Your thought leadership content is more than text, video, or audio. It is your 24/7/365 ambassador, advocate, and salesperson.

As of today, science has not been able to successfully clone human beings. It certainly cannot yet clone humans in adult form. 

There’s no way to copy and paste us so that we can be in multiple places at once. Today, we can only be in one place at one time.

But with all that being said, there actually is one way for us to clone ourselves: our thought leadership content.

Your thought leadership content is your 24/7/365 advocate

When we create and publish thought leadership, we are doing more than writing and publishing blog posts and bylined articles, and recording and publishing videos or podcast episodes.

We are actually setting out into the world miniature versions of ourselves. These versions of us work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year advocating on our behalf to people who are researching us or researching the topics for which our content comes up when they search on the web or on particular social media channels. 

This advocacy comes in the form of the content showing that we are knowledgeable and wise about the things we do for a living. When we’re talking about law firms and their attorneys specifically, we’re talking about content that shows that those law firms and lawyers are knowledgeable and wise about the areas of law they practice and/or the industries they serve.

The beautiful thing about this content is that it doesn’t take a day off. It has no job other than to serve the person who created it by acting as their always-on ambassador, advocate, and salesperson.

That’s why thought leadership content is so important. It’s not just a record of your thoughts or insights regarding the areas of law you practice or the industries you serve. Rather, when there are many pieces of your thought leadership content out there because you’ve committed to consistently creating such content, you’ve mobilized a small army to show the world how knowledgeable and wise you are.

Your thought leadership allows you to be everywhere at the same time

This concept of thought leadership content serving as an army of ambassadors, advocates, and salespeople is important because, as we established earlier, we humans today can only be in one place at one time.

We can’t be at a conference while we’re at coffee with a new networking contact. 

We can’t be at coffee with a new networking contact while we’re sitting at our desk doing billable work.

We can’t be sitting at our desk doing billable work while we’re pitching ourselves at an in-person new business meeting.

But with our thought leadership content, we can be in multiple places at once. 

While we’re at a conference, our thought leadership content can be consumed by past, current, and prospective clients and referral sources.

These audiences can also consume it while we’re at coffee with a new networking contact, while we’re sitting at our desk doing billable work, and while we’re pitching ourselves at an in-person new business meeting.

Not to mention while we’re with our families, in the shower, walking the dog, and, of course, while we’re sleeping.

No matter what we’re doing, our thought leadership content is hard at work advocating for us.

Assemble your advocacy army, one piece of thought leadership content at a time

Your library of thought leadership is more than just a collection of words, videos, and sounds. It is your own advocacy army always on the move, showing past, current, and prospective clients and referral sources that you have the goods regarding the work you do, and that you are qualified to help them with their legal and business issues.

The more prolific a thought leadership content creator you are, the larger your army of ambassadors, advocates, and salespeople. To increase the size of your army and the amount of ground it can cover, you will need to consistently create relevant, valuable, and compelling content that your target audiences will actually consume.

It’s easy to think about thought leadership content in a way that focuses on the form it takes—blog, article, podcast, video, etc. But when you do, you devalue it because you are confining it to a two-dimensional world.

Instead, think about thought leadership in a way that focuses on its role in growing your authority, prominence, and book of business. When you think about it from this three-dimensional perspective, you see that thought leadership acts as your proxy, venturing forth out into the world to win over former, current, and prospective clients and referral sources, one piece of content at a time.