Breaking the Stigma: Mental Health in the Professional World | Stephen J. Dietrich | 618

What happens when a high-powered attorney decides to tackle fear and anxiety head-on? On this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick speaks with Stephen J. Dietrich, corporate M&A attorney and author of Fear Dynamics: Harnessing fear and anxiety to create lasting happiness and meaningful achievement. Stephen shares how introspection and personal growth reshaped his approach to life and business. He explains how addressing emotional and mental health helped him not only find happiness but also skyrocket his professional success. Stephen discusses the surprising link between vulnerability and stronger client relationships. He details how embracing openness led to better teamwork, trust, and deeper connections in his law practice. His story challenges conventional thinking, proving that emotional honesty can drive exceptional business outcomes. From mental health stigma to corporate performance, Stephen’s journey is a powerful example of how courage and self-awareness can transform both individuals and organizations. This conversation is packed with insights for leaders ready to rethink how they engage with their teams and clients. If you’re wondering how emotional well-being can align with professional excellence, this episode will leave you inspired. Three Key Takeaways: • Vulnerability Builds Trust: Embracing emotional openness can deepen relationships with clients, colleagues, and teams, fostering collaboration and mutual respect. • Mental Health Drives Success: Addressing fear and anxiety not only enhances personal happiness but also leads to measurable improvements in professional performance and business outcomes. • Modeling Behavior Matters: Leaders who demonstrate transparency and resilience create an environment where others feel empowered to engage authentically, driving better teamwork and innovation. Thought Leadership like what Stephen is doing has the power to change lives, but getting it into the world can be an uphill battle.  If you feel like you are losing your passion for thought leadership, read this article to get some tips from Peter on how to Reevaluate, Retool, and Reengage.

In this year-end highlight episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership with Bill Sherman, we revisit the journeys of six incredible thought leaders from diverse fields. They share insights into their evolving work, the hurdles they’ve faced, and the laser focus needed to connect deeply with their audiences. From startup leadership and immigrant entrepreneurship to innovation management and clarity in communication, this compilation reveals the powerful interplay of passion, precision, and perseverance. Martin Gonzalez explores the role of data in refining startup strategies, pushing past biases to uncover actionable truths. Neri Karra Sillaman underscores how personal experiences, such as her journey as an immigrant entrepreneur, shape impactful ideas and groundbreaking research. These leaders remind us that the questions we dare to ask often define the value we create. Clemence Sop takes us into the luxury industry, where  understanding your audience at a granular level transforms social selling into a high-touch art form. Peter Boatwright and Jon Cagan, authors of Managing the Unmanageable, dive into managing chaos in innovation, using experiments to show how structured management enhances creative output without stifling originality. Finally, Ann Latham shares her journey to mastering clarity—an elusive yet essential skill in thought leadership. Her unique framework transforms abstract ideas into actionable insights, proving clarity is both an art and a discipline. Each story offers lessons for those aspiring to lead through ideas.

2024 was an incredible year for Leveraging Thought Leadership, bringing insights from some of the brightest minds in business and thought leadership. This "Best of 2024" episode features five remarkable conversations, each offering unique strategies and perspectives on building influence and scaling ideas. If you're looking to lead with impact, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways. Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor, reflects on the importance of managing people with authenticity and respect. She shares how frameworks like hers help leaders balance care with accountability, dismantling myths about "nice" managers finishing last. Marcus Collins takes the mic to reveal how marketers can build deep emotional connections by starting with shared values and targeting niche communities, a strategy he applied to launch his book successfully. Kate Bravery dives into the future of work with insights from her book Work Different. She confronts outdated HR practices and calls for agility and transparency in job architectures. Liz Wiseman rounds out the lineup, sharing her secret to transforming keynote speeches into lasting, impactful organizational change. By creating ecosystems around her books, Liz ensures her ideas deeply embed in corporate cultures. We finish off the episode with Peter and Bill Sherman looking at the highlights of the Book ROI project that has offered never before analyzed insights into publishing a business book. This episode distills wisdom from top thought leaders into a concise, and powerful hour. Whether you're a seasoned author, a keynote speaker, or an aspiring influencer, you'll find inspiration and practical advice for amplifying your voice.

