Why & How Thought Leadership Should be a Community Effort

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.540 --> 00:00:02.740 Yeah, 2 00:00:04.940 --> 00:00:08.570 welcome back to BBB growth. I'm dan Sanchez with Sweet fish Media and I'm 3 00:00:08.570 --> 00:00:12.710 here with Becca Buycott, who is the director of thought Leadership and 4 00:00:12.710 --> 00:00:17.030 engagement at fiscal Note. Becca Welcome to the show. Thanks dan. I 5 00:00:17.030 --> 00:00:21.390 really appreciate the opportunity to be here. Absolutely. And I'm excited to 6 00:00:21.390 --> 00:00:25.750 have you on the show because today we're discussing the why and how 7 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:29.960 thought leadership should be a community effort. Remember when we were 8 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:34.310 first talking about this in our pre interview, I was excited because 9 00:00:34.310 --> 00:00:38.810 usually thought leadership, it's kind of a solo game most of the time, maybe 10 00:00:38.810 --> 00:00:42.390 a few individuals within the company, but the way you guys are approaching it 11 00:00:42.400 --> 00:00:47.520 at fiscal note is so much different. So, but first, before we dive into how 12 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:50.720 you're doing it, what are the, some of the problems that you're seeing with 13 00:00:50.720 --> 00:00:55.500 thought leadership kind of being mostly a solo game? Well, I think it kind of 14 00:00:55.500 --> 00:00:58.560 reminds me of something that I think you and I have both seen a lot on 15 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:03.720 social media and that is the overuse of the hashtag thought leadership. It can 16 00:01:03.720 --> 00:01:08.020 be like I just did 10 sit ups, that's my morning routine, hashtag thought 17 00:01:08.020 --> 00:01:12.990 leadership. And essentially when it's just one person sharing an idea over 18 00:01:12.990 --> 00:01:16.390 and over again, sometimes it can be incredibly powerful. There are 19 00:01:16.390 --> 00:01:20.130 certainly great articles or videos that we've all seen that are really 20 00:01:20.130 --> 00:01:23.910 resonated with us. But if it's done over and over again, it can feel 21 00:01:23.910 --> 00:01:28.310 disingenuous and even a little egotistical. But if you put it in the 22 00:01:28.310 --> 00:01:32.350 greater context of what thought leadership really does is it's tackling 23 00:01:32.360 --> 00:01:37.440 complicated issues with a good idea or some authenticity about how complicated 24 00:01:37.440 --> 00:01:42.410 things are or challenging things are. And in that sense, especially if you 25 00:01:42.410 --> 00:01:46.650 look at the past 17 months with the pandemic, the companies and 26 00:01:46.650 --> 00:01:51.210 organizations that were most resilient and did the most interesting work were 27 00:01:51.210 --> 00:01:55.230 those that worked across teams and brought in a lot of unique perspectives 28 00:01:55.230 --> 00:01:59.990 from different experts, whether it was inside their organization or externally. 29 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.450 Same goes for you know, statistics. When you look at innovation, they've 30 00:02:04.450 --> 00:02:08.130 proven again and again that if you have a diverse range of perspectives and 31 00:02:08.130 --> 00:02:13.180 voices at the table, You're more innovative and more resilient. So I 32 00:02:13.180 --> 00:02:16.380 think if you put that in the bigger context of thought leadership, it's the 33 00:02:16.380 --> 00:02:20.830 same thing. Also, if you want to talk about the pandemic, everybody is really 34 00:02:20.830 --> 00:02:25.990 tired and sad and over this idea of isolated problem solving, we did it 35 00:02:25.990 --> 00:02:29.530 like every day during the past 17 months so people really want to 36 00:02:29.530 --> 00:02:33.860 reconnect and have thoughtful, meaningful discussions about different 37 00:02:33.860 --> 00:02:39.210 issues. Makes so much sense. Everybody is tired of like hashtag thought 38 00:02:39.210 --> 00:02:41.940 leadership. Like you said in the beginning, it's like every time I see 39 00:02:41.940 --> 00:02:45.860 hashtag thought leadership, I just want to put like hashtag I roll because 40 00:02:45.860 --> 00:02:49.220 nobody wants to see people declaring themselves as a thought leader and 41 00:02:49.220 --> 00:02:52.360 that's something we've talked about on this show before. Like never call 42 00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:56.520 yourself a thought leader even if you are one, but I like that you're kind of 43 00:02:56.530 --> 00:03:01.070 clue ng in on like if it's real thought leadership, it's probably not been 44 00:03:01.070 --> 00:03:05.130 developed in isolation, it's probably developed by a group if it's truly 45 00:03:05.130 --> 00:03:08.540 bringing the best innovation, that's not going to benefit just the person 46 00:03:08.540 --> 00:03:12.110 who came up with the idea, but the general community, right, Which is 47 00:03:12.110 --> 00:03:17.450 really starting to lead. So tell us you've mentioned some of the strengths 48 00:03:17.460 --> 00:03:20.840 that come with building thought leadership in community. Is there 49 00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:25.780 anything else other than just kind of getting a diversity of opinions when it 50 00:03:25.780 --> 00:03:30.000 comes to doing creating thought leadership in community? Well, I think 51 00:03:30.010 --> 00:03:35.840 people are looking for visibility but in an authentic connection forming kind 52 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:40.140 of way. So like when you get a group of, say senior executives, the way we do at 53 00:03:40.140 --> 00:03:44.410 the fiscal note executive institute all the time, you're getting a chance to 54 00:03:44.420 --> 00:03:47.650 illuminate what your company is accomplishing, but you're also getting 55 00:03:47.650 --> 00:03:52.240 to pressure test it with other people. So you're again not in like an 56 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:56.790 isolation chamber of trying to figure out a complicated challenge your 57 00:03:56.790 --> 00:04:01.740 companies dealing with. I also think again, people just like really the 58 00:04:01.740 --> 00:04:06.810 spontaneity of conversation. I often say that um well I love throwing dinner 59 00:04:06.810 --> 00:04:10.820 parties and I like to say that the best thought leadership should feel like a 60 00:04:10.820 --> 00:04:14.680 really good dinner party where you're meeting new people, you're