1. How would you summarise your area of expertise in a few paragraphs?

I've experience in digital marketing, digital community development, content marketing, writing, professional speaking, digital presence and executive presence training, and more.

2. One big idea: Can you please unpack the one big idea from your work that seems to resonate most with leaders?

Everyone I've ever worked with from the smallest organization all the way to the CEO of GM has received one piece of advice: create interesting and useful content that encourages a community to gather around it, and then nurture a marketplace that serves that community. Content. Community. Marketplace.

3. How did you become a thought leader? Can you please briefly tell the story and share ONE tip for any leaders out there who'd like to become thought leaders themselves?

I wouldn't consider myself a thought leader. I would never seek to be one. My role is to be helpful and serve others. I've built a few decades of success so far from the simple concept that if I can help others improve their businesses and lives, then they will give me their attention and consideration when I come around again.

4. You're sitting down over a coffee with a leader and you can only give them ONE tip to help them as a leader. What would you say to them?

I'd advise the leader to consider the world to be shifting sands, to embrace nothing as a "best practice" (it's a trap), and to instead work from a core of curiosity, a deep need to be of service, and a hunger to solve the challenges of others around them.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your thoughts on leadership? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted you?

The book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is about perspectives and how nothing is set in stone. "The enemy's gate is down." This book, while science fiction, has taught me more than several business books.

6. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

I learn a new lesson every day. My most recent recurring pondering is that "leadership is option management." Too many options and you waste time sifting through them. Too few and you feel trapped and doomed. Decisive option management is a great system for leadership.

7. What is one meaningful story from a reader or someone who's been influenced by your thought leadership so far?

I don't collect stories of that nature. It's a strange thing to want to collect praise. Neither praise nor criticism helps anyone grow. We grow from learning and curiosity, and from the friendships we forge along the way.