the abyss…

Of course, when we hit 99 episodes, I had to make the 100th episode a special retrospective.

My proof? Episode 100 of One Minute Wednesday:

Need more proof?

This was another compilation recently completed from 4 different podcast interviews, and sharing this in this way conveyed the sheer amount of quality content that happens during an interview:

The Ugly Truth

The ugly truth is that you are a thought leader in actuality.

You may be doing it small scale, or you may be doing it half-ass where it’s designed to inspire nobody, or you may be doing it in a style that you love or hate, but either way, you ARE a thought leader.

Now that you know you are, it’s time to design it and own it.

Be awesome. Inspire others. Fill the boots you were given to live.

If you didn’t know this yet: I help companies rise up to and own their greatness, through brand story, design, and perception.

If we’re not connected, it’s time. Let’s connect.