What does it take to inspire another human being to action? What words or ideas motivate the average person (who is stressed, overwhelmed, and exhausted) to buy your book, request a consultation, or engage with your content? How can you think and write like an effective thought leader in 2025?
William & Mary invited alumna and Next Page founder, Janaye Jordan, to unpack these questions during a one-hour webinar this January. Watch the replay below, or skip ahead to read the webinar highlights:
What Are the Traits of a Thought Leader?
Thought leaders are modern-day, professional philosophers. "Our insight is our gift," says Janaye. "We cultivate our gifts by practicing and developing specific traits." These traits can be learned by anyone in any industry in any role. So, what are these traits?
Curiosity
Attentiveness
Open-Mindedness
Empathy
Insightfulness
Conceptuality
Vulnerability
When practiced skillfully, these traits can help us spark new conversations, challenge outdated beliefs, and create change. It's likely that you already naturally exhibit one or more of these traits. Others might feel more foreign to you, and that's okay. Start where you are.
Where Do We Find Inspiration and Insight?
Each of us possess a creative, personal space where our experiences, thoughts, and memories are stored. Janaye calls this the idea vault. This is where thought leaders go, internally, to engage with their observations and make new connections. It is the place where insight happens.
We can imagine this space as a storehouse, reservoir, or library. What matters is that there is a wealth of information stored here that you can access when you want to create something new, like a blog article, a LinkedIn post, or a book.
Sometimes, ideas and experiences can get tucked away in this space, like hidden treasure. Think about your old journals and exam papers. We can always return to our idea vaults to retrieve inspiration for new content.
The key here is that nothing is irrelevant. Every memory, observation, and piece of insight in our idea vault is useful. A thought leader knows this. The more familiar you become with your idea vault, the more confident you’ll be drawing from it whenever you face a blank page.
How Do Thought Leaders Create Consistent, Impactful Content?
How do thought leaders alchemize ideas from their vaults into something tangible that others can engage with? Through a writing practice. Janaye introduces the 5Ws of a writing practice—who you write for, why you write, what you write, when you write, and where you write—and reveals how these pillars of effective thought leadership can be strengthened through skillful action.
1. Who I Write For
The most important question to ask yourself when you sit down to write is, "Who am I writing for?"
"Without the 'who,' there is no 'what' or 'why.' Without the 'who,' we lose our motivation to remain consistent about when and where we write," says Janaye.
To strengthen the "who" pillar, Janaye suggests becoming relentlessly curious about ourselves and others.
Thought leaders are obsessed with human behavior, starting with "I" and expanding out to the "we." They tend to recognize that others are mirrors for the Self, and that they are mirrors for others' Selves. They seek knowledge through observation, research, interviews, spending time with people, active listening, and contemplation.
Because thought leaders are in touch with themselves and others, they don't imagine a faceless network when they think about their audiences. They don't imagine engaging with attentive, focused, and worry-free readers. They know that, in reality, their audiences are tired, overwhelmed, frustrated, bored, preoccupied, and afraid.
Thought leaders deeply understand the real-life human being on the other side of the screen.
Now, what behavior science tells us is that these uncomfortable and very normal emotions of fear, anger, and discomfort drive action. They drive people to seek help.
"The opportunity that we have as thought leaders and writers," explains Janaye, "is to offer relief. This can come in the form of assistance, insight, transformation, or entertainment via our story, our perspective, our writing, and our creative content."
Janaye's #1 tip to strengthen your "who" pillar is to read a psychology book specific to your industry.
Another step you can take to strengthen this pillar is to develop a client avatar or persona. This includes the demographics and psychographics of your ideal reader on an individual level. Donald Miller's Building a StoryBrand is a great place to start for those looking to do a deep dive on this.
Choosing a "Who" Priority
What is one simple thing you can do within the next two weeks to strengthen your own "who" pillar? Janaye suggests picking one of the following tasks as a priority:
I will interview three readers to gather data.
I will create a client avatar.
I will read an industry-specific psychology book.
2. Why I Write
Understanding why we write helps us stay aligned with our authentic desires and goals. For thought leaders, it’s often about shaping perceptions and inspiring action. Here are some common reasons Janaye outlines for writing:
To be seen
To educate or spread awareness
To motivate change
To encourage
To challenge or question
To sell something
These are all extremely valid reasons to write, and effective thought leaders are honest and non-judgmental about their motivations.
Thought leaders know that they are on a mission and have accepted that mission. They aren't afraid to be seen and engaged with.
"If we feel guilty or selfish for wanting to be thought leaders," Janaye explains, "we will self-silence and self-sabotage. We will do it subconsciously. We will play small and let imposter syndrome take the wheel."
Bottom line? Give yourself permission to desire the thing you desire.
Once we know why we're writing, we can develop and echo a clear and unique message for our audience. Our unique message lives at the intersection of our audience's why and our why. It is our way of saying, “I know what you want. I want it for you, too, and I know how to get there. Follow me."
One extremely helpful practice for any writer is to develop a one-sentence brand message. Here is a template:
An important note here. Once thought leaders extend an invitation, they don't force engagement. When we find ourselves feeling tempted to force a point, prove ourselves, or defend ourselves, we disable connection and reduce our influence. We get caught in a trap of hinging our thought leadership on validation. Not sustainable.
