Episode 93: Building a Thought Leadership Platform with Eva Jannotta

Welcome to The Career Clarity Show, where we help you find a lucrative, soulful, and joyful career path for you!

One of the things that is so important when you are thinking through your career trajectory is your branding, your narrative, and the storytelling about who you are and why you’re moving in a new direction. Specifically, if you’ve come up with an idea that is not closely aligned with what you used to be doing, it can be challenging to step out of that old box and step into a brand new identity.

We’re going to dig into how to create thought leadership, how to step into the spotlight and be known for something that may feel a little bit different than what you’ve been doing before. Eva Jannotta is here to help bold women leaders defy the status quo, amplify our influence and expand our wealth and power.

Want to learn more about our strategic framework for successful career change? Download The Roadmap to Career Fulfillment ebook right here!

SHOW NOTES:

• Simply Put Strategies
• LinkedIn: Eva Jannotta
• Roadmap to a Fulfilling Career eBook

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Transcript:

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:04  

Welcome to the Career Clarity Show. If you want to create a career path you’ll love, you’re in the right place. I’m Lisa Lewis Miller, career change coach, published author and your host. And each week, we’ll bring you personal transformation stories, advice and insights from experts about how you can find a more fulfilling, soulful and joyful career.

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:31  

Welcome, welcome to the Career Clarity Show. I’m your host, Lisa Miller. And I am pleased as punch that you are with us on today’s episode. One of the things that is so important when you are thinking through the steps to get clear on your own career trajectory, is that if you’ve come up with an idea for a direction that you want to go in, and it’s not something that feels closely aligned with what you used to be doing, there’s a big gap that you need to get through with respect to your branding, your narrative, and the storytelling about who you are and why you’re moving in a new direction. And if any of you have come to a webinar with me, you know that I talk about this as one of the biggest challenges for being able to effectively make a career change and a shift, because we can become really tied to the old identity box of who we were and what our old job meant about that. And it can be really challenging, vulnerable, uncomfortable, or even frustrating to think about how to step out of that old box and step into a brand new identity, and a brand new platform as not just an employee, but as a person who’s trying to make an impact and a difference in the world. So on today’s episode of the Career Clarity Show, we’re going to be talking about how to create thought leadership, how to step into the spotlight and be known for and seen for something that may feel a little bit different than what you’ve been doing before. So that your professional reputation begins supersede you and starts to attract the right kinds of new opportunities your way so that you don’t feel like you are stuck in your old box forever. So this episode of the show is for you. If you have been playing with the idea of making a leap, but have been really caught up in the marketing, branding, positioning and the messaging piece. This episode of the podcast is for you. If you like the idea of how to be more strategic with the way that you’re telling your story, not just where but the how and the what to. And this episode is definitely for you. If you feel like the idea of being a thought leader feels weird or uncomfortable or funky. I want to figure out how you could own that in a way that feels good to you. I had a conversation with a client earlier this very day about thought leadership, and about how it doesn’t have to feel intimidating. It doesn’t have to feel like you have to give a TED talk if you are a thought leader, that establishing yourself as a local expert and somebody that people look to for knowledge on a specific topic can be an incredibly powerful thing, not just in your job search, but throughout the years in your career trajectory. So if any of those sound like they would be helpful and interesting to you as you’re navigating your own career clarity journey, you’re going to love today’s episode.

Lisa Lewis Miller  3:22  

My guest for today’s episode is the delightful wonderful Eva Jannotta. Eva helps bold women leaders defy the status quo, amplify our influence and expand our wealth and power. She offers thought leadership strategy and advisory services as well as communication support. And this I love her big, hairy, audacious goal is to end gender and racial discrimination. Eva, welcome to the Career Clarity Show. 

Eva Jannotta  3:50  

Lisa, thank you. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  3:52  

It is a delight to get to have you here. And I feel like I have known you for a lot of different twists and turns and arrows in your professional path. And I’m wondering if you’ll share with our listeners a bit about what gets you interested and excited? And why you’ve landed on thought leadership strategy is such an important thing to contribute to in your own career? 

