By Jackie Camacho-Ruiz
I was recently asked to participate as a contributor to the book Design Strengths: Applying Design Thinking to Individual and Team Strengths by John K Coyle, an Olympic silver medalist, and innovation professor at Stanford and Kellogg Graduate Schools who is known for his thought leadership. As I was becoming familiar with the book, one of the chapters really resonated with me as I analyze my own journey in marketing over the last 15 years. You see, I have been doing marketing for almost half of my life and been an entrepreneur for a third of it.
The 10,000-hour rule states that you must invest at least 10,000 hours in an area of interest in order to become an expert. As I was analyzing my career and the passion that I have to help others through marketing, I could not help but start doing the math. I was shocked. With a simple match equation, I was able to come up with 33,280 hours that I have invested in my field of marketing. Wow!
Since 2010, I have published 11 books, written over 100 articles and recorded over 70 videos both in Spanish and English, published over 80 podcasts/radio shows, and produced over 20 TV show segments, created two electronic guides for authors and speakers, created three decks of cards for marketing, journaling and authors, created a productivity journal, came up with three products, co-designed a board game and had more than150 media interviews for print and national TV and radio.
Then, I realized one thing…
…Why have I been producing content in multiple ways for as long as I can remember?
There is one simple reason: my passion for my career and my industry.
You see, producing content is easy, especially now with the access to the world through the internet. Now anyone can become a media outlet by simply logging into their social media account and broadcasting their message. It is access to the world that must be used carefully. It is an awesome responsibility to share what you are passionate about while elevating others through your message and ideas at the same time. The ability to align your passion and your knowledge to create a service for others, coupled with relentless commitment and focus, will ensure that you become known for your thought leadership.
To recap, to become known for your thought leadership you must:
- Align with your passion
- Invest focused time on that passion
- Commit to the distribution of knowledge year in and year out
- Create tools for others to accelerate their learning
- Inventory your knowledge
- Share the knowledge with others
- Invest at least 10,000 hours
Start becoming a thought leader today!