“Wow! What a great question! I hadn’t thought of it that way before!”
Those words are unforgettable. I was sitting outside on my Santa Fe porch (or portal, as they say in the Land of Enchantment), with the southernmost end of the Rockies to my immediate north, the aspens beginning their seasonal migration from green to gold.
“Ooooh, that feels good,” I thought. To be the one to bring a fresh idea into a conversation with an expert felt really good. The result of that conversation and flash of insight: A book on innovations in architectural design.
From that point forward, I notice that flash of great joy whenever I just happen to say the thing that pops my client’s possibility thinking wide open. And then we walk together into new dimensions of expansive, brand-building, differentiating messaging. Almost 30 books have been born that way. So far.
Fast forward to August 2018. Now I’m in West Palm Beach, enjoying a few weeks poolside, clearing my mind after submitting my latest book manuscript. One afternoon, in the cool of the AC, I’m idly cruising around Linked In. I notice Susan J. Schmitt Winchester, the CHRO of Rockwell Automation at the time, had been checking out my profile. We already knew each other from a previous project, so I was curious to know what was on her mind.
“Hiya! What’s up?”
“I’ve just finished my first book manuscript. It’s taken me over 14 years to write it. I think I’m ready to sign with a publisher. I’m really excited about it!”
Against my set-in-stone practice of never reading manuscripts written by friends, I found myself saying, “Can I take a peek?”
Within minutes I’m sitting under the ceiling fan, laptop open on my sunburned knees, reading her harrowing memoir of having grown up in a setting of trauma, physical and emotional abuse. She wrote it unblinkingly. It was brave. It was strong. It was emotional. But then it kind of lost its shape halfway through. It began to shamble and wander. And it didn’t serve the reader. But, man alive, she said the hard things. All the true things that millions of people carry secretly in their hearts.
The next morning, I got back to her. And this is what I told her:
“If I were your reader, what I would want to know is this: How did someone with such a devastating, debilitating past become such a huge success in the corporate world?”
With that one question, an epic partnership was created that significantly altered both our lives. Together we rewrote the book, now entitled Healing at Work, incorporating not only her own unique, beautifully expressed, experiences but also immense amounts of validated research. And, we believe, it has brought comfort, joy, self-acceptance and immediately actionable tools to thousands of readers, audience members, coaching and consulting clients.
For Susan, she not only has a book that she’s consistently proud of, but she also has a platform that is uniquely hers. Through her writings, her speeches, online courses, her work as a thought leader, consultant and coach, she has brought a deep, profound, healing message to the world: Damaged is not doomed. And, now that we can understand the workings of neuroplasticity through her Healing at Work programs, we know that the workplace can actually be a venue of emotional healing.
(She was also lavishly praised by Jack Canfield who called Healing at Work one of the most important books he’s ever read.
To think that the August afternoon she was idly browsing Linked In at the same time I was, she was happy that her single goal of having a book was within sight. Heh. Surprise!
Surprise for me too. I didn’t have words for it at the time, but this is what I know now: This is what thinking partners do.
We are a combination of Rick Rubin, Thomas Edison, Martha Stewart, and, let’s face it, a pinch of Rumpelstiltskin thrown in, now and then, for good measure (but we won’t tell anyone that part).
In collaboration with our clients, we take the original thinking/impulse/vague inspiration, inventory all the ingredients in their idea pantry, pull some resources out of our own warehouse, then recombine them to make the one-of-a-kind product that truly serves the end user (in this case, readers, clients, corporate leaders).
We help our clients create the organized ultimate deliverable or promise that will uniquely empower them to change the world.
Grandiose thinking? Maybe. But you aspire to be a thought leader standing on a solid platform of well-developed messaging. If you don’t want to change the world, even in some small way, why even bother?
So What Exactly is a Thinking Partner Anyway?
We help you identify, articulate and develop your core differentiating message so that you stand out. Not only among your colleagues and competitors, but also AI. When publishing is in our wheelhouse, we also help you strategize the packaging of all your messaging so that you can build your reputation of unique authority in all desirable formats. Some of which can be significant revenue generators for you.
We help you define your brand for yourself, and then articulate it for the world.
We help you organize your insights, experiences and observations into messaging and frameworks that establish you as the trusted authority on the subject. What do you want to stand for? Who is your ideal client, customer, reader, audience? What kind of client inquiry will you continue to be excited to receive five years from now?
We are on your side.
Together we are on the same side of spreading the message that relieves suffering or brings hope to the world. Your purpose and mission is our purpose and mission. We will even collaborate with you on the wording of your purpose and mission.
We ask the questions/make the suggestions that make you go, “Wow!”
It’s very likely that you are too close to your subject, or too emotionally attached to your approach, to be able to independently see other ways of doing the thing. The fresh ideas we bring to the table might be just what you need to get the party started.
We don’t pussyfoot.
As true ideation collaborators, you need us to be your dance partner. Not your direct report. And sometimes we step on a toe or two. Quality thinking partners would never say, “That’s a stupid idea.” But if your home is in the C-suite, you might not be used to a thinking partner who listens respectfully and then says, “That’s good, but there might be an issue with that approach. Are you open to exploring other ways?” (Is that code for “that’s a stupid idea?” Maybe. But remember, we’re on your side.)
We bring our own essential skill sets and expertise to your table.
You are obviously the expert in your field. We are the experts in our field: Thought leadership development, platform building, and publishing.
We’re your lab rat.
We take on the roles of your readers and clients by proxy. If what you say doesn’t make sense to us, it won’t make sense to them. We’ll know what their next question to you would be. We can imagine the yeah-buts and objections and will wargame your responses with you. (New book ideas, speeches, articles, online courses, workshops, lead magnets emerge from these exercises.)
