How To Position Your C-Suite Executives As Industry Thought Leaders

Produce Your Own Talk Show

What better tool for establishing thought leadership than your own talk show?

With a talk show, you literally lead the discussion on topics that are important to your industry and your target audience.

Bring on the right guests for your show and you can very quickly find yourself starring in the show that everyone in your industry is watching.

Who Are The Right Guests?

That depends on your target audience.

Your goal is to educate, entertain, inspire, and empower your viewers. That's how you keep them coming back.

What guests can you bring on to discuss topics that will educate, entertain, inspire, and / or empower your target audience? That's your guest list.

Here's how you make your guest list even better.

Make It Diverse

Make sure you're talking to guests each week that reflect the diversity of the world we live in.

This is how you demonstrate a real commitment to Diversity & Inclusion.

Using your platform to engage in meaningful dialogue on an ongoing basis with professionals across the demographic spectrum is how you demonstrate a meaningful commitment to Diversity & Inclusion.

Demonstrating that meaningful commitment is also a recruiting tool.

And while we're talking about recruiting, your talk show is how you can mobilize your C-suite as a recruiting force.

Talk Show As A Recruiting & Retention Tool

An ongoing element of your organization's talk show can be career development mentoring. 

That could be as simple as asking each guest questions like “what career advice would you give your younger self?” or “what should a mid-level executive be doing to best position themselves for advancement?”

Questions like that can lead to both the guest and the host sharing pearls of wisdom for any aspiring leaders watching the show.

Here’s a real world example of how your C-suite can leverage video to provide mentorship:

Videos like that would be a form of ongoing, one-to-many mentorship where your top executives get to be the mentor they wish they'd had and do so without it taking any additional time out of their schedule.

That virtual mentorship is both a recruiting tool, as well as a leadership development tool for internal employees.

And with a talk show, your organization can provide the next generation of leaders both inside and outside your organization with the opportunity to learn directly from your C-suite.

How’s that for thought leadership?

And how effective could that be as a recruiting and retention tool for your organization?

Corporate Social Responsibility

Is your organization out doing things to make the world a better place, either directly or by sponsoring those who do?

Are you telling those stories effectively?

One Day Per Month Is All It Takes

The best part about your own talk show is it takes very little time to create so much benefit.

On one recording day each month, your C-suite executives can pop in and be the host or guest for an episode and then go on about their day, no different than any other meeting. 

You reserve a conference room for the day and schedule episodes and participants throughout the day.

You can very easily record four episodes in one day, as well as any other non-interview videos you might need for marketing or communications purposes.

Now you’re capturing the expertise of your top level executives for worldwide distribution, 24/7/365.

An hour or less from your C-suite executives once a month will yield 50 episodes per year.

Earned Media

Earned media is no longer a problem when you are your own media company.

Create the show that everyone in your industry is watching and talking about and sharing and there’s your earned media.

This Is Why You See Talk Shows Everywhere

All this benefit from the humble talk show format.

It's a staple on television, radio, and podcasts because storytelling is the oldest form of human communication.

Storytelling has always grabbed and held our attention and it always will.

Your own video talk show gives your organization the opportunity to deliver your story directly to the people who you want to see it.

• YouTube reaches more 18- to 49-year olds in an average week than all cable TV networks combined. (Google)

• 61 million LinkedIn users are senior level influencers and 40 million are in decision-making positions. (LinkedIn)

• 72% of people prefer video over text when learning about a product or service. (Wyzowl)

That YouTube stat is really important, as far as recruiting goes.

If you're not putting your C-suite on LinkedIn and YouTube, you will not be competitive with organizations that do.

There’s no better way than your own talk show to make sure your organization’s message consistently goes out exactly the way you want it to.