Episode 180. Becoming Known for the Value You Create through Your Content & Thought Leadership

Creating value for your audience via your content – We already KNOW that’s what we need to know… But what does “value” look like? That’s what we will explore in this episode. 

Specifically, we will have a conversation around becoming known for the value you create.

Before we dive in, I want to share with you a brand new free resource that I’m creating. In this super comprehensive resource, you will learn the 9 parts of your thought leadership strategy, you will have a set of rubrics to help you audit your thought leadership strategy, and you will be able to identify the specific gaps to fill and what your next action steps are, as you continue to move forward.

To grab this resource when it officially drops in September 2024, you can sign up for the waitlist at cheryltheory.com/audit. The link will also be in the show notes below. 

Now, let’s dive into the conversation for today.

In This Episode:

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How to create value for your audience via content

Prefer to listen to this episode on YouTube?

I’d love to start today’s episode with a story that really shifted my perspective on this concept of “creating value”.

Back in the fall of 2022, I received a message on Instagram from a podcast listener. She said: 

“Hello Cheryl, been listening and I think I’ve finished listening to most of Side Hustle Club podcasts, so I just wanted to drop a random message to say thank you for being an inspiration to side hustlers (especially on days that are a little discouraging it’s nice to see your positivity on my IGS (Instagram Stories)!)”

We chatted in the DMs further, and she shared a bit more about her situation at that time. 

She said: “I’m actually going through a little rollercoaster at the moment as I’m at the stage of trying to quit my full-time job of 8 years+ to jump into my side business (that I kinda just started a year ago when I took a sabbatical).

I’m doing digital marketing and web designing freelance for my side business and hoping this can help me live a full-time digital nomad lifestyle with this plunge. But things are a little complicated so I’ve been stuck but taking your podcasts and IG stories as inspirations to push me to make a decision for myself (thank you again for that!)”

A month later, in October 2022, this podcast listener reached out again and shared that she had actually just quit her job of 8 years, and thanked me for my indirect encouragement. She mentioned that the Side Hustle Club podcast was an inspiration.

It was really touching for me to know that the content I created and the perspectives and stories I share through my podcast was able to both directly and indirectly impact my listeners.

As a creator, it’s moments like this that really solidify our work in the sense that oftentimes, it feels like no one is listening. I very rarely receive feedback from my audience. 99% of the time, it’s pretty darn quiet and I don’t hear feedback. There are no DM messages, no reshares on IG stories, no podcast reviews or ratings, and so on. So whenever I DO get indication that someone IS listening, it means more than you can imagine.

NOW. The story doesn’t stop here.

A personal anecdote on how my story impacted someone and vice versa (it was a magical coincidence!)

As this particular podcast listener and I continued to stay in touch into 2023, one day, we realized something absolutely mindblowing.

Back in late 2021, I had just decided to apply for a leave of absence from my PhD. For those of you who may be new around here, I was pursuing my PhD in 2020 and 2021, before I formally quit the PhD to relocate to Singapore to be with my husband.

During this time, I was flip flopping back and forth on whether to even take a pause to my PhD and chanced upon an article from CNA, which is Channel News Asia, a major news source from Singapore.

At that time, I would read the news from Singapore despite being based in Hong Kong at the time, because my partner is living in Singapore and I wanted to stay updated with the Singapore news.

I came across a particular article from CNA that was titled: ‘This is what we needed’: Some quitting their jobs, taking sabbaticals amid COVID-19 burnout.

This article described a Singaporean couple, who remained anonymous in the article, and how the couple decided to take a sabbatical from their careers during the pandemic because they were extremely burnt out.

For me, I chanced across this article at a time when I really needed it. Throughout 2021, I struggled with my own mental health because my husband and I were doing long distance and we separated for nearly two years during 2020 and 2021 because of the strict travel restrictions in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Although I really, truly enjoyed what I was doing in my PhD at the time, my mental health definitely took a toll because of things happening in my personal life, which ultimately made it harder and harder to focus on my academic career.