Eva Jannotta  4:16  

Yes, I would love to answer that question. I actually have two answers. So the first is, you know, why is this important? You know, what about thought leadership is really, really draws me. And when I think about it’s because when I think about my career and my really just my life, there are there are certain people who have had such a profound and welcome influence on me. The decisions that I’ve made, the people that I’ve met, and the reason they were able to have that influence on me is because they wrote their ideas or they publish their ideas in podcasts and I was able to access them. And I think I mean, this has been part of the human experience human evolution for centuries, the power of language and communication to change worlds, the power of ideas to sway people to act differently and think differently. And I think that is basically magic. And just the it’s so profoundly powerful that your ideas and the way that you express them can truly change the course of someone’s life. And it’s relevant here to mention Jennifer missoura, of get bullish, because she is someone who has her thought leadership, her articles and her body of work, had a huge, huge influence on my entrepreneurial journey on my professional twists and turns on the fact that you and I have even met. And so it’s it just brings me so much energy and excitement to to think about helping women facilitate facilitating for women, this this process of like birthing their thought leadership and bringing their intellectual property, their ideas, their opinions into the world. So that’s part one of my answer. And the second part is really, you know, I my business, a shorter answer, but my background is in marketing. And I marketed for a long time. And I think marketing is fascinating and is a very powerful tool. But in order to need a tool, you have to be making something. And it it comes back to this creation process, this idea of creating something that didn’t exist before. And that that thing that you are the author of, again, can have such a profound impact on others. That’s what lights me up so much that I wanted to transition out of marketing and into this thought leadership creation as a starting point for the services I offer and the work that I do.

Lisa Lewis Miller  6:55  

I love that I and for anybody, when Eva was telling part one of her story who hasn’t heard of genders, Europe, we will make sure to put a link to Jen and her work into the show notes. But she is one among many examples of people who have created something who have punchy opinions, yes, who don’t hold back, who are willing to be divisive. And that willingness to say what you really think and what you really feel, has created a huge opportunity for her in her business in her life and her reputation to bring together a wonderful humans like the two of us. But I don’t think that that we should limit our thinking around this to people like entrepreneurs, you know, there’s so many people who, when they’re going through a career change, need to start creating an external professional reputation. So people see them differently. Think about them differently. And then think about how to plug them into opportunities differently. And so even I’m really excited to riff on that here together. Because I feel like knowing the work that you’ve done across the body of your professional experience, I feel like you’ve got to have some really interesting, insightful points about how one can develop a thought leadership platform and a professional reputation in the first place. 

Eva Jannotta  8:26  

Yeah, so when you were saying that, Lisa, the phrase that came to mind is the phrase Fortune favors the bold. And it reminds me of a piece of advice you gave me a long time ago, which I’ve always treasured, which was that I was I was expressing to you that I felt like I was these opportunities were coming to me and I couldn’t really tell like how they were coming to me and like what I could trace these opportunities to and you said it, these opportunities aren’t just falling out of the sky, you have to be ready for these opportunities. And that’s why they’re coming to you is because you’re ready to receive them and take advantage of them. And when it comes to, you know, building your thought leadership platform in a professional career in a corporate career, and when I say Fortune favors the bold, it makes me think about how you know, the more you are memorable, and the more you take risks, calculated risks with putting your opinions and your viewpoints and your ideas out there. That I mean, it just makes you stand out so much compared to the many people who are who are hardworking, and do important things, but they aren’t purposely making it known to others. And yeah, I feel like I’m stumbling over my words because I get so excited about this. But yeah, I mean, it really comes down to like any, you know, everybody listening to the Career Clarity Clarity show wants to have an impact, right? We’re not just here for the paycheck, we want to have an impact. And the fact is that folks who have an impact, they’re able to have that impact because they build influence, because they share their ideas, because they become known for something pretty specific. And so I like what you said earlier, Lisa, about being a local expert. You know, sometimes when we talk about thought leadership, just like you said, people think of a TED talk, people think of a enormous high reaching Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, or Michelle Obama, or Bernie Browns sized platform of thought leadership.

Eva Jannotta  10:39  

But in fact, those I mean, I just named three of them. Three is not very many, those are the exceptions to the rules of thought leadership, most thought leaders who have a profound impact on their communities are these local experts, like you’re talking about. And so their scope might be different, but their impact is still profound on those in there, those surrounding them. And so taking those calculated risks, being a being bold, and taking the making the choice, making the commitment to become known for something tremendously powerful for seeing your impact, take shape in the world.

