50 Principles, Truths, And Tenets About My Work as a Thought Leadership Strategist, Coach, and Chronically Ill Entrepreneur

How do we make choices in the completion of our work? What matters most to us, given our years (sometimes, ahem, decades of experience)? 

I decided to collect the guiding principles and beliefs that anchor my business as a way to get them straight in my mind. What does matter most to me? What do I believe strongly to be true and essential to how I work?

It took a few months to collect this list. I was easily able to get to 15, then 25, but it was a more difficult push to add to the list beyond 30. But I knew there would be gold if I could continue to work my way to 50. 

Let’s get started. 

Here are the deeply held beliefs, truths, principles, and practices that serve as the foundation for all of my thought leadership work.

1. You can’t build predictable, sustainable B2B work from referrals.
2. It’s difficult to become a top voice or expert in your space from social media alone. (Some people have done it, but it’s risky because you don’t control the tech stack or the algorithm.)
3. Sharing deep, long-form content shows your audience what you really know. The delightful added surprise here is that it becomes revealed to you, too. (We tend to underestimate the extent of our knowledge or experience until we see the collection of articles or other content materials.)
4. Very few founders understand and properly leverage their positioning and differentiation.
5. There’s no formula to follow for creating a great business. You need to create your own unique formula for growth.
6. Workplace challenges like AI and remote work are just the change flavours du jour. Figure out how your work solves your client’s current, immediate, deep challenges and “wicked problems” and you’ll always have a thriving business.
7. Clients need to see your point of view (POV) in multiple flavours—socials, videos, long articles, podcasts, eBooks, research, case studies, etc.—before they’ll buy from you (well, if your offers are more than $2K).
8. Women have to prove their authority; societal bias requires it. Men benefit from assumed authority. (I wish this wasn’t true. Every female founder who steps into creating thought leadership work is helping to change this bias.)
9. Almost any book you publish can increase your authority, even if your prospects or audience haven’t read it. It will be worth your effort. (But please invest in a great cover, title, and subtitle.)
10. Everyone has some level of neurodivergence when it comes to creative work, even if it’s not an official diagnosis.
11. Social algorithms will continue to change; stop trying to perform for them and focus on being helpful and starting conversations.
12. Even a business where every project is customized to the client’s situation needs a sales page so prospects understand how you deliver change to solve their problems. Give them a starting point for a sales conversation.
13. Start every writing piece by defining the thesis or hypothesis you are going to prove (even with social media posts). Have the “so what” of your writing clear in your mind, then check the draft to make sure you addressed it.
14. Seeing the extent of your expertise and knowledge written down will improve your confidence in every sales conversation that follows. You can literally “see” your expertise, and it reminds you to believe it.
15. Treat your website like the best “back room with all the great conversations,” not just a storefront window. Give your audience space and a reason to stay with you for a while. You can measure this by looking at your average engagement time by user in your Google Analytics. (You do have Analytics set up, right?)
16. Great writers are great readers first.
17. Every prospect wants the “behind the scenes” details.  What are you like to work with? What are you reading lately? What keeps you busy outside of work? What keeps you up at night? Are you a human with struggles, or just an AI bot?
18. Think of all of your work, from your programs to articles to socials, as your “body of work.” As a collection, what is it saying? What problems are you solving? And if you can’t find a common thread to connect them, do the deeper work of understanding the “why and what” of your work, then write to communicate that message to connect the dots for your prospects.
19. Your biggest competitor, always, is going to be inertia, because it feels easier and safer to maintain the status quo, especially in a recession market. So what are you going to say or do to help them overcome it and decide to work with you?
20. After you do something five times, figure out how to systematize it. Create a template or procedure, create AI shortcuts, automate it. You can also use one piece of the process or template as a lead magnet. 
21. If you can afford it, do primary research that will be beneficial to your clients and prospects. If you can’t afford it, curate the top research of other experts in your space and share it widely. (Not necessarily behind a paywall, but that’s up to you.)
