Powerful Women Rising - A Business Podcast for Female Entrepreneurs
Welcome to Powerful Women Rising, the no-nonsense, laugh-out-loud podcast for heart-centered female entrepreneurs ready to make an impact (and a profit) while staying true to themselves!
Forget cookie-cutter, one size fits all advice. Each episode provides customizable advice and strategies to help you grow and scale your business - from leveraging authentic connections to mastering the art of marketing without feeling like a salesy weirdo. Plus, you'll hear insightful interviews with experts who shed light on those sneaky blind spots in your businessand dish out practical, no-BS advice for making more money in a way that feels good.
Tune in and transform the way you do business – because when women rise together, the sky's the limit!
Powerful Women Rising - A Business Podcast for Female Entrepreneurs
Thought Leadership for Female Entrepreneurs w/Melissa Ripp
What even is "Thought Leadership"?
Is it actually important in growing a business or is it just another buzzword?
In today's episode of the Powerful Women Rising podcast, I sit down with Melissa Ripp, the dynamic founder and CEO of Peapod Marketing and PR Consulting, to shed some light on what thought leadership is, why it matters in personal branding and how YOU (Yes, YOU!) can be a thought leader.
Thought leadership is not just for people with big, controversial ideas worthy of the TedX stage. If you are an expert in your industry with a fresh perspective, Melissa will show you how to nurture your unique voice and integrate your personal stories to create more authority, authenticity and trust.
Embrace the power of your experiences and discover how your unique perspective can help you connect with your audience in meaningful ways.
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Our next PWR Virtual Speed Networking Event is the perfect place to practice showing up authentically AND allowing others to be human too! https://powerfulwomenrising.com/events
For even deeper connections, check out the Powerful Women Rising Community here: https://powerfulwomenrising.com/community/
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To connect with Melissa Ripp and learn more about Peapod Marketing and PR:
Website: https://workwithpeapod.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissaripp/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peapodmel
Welcome to Powerful Women Rising, the podcast where we ditch the rulebook and build businesses with authenticity, integrity and a whole lot of fun. Join host Melissa Snow, business relationship strategist and founder of the Powerful Women Rising community, as she interviews top experts and shares candid insights on business strategy, marketing, mindset and more. Let's get real, get inspired and rise together. This is Powerful Women Rising.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Powerful Women Rising podcast. I'm your host, melissa Snow. I am a business strategist and I love helping women entrepreneurs grow their business through relationships and genuine connections. I am all about teaching people how to network like a human and not like a salesy weirdo, and one of the ways that I do that is through this podcast. Another way that I do that is in the Powerful Women Rising community. That is my membership community for female entrepreneurs, and it is the best place on the internet. It is so full of love and support and wisdom and brilliance, and it's everything that I wish I would have had in the first seven years of my business, and I created it so that other women could benefit from having it. We have mastermind calls, we have networking calls, we have co-working calls, one of which is actually happening right now, and I love it so much because it is just our time to get shit done, and one of the things that I put off and procrastinate most often are editing these podcast episodes, and so knowing that I have this four hour space every single month and that's when I'm going to do the thing just like takes a weight off my shoulders that I'm like you don't even have to worry about it because you're going to do it during the co-working call and that's what's happening. So, anyway, I am excited to share today's interview with you.
Speaker 2:I just recently got back from a Polka Dot Powerhouse convention. It's called Celebration. Polka Dots is a women's connection company and I have run the Colorado Springs in-person group for several years now and we have this annual convention where members from all over the world get together for a couple days and their speakers and connection activities and party at night and all of these awesome things. It was super fun and it also is really, really relevant to the topic that we're talking about today, because I was watching the women who are on stage and I had conversations with several women who I was like why don't you apply to speak next year? And so many women that are like me I don't have anything to say like why would I apply to speak? And I feel qualified to say this because spoke at Celebration two years ago and I also felt that like what, why? And I think it's interesting because so often we think that thought leadership has to be something like new and big and controversial or like something no one's ever said before, right, like, why would I get up on stage? I don't have anything to say that people don't already know, or that hasn't been said, and sometimes people just need to hear it from you. Sometimes people just need to hear it with your story or with your twist on it, or with your whatever it is that makes it relevant to you. That is going to hit for them. That didn't hit for them the first 10 times that they heard it, and that's one of the things that we are going to be diving into in today's episode.