getting 61 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:18.019 excited about something you've never heard about before, You may be getting 62 00:04:18.019 --> 00:04:22.290 some affirmation and support for something you're trying and real 63 00:04:22.290 --> 00:04:26.700 thought leadership is the same thing. Um you, you have that connection with 64 00:04:26.700 --> 00:04:31.170 people, you get some support for something you're developing and it can 65 00:04:31.170 --> 00:04:36.250 be really transformative, one advantage that I've seen and I think I've done 66 00:04:36.260 --> 00:04:40.240 this to a small degree, not nearly to the extent that you guys are doing at 67 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:45.880 fiscal note, but I usually will have an idea to a problem. I'll test it. You're 68 00:04:45.880 --> 00:04:49.190 like, oh, that worked for me and then I'll throw it out on linkedin. Like, 69 00:04:49.190 --> 00:04:54.460 hey, like we've all hit this before. I tried this. This was what I experienced. 70 00:04:54.460 --> 00:04:58.560 What do you guys think? And generally by inviting people to come and critique 71 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:02.960 it or add to it or give their personal experience with an idea, It gets 72 00:05:02.960 --> 00:05:07.010 stronger. And one of the advantages of making it a conversation is that more 73 00:05:07.010 --> 00:05:11.040 people are going to accept the idea, right? So that's kind of the point is 74 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:14.630 like if you're doing thought leadership marketing, but it doesn't actually 75 00:05:14.630 --> 00:05:18.990 connect like you said the thing and no one's actually everybody's like okay, 76 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:21.960 that doesn't mean anything to us, then you've kind of failed as a marketer. 77 00:05:22.440 --> 00:05:25.300 But one of the advantages is like getting it out there in community 78 00:05:25.300 --> 00:05:29.550 probably increases the chances of it actually being accepted by the 79 00:05:29.550 --> 00:05:32.790 community used by the community and actually doing the work that it needs 80 00:05:32.790 --> 00:05:37.490 it to do. So I'm really curious like, so I've put like ideas out on linkedin 81 00:05:37.490 --> 00:05:41.750 and gotten conversations rolling and that's like a very small way to kind of 82 00:05:41.750 --> 00:05:46.290 get community involved. But how are you guys facilitating these community 83 00:05:46.290 --> 00:05:49.740 conversations? I know you guys are taking it much farther than just 84 00:05:49.740 --> 00:05:54.130 kicking it off on social. Absolutely. And to be honest, I learned more about 85 00:05:54.130 --> 00:05:58.450 building community online than I ever thought I would during working remotely 86 00:05:58.450 --> 00:06:02.400 and dealing with the isolation of the pandemic. But I'd say one thing that 87 00:06:02.400 --> 00:06:05.960 we've really worked on that helps me with the fiscal note Executive 88 00:06:05.960 --> 00:06:11.450 Institute is we think about what do people want to know and start growing 89 00:06:11.450 --> 00:06:16.270 intellectually curious about before they join one of our discussions. So 90 00:06:16.270 --> 00:06:20.370 this sounds like a simple household thing, but we developed a lot of great 91 00:06:20.370 --> 00:06:24.980 organizations do this, but we call it pre reads. And it's basically like 92 00:06:24.990 --> 00:06:28.810 maybe one or two or three articles sometimes highlighting a speaker at the 93 00:06:28.810 --> 00:06:33.110 discussion, sometimes just a really pivotal report on the issue that the 94 00:06:33.110 --> 00:06:37.270 program will cover. And we send those ahead of time to everybody who's agreed 95 00:06:37.270 --> 00:06:41.140 that they want to join us for our program. And I'll even say this is an 96 00:06:41.150 --> 00:06:44.910 interactive discussion, please take a look at these and you know, feel free 97 00:06:44.910 --> 00:06:49.340 to ask questions. Um This is really good intelligence on what we want to 98 00:06:49.340 --> 00:06:53.270 talk about today. So they're already being invited to start thinking about 99 00:06:53.270 --> 00:06:57.950 it before it happens. And then during the actual program, the gathering of 100 00:06:57.950 --> 00:07:01.360 thought leadership. Like a lot of people, we've done things such as 101 00:07:01.440 --> 00:07:05.080 casual icebreakers, where you just have that moment of human connection rather 102 00:07:05.080 --> 00:07:10.320 than like robotically launching into a very structured discussion, We want 103 00:07:10.320 --> 00:07:14.530 people to feel free to unmute themselves and speak up, you know, in 104 00:07:14.530 --> 00:07:18.310 the in person version of this same thing. Like you create time for people 105 00:07:18.310 --> 00:07:23.070 to just wander, get coffee, catch up a little bit. You don't keep things to 106 00:07:23.070 --> 00:07:27.260 locked in again. If you put it back into the metaphor of a dinner party, 107 00:07:27.340 --> 00:07:30.030 like no one wants to go to a dinner party where it's only one person 108 00:07:30.030 --> 00:07:33.710 speaking the whole time. It's like when you're with I don't know like your 109 00:07:33.720 --> 00:07:37.290 uncle who like over does it at a christmas party and they're just 110 00:07:37.290 --> 00:07:40.430 constantly talking and no one else gets a word in and no one else gets to catch 111 00:07:40.430 --> 00:07:44.600 up. You want to approach the conversation in the same way. Um The 112 00:07:44.600 --> 00:07:47.870 other thing we do is we build continuity around different themes and 113 00:07:47.870 --> 00:07:53.340 topics. The Fiscal notes, Executive community. We Fiscal and Executive 114 00:07:53.340 --> 00:07:59.230 institute. We focus on a couple core topics D. I. Global affairs, government 115 00:07:59.230 --> 00:08:03.930 affairs E. S. G. Which stands for environmental, social governance, 116 00:08:03.940 --> 00:08:08.690 sustainability and digital transformation. So um the other thing 117 00:08:08.690 --> 00:08:12.230 we do is when we build out our programs were like okay we've done a D. I. 118 00:08:12.230 --> 00:08:17.540 Discussion, for example, FBI that's the acronym for Institute. We did a really 119 00:08:17.540 --> 00:08:22.140 interesting conversation with senior women in leadership positions and what 120 00:08:22.140 --> 00:08:26.340 they were going through during the pandemic as working moms, as single 121 00:08:26.340 --> 00:08:30.760 women living by themselves and like having no work life