We know the people you need to know to get the job done.
We know the process flow chart. And we know who is at each station on that chart, who is trustworthy and what red flags to watch out for. (Hint: If you hear “custom coding” from a website developer, keep looking. Unless you’re building the landing module for the Mars expedition, it’s unlikely you’ll need custom coding.) We will do our best to stand between you and the hucksters and the BS-ery.
We help you make sure all your messaging combines and aligns to be a strategic asset, not just word count accumulation.
Are your concepts truly distinctive? Or would just this one little tweak make your message jump off the computer screen and land directly into the hearts and minds of your audience? Does your voice align with the emotional engagement you want your readers to feel? (Are you academic authoritative? Sage on stage? Or are you the friendly seatmate right there with your readers in the audience?)
We help you protect yourself.
We’re unlikely to be copyright or IP attorneys. But we can help you identify what steps you need to take to put the world on notice that you take your IP very seriously.
We connect unexpected dots that make your message pop with human originality.
Case in point: Before Susan and I teamed up to develop her Healing at Work message, there was no one who connected the latest research into neuroplasticity with emotional healing opportunities available at work. Psychological researchers such as Barbara Frederickson, Shawn Achor, Martin Seligman, and others, have investigated the benefits of positive emotions at work. And, of course, oodles (a technical term) of researchers have dedicated themselves to feeding the proposition that the workplace is where mental health goes to die.
But no one explicitly connected the workplace experience with neuropsychologically healing opportunities for adults whose childhoods were traumatized by addiction, violence, depression, emotional neglect, etc. Until Susan came along.
On top of that, for a while, Susan was the lone voice from the C-Suite, brave and generous enough to be willing to self-disclose her own traumatic story as a way to extend a hand of vulnerable commonality to her audience. More than once Susan (whose executive presence is impeccable) has had audience members come up to her after a speech to admit, “When I first saw you walk on stage, I thought ‘This woman and I have nothing in common.’ But when you told your story, I thought, ‘Oh my God…she’s me.'”
Dots connected.
“Do I come off as a know-it-all?” I once sincerely asked an early client who had dedicated the entire first phase of her young adult life single-mindedly focused on getting AOL launched.
Her kind and candid answer: “No, you come off as a know-a-lot.”
Okay, fair enough. I don’t know about my fellow professional thinking partners, but I can say this about myself: I walk through this world passively collecting random tidbits of fascin-alia like it’s cat hair on black slacks. My brain is Mary Poppins’ carpet bag. It’s a trait. Nothing to be proud of necessarily. But, if used properly, it’s definitely a super power to leverage in service of our clients.
We’re really good at creatively connecting seemingly unrelated dots and details that you might be too close to see. We know you so well that we spot those dots, consider the possibilities and share them with you, even when you’re no longer officially a client. We can’t help ourselves.
Recently I had a client who speaks movingly about his mother’s tea cup in his presentations, and in the book we were developing. From the entire set of china, it is the only survivor of multiple decades of daily use, washings, and slippery oopsies. To him, the story is a deeply sentimental moment featuring, well, just a tea cup. Until I came into his life.
“What’s the tea cup’s pattern?” I asked him during an interview to collect material for the book.
“I don’t know, it’s just a tea cup. Why?” he asked, clearly wanting to get on with things.
“Indulge me. Turn it upside down and tell me what the stamp says,” I responded.
“Uhm…it says Noritake. Mardi Gras.”
Okay. So now we have detail for the book. Readers can imagine a festive, exuberant pattern on the fragile, precious tea cup gently held in his mother’s aging hand. Lovely. If readers want to know what it looked like, they can google or grok it. And I believe that the client now shows a picture of the cup itself now as part of his speeches. So audiences get it right away.
Years pass. We are no longer officially engaged. Still we text from time to time. Just last week, I sent him a screenshot of a paragraph I had randomly run across discussing the definition of the Japanese word, noritake.
“Becoming excellence,” with the emphasis on the concept of becoming.
He texted back something along the lines of, “Tell me more.”
I responded: “One of the major themes of your book is about becoming. And you mention your mother’s china set in the book, which happens to have been Noritake.”
Tea cup. Joyful pattern. Specificity. Imagery. Becoming.
Dots connected. Hoping that extra special, meaningful tidbit will find its way into his speeches in the future.
We save a lot of time.
While writing this piece, I double-checked with Susan to confirm how long it took her to write her original manuscript. Fourteen years. Was it time wasted? I wouldn’t say that. She needed to revisit her past and incorporate it into her understanding of who she had matured and healed to become. And that investment in time ultimately brought us together. But let’s be honest. Do you really want to see 14 years of your own wild and precious life in your rearview mirror, only to have an editor, publisher, or thinking partner say, “What your readers really want to know is…?”
Do You Need a Thinking Partner?
It seems counterintuitive to suggest to corporate leaders that maybe a thinking partner might add some richness, dimension and depth to their presence as thought leaders. When you have achieved the level of success where you have been handsomely rewarded and promoted for the quality of your thinking, why would you possibly need a thinking partner for the next stage of your brand and platform development?
Attorneys need their own attorneys. Therapists have their own therapists. Coaches hire coaches. Doctors don’t operate on themselves.
As a thought leader, you need (and deserve) to have your own companion on this journey of brand and platform development. Fresh ears, fresh eyes, fresh thinking. Fresh flashes of insight. Fresh wows!
And the fun of having a friend on the playground of your latest, most exciting, most inspiring thinking that will shape your future.
Doing it all by yourself is like laughing all by yourself. It’s just so much more satisfying (and fun) all around when you’re with your thinking companion.