Choosing a "Why" Priority
What is one simple thing you can do within the next two weeks to strengthen your own "why" pillar? Janaye suggests picking one of the following tasks as a priority:
I will identify my brand's core values.
I will identify the primary actions I want my reader to take.
I will spend one hour refining my brand message.
3. What I Write
For thought leaders, observation yields inspiration. Thought leaders pay attention to their surroundings, engage with their environments, and collect experiences. In doing so, they tend to notice things that others don't. The unnoticed things are what they love to write about.
Noticing things requires mindfulness and presence. This can be really hard to do. What helps is taking mental or physical notes throughout the day and remembering that everything is useful. Nothing is irrelevant.
When our goal is to notice more, Janaye shares some simple things we can do:
Use our senses
Take notes
Read (all genres)
Journal daily
The more we do this, the better we become at identifying patterns and seeing the threads that run through all things. This requires diverse consumption, leaving the echo chamber of your industry, and engaging with life in all its forms.
After noticing and gathering our observations, we return to our idea vault to make connections. This is where the creative content starts to emerge. In our vault, we ask ourselves questions like:
"What does X have to do with Y?"
"How do these ideas relate?"
"What patterns are emerging in my industry? What is no one else talking about?"
These are the questions we unpack and attempt to answer in our writing. The more complex the question, the better. Thought leaders simplify complex themes and share them with new audiences. This is our superpower. We can do this by telling stories, using plain language, breaking concepts into smaller parts, using visual aids, and providing real-life examples.
A useful content strategy Janaye shares to maximize and recycle content is to prioritize one long-form piece of writing per month, such as a blog, report, or paper. Then, you can break that content into smaller pieces for various platforms. One podcast transcript, for instance, can turn into a blog, six social media posts, and an infographic.
Choosing a "What" Priority
What is one simple thing you can do within the next two weeks to strengthen your own "what" pillar? Janaye suggests picking one of the following tasks as a priority:
I will identify one conversation missing in my community.
I will identify one thing that makes me angry that no one is talking about.
I will identify one thing I wish people outside of my industry knew about my industry.
4. When I Write
An impactful practice is built upon the "who," "why," and "what" pillars. A consistent practice is built upon the "when" and the "where" pillars.
Knowing your writing productivity type is a good place to start when you want to develop a more consistent writing practice and strengthen your "when" pillar.
Writer Eva Bec built upon author and scientist Cal Newport's writing philosophies to identify four productivity types:
The Binger: writes intensely at irregular intervals
The Time-Blocker: writes at scheduled, recurring intervals
The Daily Doer: writes every day
The Spontaneous Writer: writes anytime, anywhere
Which writing productivity type best describes your current writing practice?
Even though there's no right or wrong way to approach a writing project, we have the ability to shift from one productivity type to another as needed. Janaye's hunch is that we'd all like to move closer to a daily practice. Research shows that regular, consistent writing leads to higher productivity and deeper creative flow. So, how do we do this?
Know thyself. When do you do your best writing? What time of day? How long does it take you to write each piece of content? How do you handle deadlines? If you don't know, here's your opportunity. Approach this like a scientist and start collecting data.
Find a recurring window. Take a good look at your schedule. Find a window that aligns with your peak writing time and block it off. Start small. This can be a daily window or not. Your window depends on your goals.
Find an anchor. Schedule your writing window immediately following a habit or practice that is already well established, such as making your coffee, checking your emails, or eating lunch.
Now, if you discover that you actually, truly, really don’t have time to write or create content consistently, then you may need to consider outsourcing or adjusting your goals. There is nothing wrong with hiring a ghostwriter or content creator to support you.
Choosing a "When" Priority
What is one simple thing you can do within the next two weeks to strengthen your own "when" pillar? Janaye suggests picking one of the following tasks as a priority:
I will time-track my writing.
I will test three different writing windows.
I will anchor my writing window to _______________.
5. Where I Write
Knowing where we do our best writing helps us condition ourselves for optimal creativity and output as thought leaders.
Here are some tips to strengthen the "where" pillar:
When we want to access our flow state quickly, it helps to condition a neutral writing space.
When we want to focus, it helps to eliminate distractions. This includes clutter, devices, and noise.
When we want go deep (such as accessing heavy emotions), it helps to feel safe in our bodies. Engaging our senses, breathwork, and somatic practices can help.
When we want to overcome writer's block, it helps to change our environment. Getting outside, interacting with people, and seeing something new can help.
When we struggle to stay motivated, it helps to body-double. Working in a library, co-working space, or shared office can help.
Choosing a "Where" Priority
What is one simple thing you can do within the next two weeks to strengthen your own "where" pillar? Janaye suggests picking one of the following tasks as a priority:
I will declutter & organize my writing space.
I will fill my space with five sensory objects.
I will test writing in three new spaces.
What's Next?
Review the top priority you identified for each pillar of your writing practice. If you had to choose one task to complete within the next two weeks, what would it be? Start with that one.
(Tip: download the free Content Compass template below to compile and track your priorities)
About Janaye
Janaye Jordan is the owner of Next Page and a self-publishing coach who helps writers turn big ideas into impactful books. She has worked as a ghostwriter, editor, and book designer on over 75 projects and leads a team focused on purposeful publishing. With a love for psychology, philosophy, and storytelling, Janaye inspires authors to find their unique voice and connect with readers—one story at a time.
Commentaires