Speaker 2:This is an interview that I did with Mel Rip, who is a lovely human and also the founder and CEO of Peapod Marketing and PR Consulting. She is fueled by a notion that everyone has the insights and expertise to be a thought leader in their industry. She specifically loves helping women, entrepreneurs and executives who may have shied away from shining a light on themselves for a variety of reasons, which we will talk about in this episode. So she specializes in thought leadership, personal branding and ghost writing that helps you balance your stories, which are all your own, and your perspectives, with your values, your comfort level and your goals. In the moments that she's not creating content or shaping strategies for her clients. Mel is most likely resisting the urge to purchase yet another fancy candle, doting on her many houseplants or hopping a flight to the next destination on her list.
Speaker 2:I know you are going to love this interview and it is going to help you realize that you have something to share and you yourself are a thought leader, and I can't wait to hear what you come up with. Hello, melissa, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I'm so excited to have you. Two Melissa's in one place is never a bad thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no.
Speaker 2:The more Melissa's, the better. Honestly, exactly, you're not a Leo too, are you?
Speaker 3:No, I'm a Taurus. Okay, yeah, I'm a stubborn Melissa Perfect.
Speaker 2:I like to say I'm a post-therapy Leo, Like there's the Leo who hasn't had therapy and then there's Leo who has Nobody wants to be friends with the pre-therapy.
Speaker 3:Leo, yeah, okay, I guess if I was, if I was also kind of like qualifying myself, I'd say that I'm the much too self-aware Taurus there you go.
Speaker 2:I love it. Okay, well, good Cause we could take two Melissa's on a podcast, but not two Leo Melissa's. That would be way too much. Yeah, no, Okay. So we are talking today about thought leadership and before we dive in, I would love for you to just introduce yourself to the listeners. Tell them a little bit about you.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. My name is Mel Rip or Melissa, just don't call me Missy. I am the owner and CEO of Peapod Marketing and PR Consulting, so our agency specializes in thought leadership, strategy and ghostwriting for both female entrepreneurs and executives. So I do a little bit of coaching and work with executives, but honestly, most of my work is with female entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:Awesome, and how did you get into that kind of work?
Speaker 3:Well, I kind of got into the work by accident. So I have been in, I have Peapod has been a thing since 2003. So I kind of, when I graduated from college, I started to do kind of marketing and writing work on the side in addition to a full-time role, and I took Peapod full-time around. I think it was the day after Thanksgiving 2018. And at that point I was just kind of doing anything and everything any communications or marketing or writing work you needed, for whatever niche. I was doing it and a woman had come to me. She was referral and she said, hey, I really need a bio for an award that I won. So I wrote Stacey her bio, sent it to her. She was very pleased and then I was just like, oh, okay, well, that that was cool, that was fun.
Speaker 3:And so she called me back and you know it's you can always tell a millennials like heart rate start. You know you start palpitating when someone texts you and goes can you hop on a quick call? And I'm like wait, I delivered this woman her work. Like what does she want? So I hopped on the call and she's like I just love, like you really heard and saw me and she's like I have always wanted to get into posting more on LinkedIn, writing my own blogs, doing things like op-eds and other earned media, but I've never been able to figure out how to do it.
Speaker 3:Would you be interested in helping me? And I was like, yes, yes, I would. I had never thought about it before that moment and that was in the fall of 2020. So it was just kind of a weird time for all of us in business. But by the middle of 2021, I had kind of stuck a stake in the ground to say like yes, like this is the work that I want to be doing. But it definitely was not a preconceived notion by any means. It was just, it was something, it was a total happy accident. And, like every time I connect with Stacey, I'm always like, thank you, thank you, you for my career.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no kidding. I don't know very many entrepreneurs that are like, yeah, this is what I wanted to do since I was a little girl.
Speaker 3:No, I mean, all of us are just like get us out of corporate, like get us get us out of the, you know, under the thumb of like horrible bosses, and you know we'll figure it out Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or we had a good idea or we found something that we were good at, and then we ran into somebody somewhere who was like you know that could be a business, right. And we're like, oh okay.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yep, I love it. I also love that you say don't call me Missy because little side note here when my parents were trying to decide what to name me, they were down to Rose, Jessica and Melissa, and my dad was really pushing for Melissa and my mom's one caveat was we can name her Melissa, but no one is ever allowed to call her Missy, ever.