Lisa Lewis Miller  11:18  

I love that. And I’ll all riff on a couple things that you said there. One phrase that I really, really fought to keep in my book, when I was going through the editing process and got some pushback on was that you don’t get hit by the luck truck unless you’re standing in the middle of the road. Yes, that is exactly it. And I’m so glad you kept that in the book. And it it’s, I mean, it’s sort of like a jarring metaphor, it’s a jarring visual to use. But it, it makes the point that you’ve got to be where the opportunities are. And part of that is actively positioning yourself and messaging yourself as being there. Yes. Because sometimes that is the only difference is how you talk about yourself and what you’re looking for, and how you’re trying to make an impact. And another analogy that I use, and the folks who have gone through the Career Clarity Show program, are definitely familiar with this one, is the idea of turning your taxi light on. And I think that I borrowed this from the gals on the being boss podcast, I think that they talked about this years and years ago, that if you are walking around in New York City, and you need to go from one place to another place, and you’re not taking the subway, and you want to flag a cab, you don’t just stand there with your arm out the whole time has each taxicab that passes you on the street has a way to signal to you, if they are open for business, if they are interested if they can even pick up passengers. And it’s that they have the little taxi light on the very top of the car turned on. Right. And so by thinking really intentionally about the professional reputation that you’re creating, and by the type of expertise you’re you’re trying to support people with, you can be really intentional about whether or not your taxi light is on, to be collaborating to be open to opportunities, and to be in a position where you could get hit by by the electric, if you will. 

Eva Jannotta  13:22  

I love that metaphor. I mean, you just demonstrated two really powerful and magnetic aspects of thought leadership, which is really strong metaphors. I mean, I think the punchier and more jarring, the better, honestly, anyway, and so you know, even if you’re in a situation where you need to be really conscious of your language, and you maybe can’t let let it fly the way you would in a interpersonal relationship or, you know, on your quote, unquote, off the clock. It’s still, like you said, positioning yourself in the road to be ready for the luck truck, by putting yourself out there to whatever extent that you can, that it makes sense for you to make it clear to folks who come across you or who are in your industry in your sector and doing you know, their virtual networking, or someday in person networking, again, to know that Oh, you’re the person who writes those really compelling LinkedIn articles or, oh, you’re the person I’ve heard on that podcast. Like you said a couple of times, Lisa, this concept of your reputation proceeding you your reputation isn’t going to proceed you by default, it’s gonna proceed you if you build it to proceed you and thought leadership is a super effective and powerful and strategic way to do that.

Lisa Lewis Miller  14:39  

Well, I’m imagining there’s somebody listening to this who is thinking, Okay, you too, have sold me on this idea that this is important. I get excited about having opportunities come to me I’m excited about the opportunity to be known in my space. But I have no idea where to start. I don’t know what to say or where to say it, or what what would it even look like to start thinking about creating a sense of me as even a local expert in anything?

Eva Jannotta  15:14  

Yeah, I would love to hear. Well, let me share my thoughts. And then I’d love to hear what you think to Lisa, because you have exemplified this in your own writing and your own building your own body of work. But when I, when I think about starting First off, I think about the fact that, you know, most of us spent many years in school where we were taught that succeeding meant already knowing the right answer. And, in contrast, as a thought leader, if you’re going to be producing writing, or podcasting, or videos, or short, like, even if it’s like shorter form, written content on social media, saying what’s already been said, is not going to get you nearly as much attention as saying things in your own way, in a bit of a new way, by infusing some of your personality and your unique perspective and experience. But it can feel very awkward to do that at first, because we don’t have a lot of practice, really saying what we think in fact, we’re more often encouraged to be accommodating, be agreeable. I mean, these are often really useful coping skills for life and for your professional career, and they need to be employed sometimes. But as a thought leader, it’s actually really useful to practice the opposite, which is release sitting with yourself and asking, What do I really think about this best practice in my industry? What do I really think about the results of that study that came out in my sector? Do I agree with it? Do I disagree with it? Do I think maybe they missed something? Do I think there’s a really compelling point from something that seems unrelated to my industry, but I can actually build a bridge from that piece of information to what I’m working on in my career. It’s these unexpected or even just unusual connections or insights or just opinions that you can offer that people find a really compelling as up in your experience as well. Lisa, like when you started, and you were like, Okay, what do I think it? I don’t know, how do I figure it out?

