Most people dream of having a better life. In their minds they may picture certain people and say, “I want to be as rich as Donald Trump” or “as famous as Oprah.” Curious how they got there? Was it by being an author or getting on TV and regularly being featured in the media? Let’s look at a few traits of people that stand out from the crowd in their industry and are almost annoyingly successful.
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Donald Trump – Real estate expert
Just about everybody loves money, and Donald Trump – love him or hate him – is one of the top names that comes to mind when you think of how to make more money. Think he’s all fluff? It’s pretty amazing that Jack Canfield who has sold more than a half a billion books gave him a testimonial for the front cover of this book. I haven’t read the book but I’m certainly tempted by this endorsement.
When Trump moved to New York he made it a point to meet and work with highly influential people, which helped his business grow. Having his own reality TV show also deepened his personal brand. Then, after almost going into bankruptcy, Donald Trump came back strong and didn’t let a bad spell slow him down.
Getting Roasted by President Obama
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Tony Robbins – Personal development expert
Depending on your age, you probably remember the semi-annoying infomercials years ago that helped make Anthony Robbins famous. He’s one guy that I had to see in person for myself to decide whether or not to commit to his books and training. I did the fire walk. I laughed, cried and jumped up and down for several days then immediately came home, published my first book and changed my life. Thanks for the inspiration Tony, and for a very small burn on my big toe.
Tony now gets a minimum of $1 million to be your personal coach. He has coached such people as: Bill Clinton, Princess Diana, Hugh Jackman, Mother Theresa, Serena Williams, Leonardo DiCaprio, Pamela Anderson, Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev and Larry King.
Tony says he’s read 750 books and attended every personal growth seminar that he could afford, in order to get to where he is today. He’s definitely come a long way from being significantly overweight and living out of his car.
Tony getting roasted by Ben Stiller
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Oprah – TV personality
Some people say there is a war on women, and even more so on ethnic women, but clearly Oprah has shown what is possible in America despite some challenges.
What made Oprah famous?
In 1976, Oprah Winfrey moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she hosted the TV chat show People Are Talking. The show became a hit and Winfrey stayed with it for eight years, after which she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show, A.M. Chicago. Her major competitor in the time slot was Phil Donahue. Within several months, Winfrey’s open, warm-hearted personal style had won her 100,000 more viewers than Donahue and had taken her show from last place to first in the ratings.” – Biography.com
Sticking with it for a long time (1986 to 2011) and having a warm-hearted personal style certainly helped. Oprah is also an actress, philanthropist, publisher and producer. She grew up poor and overcame being repeatedly sexually abused, to go on to become a billionaire.
What about lesser-known thought leadership marketing examples?
The following are a few examples of people that stand out in the marketing community and have a bit of a flare to them.
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Rand Fishkin – Inbound marketing and SEO expert
Better known as the founder of Moz.com – one of the world’s leading blogs on search engine marketing, Rand extended his text based content into a popular YouTube phenomenon known as whiteboard Fridays, as can be seen below.
After working with conversion-rate-experts.com, Rand increased his sales by over $1 million per year. After many years of search marketing consulting, he switched over to focus on software sales and growing his blog / community. His website has 229,000 pages indexed in Google and 2 million backlinks. He is a frequent speaker at the top Internet marketing conferences in the world and is the author of one of the most significant books on search engine optimization.
Rand frequently pushes the personal branding envelope by wearing yellow sneakers and experimenting with unusual mustache styles.
While I was writing this, one of my employees sent the following whiteboard Friday video to our entire team. Interesting coincidence.
YouTube thought leadership marketing example
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Tim Ash – Conversion rate expert
Tim Ash is the founder of the Conversion Conference, and one of the leading conversion rate optimization experts in the world.
Hinge marketing in the book Visible Experts says the following of Tim:
Tim’s wife met him when he was leaving one startup to found another. He had invested everything in his idea, and launching his firm required an 18-month period when he took no salary. “I wasn’t the best date, since I had to be picky about where I could afford to eat,” Tim jokes. He chalks up his success to a combination of stubbornness, industry expertise, a very supportive wife, and a high tolerance to risk. “My parents are immigrants from Russia. They left everything behind to bring my brother and me here when I was eight years old,” says Tim. “So the model of risking everything and working hard for success was natural to me.”
Tim also credits his success to specialization. His firm does conversion rate optimization and nothing else. I have been to Tim’s conferences and hired him for consulting on some of our more advanced conversion projects. The level of detail he puts into this one topic sets the bar really high for anyone trying to improve their website using just a web designer, developer or advertising agency.
There are so many great thought leader marketing examples, it’s hard to know where to begin. I am going to make this a regular series including regular podcasts and the growth trajectory of local and national thought leaders.
A common trait, beyond the typical tactics of having a book, a TV show, a blog and being popular on social media, is the more intangible personality factor. All of these people share one thing in common. They have a lot of passion and energy for what they do. So much so that they are almost annoying. But when you’re making millions or billions of dollars, you’re entitled to be different.
Who are some of your favorite local or national thought leaders?