boundaries and and 122 00:08:30.760 --> 00:08:35.320 leading teams. And so after that conversation, people loved it so much. 123 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:39.070 So we keep building programs around something that really resonates to 124 00:08:39.070 --> 00:08:43.610 people resonates with people. So also that idea of continuity, I think is 125 00:08:43.610 --> 00:08:48.530 important as you build a community around thought leadership. So setting 126 00:08:48.530 --> 00:08:52.130 the stage for discussion, really encouraging and supporting people to 127 00:08:52.130 --> 00:08:57.110 chime in and not have it be like a rigid webinar type of experience or, 128 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:01.540 you know, sit at a desk and not talk and then also just inviting people to 129 00:09:01.540 --> 00:09:07.310 keep the conversation going through relevant follow up programs. So if I'm 130 00:09:07.310 --> 00:09:10.550 hearing you curriculum essentially, you create a bunch of different categories. 131 00:09:10.940 --> 00:09:14.940 You listed about like five or six of them. You're coming up with like a pre 132 00:09:14.940 --> 00:09:18.720 fodder within those categories. You're taking things that have been published 133 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:21.990 recently, debates that have been happening or just things that 134 00:09:21.990 --> 00:09:26.770 conversation starters, the kind of Threat people for the conversation, 135 00:09:26.780 --> 00:09:30.090 you're like, hey this has been a thing we know because people have been 136 00:09:30.090 --> 00:09:34.020 publishing about this and so you're sending it out to the community. I want 137 00:09:34.020 --> 00:09:37.330 to know how many people are you inviting into these conversations and 138 00:09:37.330 --> 00:09:40.880 how you facilitating? Are you taking like 10 people into a zoom meeting? And 139 00:09:40.880 --> 00:09:45.300 how long did the conversations last? So our conversations are never more than 140 00:09:45.300 --> 00:09:49.650 an hour. We try to keep our group's pretty small because again, if you want 141 00:09:49.650 --> 00:09:53.440 people to really talk to one another, if you have like 70 people on a zoom, 142 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:58.310 they're not going to feel um interactive. So we do actually invite, 143 00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:01.450 you know, up to 70 people because statistically, you know, you know, 144 00:10:01.450 --> 00:10:04.700 about half of those people won't be able to attend for whatever reason. But 145 00:10:04.700 --> 00:10:10.580 typically we have, I'd say like 20 to 30 people and in our real in real life 146 00:10:10.580 --> 00:10:14.870 programmes. Same thing. We have kind of like a small group. We keep these 147 00:10:14.870 --> 00:10:17.890 conversations closed door. That's another important thing I want to 148 00:10:17.890 --> 00:10:21.830 mention to you. Um if you're a high level executive, you're often grappling 149 00:10:21.830 --> 00:10:26.910 with huge challenges and you want like a safe space to really talk about 150 00:10:26.910 --> 00:10:31.860 what's going on at your company. Um, so that small number also speaks to the 151 00:10:31.870 --> 00:10:36.390 the intimacy of the discussion and just being really, really open with people 152 00:10:36.390 --> 00:10:41.710 you're talking to. And there are a lot of advanced virtual platforms that 153 00:10:41.710 --> 00:10:46.580 people with huge budgets often turn to. And you can actually make zoom somewhat 154 00:10:46.580 --> 00:10:51.070 interesting. It can be hard because everybody is burned out, but you can 155 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:56.750 invite people to share their favorite ice cream flavor in the chat. You can 156 00:10:56.750 --> 00:10:59.600 ask them what was something they discovered about themselves during the 157 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:04.980 pandemic that they now want to keep doing even after we get out of the 158 00:11:04.980 --> 00:11:09.370 pandemic whenever that is. So, having that introduction of human connection 159 00:11:09.370 --> 00:11:12.220 doesn't have to be related to the program or the discussion, it could 160 00:11:12.220 --> 00:11:15.660 just be like, hey, I want to get to know you a little bit better before we 161 00:11:15.660 --> 00:11:19.210 get started and those are fun because then you want people chime in and say, 162 00:11:19.220 --> 00:11:22.480 oh, you know my favorite ice cream flavors, mint chocolate chip to or 163 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:26.620 they'll be like, I also bought a bike during the pandemic. Yes, I love riding 164 00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:30.010 my bike, I'm never going back to spin class ever again. And like these seem 165 00:11:30.010 --> 00:11:35.070 really silly, but they're human connection moments and it's like now 166 00:11:35.070 --> 00:11:38.890 more than ever, people really need them. I mean we didn't realize how much they 167 00:11:38.890 --> 00:11:43.820 needed them. We needed them until the pandemic kept us from really talking 168 00:11:43.820 --> 00:11:47.890 and being in the same room and now just discovering little things about people 169 00:11:47.890 --> 00:11:53.260 is so, so powerful and so important. I find that zoom meetings are often 170 00:11:53.640 --> 00:11:57.760 especially facilitating different kinds of conversations. Like I don't know. I 171 00:11:57.760 --> 00:12:00.580 I actually think it probably be better to use a zoom meeting because everybody 172 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:03.480 is familiar with it. Everybody knows what they're doing. Nobody has to be 173 00:12:03.480 --> 00:12:06.500 thinking about the tech that can stay actually focused on the conversation 174 00:12:06.500 --> 00:12:11.040 and the topic at hand. So I'd actually say that unless you have to, I'd 175 00:12:11.040 --> 00:12:13.760 probably just stick with the zoom meeting. That makes sense. I am 176 00:12:13.760 --> 00:12:18.560 interested like how you control for who to invite to these meetings. I'm sure 177 00:12:18.560 --> 00:12:22.630 diversity is probably an important aspect and it's you're probably just 178 00:12:22.630 --> 00:12:26.930 not picking people who are at random right there. Probably somebody who 179 00:12:26.930 --> 00:12:30.630 knows a little bit about specifically the category. Right? So how do you go 180 00:12:30.630 --> 00:12:33.920 about selecting your community for the