Speaker 3:It's the only two people that are allowed to call. Well, actually, the only two groups of people that are allowed to call me Missy are church ladies from the church that my grandma. You know, my, that my family attended for years because they just knew me as Missy, and it's like whatever you know, you're not gonna. You know, my, that my family attended for years because they just knew me as Missy, and it's like whatever you know, you're not gonna. You're not gonna tell a 77 year old woman to you know, call you Melissa, and she's gonna, you know, respond to that positively. But the other part is like, my family still calls me Missy. My mom actually does it just to be funny. At this point she's like Missy and then she's like funny mom, right. If, like, a CEO of a major corporation called me Missy, though, I would be like no, no, no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I had one boss when I was a paralegal. She was a very powerful, amazing woman, very smart. But yeah, she called me Missy and I was always just like call me whenever you want. It's fine, I love you whenever you want.
Speaker 2:It's fine, I love you. Yeah, yeah, okay. So let's talk about thought leadership. Let's talk about what we're actually here to talk about today. So I feel like thought leadership is one of those phrases that we hear thrown around a lot in entrepreneurship and everybody's like I half know what that means, but also don't really care, because who cares?
Speaker 3:Right, no, I get it. And, honestly, before I started to really do this work, I thought that thought leadership was frankly reserved for, you know, white male CEOs of companies that were pontificating on Forbes or you know, pontificating through you know some sort of news program or whatever. I just did not, and I still have a lot of whatever I just did not and I still have a lot of consternation over the phrase. Like, I always call it thoughtful leadership because you know, it isn't just about your expertise, it's how you actually got to that expertise that I think is really interesting for people.
Speaker 3:But yeah, thought leadership is definitely one of those things where you're like, wait, I couldn't be a thought leader because you know, like we don't call ourselves thought leaders right, like we always want someone to bestow that title on us, messaging and their unique point of view, which I can get into kind of the parts of thought leadership in a sec. But one of the things that I always say to people is look, I'm not telling you to go around and announcing on your LinkedIn profile that you're a thought leader for so-and-so industry or you're a. You know, it's really. It's about knowing that you have something worthwhile to share and being comfortable and confident enough to present that clearly. So it you know it doesn't have to be bestowed on you, but you also don't have to sit there and bestow it upon yourself. It's kind of this weird ether of thought leadership that can kind of float around you if you let it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. When we're talking about thought leadership, I think part of the problem for me was I always thought that meant like I need to have either a new idea or a controversial idea.
Speaker 3:Right, right, right, right. Is that true I so you know. I think if you ask somebody, if you would ask maybe 20 people that do similar work, that I do, you know. I think if you ask somebody, if you would ask maybe 20 people that do similar work, that I do, you know you're going to get 20 different answers. I am definitely of the kind of the school of thought that there are so few new ideas, you know. I think that we and like I hear this all the time in messaging too.
Speaker 3:You know, I just gave a keynote to a group of people and I probably shouldn't have said this, but I said your why or your purpose behind why you do what you do or how you live your life, or whatever that is important. But a lot of people have the same why, right? A lot of people have a why to help people. A lot of people have a why to make a greater impact other than just themselves, right? A lot of people have a why to help people. A lot of people have a why to make a bigger you know, a greater impact other than just themselves, right? And so thought leadership is a very similar thing, where you might have the same idea or the same train of thought as somebody else, but because of your combination of experience, your perspectives, how you grew up as a kid, you know what your schooling or education was like, what your work experiences have been like, it's actually new. You know there's a new spin on it because it's you telling that story, it's you giving that unique point of view. And so and the controversial thing I don't have like everyone's like, oh, you have to have a hot take or you have to have a spicy take. And I'm like I've got like a you know, chi-chi's mild salsa take most of the time. You know, I'm my whole point of view on my own.
Speaker 3:Thought leadership is. I believe anyone can be a thought leader and I don't think it is reserved for anybody. I don't think that's a necessarily spicy take, but sometimes I feel like it isn't so much a new take, it's just how is there a controversial take? It's just what makes you frustrated. What do you want to change? That stuff doesn't have to be rooted in controversy, it's just you need to have a stake in the ground.
Speaker 3:To be like this is what I believe, this is why I believe it and I'm going to hold steadfastly to that. I would listen to that person all day on LinkedIn versus somebody being like you have to make seven figures only using LinkedIn, and here's why you know. So I always want to kind of talk with people to say it doesn't have to be new, it doesn't have to be spicy, it just has to be something that you believe in kind of every bone of your body. My friend, laura Khalil, who's a great coach she calls it she doesn't actually call it this, but I think about it as being similar she always asks like what's your tennis ball? You know, what's the thing that you just you know, a dog with a tennis ball just keeps you know, keeps wanting to play fetch. It keeps wanting to give you that ball. That's what I feel like a thought leadership, po, a point of view is it's just that thing that you're constantly noodling on and you want to make sure that people know what you believe about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that makes sense. The analogy I was thinking of too when you were talking was like fashion, like a lot of things that come into fashion are not new things. Right, like overalls newsflash not a new thing. We were wearing overalls way before you. Thank you very much. Unstrapped, hanging down a flannel over it, or under it.
