127. The New Rules of Thought Leadership + The Power of LinkedIn - Tania Bhattacharyya
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Overview
Meet Tania. This former nonprofit ED is passionate about building thought leadership branding. Never heard of it? We hadn't either, but we are huge believers after this conversation. It's about abundantly sharing your lived experience, passion and expertise to build trust with the right audience on the right topic. She's walking us through it PLUS giving a mini masterclass on how to leverage LinkedIn. Steel yourself for an epic conversation with a seriously good human.
Today’s Guest
Tania Bhattacharyya, Founder, Lumos Marketing
“The true outcome of personal branding is trust. And there’s no like app that really quantifies that, you know, but it is of trust is completely and totally priceless.”
Episode Transcript
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Episode Highlights
Tania’s story and journey to where she is today - 2:48
Leveraging your LinkedIn - 8:35
9 guiding principles to build your thought leadership - 10:51
Building your personal brand while supporting your mission - 16:37
A living resume - 20:12
Finding the right words to share online - 30:30
Tania’s One Moment in Philanthropy - 34:42
Tania’s One Good Thing: When we stand for something greater than ourselves, which is our nonprofits mission and vision, it's not fair to stay hidden and be small. - 36:44
Powerful quotes
“I knew to stand out, I would need to build a personal brand for myself, which in other words, is just positioning yourself as a trusted authority, creating a trusted reputation based on your perceived experience, credibility, and achievements.” - Tania
“Non-profits are the first line of defense for people at the margins who are struggling, who needs support, and we have seen that very clearly over the last year. And that's just the people who were closest to the heart of our world's problems have the solutions. They're just not always at the table, the funding table, the public policy table, the thought leadership table, and I know I'm biased, but I believe that the nonprofit field is the most important field.” - Tania
“I'm very intentional about working with the nonprofit world because we all stand for something greater than ourselves. We are all about working at the heart of the world's biggest problems. Therefore, we have the solutions through our lived experience in the trenches.” - Tania
“People follow the leaders that they know, like and trust, they'll roll up their sleeves and jump into the arena to help those leaders make shift happen. They'll donate rally, protest, give, do whatever it takes. But if nonprofit leaders are not consistently sharing about the work to their target audience, they're leaving transformational opportunities on the table, because they're not at the table, to take them.” - Tania
“It also gave me a sense that, you know, we don't do enough in nonprofit to take care of ourselves. The self-care component, particularly for women, is something that we do not take the time to do because we are hardwired, to be multitaskers to pile on, to do all of the tasks, while still loving people and making sure that you know, harmonious relationships still exist.” - Becky
“We become thought leaders and build a personal trusted personal brand, by being of service to others and freely giving away the information that we have learned through our journey. And I think everybody can lead from where they are.” - Tania
“I visually can see that. I can see all the things that are insecurities, just being the fabric of who we are, we own it, but it is not completely, you know, hardwired and threaded into us. It's just a loose flowy part that was like a masterclass in humanity.” - Becky
“When we think about it, our workplaces, the nonprofit's we work, at the communities we built around that they are a kind of a family too, it's not a family we're born into. And it's not really a family of choice, either. But those same mechanisms play out. And so if the leader is not vulnerable, does not apologize, you know, strives for perfection 100% of the time, the children, or the employees and the donors and the community will will pick up on that, and it is a struggle.” - Tania
“That's one that comes up often because sometimes people think it's almost like they clash, a personal brand, and a professional brand, or the brand of the organization might clash. But truthfully, they really amplify each other.” - Tania
“For every individual within a nonprofit to have a complimentary personal brand, where they're sharing what they're passionate about sharing their deeper vision for the future. It actually just really boosts up the organization as well.” - Tania
“In a world where we can't always be our authentic selves, or we're needing to code switch, or come off as different than we actually are. I think finding your deeper personal brand, is is deep work.” -Tania
“What do you stand for? What is the legacy you want to leave in the world? What keeps you up at night? What breaks your heart? And once you answer those questions for yourself, you can identify your personal brand - the people you stand for, the hill that you will die on, and who you are as a person.” - Tania
“LinkedIn is changing a lot of people I speak to still think it's the place where you just use when you're trying to find a job, or the place where you just upload your resume. And it's just your living resume. It's actually an amazing social media platform where you can create a lot of engagement.” - Tania
“The reason for that is LinkedIn has over 700 million users, but most of them don't post their own content, but they check it, they get on there every day, at least multiple times a week. And so because there's a greater ratio of users to content than other social media platforms like Instagram or Twitter, your posts will linger longer. And so they have more time to get noticed even a week or more longer after the initial post.” - Tania
“If you put the right words, the right keywords in your headline, your job title, your summary, you can easily be found by the right people for the right opportunities.” - Tania
“LinkedIn is really the cover of your branding strategy. It's a cover your thought leadership. So you want to be sure it's something your audience is going to want to pick up.” - Tania
“So by not putting yourself out there, you're actually like allowing somebody out there to continue struggling with their issue. Whereas if you posted something that provided value, that provided solution that provided a guide map forward, that would actually be a really giving thing, that would be a really great way to to change the world in your own small, quiet way.” - Tania
“A lot of people think that their LinkedIn headline needs to be their job, like executive director of this nonprofit, and it doesn't, you can make it whatever you want it to be.” - Tania
“We're afraid to be specific, because then we're afraid of not reaching all of these people out here. But the truth is, if you're trying to speak to everyone, you're not really speaking to anyone because your message gets too diluted, your brain gets too diluted. So specificity is your friend. Be specific.” - Tania
“You know, they were a gorgeous environment of care. They were healing. They were just beautiful.” - Tania’s One Moment in Philanthropy
“This also comes from reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. So like he says that people who are successful at meeting their goals don't focus on the goal itself only. Instead, they focus on the systems they need to put in place and the identity that they need to adopt.” - Tania
“When we stand for something greater than ourselves, which is our nonprofits mission and vision. It's not fair to stay hidden and be small. I want to tell you very clearly that it doesn't you have to speak for your work, otherwise, the miracle may not happen.” - Tania’s One Good Thing
“When you speak up, especially for your staff, for your projects, you go and fight for them, and you're including more people at the table.” - Becky
“Just being consistent over a long period of time is how you grant gain this influence and how you can make a bigger impact by showing up is probably not going to happen the first time you post, or even the 100th podcast episode, we haven't reached, you know, the the way that we want to impact at this point, but we're just gonna keep being consistent.” - Jon
9 guiding principles to build your thought leadership
Look through the lens of those we serve with radical empathy and respect.
Strategically share our lived experience and stories from the trenches to educate and inspire others to join our movement.
Commit to transparent community building, attracting a growing audience of fans, friends, and followers to sit around our campfire.
Fill in collective gaps in understanding to benefit all who still suffer, with a secondary goal of becoming the go-to, trusted expert in our niche.
Take the next right step to the best of our ability with humility and gratitude.
Do the inner work so we can wear our protective trauma responses (such as perfectionism, imposter syndrome and people-pleasing) as loose, flowy garments.
Are comfortable not having all the answers. We do what it takes to find them when the right questions are asked.
Show up with a spirit of abundance, actively saying “no, thank you” to scarcity mentality.
Put the community served above all else. Weave in their wisdom - with credit - into our shared solution.
Connect With Tania
Develop Your Thought Leadership Brand Personality - Free Guide!
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Jonathan McCoy, Tania Bhattacharyya, Julie Confer, Pippa McCoy & Becky Endicott