audience if they wanted to build 181 00:12:33.920 --> 00:12:38.120 communities like this? Like how do you go find those people? That's a really 182 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:42.050 good question. Well, our community members come from a couple different 183 00:12:42.050 --> 00:12:47.250 places. One is um fiscal note, our company. Um we have a lot of great 184 00:12:47.250 --> 00:12:51.470 enterprise clients, huge global corporations with C suite executives 185 00:12:51.470 --> 00:12:55.480 who are looking for some sort of community. So I will get to know them 186 00:12:55.480 --> 00:13:01.140 and personally invite them to our programs as part of just a unique value 187 00:13:01.140 --> 00:13:05.230 add of what fiscal note offers and creates for our clients. But that's 188 00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:09.860 aside from that. It's, I'll read a bunch of interesting articles on say, 189 00:13:10.040 --> 00:13:14.060 corporate activism. That was a really great discussion we had earlier this 190 00:13:14.060 --> 00:13:18.670 year and I'll see that Patagonia's head of communications was quoted in an 191 00:13:18.670 --> 00:13:22.920 amazing article on how Patagonia has tackled corporate activism, been really 192 00:13:22.920 --> 00:13:27.590 active in that space. And I'll find out who was leading those conversations and 193 00:13:27.590 --> 00:13:32.080 reach out to them to be honest. And like the best place to do this because 194 00:13:32.090 --> 00:13:37.530 email is everybody's inboxes insane. These high level executives, they have 195 00:13:37.530 --> 00:13:42.280 more email than anybody. And so what I'll often do is I will just honestly 196 00:13:42.290 --> 00:13:46.100 look at their linkedin profile. I'll get a sense of what they care about and 197 00:13:46.100 --> 00:13:49.570 then I don't do it and like a cheesy sales way, but I'll just reach out to 198 00:13:49.570 --> 00:13:53.280 them and say, hey, I noticed your company is interested in this topic. 199 00:13:53.290 --> 00:13:57.510 I'm actually trying to organize a discussion around this with my team and 200 00:13:57.510 --> 00:14:01.840 that, that's been a really good way to get people. Um, it's tricky because 201 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:04.950 like I'm sure you get this two day and there's so many, there are a lot of 202 00:14:04.950 --> 00:14:09.400 sales people on linkedin and this is without saying, oh you would be an 203 00:14:09.400 --> 00:14:13.970 amazing person at this discussion. You might, you'll get something out of this 204 00:14:13.970 --> 00:14:17.740 discussion. Here's how this discussion aligns with what your company or 205 00:14:17.740 --> 00:14:21.350 organization is thinking about. And then the other place I get them, I 206 00:14:21.350 --> 00:14:25.450 talked about continuity and like having subsequent events that relate to each 207 00:14:25.450 --> 00:14:29.770 other after someone is attended a fiscal Note executive Institute program, 208 00:14:29.780 --> 00:14:34.070 I stay in touch with them and I will be like, oh I read this article that made 209 00:14:34.070 --> 00:14:37.430 me think of you and then when there's another event I'll be like, oh by the 210 00:14:37.430 --> 00:14:42.620 way, you came to our discussion with kevin that focused on asian affairs, 211 00:14:42.630 --> 00:14:47.200 we're now having an excellent webinar on china. Do you want to come to that? 212 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:50.340 So I just try to keep track of what they really care about and be 213 00:14:50.340 --> 00:14:54.470 resourceful and invite people who have been with us along the way as part of 214 00:14:54.470 --> 00:14:59.140 what we're creating. Just got really fascinating. Do you in the night, like 215 00:14:59.150 --> 00:15:03.140 not like sales pitch, but do you like try to get them to come into the 216 00:15:03.150 --> 00:15:06.330 community groups saying like, hey, contribute to this thought leadership, 217 00:15:06.340 --> 00:15:09.780 like your name will be published alongside this. This piece is one of 218 00:15:09.780 --> 00:15:13.930 the contributing things to this, This thought leadership peace. Is that how 219 00:15:13.930 --> 00:15:17.000 you position it to them? Or you just say get involved in the conversation? 220 00:15:17.010 --> 00:15:20.260 Like how do you get them to want to come come to these groups? So there are 221 00:15:20.260 --> 00:15:23.960 a couple of different categories. If it's just a program, like we're hosting 222 00:15:23.960 --> 00:15:28.180 a conversation, that's a simple invite, and I'll just be like, hey, I think you 223 00:15:28.180 --> 00:15:31.600 would really enjoy this conversation and be somebody could really contribute 224 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:36.330 to it based on the experiences that you're having with X, y and Z. If it's 225 00:15:36.340 --> 00:15:39.630 a piece of content that's thought leadership, which are institute also 226 00:15:39.630 --> 00:15:44.730 produces, I will, you know, say this would be a great opportunity to 227 00:15:44.730 --> 00:15:49.830 highlight more of what your company has accomplished here. Um I think our 228 00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:53.740 network of executives could really learn from this. Um and truthfully, 229 00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:57.810 people like, again, having some visibility. So when I reach out to them 230 00:15:57.810 --> 00:16:01.030 on linkedin, I'll say I'd love to interview for this blog post for 231 00:16:01.030 --> 00:16:05.910 writing on diversity equity inclusion and how to get C suite to actually be 232 00:16:05.910 --> 00:16:10.730 accountable for D. I. At their companies. But again, everything comes 233 00:16:10.730 --> 00:16:16.870 back to an authentic, real personalized outreach effort and that's what really 234 00:16:16.870 --> 00:16:21.660 works. 