Speaker 3:We were cool.
Speaker 2:Exactly yes, but so like that is not a new thing, right or under it, because we were cool. Exactly, we were cool, yes, but so like that is not a new thing, right? But it is being now brought back as a new thing, and maybe it's different, like maybe now we're not wearing flannels over it, maybe now we're wearing like a bodysuit under it or a crop top under it, or whatever. I don't know. What are kids these days wearing? I have no idea.
Speaker 3:I go to Target and I'm like, is there something that will cover my midriff?
Speaker 3:Okay, good, you know there's one shirt, no, you're. You're absolutely right, melissa, like it's right. I mean, the, the cut of the, the cut of the overalls could be different. They could be flare or straight leg instead of. You know just, you know hang, you know whatever, like. I think it's a really good analogy for kind of how to think about your thought leadership and I also think it helps take some of the pressure off because it's like to your point, I have had so many you know either prospects or people that have started to work with me and they're just like I don't have a spicy take, I don't have a new idea, and I'm like you don't need those things to be a thought leader, you just need your own take on an idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what do you need to be a thought leader? You just need, like, a personality and some values and a mission.
Speaker 3:I'm not even sure values are needed. No, I'm teasing. I think that there are a couple things that you I don't know if need is the right word, but it would be great, it would be good to have right want to help people and not just your target audience. Right, like I always, I always actually say that when you are speaking to people, whether it's on LinkedIn or through your newsletter or whatever you know, and, of course, it all depends on audience. But I always say that you actually have three audiences. One is your target audience. One is like this is who I want to reach with my. One is like this is who I want to reach with my thing, my big idea, or my not new, but big idea. Two, I think you have to want to write for yourself, or you have to want to explore that yourself. And people are always saying, like, on LinkedIn, you only should be writing to your target audience. And I was like man, if I'm only writing to my target audience, I am not having any fun on LinkedIn. So I'm going to write for myself because, honestly, I feel like that is how so many of my own thought leadership point of views kind of got. You know, like when you put a rock in a rock tumbler and it starts to smooth out. I use LinkedIn as a testing ground for like, how do I feel about this? How do other people feel about this? And I think your third audience is, honestly, you from five years ago or you from two years ago, because even though you're not selling to those people or you're not wanting to supply them with your services or products, there is just kind of this like give back, pass along the expertise factor. That I think is really a cool part of thought leadership. So I think you just have to.
Speaker 3:Number one I think you just have to have the want to really kind of put yourself out into the world. One person asked me once do you need confidence to be a thought leader? And I thought that was such an interesting question because I most days I'm not confident. You know, like I'm not confident in what I'm posting, I'm second guessing and I always say you don't necessarily have to have confidence, but you have to have kind of a do it scared mentality. So I think that's important. Three, you do have to have some sort of unique point of view. I mean, people love cat photos on LinkedIn. They love, you know photos of you attending events and all LinkedIn.
Speaker 3:To true thought leadership you do need a point of view and you need to be very firm in your conviction on why you feel that way. And everyone can change their mind, but you have to have a point of view that's unshakable. So when someone comes at you on a LinkedIn post or comes at you in a blog comment, you can say, no, this is this is what I feel and why. And I think the last thing that's important is just the knowledge you I think you always want to have a curiosity, to always be kind of refining that.
Speaker 3:So I talked a little bit about the rock tumbler. What I believed a year ago, like my POV, is very, very similar about some of the things I believe around thought leadership and ghostwriting and kind of all of that stuff. But I think you're always having to realize that as you age, as you take on different projects, as your business transitions, your POV will shift, and that's okay. And so as long as you are in a situation where you're like I'm okay to grow, I'm okay to kind of continue to massage this thought or this feeling as I grow, I think that's important, just understanding that growth is always going to be a thing and it's always going to change your thoughts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really good. So you touched on this a little bit. What's the difference between thought leadership and personal brand?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm going to talk about thought leadership first and then I'm going to talk about personal brand. So thought leadership when I think about that, you know, and Forbes and Fast Company and all these other outlets, they all kind of have their own you know definitions of this, but it's like I always think, like when I look at someone and I go, oh, she's the go-to for this particular set of expertise or one, like there's a woman I know, her name is Julie Kelly and she's a PR expert, and Julie's whole thing is press releases do not work, do not send press releases, and that is something that is very known in the PR industry but nobody wants to say it because there are people who get paid to write press releases, there are companies that benefit from that press release, they think. But I love the whole thing because I instantly know that when I'm thinking about PR or I'm thinking about press releases, julie is my go-to, julie's, who I want to talk to. So I think there's that. But I also think there's another part of thought leadership where it's not just shouting into whatever void you've decided to make your void right, it's not just LinkedIn or your email or whatever. It's also about connecting with people through that point of view and through those thoughts and that expertise.
