“I should mention that I’m a thought leader in my industry.”
My new client dropped this line during our second call like it was supposed to impress me. I wasn’t impressed. I was skeptical.
“Really? Tell me about your process. How exactly did you become a thought leader?”
Her answer was everything wrong with the industry wrapped up in one delusional package: “I speak at industry events and share insights about the latest transactions in our commercial real estate market. Last month I presented at three conferences about recent deals and market trends.”
I didn’t sugarcoat my response: “You’re not a thought leader. You’re a history teacher. And you’re not changing anyone’s thoughts or mindset.”
The truth hurt. Good.
You’re Doing It Wrong
Most self-proclaimed “thought leaders” are frauds.
They’ve confused standing on a stage with actually leading somewhere. They think regurgitating market data makes them visionaries. They believe that speaking to their peers about things that already happened qualifies as revolutionary thinking.
They’re wrong.
Real thought leadership isn’t about what happened last quarter. It’s about what should happen next decade. It’s not about sharing information everyone already knows. It’s about challenging everything everyone thinks they know.
What Real Thought Leaders Actually Do
Stop confusing yourself. Real thought leaders don’t just have audiences—they have movements. They don’t follow trends—they destroy them and build new ones. They don’t seek fans—they seek converts.
Marc Benioff didn’t become a thought leader by giving presentations about existing software companies. He became one by telling the entire industry they were doing it wrong and then proving it with Salesforce’s cloud-first approach.
“If you use the “Thought Leader” or “Visionary” as a title on LinkedIn or anywhere – take it down immediately” *****
Simon Sinek didn’t analyze successful companies and report his findings. He flipped business thinking upside down by asking one simple question that nobody else was asking: “What if we started with why?”
These leaders share three non-negotiable traits:
They Kill Sacred Cows
Real thought leaders don’t just question the status quo—they execute it publicly. They’re willing to be hated for being right rather than loved for being safe.
They Lead with Conviction, Not Data
While everyone else hides behind “market research” and “industry analysis,” thought leaders take a stand. They have opinions. Strong ones. They’d rather be wrong and interesting than right and boring.
They Measure Impact, Not Applause
True thought leaders don’t count speaking engagements or LinkedIn followers. They count minds changed and industries transformed.
The History Teacher Epidemic
My client was a textbook case of the history teacher masquerading as a thought leader. She could recite every major transaction in her market, every regulatory change, every shift in buyer behavior. She was a walking Wikipedia of commercial real estate.
But she wasn’t leading anyone anywhere new.
If you’re only sharing information about completed deals, existing market conditions, and trends that have already emerged, you’re not leading thought—you’re following it. You’re the business equivalent of a sports commentator calling plays after the game is over.
Nobody needs another person to tell them what already happened. They need someone to tell them what should happen next.
The Conference Circuit Scam
The speaking circuit has created the biggest scam in professional services. Mediocre professionals think that getting invited to speak at industry events automatically makes them thought leaders.
It doesn’t.
Most conference organizers aren’t looking for revolutionary thinkers. They’re looking for safe content that won’t offend sponsors or make attendees uncomfortable. They want predictable presentations that confirm what everyone already believes.
I’ve watched countless “thought leaders” give the same presentation at different conferences, sharing the same market data, the same case studies, the same recycled insights.
They’re glorified PowerPoint readers getting paid to waste everyone’s time.
The audience applauds politely, exchanges business cards, and goes home unchanged. No new thinking emerges. No paradigms shift. No progress happens.
The Promotion Delusion
Even worse than the history teachers are the promoters—professionals who think thought leadership means relentlessly marketing the same thing over and over again.
I recently met a real estate syndicator who bragged about posting about multifamily investments every single day for two years. “I’m establishing myself as the multifamily thought leader in my market,” he said with a straight face.
When I asked what unique perspective he brought to multifamily investing, what contrarian view he held, or what new approach he was pioneering, he had nothing. He had confused frequency with leadership and volume with value.
This is why these promoters struggle to raise capital or gain meaningful traction. In a world where everyone is saying the same thing, being the loudest doesn’t make you the leader—it makes you the most annoying.
The Peer Audience Trap
My client made another classic mistake: she was speaking to her peers instead of her prospects. She was sharing commercial real estate insights with other commercial real estate professionals. It was like a chef giving cooking demonstrations to other chefs instead of to hungry customers.
This peer-focused approach feels good because your peers understand your expertise and can appreciate the nuances of your insights. But it’s a dead end for thought leadership. Your peers don’t need their thinking changed—they’re already thinking the same way you are.
Real thought leaders speak to the people who need to hear their message most: the skeptics, the uninformed, the decision-makers stuck in old patterns. They’re willing to step outside their comfort zone of industry jargon to reach people who can actually benefit from their ideas.
Expertise Isn’t Enough
Here’s what nobody wants to hear: being an expert doesn’t make you a thought leader. The world is full of experts who know everything about their industry but have never had an original thought about where it should go next.
“Build believers instead of fans.” *****
Technical knowledge is table stakes. Understanding market dynamics is baseline. Having years of experience is just the entry fee. Real thought leadership begins where expertise ends—in the realm of imagination, innovation, and intelligent speculation about the future.
Do the Opposite
Want to become a real thought leader? Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing:
- Share what nobody wants to hear instead of what everyone knows.
- Challenge the fundamental assumptions of your industry.
- Question the metrics everyone considers sacred.
- Propose solutions that make people squirm.
- Speak to your skeptics instead of your peers.
- Find the people who think your industry is broken and show them a better way forward.
- Set trends instead of following them.
- Stop analyzing what’s happening and start advocating for what should happen.
Build believers instead of fans. Fans will applaud your presentations. Believers will change their behavior based on your ideas.
The Courage Requirement
Real thought leadership requires balls—the courage to be wrong, to be criticized, to be misunderstood. It requires sacrificing short-term credibility for the possibility of long-term impact.
My client got this after our conversation. She realized her carefully crafted, well-researched presentations were safe, predictable, and forgettable. She was adding to the noise instead of cutting through it.
Six months later, she gave a presentation that challenged her industry’s fundamental approach to property valuation. Half the audience loved it; the other half thought she was insane. But for the first time in her career, people were still talking about her ideas weeks later.
She had stopped being a history teacher and started being a thought leader.
The Reality Check
Before you claim the thought leader title, answer these questions honestly:
- Are you sharing information that challenges your audience’s beliefs, or confirming what they already think?
- Are you proposing solutions that make people uncomfortable, or offering comfortable platitudes?
- Are you willing to be wrong in service of being interesting, or are you playing it safe?
- Are you trying to change minds, or just get applause?
If you’re honest, you’ll probably discover what my client discovered: you’re not a thought leader yet. Most people aren’t. Most people never will be.
And that’s fine. The world needs followers too. But if you’re going to claim the title, earn it.
- Stop recycling information.
- Stop seeking applause.
- Stop playing it safe.
- Start challenging assumptions.
- Start taking stands.
- Start leading people somewhere new.
The world doesn’t need more history teachers or promoters. It needs leaders willing to think differently and guide others toward a better future.
So ask yourself:
Am I truly leading thought, or just sharing trends and historical data it or am I just a promoter?
Your answers will tell you everything you need to know about whether you deserve the title you’re claiming.