Around late 2021, I was at a crossroads with whether to apply for a leave of absence from my PhD and go to Singapore, because near the tail end of 2021, the quarantine rules in Singapore were starting to be lifted. This particular article from the CNA did, indeed, give me the reassurance and encouragement I needed to go ahead with my decision.

Fast forward to 2022, my husband and I got married in February and I ultimately submitted my resignation from the PhD program in April to stay in Singapore and start a new life with my partner.

Now, this is where the story gets magical. In 2023, the podcast listener I mentioned earlier and I were having a conversation. Somehow, we connected the dots. The anonymous couple that was featured in the CNA article was actually her and her husband.

In 2021, her story gave ME the encouragement and reassurance I needed to make a major decision in my personal life and career.

And in 2022, my story and my work through the podcast gave HER the encouragement and reassurance she needed to make a major decision in her personal life and career.

Words cannot describe how blown away I was at how she and I were interconnected this whole time.

But you know what else I was amazed by? This experience led me to realize that my content, my thought leadership and my body of work doesn’t have to be just “educational” or “how to “ content in order to help someone or be of value.

I didn’t have to give “5 tips to do XYZ” in order to create something that can change someone’s life. Literally. Instead, value can truly, TRULY, look like so many different things. 

From that moment onwards, my own perspective on what it means to create value as an aspiring thought leader, as an entrepreneur, and as a content creator has shifted ever since.

With that, I hope that this story sets the stage for the rest of this episode and gives you a different perspective on what “value” looks like, especially in the context of your story and body of work.

Now, let’s shift gears and focus the rest of today’s conversation on what value can look like for YOU and YOUR body of work.

Becoming known for the “value” you create for your people

In the online business space, such as marketing, coaching, content creation, etc, the common advice is to “give value”.

But what’s less discussed is, what does “value” even look like and what are all the ways “value” can look like? Because if anything, value can come in many forms, shapes, and sizes.

For example, value could look like sharing a story where the audience can extract the nuggets relevant to them, or it could look like sharing factual information from statistics, reports, research studies, etc.

It could also look like inspiring the audience to do something they’ve been putting off, or uplifting the audience, making them feel encouraged, less alone, and supported.

Value isn’t limited to a few defined sets of content types. It’s not like you have to structure your content or ideas in a certain way in order for it to be considered valuable to your audience. Value isn’t limited to our existing conceptualizations of what it is.

To illustrate this idea further, I’d love to share a story here. For context, when I onboard a new client, I have a question on my client intake form where I ask, “Was there a particular piece of marketing content or a message Cheryl shared that prompted you to reach out?”

And one of my newest clients wrote the following on their intake form: 

“There wasn’t one in particular as I watched a number of reels and YouTube videos as well as read through your website because I decided to reach out.

What prompted me was your consistency in your posts. You articulate well. I like your energy, tone of voice and delivery.

If I had to choose one video, the video that left an impression on me was where I thought you were very kind to yourself and it is something I am trying to learn.”

The video that they were referring to was an Instagram reel of me reacting to a set of Instagram stories I did five years ago. I was commentating, like, “Oh I’m so glad I started!” or “Oh that’s so cute!” and like “Aww, good job past Cheryl!”.

I was just reacting to an older piece of content that I created five years ago.

Let me tell you, showing how I’m being kind to myself was definitely not on my radar of how I add value to my peeps. But even this can be an example of value to someone else.

Simply by me leading by example, that in itself inherently contains value to someone else. 

This is why we need to stretch our capacity to recognize value. Value is not limited to just educational, how-to content or providing tips on how to do something.

Value expands beyond these limited definitions and it is our job to both recognize the vast number of ways “value” can come about and also how we ourselves create value in the most natural and easy way for us.

In my experience, it’s not just relevant to consider whether our work is adding value to our peeps but it’s also critical to consider how to leverage your strengths and to create value in the most QUINTESSENTIALLY YOU way possible.