Speaker 3:You know, I feel like sometimes we think of thought leadership as very one-sided, but really the entire purpose of thought leadership is to help people think a thought that they didn't have before, help people think that that thought is also possible for them, and also just connecting with people in an authentic way through kind of this exchange of ideas. So personal branding, on the other hand, it's like that is, I feel, like that promotes. You're promoting what's already unique to you, right, your core values, your skills, your tone of voice, your life experiences, like, yes, all of that can be kind of a contributing factor to thought leadership. It can color the way that you present your point of view, but it's kind of all of the things that make you who you are already and making sure those are on display. So, for instance, part of my core value is curiosity right, and part of my core value is curiosity right, but how that translates into a thought leadership situation is my whole point of view, for my work is when a woman goes from corporate America to, or whatever nine to five job to running their own business, there is an identity shift that inevitably occurs and it sometimes is very difficult for women to understand.
Speaker 3:Okay, I was kind of hiding behind my brand or my company. What do I believe now that I'm a business owner, right, and so I use my personal branding, my core value of curiosity, to work with these women to uncover that for themselves. So they're related, but it's not quite the same thing. I hope that made sense.
Speaker 2:I think it makes sense. I think it does. Well, it's hard because I think what part of what you're saying is that the two aren't always like completely separate from each other. It's not like. A, b and C falls under personal branding and D, e and F falls under thought leadership. There's a lot of crossovers, like for me. A lot of what people know me for is like I'm very um the nice word is authentic. Sometimes I'm like I'm just a hot freaking mess, but everybody's like you're so real, I'm like that's a nice way to put it.
Speaker 2:That's Leo Melissa coming through. Yeah, I don't even know. I don't even know, but like authenticity, like genuine connection, like just be yourself, there's a seat at the table for everybody. That's very me. And then obviously, that translates a lot to what I do with networking and believing that networking is the most sustainable way to grow your business, and networking like a human and not like a salesy weirdo, and like all of that is part of like wouldn't exist without those parts of my personal brand.
Speaker 3:Exactly it is. I always call it a Venn diagram. That you know it overlaps quite a bit, right, but you are easily able to articulate all of these things that you believe and that you know it overlaps quite a bit, right, but you are easily able to articulate all of these things that you believe and that you value. But you are very clear about your thought leadership POV. So it obviously you know they are symbiotic. They are not. You know you don't practice one or the other. So yeah, it's a great point.
Speaker 2:Totally makes sense. So we talked about this a little bit. We talked about some misconceptions that people have about thought leadership. It doesn't have to be like you don't have to be Oprah or Brene Brown to be a thought leader. You don't have to be like controversial or have this new, like big concept that nobody's ever thought of before. Are there any other common misconceptions that you hear from people when it comes to thought leadership?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yes, and I will say, melissa, that there of course, are people that are going to disagree with my approach and kind of what I say about it. But to me, thought leadership has everything to do, like I said, not only with the ideas you have, but how you arrived at those ideas, but how you arrived at those ideas. And so when I start working with clients and I actually just started working with a new client a couple weeks ago, she has an incredible thought leadership POV, she has such a great idea that I'm just like, oh my gosh, you could write a book and you could do it, you know, and but when we started to work together, I said, you know, just so, you know, I have a little bit of a different approach to thought leadership, and so I want you to give us that expertise. I want you to be, you know, thinking very clearly about, kind of, all of the different pieces of this big idea that you have. But in order to get someone to listen to that at the place that they are, it is important for you to share a little bit of yourself, right, and so I call it the vulnerability spectrum, and vulnerability, like authenticity and thought leadership, are words that people just are like gross, like you know, vulnerability, that doesn't have a place in professional business. But business, you know, like my friend Kylie Peter says, business is personal. We always try to act like it's not but it is. People buy, and this has been said over and over but people buy and they buy services, they buy products from people they know, like and trust, and you can't trust somebody unless you know them and you like them right. And so I always tell people like yes, I want us to explore all of these big ideas you have and all of these point of views, or this one point, one great point of view. But I also want to make sure that we're telling people you know, how did your, what is your origin story? You know, what did you want to study when you went to college and how did that change? Was there a pivotal moment in your career that shifted things for you, you know, and you started to think differently.