How do you take an academic idea and turn it into a global movement? On this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Bill Sherman dives deep with Karen and Aneil Mishra, exploring their journey of transforming the "ROCC of Trust" framework into an impactful leadership tool. From the humble beginnings of self-publishing to securing high-profile consulting contracts, this episode showcases the art of bridging academic rigor with practical application. Aneil shares the origins of his trust framework, which emerged from research in crisis-ridden industries, and how Karen's marketing expertise rebranded it from a "Rock" to "ROCC"—making it memorable and actionable. Their collaborative effort highlights the importance of translating academic language into compelling, relatable messages. The Mishras’ story is a testament to the power of resilience, boldness, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The couple also reflects on overcoming challenges, including rejection from publishers who deemed them "not famous enough." Undeterred, they self-published, gained traction, and proved that meaningful ideas can transcend barriers. Karen’s advice to her younger self? Be bolder and unapologetically share relevant academic insights with the world. Aneil adds, tackle big, important problems, as they keep you motivated and aligned with purpose. Their legacy, especially Aneil’s enduring contributions to trust research, serves as a blueprint for turning intellectual passion into a movement that inspires executives, students, and practitioners alike. This episode is both a masterclass in thought leadership and a heartfelt tribute to Aneil’s impact. Three Key Takeaways: • The Rock of Trust Framework: Aneil Mishra's research on trust identified four key pillars: reliability, openness, competence, and caring. Rebranded with Karen's marketing expertise, this framework became a memorable and impactful leadership tool applied across industries and organizations. • From Rejection to Resilience: Despite being told they weren’t “famous enough” to publish their book, the Mishras self-published and gained traction. Their persistence turned rejection into opportunity, eventually leading to consulting contracts and increased credibility in the leadership space. • Bridging the Academic-Practitioner Divide: Karen and Aneil emphasized translating academic insights into practical tools. Their ability to speak the language of both executives and students showcased the importance of making complex ideas relatable and actionable.

What does it take to truly transform and lead authentically? Paul Glover knows. Once a successful trial attorney, his life unraveled due to choices that led to federal prison. But from the depths of failure, Paul emerged not only as a survivor but as a powerhouse coach for C-suite executives. His journey is raw, unfiltered, and deeply inspiring, blending lessons of humility, resilience, and hard-won wisdom. Paul’s story is one of dramatic reinvention. Prison, he says, saved his life and softened his perspective, forcing him to confront blind spots and triggers that once drove destructive behavior. Today, his “No BS” coaching method empowers leaders to tackle their echo chambers and embrace failure as a growth tool. From offering money-back guarantees to positioning himself as a modern-day “fool” who tells leaders the hard truths, Paul’s approach is anything but conventional. Leadership, Paul argues, demands the courage to fail and the humility to learn. His coaching and speaking emphasize resilience, not just to bounce back but to bounce forward. Drawing parallels to psychological safety and historical figures like the court jester, Paul challenges leaders to seek and trust those who hold them accountable, creating space for transformation. The key? Being brutally honest—with themselves and their teams. Paul’s message is a wake-up call to leaders everywhere: true leadership isn’t about being perfect; it’s about embracing imperfection and turning failure into fuel for growth. With humor, candor, and authenticity, Paul Glover inspires audiences to rethink success and take bold, transformative steps forward. Three Key Takeaways: • Transformation Through Failure: Paul Glover’s journey from a successful attorney to a convicted felon and then a sought-after coach highlights the power of embracing failure as a tool for personal and professional growth. He demonstrates how confronting blind spots and taking accountability can lead to profound transformation. • Authentic Leadership Requires Honesty: True leaders need to break out of echo chambers and surround themselves with people who provide honest, unfiltered feedback. Paul’s approach as the “No BS” coach underscores the importance of humility, self-awareness, and the willingness to hear hard truths. • Resilience Goes Beyond Recovery: Leadership isn’t just about bouncing back; it’s about bouncing forward. Paul emphasizes resilience as the ability to learn from failures and turn them into opportunities for growth, fostering a leadership style that is both dynamic and transformative. Instead of running from his past Paul has put it forward as part of his authentic self.  When you present your thought leadership are you being authentic or just trying to go viral?  Check out this short video by Peter Winick to discover why being your real self is more important.