80% of what I do honestly is just nurturing relationships, managing 235 00:16:21.660 --> 00:16:25.880 those relationships and being real with people. A lot of my friends and co 236 00:16:25.880 --> 00:16:31.120 workers, they say I'm a very abusive like outgoing person. And so that's how 237 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:35.640 I roll with every aspect of my life even professionally. I know fake 238 00:16:35.640 --> 00:16:38.780 doesn't work. It doesn't work with me, like if somebody reaches out to me that 239 00:16:38.780 --> 00:16:42.420 way and it definitely doesn't work for anyone. I don't want to say post 240 00:16:42.420 --> 00:16:46.100 pandemic because we're still in it. But during the pandemic taught us that 241 00:16:46.100 --> 00:16:51.950 we're really over a lot of um fake unnecessary noise in our lives. And 242 00:16:51.950 --> 00:16:57.960 also we need to have real um substance to everything we're doing because life 243 00:16:57.960 --> 00:17:02.720 is short and uncertain, you know, not to take it to a really crazy place, but 244 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:05.859 that's, that's legit. I mean that has to do with marketing, that has to do 245 00:17:05.859 --> 00:17:10.240 with how businesses are expected to be accountable and transparent, that just 246 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:14.319 comes into play in so many important places right now and has been important 247 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:20.060 for a long time. Hey, everybody Logan with sweet fish here. If you've been 248 00:17:20.060 --> 00:17:23.560 listening to the show for a while, you know, we're big proponents of putting 249 00:17:23.560 --> 00:17:27.839 out original organic content on linkedin. But one thing that's always 250 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:31.830 been a struggle for a team like ours is to easily track the reach of that 251 00:17:31.830 --> 00:17:35.130 linked in content. That's why I was really excited when I heard about 252 00:17:35.130 --> 00:17:39.640 Shield the other day from a connection on, you guessed it linked in since our 253 00:17:39.640 --> 00:17:43.900 team started using Shield. I've loved how it's led us easily track and 254 00:17:43.900 --> 00:17:48.480 analyze the performance of Arlington content without having to manually log 255 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:52.770 it ourselves. It automatically creates reports and generate some dashboards 256 00:17:52.770 --> 00:17:56.230 that are incredibly useful to see things like what contents been 257 00:17:56.230 --> 00:17:59.180 performing the best and what days of the week are we getting the most 258 00:17:59.180 --> 00:18:04.000 engagement and our average views per post. I highly suggest you guys check 259 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:07.610 out this tool. If you're putting out content on linked in and if you're not, 260 00:18:07.620 --> 00:18:12.950 you should be. It's been a game changer for us. If you go to shield app dot Ai 261 00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:17.460 and check out the 10 day free trial, you can even use our promo code B two B 262 00:18:17.460 --> 00:18:23.570 growth to get a 25% discount. Again, that's shield app dot Ai. And that 263 00:18:23.580 --> 00:18:29.190 promo code is B the number to be growth. All one word. All right, let's get back 264 00:18:29.190 --> 00:18:36.110 to the show. So once you're in these groups and there's good dialogue 265 00:18:36.110 --> 00:18:41.200 happening ideas are flying around, good questions are being asked. How do you 266 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:45.250 then collect and organize all of these into something that becomes helpful, 267 00:18:45.260 --> 00:18:48.630 especially if you're going to publish its content later. That's a great 268 00:18:48.630 --> 00:18:52.510 question. So because our discussions are typically off the record, we don't 269 00:18:52.510 --> 00:18:56.650 record anything like in a webinar anything. Um the only time we've done 270 00:18:56.650 --> 00:19:01.200 that is when we've known that the discussion wasn't going to be about. We 271 00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:05.580 did that once with this Summer Book Club thing we did called FBI reads with 272 00:19:05.590 --> 00:19:08.850 an author talking about a book. Like that's that's totally recordable and 273 00:19:08.850 --> 00:19:12.350 doable. But normally what we do is we know they're off the record. We don't 274 00:19:12.350 --> 00:19:16.180 record them in an on demand video later because that just again kind of 275 00:19:16.180 --> 00:19:20.750 distills and dumbs down what we're trying to create. We have a writer who 276 00:19:20.760 --> 00:19:24.920 listens in on these discussions and she writes up an executive summary, which 277 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:30.670 is the very high level key takeaway points. It's not like word by word, 278 00:19:30.680 --> 00:19:34.680 play by play, everything ever someone said, it's kind of more like a very 279 00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:38.130 high level summary so that if I attended this and I want to revisit 280 00:19:38.140 --> 00:19:42.660 what I discovered and learned, I have a go to published piece of content that I 281 00:19:42.660 --> 00:19:46.670 can revisit and look at man. That's really interesting. So they're probably 282 00:19:46.740 --> 00:19:50.580 in the meeting themselves since there's no recording there taking notes and 283 00:19:50.580 --> 00:19:55.900 then the writer produces a summary piece. Yeah. And actually I think the 284 00:19:55.900 --> 00:19:59.860 executive summaries have been going really well. Um This was something that 285 00:19:59.870 --> 00:20:03.120 was started even before I joined fiscal note. They've always done like key 286 00:20:03.120 --> 00:20:08.320 takeaways. Um and when I started I renamed it executive summary and we 287 00:20:08.320 --> 00:20:11.240 just did a survey with our whole thought leadership community and they 288 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:14.660 said they loved the executive summaries, that was one of our top most 289 00:20:14.660 --> 00:20:19.110 interesting pieces of content that's built into how we create conversation. 