0:00 Welcome to own your impact. The podcast designed to help you transform your expertise into a platform of purpose and influence. I'm your host, Macy Robison, and I'm here to help you uncover your authentic voice, create actionable frameworks and build a scalable platform that turns your ideas into meaningful impact. 0:22 You did everything the expert told you to do, but it still didn't work. The problem isn't that their strategy was bad, is that you're trying to execute someone else's plan instead of building one that fits who you actually are. In our last conversation, we talked about owning what you really want, about letting your desires be your compass, instead of apologizing for your ambitions, and that's absolutely foundational, your desires are not random. They're pointing you toward your unique contribution. But here's where it gets tricky. Once you get clear about what you want, it's tempting to look around and see how other people achieve similar things and then just copy their exact playbook you want to build a thought leadership platform so you study someone who's done it successfully and follow their strategy step by step. Makes sense, right? Except it doesn't work, because while your desires might be pointing you in the right direction, you still need to get there in a way that aligns with who you actually are. Your ambition needs to stay connected to your authentic voice and your natural strengths, or you might end up building something that looks successful from the outside but feels completely wrong from the inside. That's what we're diving into today. How to honor your desires while staying true to your core resonance so you can build influence that energizes you instead of exhausts you. We're diving into what I call the copy paste trap that derails so many experts and thought leaders, we'll talk about why strategies that work for others can backfire for you, how to recognize when you're fighting against your natural core resonance, how to know when you might be using the wrong approach, and a simple exercise to find an approach that actually energizes you instead of exhausting you. So if you've ever felt like you're constantly swimming upstream with your thought leadership, this episode will help you find the current that carries you effortlessly. I had a conversation recently with someone that perfectly captures what I see happening far too often in the thought leadership space. A successful consultant came to me feeling completely burned out on the surface. You have no idea that anything was even wrong. She seemed to have a thriving practice, great client, steady revenue. As we talked, though, the story emerged for the past few years, even though things looked great, she'd almost abandoned her work, entirely too much effort with too little return, emotionally, energetically and financially. We kept digging into what had been going on, and then the frustration emerged. She'd been following all the quote, unquote shoulds she'd been hearing from online instructors and thought leaders. She should be posting daily on LinkedIn, because that's how you build a personal brand. She should be creating video content because that's how you scale your reach. She should be building an email list with lead magnets that lead to an automated funnel, because that's the only way you can create sustainable revenue. She should be speaking at conferences, because that's how you establish authority, great advice, all proven strategies, every single one, completely wrong for her, here's what was really happening. She's naturally someone who creates transformation through deep, focused conversations. Her genius lives in that one on one connection where she can really listen, she can really ask the right questions, and she can guide someone to breakthroughs and really great insights. But instead of building around that strength, she was spending hours every week trying to be somebody she wasn't creating content that felt forced, building systems that didn't energize her, following a playbook that worked really well for other people, but was slowly killing her passion for her own work. When I asked her what she really loved doing, she lit up talking about her client conversations, when we talked about what was draining her, it was everything she thought she should be doing to grow her business. Here's what I told her, and what I want you to understand, we don't suffer from a lack of growth strategies in the thought leadership world. We suffer from a lack of discernment about which strategies align with who we actually are, and if we keep going after strategies that aren't aligned with who we actually are, first, we'll become exhausted. But worse, we might not attract the people who we're really meant to serve, because our core resonance won't ring true. Here's what I mean in the resonant thought leadership system, your core resonance, your authentic voice, your natural expression mode, who you are should inform every single other component, including connection and commercialization strategies. My client was experiencing what you could call an archetype misalignment. She's naturally a transformational guide, someone whose primary expression comes through deep personal connection, individualized guidance. She was borrowing a lot of strategies from some thought leaders who are digital learning architects, people who thrive on creating structured educational experiences at scale and who thrive using a lot of the connection strategies that my client was trying. There's a mismatch. If you're naturally a resident orator who comes alive through speaking, but you're trying to build your platform like a wisdom writer who thrives on thoughtful written content, that structure is going to feel suffocating instead of supportive. 