When I bring up thought leadership with founders, a lot of them picture someone filming daily videos, chasing followers and posting their morning routine. That picture puts off many experienced people, and I understand why. You’ve spent years building a serious business, and you don’t want your name attached to content that feels like a performance.
The kind of thought leadership that helps a B2B service firm looks quite different. It means sharing how you think about the problems your clients face, in a way that helps people who haven’t hired you yet. You already do this in client meetings, proposals and conversations over coffee. The only change is that more people get to see it.
Why buyers care about your thinking
In the 2024 Edelman–LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, researchers surveyed nearly 3,500 management-level professionals across seven countries. As LinkedIn summarised it, 73% of decision-makers said an organisation’s thought leadership is a more trustworthy way to judge its capabilities than its marketing materials. Around 90% said they would be more open to outreach from a company that consistently produces high-quality thought leadership.
For a founder-led firm, that “organisation” is often you. Your name, your ideas and your way of working are a big part of what clients buy. When buyers can see how you think, they can judge whether you’re right for them before they ever book a call. As I explain in Most Buyers Choose Before They Call, that early judgement shapes who they contact first.
What thought leadership looks like for a founder
You don’t need a grand theory or a book deal. Most useful thought leadership comes from the day-to-day of your work. Some examples:
- Your view on a common mistake clients make before they come to you.
- A lesson from a recent project, shared with the client’s permission or with the details changed.
- How a change in your industry will affect your clients, and what they should do about it.
- A question you get asked every week and how you answer it.
- A principle that shapes how you work and why you hold it.
Personal stories have a place here too, as long as they connect to what your clients care about. I wrote about how to use them well in Building Your Personal Brand Through Storytelling.
Why busy founders stall
Most founders I talk to agree with all of this and still don’t post. The reasons are practical. Client work comes first, and writing a thoughtful post takes longer than it looks. It’s hard to tell which ideas are worth sharing when you’ve been close to them for years. Some founders worry that posting about their work will come across as self-promotion. Others start with good intentions, post for a few weeks and then stop when a big project lands.
These are fair concerns, and they point to the same fix. The thinking is the part only you can do. The planning, writing, editing and publishing can sit with someone else.
Keeping your voice while someone else does the work
When I manage thought leadership for a founder, the process usually looks like this. We start with the material you already have, such as talks, podcast episodes, newsletters, proposals and the questions clients ask you. We then hold short, regular conversations where I ask about your views and recent work. I turn that into posts in your voice, you review them, and I handle the scheduling and publishing.
One honest note is that this still needs your ideas and your review. Content written without your input tends to sound generic, and experienced buyers can tell. The aim is to cut your time spent writing, while keeping your thinking at the centre. How to Simplify Expert Content for Social Media covers how to keep your expertise clear without losing the detail that makes it useful, and How to Build a Content System for Business explains how to keep it all running week to week.
Where to go from here
Your expertise already exists. Thought leadership makes it visible to the people who haven’t sat across the table from you yet, which is the gap I describe in When Your Reputation Stays Offline.
If you’d like to hand this over, the services page explains how I work with consultancies, advisory firms and fractional executives, or you can start an enquiry. If you’re still deciding what your social media should focus on, the free Social Media Assessment will point you to one priority in about three minutes.
Sources: Edelman, 2024 Edelman–LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report; LinkedIn Marketing Blog, Reach Beyond the Ready: B2B Thought Leadership Research From LinkedIn and Edelman (February 2024).