Lisa Lewis Miller  17:27  

Yeah, absolutely. When I first started writing, which was probably back in 2017, I, I would challenge myself just to write anything on medium. Because medium is a platform where you can self publish, they do a little bit of syndication for you within their network as related content. It’s a space where it’s really easy to format things and to put them out into the world. And when I first started, it was just like grasping at straws. I don’t even know what to say, what would anybody care about, you know, is this even good? I don’t know. And I got myself into the practice of publishing pay things and putting them out there. And I realized after I’d done that a couple times that it was a lot more fun to write things that were a little bit more punchy, or a little bit more opinionated, that were a little bit more controversial. And a couple of things happened as an outcropping of that. thing. Number one that happened is I got my first hate mail. I got my first hate rating I got my first response from somebody that said, like this is wildly unprofessional, and nobody should take advice from you. Ouch. Which, yeah, was was particularly painful for my people pleasing self, and then ultimately ended up inspiring me to write another article where I think I dropped the F bomb five or six times article about why should you care what other people think, really nice kind of moment to reconcile with, I won’t be able to make everybody happy. And that’s okay. And the people who like me are gonna like me, for me, and that’s a really valuable and important thing. Um, that was one piece of it. And even if I’m being really, really honest, the other thing that happened as a product of me wanting to put more things out there and have them be punchier, and a little bit more in people’s faces was that I got some really good doses of really good servings of humble pie. of Hey, I don’t know if you know this, Lisa, but the way that you phrased that thing that you said in your article comes across as Zena phobic.

Lisa Lewis Miller  19:51  

Or, hey, you know, the way that you phrase that thing about somebody being crazy might come across as ablest and So, one of the things that happened for me on my own thought leadership journey is that I learned about all of the different things I did not know about as areas for empathy, and compassion and connection. And so on my own journey to continuing to try to put meaningful work out there, it’s been really interesting to kind of unlearn some of the programming that I had about certain types of things being funny, or certain types of things being appropriate to say, and learning new and different ways to talk, and to engage. And I’ll say, even with my book that came out last year, I was in the final throes of editing, when somebody flagged to me, hey, using the phrase blind spot, is, is ablest, and it’s discriminatory. And I thought, Oh, fuck, and then I went back through and this like final draft version of the book that was about to go off to the printer, I went through again, to try to find, like, Can I make sure that I have noticed and omitted or substituted a different type of phrase, anywhere that that showed up. So one thing that may be sort of discouraging people from wanting to create that leadership, but maybe also as a really fabulous invitation from your life into opportunities to grow, is that when you put things out into the world, people will probably react to them. And that there’s a willingness to listen and hear the helpful feedback. And the people who are trying to help you to to be better, and to impact more people in positive ways. That creates a real opportunity for character growth and personal growth, that you may not have been anticipating when you wanted to create a thought leadership platform. But that’s super duper important as a human. So I’ll, I’ll pause there, I feel like that was a lot of debriefing on what my experience with with publishing and being vulnerable and putting things out there has been with the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

Eva Jannotta  22:12  

I’m so glad you shared that story. Lisa, there are a couple of things that I want to highlight, because, you know, I mentioned it can feel awkward and vulnerable at first. And, you know, he kind of have to just do it anyway. And your story exemplifies a couple of aspects of that. One is, that is the practice, right? Like it is, where a lot of us get stuck is wanting it to be really good, wanting our thought leadership, content, product to be really good before we’ve done it. And in fact, like with any skill set, playing an instrument comes to mind. It’s not good until you do it a lot. And so the fact that you made it, I made a commitment, I’m going to show up on medium. I know that what I do today and what I do next week, next week that I’m probably going to like that more, it’s going to take some time to get my sea legs under me. Super, super important. As an expectation that we that we set for ourselves going in like this is going to maybe feel a little not great at first, but I bet if I stick at it, because it’s more fun to be good at something than to be new at something. But you have to have be new before you can be good. And so really important to highlight that for anyone listening who’s considering making that kind of a commitment, just to have some really compassion expectations for yourself about how it’s going to feel and how it’s going to develop.