5:00 Five. I saw this with another client, a different one. We're going to call him Marcus. Marcus is a strategic advisor through and through. When he's in a room with executives in front of a whiteboard, solving complex organizational problems, magic happens. He has that natural analytic ability combined with practical application that really defines that strategic advisor archetype. He has other things he's great at as well, but that really is the core. But he kept trying to scale through digital, online courses, because that's what he saw other successful coaches doing every time he launched his course or a program. Two things happened, his energy plummeted because of all the marketing and educational design he had to do, and two, he didn't get the participants he was looking for because he wasn't operating in his own of genius. Now, Marcus wasn't doing anything wrong. He was following proven strategies. He just wasn't following his strategy. Here's another place I see this playing out, people choosing the wrong emphasis when it comes to connection. Now, connection is the fourth component of the resonant thought leadership system. It's your strategic amplification network that extends your reach beyond you and your central platform. There are three approaches you can take to building these connections. You can build, can borrow or you can buy. Build means creating and growing your own audience through your central platform, building your email list, getting lead generators out there. It's maximum control, but it's slower growth. Borrowing means leveraging existing audiences through relationships, strategic partnerships. You have partial control and a medium speed around the growth. Buying means purchasing visibility through paid channels, limited control over who comes your way, but rapid growth. Most successful thought leaders use all three, but they emphasize different approaches based on their natural strengths and their current capacity. The problem isn't using the wrong approach. It's leading with the wrong approach for where you are and who you are. So in this case, Marcus was spending 80% of his time trying to build through course creation, when his natural genius was borrowing through strategic relationships with executives years and years and years of relationships. And it's just a matter of reaching back out and saying, I'm doing this. I'd love to have you involved. Can I sign you up? He wasn't wrong to want courses and an automated system eventually, but he was exhausting himself trying to start there, instead of building from his strength in relationships. First, my consultant client was pouring energy into building through content creation, when her power was borrowing through, again, referral relationships and one on one connections, content could work for her eventually, especially if it's content around getting a inside view into watching her actually coach, but just creating things from scratch out of thin air, not as her primary growth strategy. That's not going to work as well. Now, they weren't wrong to want growth either. They were starting with connection strategies that fought against their natural expression modes instead of building from them. Now please don't hear me putting down online courses or digital marketing or content marketing. Recently had a different breakthrough with a different client when we realized she'd been working so hard to establish a business model around public speaking just because she admired a colleague who's a natural resident orator, we finally realized the selling, the prepping, the giving of keynotes and talks was exhausting her. She's a digital learning architect. This client, she sees the world through comprehensive educational systems. She's already created several courses, but she'd been so focused on what she thought she should be doing, which was trying to speak, that she hadn't built up the connection systems to get people to her courses, which are her natural way to express herself and and teach people. So we're in the process of shifting her focus back to her natural archetype, building better ways to connect people to her educational systems. And even in that decision, things have clicked. Energy has returned, and she already has a big audience. It continues to grow, and I'm excited to see those courses start to fill your delivery mode, your your Creator involvement, all of that should align with your natural strengths. Now fight against them. Here's what I want you to understand. True resonance happens when your core resonance, your content, your central platform, your connection strategies, your commercialization model, are all playing the same song. There's no feedback. Noises, those that screeching sound you hear when someone gets too close to a speaker. There's not two songs happening at once. It's everything playing the same song and amplifying the same signal. When a digital learning architect tries to build their business completely around speaking engagements. There's dissonance when an experienced facilitator tries to scale through passive digital products. There's friction when a transformational guide tries to build their platform through impersonal, mass marketing. It feels forced. Now, this doesn't mean you can't expand your range or try new approaches, but it does mean where you start, the order you begin, in your foundation, your primary platform, your business model, those should align with your natural strengths and your preferred expression mode. And then when you break through and people know who you are, then we can start to experiment and add on other things. Now I've used these two as examples several times, but they're good ones. So. 10:00 Seth Godin, his entire platform as a category creator. He