22. DEI aside and all the demonizing of that term lately, you aren’t reflecting the true diversity of your audience if all of your sources and quote references are only from white men. Help your audience feel seen by intentionally seeking out and adding research from a wide range of sources.
23. You need to nurture creativity offline if you want to be creative online. Creativity is a renewable resource that is easily depleted. 
24. Yes, innate talent can be a starting point, but great writers can happen through practice.
25. Long-term planning for people with chronic illnesses is incredibly difficult. Sometimes the only planning we can do is on a day-to-day basis. We have to roll with whatever energy we have today.
26. Think about your work and life as energy needs—how do you build your energy? What are you going to do with it intentionally when you have it?
27. You can scientifically analyze a writing voice and change it, or double down on what happens naturally. You’ll find an audience in both scenarios, but learning to live with and love your natural writing voice might be easier.
28. Writing and storytelling create a shared humanity because we internalize and carry others’ stories with us. (AI will never be able to do that.)
29. Writing is thinking. Every time.
30. Standing in your body of work reduces imposter syndrome. It’s like seeing the rings on a tree. Your years of experience will be there for others to see. 
31. Writing can be the great equalizer of abilities (your audience can’t see if you’re “less than” what society perceives to be valuable—beauty, strength, power, etc.). Great freedom and opportunities can arise from this reality.
32. Writing creates permanence—in our work, in history, in our communities of practice.
33. The messy middle is the work; we will forever be our own change projects. As long as we’re alive and working, we’ll never be done. Embrace this, find ways to guide and enjoy it.
34. We can learn from agricultural permaculture models and create our own creativity permaculture to make writing an easier and consistent practice in our work.
35. As a chronically ill entrepreneur, I don’t have a daily “habit stack” or morning routine, because I’m subject to so many unknown variables each day. So I’ve created a “habit buffet” to choose from based on the energy I have available.
36. You can’t be only an “architect” or “gardener” type of writer to create great writing. You need both structure and free writing practices to build a strong body of work.
37. The biggest missed opportunity in content marketing is reusing your content with intention. Remix and repurpose.. As Ross Simmonds says, “create once, distribute forever.”
38. Being a thought leader starts with thinking like a thought leader. It requires you to have intentional practices to challenge your thinking and connect the dots for your audience in new ways.
39. Writing regularly to your team (ideally weekly) is the best way to keep everyone on the same page, especially through seasons of significant change. (Pro tip: do this even if you’re a team of one because the trail of memos you create becomes breadcrumbs to help you understand what’s working and where you’ve been off track.)
40. Menopause + chronic illness is a shitty Venn diagram in my second act of work life. But also, I’m delighting in menolescence, a joyful time of very little responsibility to others and freedom of time and space to explore new things. (Plus a little more disposable income than adolescence.) Many of my clients are also figuring out their second act, with all of the existential analysis and refocus on purpose that comes with it.
41. Writing and publishing consistently is both a creative practice and a sustainable marketing system with derivative benefits that grow over time.
42. Stepping into the spotlight requires you to break the “frame” of what you used to be—you are no longer “getting ready” or in learning mode; you’ve arrived.
43. Doing integrative nervous system and somatic work is one of the biggest missed inputs to building a creative life.
44. Learn great storytelling, copywriting, and buyer psychology to understand what your audience needs to see and hear before they buy.
45. Chronic illness and cancer are one of the best (but unfortunate) lessons for learning about uncertainty and emerging change. If you’ve been fortunate enough to avoid having first-hand knowledge of critical illness, learn from those who have.
46. Be a scientist in your life. Watch for signals, adapt and test new practices and ideas, and track what works (or doesn’t work). You’ll be able to grow and change at a faster rate.
47. Uncertainty is freedom. It can create fear that holds us back, but it can also be the start of wildly new possibilities if we allow it to happen. 
48. Continue to balance the tension of adapting as the world continues to change at a rapid rate with your need for deep rest. 
49. Creativity is a rebellious act. (via Amie McNee)
50. Know that you are already enough, just as you are. Let go of the urgency of learning more, of performative productivity, and settle into the deep knowing you already have. Share from that place.

That’s the list! What are the 50 truths or principles that guide your work?