Speaker 3:I always say that there's all these points in time of our lives Simon Sinek calls it like the peaks and the valleys where a lot of people can trace their purpose and also their point of view on life and in business to a lot of the stuff that happened to them as kids, as young adults, as newly professional people, and so, for instance, like I'm a product of a divorced family, my parents didn't always get along.
Speaker 3:My, you know, I had some issues growing up with, you know, with my dad, and because of that I have a real want to have people feel seen and heard, and this is why I do the work I do Right, right, and so I didn't, like I said, you know it was a mistake, you know the happy accident that Stacy reached out to me, but like I didn't just pluck this thought leadership stuff from the sky, and so I want people to understand how I arrived at this work and what it means to me.
Speaker 3:And people will say, oh, that's not thought leadership, and I'm like it is. It's all thought leadership, because it's all about it isn't just I said I probably said this three times already, but it's, it's all thought leadership because it's all about it isn't just I said I probably said this three times already, but it's like it's not just about the expertise, it's how you acquired it and the lessons you learned along the way. In fact, I will actually say here's my spicy take. I'll actually say that how you acquire that knowledge is actually more important and there's more lessons involved than the knowledge itself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're not all going to wear overalls the same way.
Speaker 3:Exactly. I'm not going to wear mine with a crop top, for example. I'll still wear it with a flannel but probably over over the overalls.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, this is one of the reasons that I love networking groups that are not exclusive, that invite more than one person per industry, because you can be a photographer and I can be a photographer, but we're going to be very different photographers. Right, we've had very different training. We have very different ideas about what looks good, how to do it, where to set it up, like all the things, and I feel like it's very similar to what we're talking about with thought leadership. Right, like I could have the same big idea as you have, but we're going to talk about it in very different ways, based on our experiences, our lives, our values, who we are, and the way that you talk about it is going to resonate with some people, and the way that I talk about it is going to resonate with some people, and that's exactly how it's supposed to be with some people, and that's exactly how it's supposed to be.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, you know, it's that whole thing where you, you can't, you can't appeal to everyone, right? It's literally impossible. You know as much as us perfectionists, weirdos, would like that to be. Um, you know, and, and I you know, if there was only one person having this unique idea, but they were just talking about it in this one specific way, can you imagine how hard it would be for all the people that didn't, that weren't at the place where that person is, or they weren't using words that made somebody think, oh, they see me, they understand what I'm going through. It'd be a really lonely place if we just, like, had one thought leader for every, you know, every unique or every any general point of view, right? So you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think about how many times someone has given me advice and then, like a month later, I'm like I was just talking to so-and-so and she told me blah, blah, blah and I was like wow, that's so. And they're like I literally told you that a month ago. Or vice versa, right, like I've told somebody something four times and then somebody else says it in a different way at the right time, that hits them different, and they're like, oh my God, that's so good. I'm like I literally said that.
Speaker 3:I know I mean and that's I mean. But that's the beauty of all of this is, you know, often when I work with clients, they say two things to me. They're like I don't have anything interesting to say and everything I've said has already been said. And I know it sounds so simple, but I'm like it hasn't been said by you and I'm not trying to give you a big head, I'm not trying to make you, you know, make you uncomfortable or do anything you don't want to do when it comes to, you know, kind of getting that point of view out into the world. But someone needs your voice, you know, someone needs you to say it in the exact way that you say it. And they're like oh, got it.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly so. Do you have any tips for somebody if they're listening to this podcast and they're like, okay, great, all this makes sense. Thought leadership, love it. Yep, what if I don't know like I don't even know where to start. I don't know what my thought is, I don't know what is different about me. I don't know what I have to say. Do you have like some suggestions about where people can start?
Speaker 3:I do, and I think that you know I just kind of made this connection a couple of weeks ago as I was prepping for the keynote I had referred to, and I think that so much of our point of view is also wrapped up in this, like this identity piece, like who are we as professionals, who are we as business owners or or people in corporate or, you know, leaders or or whatever. Right, and I think there's always a lot of consternation of about like what? Like what is my purpose? Why? Do I believe? You know, when Simon Sinek had that whole like start with why thing and I know it's still very popular, I think, I know, for me I read that book and I was instantly like, oh great, now I have to have a why. You know, I had spent, I had spent 30 years on this earth and I had done just fine, but like now Simon's telling me that the only way that I can be relevant is to have a why. That's not really what he was saying, but my point is is that, you know, I think that there's a relationship there, and so one of the things that I always like to go through with clients is I do I make fun of Simon Sinek, but I do his peaks and valleys exercise.