has a love of writing, and he cares very deeply about his unique ability to share his insights through his daily blog posts. That's how he thinks his central platform emphasizes his written content and his new ideas expressed through written content. Connection focuses on reader driven sharing. If you see him on social media, it's really just an automated post sending you to his blog. His commercialization model centers on books, on speaking in other people's communities, usually digitally because he doesn't want to travel, and on creating really focused, uniquely structured, intimate learning experiences. Could he build a massive course Empire like Marie Forleo has, sure, and he's done courses before, and they've been big courses, but they are structured differently. It's not about learning about podcasts. For example, I took one of his podcast courses. I've taken a couple of different courses from Seth, but they're not your traditional sit and watch a video type of courses. You are in a cohort with people exchanging ideas, and you're making things that matter. And the courses were so sticky and transformative because they were structured that way. So they were courses, but they were category creating courses. They were aligned with who he is, and that's why they created impact. Marie Forleo, B school model, Amy Porterfield, digital course academy model. They work because both of them are naturally digital learning architects. They create comprehensive educational experiences that are so deep and rich and structured that they only need to launch them once or twice a year. Marie central platform is really a sophisticated learning management system. You go there, you can log into your courses, you can check out Marie TV and all those different things. Her connection strategy demonstrates her teaching methodology on Marie TV. She's there. She's teaching every single week, just like you're gonna see her teach in B school. Her commercialization model focuses on those signature online courses. And could she write a daily post? Sure, like Seth does, yeah. But that's not where her genius lives, she's leaning into her genius. She always has that kind of alignment creates compounding returns each component in the resonant thought leadership system strengthens the others, instead of them fighting against each other. When two sound waves are resonating with each other, their impact actually expands and grows. It amplifies. But you can also have the opposite. You can have two sound waves that cancel each other out. That's what dissonance is. They cancel each other out, and that energy that the sound wave originally created disappears. And that's what it feels like is happening when you're using the wrong strategies, when you're using this copy paste trap, instead of thinking about what really comes from you, the same strategies you were intending to copy and paste might actually work, but if you don't consider how they work for you, if you just straight up copy and paste them, it might end up being more work in the long run. So how do you break free from this copy paste trap and find your own unique strategy? First, I want you to pay attention to what you keep resisting. That resistance might be data, instead of defiance, and instead of you beating yourself up about like, I just can't get this done, use it as data. If you keep putting off creating video content, maybe you're not a natural visual communicator. Maybe you don't like to communicate with your voice and with visuals. If you dread writing long form articles. Maybe you're more of a conversational process, or maybe you need to actually use your voice and talk to people. Maybe, if the thought of creating a course makes you want to hide under a blanket, the best transformation you can provide for people happens through direct connection. I'd be willing to bet not systemized education. Your resistance isn't always laziness or fear, sometimes it's internal wisdom, and I want us to own that. Second thing I want you to do is get curious about what actually energizes you. When was the last time you finished a work session feeling more energized than when you started? What were you doing? How are you connecting with people? What delivery mode were you using? I have a client who realized she felt most alive when she was answering questions in real time, not scripted content, not planned presentations, but spontaneous responses to genuine curiosity. That insight completely shifted her approach, from trying to build a content calendar with pre taped, canned content instead to creating spaces for live interaction. She's naturally an experienced facilitator, and it's going to be an experiment to try this. But even thinking about that shift in her connection strategy, her energy has changed, and she's excited about trying to show up and use some social media platforms to facilitate that connection. Third, I want you to consider your thought leadership archetype honestly, and if you haven't taken the quiz, the link is in my show notes. It's also right at the top of my website, at Macy robison.com Are you trying to be a resident orator when you might naturally be a wisdom writer. Both of those have to do with the way you think. Do you think in words first that are spoken, or do you think in written words first? And how do you naturally express them? Are you forcing yourself into a digital learning architect model when you're really a transformational guide? Again, it doesn't mean you can't expand to. 15:00 Those business models, but we are going to need to make some adjustments so that you're not feeling like with this copy paste model you're putting on someone else's coat that doesn't fit you. We need to tailor things specifically to you. So if there's something you want