How to Overcome the Fear of Creating Thought Leadership Content

The thing is, we had previously done the exact same study for Wix and it had come out well. So we decided to do it again for Squarespace.

Pretty harmless, right? It turns out not. Someone shared the conclusions from this post on Reddit and boy, the criticism was just priceless.

Call me thin-skinned, but I remember feeling hurt. It was my first “research” article. And it was as sheltered a study as you can get. But the reality is often more brutal than you can imagine.

The criticism is not diminishing. Five years later, I still see the same thing in the studies I publish:

The reason I tell these stories is that creating thought leadership content—research, opinion, experiment—can be scary. The criticism will come brisk and rigid. You’ll put yourself out there in the public eye, and you can expect “hate.”

I admit, this is one of the reasons I (used to) love creating SEO content. Utilize a few SEO tools, insert the necessary H2s (What is X? Why is X essential? How do I do X?) and fill in the gaps. No opinion required. Publish the post and go to bed, toasty and cozy.

But it’s only a matter of time before this stops working. We’ve avoided controversy for years as content marketers by throwing around ideas. Content curation is sheltered because it can’t offend anyone. But generative AI can now regurgitate that. And it can do it better than all of us… and at scale.

If we want to stand out in our careers and facilitate the companies we work for stand out from the crowd, we need to embrace thought leadership content creation. Sharing experiences, expressing robust opinions, and gaining and leveraging our hard-earned expertise.

To do this, we must first overcome our fear of putting ourselves in danger.

“The best art is divisive, where if you put out a record and half the people who listen to it absolutely love it and half the people who listen to it absolutely hate it, then you’ve done well because you’re pushing that boundary. If everyone thinks, oh, this is pretty good, why bother making it? It doesn’t mean that much.”

The brutal truth about creating thought leadership content is that you overestimate yourself. In most cases, no one cares.

I’ve published hundreds of blog posts, but I could only generate hate for two. Because no one cares about the rest. It didn’t challenge anyone’s thinking or covered topics no one cared about.

So if you’ve published something that other people have actually taken the time to criticize, then you’ve done a good job. You’ve pushed boundaries and challenged assumptions in the industry. You’ve made people think.

It’s a change of heart. You don’t have to be afraid of criticism anymore. Sure, it can still hurt, but be proud of the fact that you made people notice.

But don’t take this as a statement that you should intentionally tease bears. Your goal is not to say something controversial “for attention.” Don’t provoke or tease people. That’s not helpful and it’s not thought leadership content.

You should share your truthful opinions based on your knowledge or experience. Sometimes it’s polarizing because it’s different from everyone else’s. But you’d be surprised how many people have thought about it.

For example, I was a bit hesitant to publish my opinion on the SEO of an entity. After all, who am I to say that? But I gathered my courage. It turns out: There are people who agree with me!

Imagine if Ryan, our CMO, didn’t share his thoughts on generative AI and content marketing. That would be a disservice to everyone, as many people would still be trying to generate as much AI content as possible to get ranked in the SERPs.

This would hurt the SEO and content marketing industry:

• More AI content means worse search results and quality. Everyone is worse off because of it.
• AI content is mediocre and will likely lead to lower ROI for content marketing. Low ROI means lower investment from stakeholders, which affects the industry.

I’m not saying Ryan is that influential. (Although he may be.) But if he could change the minds of one, ten, even a hundred people, that would be a massive influence. He helped everyone do things better and improve the industry as a whole.

Imagine if that was you, but out of fear you neglected to share your opinion on the right way to do something in your industry. Now everyone in your industry will continue on the wrong path without any improvement. You have done everyone a disservice.

But what if you do the opposite and share your opinion? You can positively influence everyone in your industry.

Scientists publish their results or opinions in publications. Other scientists can read it, discuss it, and *oh my* criticize it. That is the nature of science and that is how science develops.

You can think of your thought leadership content the same way. You can’t sharpen your thinking if it stays in your head. Publishing ideas that come from your observations, life experiences, experiments, or expert knowledge allows others to point out holes in your logic or strengthen your arguments.

For example, when I published my opinion on SEO for business entities, experienced SEO specialists disagreed with my position:

And that’s amazing! I’ve learned so much more about this topic. I wouldn’t have been able to if I hadn’t clicked publish.

I didn’t know anything about the entity-attribute-variable (EAV) model before, but now I have a lead that I can investigate further. I might even call Lazarina to find out more. I might even change my mind about the whole thing!

And who knows, maybe I’ll write a completely modern article about how SEO for entities is the future.

One reason you may be afraid to publish thought leadership content is that you are not sure whether your logic is sound and your arguments are compelling.

If this is your problem, then before posting steelman arguments, reduce them. Steelmanning is the practice of referring to the strongest form of an “opponent” argument. If you can argue against steelman, your position will be stronger.

In fact, this was advice Ryan gave me before I started writing my post on “Entity SEO”:

That’s what I did. Before I wrote anything, I called my friend Louise to discuss whether my “opinion” made sense:

Then, once I had sketched out the outline, I asked my friend Despina to check it over:

All this convinced me that it was worth publishing my opinion.

Every quarter, Tim Ferriss conducts an exercise he calls “inducing fear”The basic idea is to state your concerns in writing.

Here is the question he uses:

“Define your nightmare, the absolute worst thing that could happen if you did what you’re considering. What are the doubts, fears, and what-ifs that come to mind as you contemplate the massive changes you could—or need—to make? Imagine them in the most minute detail. Would it be the end of your life? What would be the lasting impact, if any, on a scale of 1 to 10? Are these things really enduring? How likely are they to actually happen?”

What’s the worst that could happen? Someone already said that my job is no better than a second-grade kid’s. But I’m still here, posting thought leadership content and sharing my opinion.

Often you will find that there is really nothing to worry about.

Respond to existing ideas with “yes, and”

Thought leadership content doesn’t always mean going against the mainstream. You can also facilitate signal and amplify other people’s ideas.

In his thought leadership content courseRyan suggests overcoming the fear of thought leadership by responding to an existing idea. You want to gather opinions you agree with from forums or social media, and then add additional ideas to the discussion. For example, you could demonstrate how to execute the strategy, expand on the idea, or reveal that it is related to another idea.

I used “yes, and” when I wrote my post on white hat link building. Instead of compiling every potential link building tactic, I “answered” an existing idea by showing how to execute those that were presented in the industry study.

Final Thoughts

Every piece of thought leadership content you publish makes it easier to write more, but only slightly. I still hesitate every time I write a piece of text, knowing that I may be judged, criticized, or ridiculed.

But as Tim Ferriss writes,

“A person’s success in life can be measured by the number of awkward conversations he is willing to have.”

That awkward conversation could be about your inner fear. Or it could be about other professionals commenting on your work. But if you can overcome all of that, it will only serve you better.