Speaker 3:I have there's a horse I get. You know, like, take out a horizontal sheet of paper, put a, you know, put a line in the middle. Everything above that line on the top of the paper is all of the things that if you could go back and relive, you would, because they were so amazing. And then at the bottom you do the exact opposite. The stuff that was like, yeah, you learn some stuff from it, but you never want to go through that again.
Speaker 3:And after that we kind of discuss it, and it's hard because everyone has their own vulnerability spectrum of what they want to share and what they want to speak freely about.
Speaker 3:But it is incredible to me how, when we start talking about that stuff, you'll literally see the light bulbs go off over people's heads where they're like oh so, this happened to me when I was just getting into college and now I do this work and that's why that's why I believe what I believe and this is why I'm so steadfast about insert point of view here, right, and so I guess my first suggestion is if that makes sense, do that for yourself and start to see the patterns of your life, because our point of views all have origin stories and they can all be taken from these moments of our lives.
Speaker 3:The other thing that I suggest is honestly just doing a little journaling around. What fires me up? What opinion do I have in my industry, in my niche, in my company that no one else has or that I don't think they have? What about me is just a little bit different, not controversial necessarily, but just different, right. And when I started to do that, that was when I got into my whole, like anyone can be a thought leader, and I've had people challenge me on that.
Speaker 3:You know, I had a friend go well, could a serial killer be a thought leader? And I'm like, oh my God, you know, that's okay. Like everyone is not really what I'm saying, but like you know, I mean just anyone that has had professional experience, or even people who don't have professional experience, like we all have something to share, right? So so I think that part is, too is just like. You know, people talk about it as like the what gets you up in the morning question. But I actually want to go a little deeper. It's like what fires you up? What hill are you going to? Proverbially die on right. Like that can be the start of your point of view.
Speaker 3:And the other thing, frankly, is I have kind of two opinions of this, because I know sometimes when people are wanting to show up on LinkedIn which isn't quite the same as thought leadership, but there are components of LinkedIn that are very good for kind of getting your perspective out there I know there's a lot of people that are always like, oh well, you know, just post.
Speaker 3:You know, just post and make a habit of it. And then people are just like, oh my God, that's like the scariest thing to me to post. So I always tell people, like, start off a LinkedIn post with, like hey, does anyone else feel this way, or am I the only one that feels this? And I guarantee that, number one, you aren't alone. But number two, you will get some people that are like actually I don't believe that and here's why. And that can be scary I'm not saying that, that's not but I think that even just having something to react to like that can really help you start to develop what you actually stand for and what you believe from you know your own point of view.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that makes sense, because if somebody is like actually no, I think it's blah, blah, blah, and you're like, oh yeah, maybe that might not be your thing, then Right. And I think the other thing too is like actually no, I think it's blah, blah, blah and you're like, oh yeah maybe that might not be your thing, then, right.
Speaker 3:And I think the other thing, too is like I remember being in marketing and corporate communications for a long time and I like one of the things I always would tell my clients in the first two years is like don't build a house on real estate that you don't own, right? So don't you know, don't just build your brand on social media, have a website, have all the. You know all this. And I was talking with a friend last week and I said I don't know if I'm ready to actually say that that you can. You can rent as long as you'd like. You know, because I know, like LinkedIn, algorithms are always going to change. Social media is always going to be a little sporadic and strange.