to try, doesn't mean you can't try it. It just means we need to find your voice inside of it. Fourth, I want you to experiment with small tests instead of just complete wholesale imitation, instead of committing to someone else's complete system, try some individual elements that seem interesting and see what resonates one of my old clients, Whitney Johnson, she used to say, you need to date a dream before you marry it. You can you can try things. You can give yourself permission to experiment before you go all in, is what she means by that. So is there something you can try? Could you try a new content strategy on LinkedIn for two weeks and just see what happens, mainly see how you feel as you're doing that, and see if people respond. You might love someone's approach to email marketing, but their social media strategy feels forced take the thing that works and leave the thing that doesn't and experiment along the way. So finally, here's the thing I really want you to think about if someone else's strategy or if an idea that you have only works when you contort yourself to fit it. It's not a good strategy for you. It's just not a good fit. We need to tailor it, or we need to abandon it. Real success in Thought Leadership isn't about forcing yourself into someone else's mold. That's not the part that's not the point at all. It's about finding the approach that allows your authentic voice to shine while creating sustainable impact and income. That's why understanding all of this matters so much, understanding these five parts to the resonant thought leadership system, and taking a look at where your thought leadership archetype lands inside of that so you know where to start. A research innovator is going to connect with audiences differently than an experienced facilitator does. A visual thought architect needs to organize their central platform differently than a strategic advisor does. There's no one right way to do this. I've uncovered 10 different archetype patterns, and each of them have their own evolution pathways and connection strategies and business models. But that doesn't mean there's only 10 ways to do this. It's knowing where to begin. There's so many things you can do. Which things should you be doing for you and in what order, start with the approach that lines up best with your core resonance, and then strategically expand from there. You're not locked into that archetype forever, any more than Taylor Swift was locked into country music forever, or Beyonce was locked into R and B music forever. It just gives you a place to start and a foundation that energizes instead of exhausts you. Now remember, your core resonance should inform everything, every component, your content development for your IP, your central platform, design your connection strategies and especially your commercialization approach. When you try to force your authentic voice through someone else's business model, you create dissonance that cancels everything out instead of resonance. But when you can align your revenue strategy and everything with your natural expression modes and your strengths effortless magnetism, you create a sustainable system that compounds over time without you trying as hard, all five of these components in the resident thought leadership system work as an integrated ecosystem, and when there's misalignment somewhere, it can create friction throughout the whole system. So here's what I want you to do this week, begin a simple practice of paying attention to your energy and your resistance after each work session related to your thought leadership, ask yourself, Do I feel more energized or more drained? What specific activities gave me energy? What felt like I was swimming completely upstream? Don't judge the answers. Just notice them. Your energy is giving you data about what aligns with your core resonance, and what doesn't work is sometimes work, and so it's not always going to be completely energetic, but let's make it as energetic and joyful and connected with our strengths as we possibly can. Now if you want to go a little bit deeper, consider taking the thought leadership archetype assessment. Understanding your natural archetype can help you recognize why certain strategies feel forced and why some feel effortless. You'll get some specific guidance in your results about which connect. Which connection strategies work best for you and which commercialization models might work best with your natural strengths. And if you'd like to discuss this further, I'd love to have a conversation about it. You can get in touch with me on my website. The thing I want you to remember most of all is this, if something's not working, it doesn't mean your strategy is wrong. It just might not be your strategy, so let's figure out how to make it yours. 19:29 Thank you for joining me on own. Your impact. Remember, there are people out there right now who need exactly what you know, exactly how you'll say it. Your voice matters. Your expertise matters, and most importantly, the transformation you can help others create matters. If today's episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to become part of our growing community of thought leaders who are committed to creating meaningful impact. Subscribe to the podcast, leave a review and share this episode. 20:00 With someone you know who is ready to amplify their voice. And if you're ready to dive deeper, visit Macy robison.com for additional resources, frameworks and tools to help you build your thought leadership platform with intention and purpose, and remember, your ideas don't need more luck. Your ideas don't need more volume. Your ideas need a system, and I'm here every week to help you build it. I'm Macy Robison, and this is own. Your impact.