Eva Jannotta  23:37  

But another thing you said Lisa, about the comments that you got really, really important. I too am a people pleaser. Goodness bless us. And I bet a lot of listeners are too. And that can be really challenging, especially when there’s going to be a part of you that’s thinking, I’ve got a career to manage. I’ve got career goals. I don’t want to sabotage any of those by possibly displeasing someone who reads this. To that, I would say a super understandable and normal and like just give yourself a lot of kindness for that, that thought and those feelings. And secondly, I think that it’s important for us to train ourselves to get comfortable with displeasing people. A because it’s impossible really to succeed at pleasing everybody would be because the people that you displease, you wouldn’t want to work in their company Anyway, you wouldn’t want to be their colleague anyway. And so it’s actually a very powerful kind of has a, I should say thought leadership, you have a very powerful, repulsive power to kind of expel people who aren’t going to be a good fit, but attract people who are going to be really drawn to your language, your energy, your perspective.

Eva Jannotta  24:53  

And so I tell myself and my clients like, if you get haterade that’s actually a good Green light, you know, to teach ourselves to see that as a as a green light as a checkmark that we’re doing the right thing because hater comments like that they don’t mean anything. Well, they mean something about the person who left them. But that’s none of our business. On the other hand, the kinds of comments you’ve got that were, that were critically helpful, you know, that was like a piece of critique that was given to you. So to point out something that you could learn from those, I certainly find them to make me very uncomfortable, but they are so valuable, just like you said, Lisa, for our learning and our growth. And again, it’s so important to have a lot of compassion for ourselves for the mistakes that we make in our word choice, or our phrases or our jokes, and also have a lot of appreciation for people who take the time out of our day to let us know. That’s a real gift and a kindness. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  25:53  

Yeah, absolutely. And I’ll one thing I feel like is an important piece to add to this is that the whole reason why I think that I was able to persevere and continuing to put things out there is because I have always felt like, I know so much about career happiness and fulfillment that I really, really want to share. Because I want to help people and I want to give them these tools and equip them and let them know. And that kind of a sense of urgency and mission to putting yourself and your information out there can help you to weather, some of the ups and downs and to feel a little bit more resilient when you get feedback that can feel like it’s both precious feedback, because it’s helpful, but it’s also painful feedback, because it’s a, an area where you didn’t perform, to to perfection to the highest standard. So I think something really important for folks listening to to galvanize themselves around is what’s the thing that you want to teach people about what’s the thing you want to help them live and serve them about and that you feel genuinely motivated and compelled and excited to talk about. Because if there is a natural spark to it, and a natural sense of mission, in what you’re sharing, and how you’re teaching, it can give you a certain amount of grit, and resilience that you may not necessarily have if you’re just sharing stuff because you think you should, where you think you’re supposed to, or you feel like that’s the thing everybody else in your in your sector or in your company is doing. 

Eva Jannotta  27:32  

That’s a really great point, Lisa. And it makes me think of two things that are important when it when you when you’re starting a thought leadership journey, or you’re building your platform with with purpose, and you are not sure where to start, or you might feel a little bit uncertain about how to move forward. One thing is, you know, you’re right, people, if you, if you come to this with the energy of I need to do this, because it’s this, I should just do it. And maybe you have some some resentment or just some some feelings of like, this is a chore. That is not gonna be very fun. And so if you can, like you said, Lisa, you know, I think it’s really important as a thought leader to be calm. And this is true for really any realm of your life, including thought leadership is to be an avid student of yourself, and to notice what you feel excited about. And it might not match what you expect, it might not fall into the neat category underneath the industry that you’re in, or the industry that you’re curious about. But I still would urge you listening to just pay attention and really be open to noticing what you get excited about. And then maybe the next step you could take is to challenge yourself to think Alright, how is this related to my industry? Where is there a kernel from this thing that I know I’m excited about? Or I’m fired up about? Where’s there a kernel here that I can relate to the work that I do, or the work that I’m interested in doing?