Speaker 3:But if I was giving advice to a person that was just starting a business today, I would say get clear on your messaging and start posting on LinkedIn. I wouldn't necessarily say buy a $10,000 website. And so they were like whoa, that's like, that's so different from what you used to say. And I'm like right, I've had a lot of conversations now and I've kind of switched my thinking on it, but I just think again, like when you put something out there and you can kind of get some reactions. I think it can help you be like am I as steadfast in this as I think I am, or is there a little push pull there and do I need to explore that? Or, to your point, do I really care in the first place? So I think that it's a weird. I think it's a weird trick, but it works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really good. So if somebody knows what their thought leadership position is, if they've got an idea of like, yes, this is what I stand for, this is my thing, what do they do with that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there, of course, there's a ton of things that you can do with it, both digitally and, you know, in, you know with groups and networking and kind of all of this stuff the, I think, the lowest hanging fruit for me and I was actually thinking about the slide that I created for a presentation once it's like, you know, there's always kind of this low hanging fruit to kind of like, you know, here's like the biggest thing you could do. But if you do have a thought leadership POV, I think LinkedIn is a great platform for it. You know there's a lot of noise out there and I'm not going to ever tell you that there isn't. There's a lot of people that are just kind of like posting every day, not really caring what they post, perhaps writing, you know, writing entire posts with AI, which is a whole other thing. But there are thoughtful people that are really wanting to kind of hone their point of view. And so, going back to the woman that just started working with me, we just started posting some things about her big idea and you know it's always one of those things where you're like, oh, I really hope she gets the feedback she's looking for, I hope she's getting, you know she'll get comments and already, like, I'm reading through her comments and people are asking thoughtful questions and they're kind of doing a yes and or a but what about this? And it's helping her again, kind of polish that rock. So I think LinkedIn is great.
Speaker 3:I think another thing is you know there's some, you know quoted as one, help a B2B reporter out as another. It really kind of all depends on your niche. But if you have a POV and you feel good about getting out there, see if you can. Just, you know, get on one of those sites. And you know, obviously those are all PR pitches, they're all looking for people to interview.
Speaker 3:And you know, obviously those are all PR pitches, they're all looking for people to interview. So if you feel good enough and confident enough to you know to have a quote about your point of view, do that. You know it's not a full that does want to get out there and you know, kind of be on camera or be in person. You know I started to really hone my idea just through hosting my own LinkedIn lives. Or you know, I know there's a couple of my clients and a couple of friends that have like webinar series or you know they do LinkedIn lives or podcasts and you know that's really a nice entryway. You know, like we're doing now, it's just a nice entryway to get into the rhythm of kind of the cadence of presenting that point of view.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and talking about it from different perspectives in different ways. Right, like we have a thought, like my whole thing, about networking, and you know networking like a human, but I can talk about that in a million different ways. I can talk about the way that you do that on social media. I can talk about the way that you do that in a podcast interview. I can talk about the way that you do it when you're speaking on stage. So, like, I think that kind of stuff gives you more practice and talking about it from all different perspectives and different ways and finding what resonates with people and what resonates with you and what doesn't.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:I mean, and there's, you know, and we haven't even talked about the fact that you're you like if, for instance, you were talking about, you know, pod or not, podcasting, networking, without being a salesy weirdo, it's very different if you're talking to B2B manufacturing companies than it is if you're talking to startups and like how they might, how they might network in order to kind of meet their ideal clients or investors or whatever.
Speaker 3:And so, again, you're right, like it's not even just about the mediums, it's just about the groups of people. It's like, you know, and I think you just find out so much more about like is is the point of view that I'm conveying, is it actually a big deal for other people? You know, cause, sometimes I think you have to think about that too is like if you're the canary in the coal mine shouting about something that nobody cares about, you know, it's one of those things where you're like well, I'm glad that I care about it, but like, how do you? How do you either get people to care or kind of shift that POV slightly so that you can kind of bring people into your way of thinking?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that this is really good. I I like the way that you approach this topic and it's very like doable and like a normal human and not like way up here. It's like I think a lot of people think like I don't want to write a book and I don't want to do a TED talk, so I don't like, I don't care about thought leadership.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and actually I might write a post about that. So thank you, Melissa, but no, I think that it is. You're right. When we think of thought leadership, we give it like this lofty big thing, and I have been building my thought leadership steadily and I know you have too through LinkedIn content, through your emails and sharing personal stories about how networking has really made great connections for people right, and so there is a way to build it brick by brick, but most people always just think about you're right, Like it's either book or Ted talk, you know for sure.
Speaker 2:So if somebody wants to learn more about you, what you do in the thought leadership space, how you can help them in business, or they just want to connect with you because you're a cool human, what's the best way for them to do that?
Speaker 3:So two ways. The first is my website, which is workwithpeapodcom. Yep, you can learn everything about me. I have probably a too long about us page, but you get to learn about. You know Mel as a kid, and then I'm Mel Rip or Melissa Rip on LinkedIn, so I'd love for you to connect with me there. Just let me know that you you're connecting with me because of the show and I'll ask you how nerdy I sounded.
Speaker 2:They will tell you the truth.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I love it, I want it.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Okay, I will put those links in the show notes so everybody can connect with you and thank you so much for doing this interview. It was great.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Melissa, for having me. This was really a lot of fun.
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