Do you have diverse offerings and a diverse client base?

Transcript

Hi there, it’s Peter Winick. I’m the founder and CEO at Thought Leadership Leverage, and here’s the thought that I’d like to share with you today, and it’s this: in my work with lots of different authors, speakers, academics, thought leaders, and consultants from around the world, I noticed that there’s often a lack of diversity. And I’m not talking about traditional sort of DEI diversity, but what I’m talking about is from the business perspective.

There’s a lack of diversity in the products, offerings, and solutions. They’re very heavily weighted into one modality, maybe it’s keynote speaking, maybe it’s advising, whatever the case may be.

And then the other risk factor or thing that I see that’s of concern is there’s a lack of diversity in the client base. So really two different issues here that I would ask you to think about as it relates to your thought leadership practice or business.

And that is, you know, where the revenue is coming from, where the clients are coming from, both from a service offering and product perspective. Is 60%, 70%, 80% of your business coming from doing X? Well, that’s a problem, right? Is 30%, 40%, 50% of your business coming from serving client Y? That’s definitely a problem. And once you recognize that either of those things might be risk factors, problems, concerns, call it what you will, what are you going to do about it, right?

So on the product and offering side, there are lots and lots of different derivatives and variations and modalities that you can move your work into. But each has its own sort of rules and cadence and nuances that you need to understand. On the client side, often that’s a sales, marketing, distribution issue. If you’re heavily concentrated and focused on one client or two or three clients or whatever, a handful of clients, and don’t have that diversity, it’s a risk. And that’s probably going to be more indicative of a sales and marketing issue.

Anyway, we’d love to hear your thoughts about your lack of diversity or how you have diversified your thought leadership business or practice. Thank you so much.