290 00:20:19.110 --> 00:20:24.660 So we'll keep doing those and see what other places we want to explore with a 291 00:20:24.660 --> 00:20:29.740 re like a summary or recap of what we talked about, but again not not making 292 00:20:29.740 --> 00:20:34.560 it like a a glib drop in the bucket thing, but something really insightful 293 00:20:34.560 --> 00:20:38.400 that someone we want to know about. So do you distribute and publish these 294 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:43.350 reports? Yes. Um The executive summaries are hosted on our website and 295 00:20:43.350 --> 00:20:47.840 then we share them on our linkedin page and we will send them to all the 296 00:20:47.840 --> 00:20:53.310 speakers who are like a part of our featured guest of um guest speakers. So 297 00:20:53.310 --> 00:20:57.210 they all get them as well because it's nice to have something that you've been 298 00:20:57.210 --> 00:21:01.440 a part of, that you can share with your own company or share with your own 299 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:05.520 network. Like I spoke at this discussion, here's what it covered 300 00:21:05.530 --> 00:21:09.670 professional achievement that I'm really interested in. So what do you 301 00:21:09.670 --> 00:21:12.810 label these things? Like, is it do you call them executive summaries on your 302 00:21:12.810 --> 00:21:18.190 website? Like how do you position these essentially downloads? Yes. They are 303 00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:21.950 called executive summaries on our website. Another thing I should mention, 304 00:21:21.950 --> 00:21:24.910 we haven't done this all the time because sometimes it's just not 305 00:21:24.910 --> 00:21:29.460 possible to pull it off, but we've also like, I'll listen in and pay attention 306 00:21:29.460 --> 00:21:33.900 to who's asking a good question or who said something really insightful, not 307 00:21:33.900 --> 00:21:37.960 necessarily just the featured guests, but among the audience and participants. 308 00:21:38.140 --> 00:21:41.650 And I'll reach out to that person afterward, I'll say I really loved what 309 00:21:41.650 --> 00:21:45.940 you said about X, Y and z. Could we maybe record a short video clip where 310 00:21:45.940 --> 00:21:49.970 you're talking about that again? And so that's why I don't want to say that 311 00:21:49.970 --> 00:21:53.570 stage, but it's just like a way to get them to like continue to reflect on 312 00:21:53.570 --> 00:21:58.170 what they said and for us to capture something that's in video content which 313 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:02.430 everybody listening to your podcast, I'm sure knows. You really have to take 314 00:22:02.440 --> 00:22:06.700 a conversation and think about how to reinvent it and share it widely beyond 315 00:22:06.710 --> 00:22:10.560 where it initially lives. Do you know what I mean? Especially from a content 316 00:22:10.560 --> 00:22:15.960 strategy perspective, man, so I'm really starting to like this because 317 00:22:16.040 --> 00:22:19.630 you're facilitating these conversations, if you can get them to show up and 318 00:22:19.630 --> 00:22:23.330 actually participate in these, like they're going to be interested in the 319 00:22:23.330 --> 00:22:26.870 content that comes out of it. The likelihood that they'll want to share 320 00:22:26.870 --> 00:22:29.870 it within their own organizations is high. So you're probably getting more 321 00:22:29.870 --> 00:22:33.470 buy in from the organizations if any of them are customers or prospective 322 00:22:33.470 --> 00:22:37.870 buyers, there is that play. But it's also of course you're inviting a 323 00:22:37.870 --> 00:22:42.820 diversity opinions. So it's not just, well while you're one of yours, you 324 00:22:42.820 --> 00:22:46.550 could have a seat at the table. So it'll be interesting. But you could be 325 00:22:46.550 --> 00:22:50.850 getting lots of ideas and learning a lot yourself while also publishing 326 00:22:50.850 --> 00:22:54.050 substantial content. It's kind of interesting as we do. This would be to 327 00:22:54.050 --> 00:22:57.500 be growth, but we're usually doing it 1 to 1. We haven't like taken like a lot 328 00:22:57.500 --> 00:23:00.860 of panels are invited a lot of like minded people from diverse backgrounds 329 00:23:00.860 --> 00:23:05.200 into to talk about one particular subject but would be interesting to do 330 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:08.500 something like that off the record. We we also have these like we call the 331 00:23:08.500 --> 00:23:13.160 marketing squads where a bunch of VPs or directors of marketing will come and 332 00:23:13.160 --> 00:23:16.770 just not be recorded and just talk about different marketing things. But 333 00:23:17.140 --> 00:23:20.570 those we don't use that for thought leadership at all. Even at sweet fish 334 00:23:20.570 --> 00:23:24.160 were doing pieces of this. But tying all those elements together, it seems 335 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:29.260 like you get a lot out of it. So what has been the results that you've been 336 00:23:29.260 --> 00:23:33.310 seeing from doing this for a little bit now? Like what what have you seen as a 337 00:23:33.310 --> 00:23:38.170 result of it? Like all people who work in communications, I certainly track 338 00:23:38.180 --> 00:23:42.460 metrics like digital marketing metrics. So I'll see if we post an executive 339 00:23:42.460 --> 00:23:46.840 summary. How how much did it resonate with our community? Like what was the 340 00:23:46.840 --> 00:23:50.650 highest performing linkedin post featuring that executive summary Which 341 00:23:50.650 --> 00:23:55.180 one was the most successful? I'll also look at our website and say oh this 342 00:23:55.190 --> 00:24:00.220 executive summary we did on ai artificial intelligence. It's getting a 343 00:24:00.220 --> 00:24:05.130 lot of traffic right now. And so I see that as a success. But more importantly, 344 00:24:05.130 --> 00:24:09.990 I love the feedback we get. Like one of my favorite things is in the zoom chat. 345 00:24:09.990 --> 00:24:15.040 It's so funny. Sometimes I've never met anyone on this, on this discussion in 346 00:24:15.040 --> 00:24:19.160 person. I've maybe sent them a personal invite and they'll reach out to me in 347 00:24:19.160 --> 00:24:22.790 like a D. M. On a zoom chat and they'll be like, I'm so glad I came to this. 348 00:24:22.790 --> 00:24:26.230 Thank you so much. So that makes me feel good. That makes me feel like 349 00:24:26.230 --> 00:24:30.850 we've done something, um, that's been beneficial to the senior executive 350 00:24:30.850 --> 00:24:36.200 community at large. Other things we do, like we we make these executive 351 00:24:36.200 --> 00:24:40.210 summaries available to other people in our company and they might use them 352 00:24:40.210 --> 00:24:44.320 like, say you're running a company or start up and you're talking to an 353 00:24:44.320 --> 00:24:48.670 investor who's really committed to diversity equity inclusion and wants to 354 00:24:48.680 --> 00:24:53.720 have more visibility on that topic. You could be like, oh yeah, you know our 355 00:24:53.730 --> 00:24:57.170 Thought Leadership Network that we have at our company, they've done a lot of 356 00:24:57.170 --> 00:25:01.510 programs on this. Here's an executive summary that, you know, covers a 357 00:25:01.520 --> 00:25:05.250 interesting recent event that we just did. So it has a lot