Eva Jannotta  29:07  

And the other thing that you might find is that it takes time to answer that question. And I think we put an enormous amount of pressure on ourselves to like, quote unquote, know what we’re passionate about, or to have a really clearly articulated mission for our work lives or our professional lives. And sometimes we just don’t we know we have passion for lots of things are we just, we kind of feel like we’re in the neighborhood of what that calling is, but we’re not quite sure exactly how to articulate it. That’s okay, too. It’s okay. If you don’t know yet what that spark exactly is. It’s still super valuable to be a student of the things that all sorts of things that light you up and to you’ll find over time just with anything by showing up and practicing and really having the gentle discipline to keep doing this. But it’s gonna make itself clear to you. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  30:04  

I love that. So it sounds like one of the first steps that you’re recommending for somebody thinking about wanting to create a more active sense of thought leadership around them is start by paying attention to the sparks, and what lights you up and what gets you excited, because that can then become the foundation or the diving board, to jump into tying together things that are happening in your work life or in your industry, that feel like they’re coming from a really authentic place, rather than coming from a should or, uh, this is what I thought leadership is. Let me pop out my chest and try to be somebody that I’m not kind of energy. 

Eva Jannotta  30:43  

Yeah, and I remember Lisa, when you were starting your writing on medium, that you you covered a lot of different topics. And you always you had a great discipline of always tying them back to career and coaching. Is there anything that you can remember? Like, was that hard for you to do? Was it did it come kind of naturally to you? Like, what was it like for you to kind of take the things that sparked you, and make your stir that you were building a bridge to your career and do your work?

Lisa Lewis Miller  31:13  

You know, what’s interesting is that I when I was doing that writing and trying to, to make the connection between something that interested me in a culture sense, and then something that was interesting to me in a professional sense,is that I don’t do as much of that anymore, because I started to find the spark within the purely professional stuff. That gets me excited. But when I was finding external things and tying them into my body of work, I gave myself permission to let it feel a little bit ridiculous, huh? So for those of you who might have been readers back Back, back in the day, I wrote articles about how the Little Mermaid, right and Ariel’s decision to trade her voice for legs. And looking at that values trade off, can be tied into the way that you think about making decisions and trade offs in your career, and I’m giving away something that’s a little bit too important, are you giving it away without protections about getting it back? I wrote about Hamilton, about how Alexander Hamilton has this great song that he sayings about never being satisfied. And what that leads to in our own careers and lives if we never have an enough point or a stop point or a satisfaction point and how that kind of striving energy can lead you to perpetual burnout. And I remember distinctly with both of those articles thinking, am I just gonna lose all credibility to be taken seriously, because I’m doubting Hamilton or I’m talking about the Little Mermaid and how they tie in to things around our work and our career. And it may be that is a thought leadership idea or tip for those listening about finding a place that feels kind of safe to incubate those ideas. Because I wrote them on medium where I had maybe 10 people following me. And for those articles, I wasn’t always then promoting and marketing them, I wasn’t always then sending them out to folks who are on my email list or sending them out on social media. It was more just a sandbox to play in and try to see how things come together. And ultimately, because of the practice of continuing on in that way, it got easier to write about things that felt inspiring and exciting and motivating purely within the space of career. But to pull in a little bit of a pop culture reference, if it would help as an entry point.

Eva Jannotta  33:55  

That’s a great example of how the your thought leadership practice can evolve. Like you said, it might start in the sandbox of a movie, you watched a musical, you watched a book you read, and you build the muscle of tying those sparks to your work, finding those bridges, building those bridges. And then over time, you’ll find just like anything else, it becomes like almost second nature, like you can always it’s like you see with new eyes. And you can always see I know exactly how this relates to what I want to be talking about and what I want to be known for. And I think the Little Mermaid one is a great example. I mean, I could imagine how you might think like, this seems a little silly. But so again, so memorable. And I think when we are building our thought leadership platform, what we’re also building at the same time is a deep sense of trust in ourselves. Trust to have our ideas, trust of the connections that we see that might not be obvious to others and might make us second guess Our own but we can trust our perspectives, trust that we are going to screw up and get feedback and fix it and and you know, come out the other side in one piece. And that that self trust is such a valuable relationship to build with yourself and muscle to strengthen within yourself for the whole of your career. I mean, that’s always going to be with you, every job, every company every iteration. And so you might, you know, on a practical sense, you might need to start like in your journal, or on a blog under a, you know, an alias, so that you know, to give yourself a sense of safety, so you feel comfortable taking some risks or being a little silly or having some half baked ideas out there. But the showing up and just keeping at it. It’s not glamorous, but boy, howdy does it work?