Meaning: Where do you SHINE the most in terms of content? What are your gifts and strengths as a content creator, storyteller, marketer, entrepreneur, etc?

This will look different for each of us. For example, some of my natural strengths when it comes to creating value include:

1) Being really good at organizing information in a structured way → And then presenting it in a way that is still engaging.

2) Maintaining a calming and grounded presence for others

3) Being consistent in my content on a weekly basis; I’m really good at not letting “perfection” slow down my output. I am good at producing a prolific amount of content and marketing.

4) Creating fillable worksheets that make people think deeper or see things from a different angle.

5) Recognizing the good parts of someone’s story and motivating someone to share their story

Ultimately, this question of “What is the most quintessenitally ME way of creating value?”, is critical to ask yourself as you build thought leadership. Otherwise it’s very easy to box yourself into the “marketing/content best practices” that feel restrictive.

You might even end up feeling resistance towards creating content in general. And as we all know, it’s really hard to take action consistently when you’re feeling so much inertia towards what you’re “supposed” to do.

If you’re thinking: Is doing all this work even worth it when no one seems to care? Am I even really helping anyone? What’s the point?

Maybe right now, it feels like you’re constantly thinking: Is doing all this work even worth it when no one seems to care? Am I even really helping anyone? What’s the point?

This is happening because you’re questioning whether you’re even creating anything of value. So you keep defaulting to creating educational content because it seems like that is the way to “give value”.

After all, the online marketing gurus and business coaches keep saying “give value”, which intellectually makes sense. But you struggle to see “value” through the lens of anything besides educational content. 

The reality is that if you follow someone else’s rubric of “value”, you’ll end up modeling your body of work after theirs.

It’s also hard to feel good about yourself, your thought leadership, and your body of work when you’re constantly measuring yourself against someone else’s standard and definition of “value”.

Right now, it is imperative to learn to define what value looks like in your own body of work, and create a system to measure this so you can evaluate the effectiveness of your content.

Becoming known for your thought leadership will require you to go beyond creating only educational content. Your people WANT to know why you think the way that you think.

When you’re able to recognize that there are other ways to create value beyond step-by-step or how-to content, this is how you add depth and substance to your body of work. 

This will require you to:

  1. Explore alternative ways of giving value, beyond the traditional educational content.
  2. Define what “value” uniquely looks like for your body of work.
  3. Set the parameters for how you want to measure what “value” looks like for your body of work.
  4. Double down on your strengths when it comes to communicating your thought leadership, sharing your story and ideas, etc.

Then you can take it a step further and use this to create a system to evaluate your content and sharpen your skill of “adding value” with each and every post.

Having the skill of being able to review your recent pieces and identify what you want to improve on MATTERS. Because as much as being consistent and continuing to put in the reps do 1000% matter, it’s also important to make sure you aren’t just mindlessly taking actions consistently without getting any better at your craft.

We want you to not just build your muscle for taking action and executing on your ideas, but also sharpen your skills of being able to identify what you’d like to double down on, what you’d like to do differently, what you’d like to tighten up and improve on, and so on. 

To tie everything together, I want to share a story from a client named Jennifer, who is a web designer for professors and academics. In an interview we did on this podcast previously, specifically, Episode 118 of this show, Jennifer shared the following snippet which I thought was so profound and illustrative of why it matters to create a body of work that not only encapsulates your unique thought leadership, but also is adding value to the world, in way that is meaningful to you.

Let me read out loud what Jennifer had said on Episode 118 of this podcast when I asked her about her experience coaching with me: 

“I have definitely signed more clients than ever. For my business, in just a short few months, I have more than doubled my investment in this coaching program.

But beyond that, I have helped more people in deeper ways, and found clear ways to talk about my business that goes far beyond how much money I’m making. It goes far beyond the monetary value of this. And I think that’s really important for me. I want more people to feel inspired not only by what I do, but the things that I’m teaching professors how to do.