of mileage. It has 358 00:25:05.250 --> 00:25:10.120 a lot of application. I like to think that even if it's a very topical 359 00:25:10.130 --> 00:25:15.270 conversation that it has, um, evergreen staying power that people can revisit 360 00:25:15.270 --> 00:25:19.860 it again and again as they solve new problems and see if we're even 361 00:25:19.860 --> 00:25:23.950 improving and these critical issue areas, do you like break it up and 362 00:25:23.950 --> 00:25:28.350 share it across a bunch of different channels? Um, so with the executive 363 00:25:28.350 --> 00:25:31.170 summaries, there are a couple of places where we share them. I mentioned, 364 00:25:31.170 --> 00:25:35.690 linkedin our website. The other thing I forgot to say is I send a personal 365 00:25:35.690 --> 00:25:39.640 email to everybody who registered for a program. Like even if they didn't get 366 00:25:39.640 --> 00:25:44.200 to sign on to the zoom and I share the executive summary with them, I'll share 367 00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:48.370 it if you came to the program and you want to reflect on what we covered or 368 00:25:48.370 --> 00:25:52.050 I'll be like, so sorry you missed our discussion. I wanted to make sure you 369 00:25:52.050 --> 00:25:56.530 had this executive summaries, You could revisit the key takeaways of it. So I 370 00:25:56.530 --> 00:26:00.420 think that's another good thing to think about if um if you're trying to 371 00:26:00.420 --> 00:26:03.790 develop thought leadership as a community experience, like how do you 372 00:26:03.790 --> 00:26:09.270 make something accessible beyond the physical attendance of the program? How 373 00:26:09.270 --> 00:26:14.820 do you make it timeless and interesting and share it beyond even your basic 374 00:26:14.820 --> 00:26:18.060 network? I mean we also, this is another content strategy thing that I'm 375 00:26:18.060 --> 00:26:21.830 sure a lot of people have talked about on this podcast but we'll revisit an 376 00:26:21.830 --> 00:26:25.930 executive summary long after the program is over. I don't know, Davis is 377 00:26:25.930 --> 00:26:29.850 what if there's like a national artificial intelligence day? Like we'll 378 00:26:29.850 --> 00:26:34.350 be like, oh we did an executive summary. Um that covered a great program. We had 379 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:40.640 regulation, ethics and challenges of ai here's the executive summary and just 380 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:45.110 be topical and tie what we're doing to a bigger conversation. Thanks. Seems 381 00:26:45.110 --> 00:26:48.590 like you get a mileage out of their, out of each executive summary. I would 382 00:26:48.590 --> 00:26:51.220 think probably the biggest part if you're, especially if you're working 383 00:26:51.220 --> 00:26:55.040 with enterprise is just getting the buying with the participants that came 384 00:26:55.040 --> 00:26:58.910 to it and getting them to even distribute it within their own 385 00:26:58.910 --> 00:27:02.960 organizations. Right? Usually when you're working with the large companies, 386 00:27:03.440 --> 00:27:09.110 there's still so many more people you'd like to lead or even invited to like 387 00:27:09.120 --> 00:27:12.200 different parts of the massive organization that could be invited to 388 00:27:12.210 --> 00:27:16.230 future conversations, right? If you want to build relationships, there's so 389 00:27:16.230 --> 00:27:20.360 many more people that you'll probably build a relationship with and intrigue 390 00:27:20.360 --> 00:27:24.680 with these leadership report or these executive summary reports based on the 391 00:27:24.680 --> 00:27:27.970 referral of somebody who was in the community, right? Somebody whose name 392 00:27:27.970 --> 00:27:32.020 is on the report, sharing it with a co worker, sharing it with their leader, 393 00:27:32.020 --> 00:27:35.260 their boss, somebody else in a different organization has appeared 394 00:27:35.260 --> 00:27:37.840 that they talk to frequently. I was going to say the other thing we've 395 00:27:37.840 --> 00:27:41.090 created, it's not just executive summaries all the time. Like we have 396 00:27:41.090 --> 00:27:45.950 also done, I don't know why they call it this. It's a weird term white paper. 397 00:27:45.950 --> 00:27:49.630 Like we've done, we've done white papers, one thing really cool. So I 398 00:27:49.630 --> 00:27:53.830 meant we had a discussion with senior executive women about the challenges 399 00:27:53.830 --> 00:27:57.920 and the resilience leadership they showed during the pandemic. So out of 400 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:02.400 that discussion came the inspiration to create a white paper where we 401 00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:06.820 interviewed different executives, women in leadership positions and government 402 00:28:06.820 --> 00:28:10.410 affairs in corporate counsel. And it was called Powering Through the 403 00:28:10.410 --> 00:28:14.950 pandemic. And it was just these really interesting stories and takeaways from 404 00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:19.620 what people had accomplished during the pandemic while raising their families, 405 00:28:19.620 --> 00:28:24.780 leading their teams. So that was great because then there's this bigger, more 406 00:28:24.780 --> 00:28:29.120 robust summary of a very important conversation that's not just limited to 407 00:28:29.120 --> 00:28:34.420 an event but it's like an ongoing challenge, an area of growth for a lot 408 00:28:34.420 --> 00:28:39.990 of people and for their companies. So that's been great because definitely 409 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:42.910 more than just the people we interviewed from different companies 410 00:28:42.910 --> 00:28:47.030 have checked that out. We've had that hosted on our website as well so that 411 00:28:47.040 --> 00:28:50.470 you know you can be searching for this topic and find it. You could be the 412 00:28:50.470 --> 00:28:54.170 head of calms if the company reviewing it to make sure the person that was 413 00:28:54.180 --> 00:28:56.820 interviewed did a good job and suddenly you're like, oh this is very 414 00:28:56.820 --> 00:29:00.900 interesting and you share it more widely internally with your company. So 415 00:29:00.900 --> 00:29:04.040 is there anything I missed that you feel like the audience should know 416 00:29:04.050 --> 00:29:09.420 about doing thought leadership with community? Yes. Um this is something 417 00:29:09.420 --> 00:29:14.020 I'm really excited that I'm