Lisa Lewis Miller  35:53  

Well, let me ask you this, if somebody is listening to this and thinking, Okay, I think I could be courageous around putting ideas out there. But oh my gosh, the idea of posting weekly on social media sounds like a total drag. What are some of the different ways that people can be more visible and create that kind of a thought leadership platform that may not necessarily involve being on tik tok or Instagram all day? 

Eva Jannotta  36:18  

Yeah, great question. So I practice social media monogamy. So I’m really adamant for myself. And I advocate this for my clients of really picking one place, or you’re going to establish yourself as a thought leader and build your platform. So for a lot of folks in corporate, or even b2b entrepreneurs, LinkedIn is a great choice. I think it’s important wherever platform, you choose that it’s something you enjoy using, or at least don’t hate using. So for some folks, if they really like Instagram, and they’re kind of visually minded, that might be a great choice. There are a lot of I mean, a lot of professionals use Instagram, even though it’s not the quote unquote, professional platform, it can be a great place to practice building this routine, building this habit. And it doesn’t have to be like, you know, I think you need to, again, have gentle expectations and reasonable expectations of yourself. And so and give yourself some permission to like, play and mess around a little bit. And so if making a commitment to say, write an article weekly on medium is maybe too tall of an order right now, an alternative that might be easier to swallow is, what if I post an article that I’ve read that I thought was interesting, every week on LinkedIn, and I just share in like a caption of the article, what I liked about it, or you know what I think people who follow me on Instagram or LinkedIn, what I think they should pay attention to, or my favorite part, or my favorite quote, there are a lot of opportunities in the in from articles, or podcast episodes or videos that already exist for you to practice, saying what you think of them and pulling out your favorite parts or making some connections between this article and that thing that’s happening in the world. All of these are ways that you can start flexing these muscles without having to really dive off the deep end right away.

Lisa Lewis Miller  38:23  

I love it. Let it be easeful. Be gentle with yourself in your expectations. Let it be something that you can allow it to evolve and grow and shift as you get the practice in and feel it out over time. 

Eva Jannotta  38:36  

Absolutely.

Lisa Lewis Miller  38:38  

Lovely. Well event this has been such a delightful primer on thinking about ways that people can practice some professional visibility into professional vulnerability, share more of what they think, start to establish connections between specific professional topics and one’s own name and brand. And if somebody has been listening to this and loving what you’ve been sharing, and wants to learn more about you your body of work and your thoughts on thought leadership, where can they be connected? 

Eva Jannotta  39:10  

I would love to connect with folks on LinkedIn. That is, as I mentioned, my social media network of choice. So if you can, I’m the only I think I may only profile with the spelling of my of my last name with two ends and two T’s so if you look me up, it should be very obvious that it’s me and send me a connection request and a note that you came from the Career Clarity Show and I’d love to get to know you. And if LinkedIn is not your style, or if you want another way to connect, you can go to five magnetic pillars comm that’s the number five and the other two words spelled out. And I have a short free email course there about the five pillars of magnetic thought leadership, and that’s where I walk you through some of the attributes that make the most compelling, memorable thought leadership, compelling and memorable. And I provide examples And walk you through these concepts there. I think they’re really interesting. You can probably tell from my voice that I think all of this is really interesting. But if you’d be curious to learn more about like, Okay, what really sets thought leadership apart? That would be a great place to start. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  40:14  

Wonderful, what a generous free resource. That’s awesome. 

Eva Jannotta  40:17  

Thank you. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  40:18  

Well, Eva, thank you again for coming on the Career Clarity Show and sharing your perspective and ideas. And I hope that listeners took some great notes on steps that are actionable, practical, and not too high pressure to start establishing a reputation that helps bring them some cool opportunities. 

Eva Jannotta  40:36  

Thanks, Lisa.

Lisa Lewis Miller  40:44  

And that’s a wrap. Let us know what you thought about today’s episode. leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Because not only can your stars and words help us find great guests and topics to feature on future episodes. Your input also helps other people find the resources they need to discover the work that lights them up. And make sure to check out my book Career Clarity Show finally find the work that fits your values and lifestyle. For the link to order it go to getCareerClarity.com/book. And don’t forget to get your other tools resources and helpful goodies at getCareerClarity.com/podcast. Thanks again for joining us for the Career Clarity Show today. And remember, if you don’t love your work, we should talk because life is too short to be doing work that doesn’t light you up. Talk to you next time.