Talking about yourself is hard, especially in online places where you’re not sure what the reaction is going to be. And it’s really normal to feel like that. But I’m sure you, as a coach, have felt like that too. And I just know that the things that I share are just so helpful for people. I needed to feel more confident in being able to share those things while making offers at the same time. 

And what I didn’t realize because I was so scared of making offers when I first started was that people are excited to hear my offers. They’re excited to hear how I can help them. And because I’ve built such an amazing bank of content that is so helpful, educational and shareable, I’m able to help more people, even the people who can’t work with me.

That has made me so happy in my business and myself in my life, like that has made me more fulfilled as a human being, to be really creating value in the world, from my office here where I’m most comfortable.

So having the life that I want, and also making the money that I want to be making, these are amazing things to achieve. Just halfway through the program.”

As you can see, for Jennifer, value for her looks like inspiring professors to feel inspired to build their online presence. It was also important to Jennifer to create resources that are so helpful, educational, and shareable so they feel confident enough to take the first steps on their own, even if they’re not currently in a position to work with Jennifer in a paid capacity.  

This is what value looks like for Jennifer and her body of work, and doing so, as you can see, has created tremendous meaning for both Jennfier and her audience at large. 

When I asked Jennifer to give us a further glimpse into the body of work she’s built thus far, she shared the following. Again, let me read out loud what Jennifer had said on Episode 118 of this podcast: 

“Because the things that I created four years ago, almost five years ago, in my business now, they’re still helping me today. In fact, I think my most popular blog posts every single year, since it’s been published, has been, gosh, it’s like four years old now. And that is why it makes a difference.

The things that you create now are going to help people now, right, it’s going to help you potentially sign clients now. But it can also continue to help you far into the future. And if it’s somewhere online, somewhere that’s findable, like on a website, that can make an even more lasting impact and help more people find you who aren’t connected to you on social media, or already are aware of what you’re doing.

Help new people find you! That’s how new professors find me all the time. Hundreds of thousands of professors around the world find my blogs and the content that I created four years ago, three years ago, and it’s still reaching people today.”

WOW. SO, SO GOOD.

Jennifer is a prime example of why building a body of work that showcases your thought leadership and creates value for your people MATTERS.

It matters not just for you and the vision you have and the impact you want to create, but it also matters for your people.

Because your work has the capacity and potential to make ripples in the lives of others, I would personally argue that it matters to not only create value through our work, but it also matters to stretch our realm of possibility when it comes to what value looks like and to take on the responsibility of creating value in the most quintessentially YOU way possible.

Again, this work matters. It matters to you. It matters to me to make sure you continue moving forward in building thought leadership and adding value through your body of work. And it ultimately matters to the people who would find tremendous value in what you do.

One final note before we close off: I’m currently working on a brand new free resource that will be dropping in just a few weeks.

In this super comprehensive resource, you will learn the nine parts of your thought leadership strategy, you will have a set of rubrics to help you audit your thought leadership strategy, and you will be able to identify the specific gaps to fill and what your next action steps are, as you continue moving forward.

To grab this resource when it officially drops in September 2024, you can sign up for the waitlist at cheryltheory.com/audit. The link will also be in the show notes below. 

Sounds good? Awesome. Let’s get to work.

Listen to the Episode

Additional Resources

THE AUDIT: BUILD A DIFFERENTIATED & TIMELESS BODY OF WORK

– Audit 9 different parts of your body of work

– Identify the specific areas you can improve on right away to set your business apart from the rest

– Book a free 60-minute AUDIT CALL with Cheryl to create an actionable plan together

Get the free audit: https://cheryllau.com/audit 

Other Episodes You’ll Enjoy

Episode 148. Hi, I’m Cheryl (Part 2): My Thought Leadership & Business Journey

Episode 179. Becoming Known for Your Story, Perspectives, and Expertise (+ Thought Leadership Examples)

Episode 181. Becoming Known for Your Unique Voice in Your Content, Speaking, and Personal Brand

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