I'm going to develop with our team that works on 418 00:29:14.020 --> 00:29:19.090 the institute with me but I have an incredible board of advisors. They are 419 00:29:19.090 --> 00:29:22.530 part of the fiscal not executive institute. They give me a lot of 420 00:29:22.530 --> 00:29:26.860 mentorship and feedback and they guide how I come up with some great program 421 00:29:26.860 --> 00:29:31.350 topics. Long story short, I was trying to think about what do you get out of a 422 00:29:31.350 --> 00:29:35.100 community as a thought leader? Like what do you need to experience? We've 423 00:29:35.100 --> 00:29:38.480 talked about the connection, the networking and the ability to be a part 424 00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:43.220 of a timely conversation. What I want to do with it is have these incredible 425 00:29:43.220 --> 00:29:47.050 minds, these wonderful human beings who are very powerful and important at 426 00:29:47.050 --> 00:29:51.530 different companies. I want them to talk amongst themselves and come up 427 00:29:51.530 --> 00:29:56.230 with some really interesting, unique thought leadership discussion that we 428 00:29:56.230 --> 00:30:01.400 in turn share more widely, like as part of their being a part of this community, 429 00:30:01.410 --> 00:30:04.690 like coming up with some interesting project that they want to tackle as a 430 00:30:04.690 --> 00:30:09.270 group. So that's what I'm working on in the next couple of months. I think it's 431 00:30:09.270 --> 00:30:13.290 gonna be really fun and interesting and let people know the incredible 432 00:30:13.290 --> 00:30:17.970 leadership that informs what FBI is doing. That's amazing. So even the 433 00:30:17.970 --> 00:30:21.750 decisions about what to cover is being handled by community essentially. Oh 434 00:30:21.750 --> 00:30:26.000 yeah, I didn't even get into this, but I talked to my board of advisors for 435 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:30.710 ideas. I read all the time. I'm always like reading different things and then 436 00:30:30.710 --> 00:30:34.530 I do a lot of one on ones. Like if someone has come to one of my programs, 437 00:30:34.530 --> 00:30:38.680 I talked about that continuity of inviting them to other discussions, I 438 00:30:38.680 --> 00:30:43.240 also will just set up a time to get to know them and say what's going on with 439 00:30:43.240 --> 00:30:47.550 your company, um what's particularly compelling to you that you feel like we 440 00:30:47.550 --> 00:30:52.510 could build an interesting discussion around. So it's very much a collective 441 00:30:52.510 --> 00:30:57.510 effort, that leadership is a collective effort full stop. I should also say to 442 00:30:57.520 --> 00:31:02.090 just really quickly, like internally at my company, there's an incredible team 443 00:31:02.090 --> 00:31:08.190 and we all work on FBI. Um I have a colleague who worked on it sort of 444 00:31:08.190 --> 00:31:14.180 similar to my role who now devotes part of her time to it. She's amazing. Uh My 445 00:31:14.190 --> 00:31:18.140 boss, our chief Marketing Officer is brilliant, she's a regular sounding 446 00:31:18.140 --> 00:31:22.380 board, she's incredible ideas. There's a chairman of the institute who 447 00:31:22.380 --> 00:31:26.190 actually founded it and then moved on to a different opportunity at a 448 00:31:26.190 --> 00:31:29.830 different company, but he's still deeply connected to what we're building. 449 00:31:29.830 --> 00:31:34.720 He moderates discussions. We have great advisers at the company who I meet with 450 00:31:34.730 --> 00:31:39.200 occasionally to just say what do you think about this idea? So I'm giving 451 00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:44.490 you a lot of layers, but I think it's so important because the best community 452 00:31:44.490 --> 00:31:49.210 is representative of a lot of different people. It brings in a lot of unique 453 00:31:49.210 --> 00:31:52.800 perspectives. That's how your comprehensive, that's how you're on 454 00:31:52.800 --> 00:31:58.420 topic and timely and that's how your relevant honestly makes so much sense. 455 00:31:58.430 --> 00:32:02.850 Becca this has been a fantastic conversation, I've learned a lot and it 456 00:32:02.850 --> 00:32:07.130 makes so much sense to me. As you find there's if you're doing it in community, 457 00:32:07.130 --> 00:32:11.530 you're not going to have like a glaring missing piece, you're not going to have 458 00:32:11.530 --> 00:32:14.680 something that you forgot to take into consideration when putting out good 459 00:32:14.680 --> 00:32:19.690 ideas. So this has been insightful on how fiscal notes doing this. Where can 460 00:32:19.690 --> 00:32:23.840 people go to learn more about how fiscal notes doing this and what you're 461 00:32:23.840 --> 00:32:27.470 doing? Um where can they find you and what's the best place to look at and 462 00:32:27.470 --> 00:32:30.970 find some of these executive summaries. So they should definitely go to our 463 00:32:30.970 --> 00:32:36.400 website. We actually just updated it and it has some great new content on it. 464 00:32:36.410 --> 00:32:42.490 It's Executive Institute dot fiscal note dot com. Um If people want to 465 00:32:42.500 --> 00:32:46.900 learn more about our company in general, which is equally awesome and important 466 00:32:46.900 --> 00:32:49.990 and it's actually building community and a lot of different ways. In 467 00:32:49.990 --> 00:32:55.960 addition to the FBI effort, they can just go to fiscal note dot com, another 468 00:32:55.960 --> 00:33:00.740 great place to dive in and find out about great ways to find solutions to 469 00:33:00.740 --> 00:33:07.650 problems and networks and analysis. So fantastic. Again. Thank you for joining 470 00:33:07.650 --> 00:33:12.450 me on the show today. Thank you. It was fun. I appreciate it. 471 00:33:14.540 --> 00:33:18.200 One of the things we've learned about podcast audience growth is that word of 472 00:33:18.200 --> 00:33:22.880 mouth works. It works really, really well actually. So if you love this show, 473 00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:26.790 it would be awesome if you texted a friend to tell them about it. And if 474 00:33:26.790 --> 00:33:31.110 you send me a text with a screenshot of the text you sent to your friend meta. 475 00:33:31.120 --> 00:33:34.760 I know I'll send you a copy of my book, content based networking. How to 476 00:33:34.770 --> 00:33:38.210 instantly connect with anyone you want to know. My cell phone number is 477 00:33:38.210 --> 00:33:45.170 40749033 to eight. Happy texting