How can an academic bridge the gap between rigorous research and actionable insights for executives? Stephanie Woerner, of MIT's Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), offers a masterclass on this topic in our latest podcast episode. She reveals how her team tackles the tension between academia’s slower pace and business’s urgent demands by designing projects with rapid deliverables and executive-relevant outcomes. It’s not just about publishing papers—it’s about driving impact and transforming practices. Stephanie explains how CISR collaborates with its consortium of 75 corporate members to co-create research agendas that solve real-world problems. From exploring the impact of AI and data-driven decision-making to demystifying digital transformation, her frameworks make complex concepts accessible. Her advice? Listen to your audience, translate data into actionable insights, and focus on what drives performance—whether it’s profitability, innovation, or customer experience. The conversation dives into the art of storytelling with data. Stephanie shares how visuals, like a simple two-by-two matrix, can illuminate business challenges and opportunities. By simplifying without oversimplifying, she equips leaders to move from confusion to clarity, making complex transformations manageable. With thought leadership positioned as a practice, Stephanie reflects on her journey from researcher to influencer. She underscores the importance of connecting with your audience, constantly iterating, and striving for impact over time. This is thought leadership in action—anticipating the future, separating signal from noise, and delivering the insights your audience needs just when they need them. Three Key Takeaways: Bridging Academia and Business: Stephanie Woerner highlights the importance of designing research to deliver actionable insights for executives. By structuring projects with shorter cycles and a focus on business relevance, her team ensures their work addresses urgent corporate challenges while maintaining academic rigor. The Power of Frameworks and Storytelling: Simplifying complex ideas into accessible frameworks, like two-by-two matrices, helps executives understand challenges and take decisive action. Effective storytelling with data transforms raw information into compelling, actionable insights.Audience-Centered Thought Leadership: Successful thought leadership requires deep listening and collaboration with your audience. Woerner emphasizes the value of co-creating research agendas and focusing on practical outcomes that align with what your audience urgently needs to know—or hasn’t yet thought to ask. If you want to further explore the idea of using academic research to build your thought leadership, be sure to check out this video by Leveraging Thought Leadership founder and CEO Peter Winick.

How do you turn ideas into impact and expertise into action? On this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick speaks with Dre Baldwin, Founder and CEO of Work on Your Game. Dre is a four-time TEDx speaker and author of 35 books, including "The Third Day: The Decision that Separates The Pros from the Amateurs" and the creator of the Work on Your Game framework. Together, they unpack the critical role frameworks play in scaling ideas and ensuring consistency. Dre shares how frameworks act as guardrails, anchoring your principles and making your work repeatable and impactful across topics and audiences. Dre emphasizes the power of mindset as the foundation for success. A shift in thinking sparks changes in actions, which in turn drive outcomes. Skipping this sequence leads to frustration, wasted resources, and unmet goals. Whether you’re an athlete or an entrepreneur, Dre insists the process starts in your head. From there, strategies and systems create a path for repeatable success. Systems aren’t just efficient—they’re liberating. Build it once, and you can focus on execution and innovation. Dre’s own journey began with a realization: the clock on a professional basketball career runs out fast. Embracing his inner tech enthusiast, Dre leveraged the internet to bypass gatekeepers and build his brand. Blogging, YouTube, and podcasting became his tools to connect directly with an audience eager for his insights. His approach? Show up consistently and deliver value based on real-time audience needs. It’s a formula he’s honed into a repeatable system, and it’s working. Writing 35 books might seem Herculean, but Dre demystifies it with a system that maximizes today’s tech. From dictation to transcription, he’s found ways to streamline the creative process while staying true to his ideas. The tools evolve, but the challenge remains the same: having something meaningful to say and a receptive audience. For Dre, systems make the execution scalable—but only if you start with a strong mindset and clear strategy. Three Key Takeaways: • Frameworks Anchor Success: A strong framework acts as a guide, keeping your work aligned with your principles and making it repeatable. It ensures consistency and clarity across topics and audiences, which is essential for scaling impact. • Mindset Drives Results: Change starts in your mind. Adjusting your thinking leads to better actions, which then create meaningful outcomes. Skipping the mindset step results in frustration and wasted effort. • Systems Simplify and Scale: Whether writing books or building a business, systems are the key to efficiency. Once a system is in place, you can focus on execution and innovation, letting the process do the heavy lifting. Dre does a great job of illustrating why changing mindset is so important to creating long lasting impact.  For additional information on Changing Mindset and Building Skills take a look at this article by Thought Leadership Leverage CEO Peter Winick.

What if publishing your book was as simple as answering a few questions?  This week, Peter Winick speaks with Dan Curran, a serial entrepreneur and innovator who is transforming the publishing industry with Chapters.io, a groundbreaking platform designed to make writing a book accessible and efficient for first-time authors. He’s also the author of the upcoming book Chaos is a Ladder, bringing a wealth of insight from his extensive experience in editorial content and marketing. The guest shares his journey through healthcare, pharma, and life sciences, writing technical content requiring precision and integrity. For years, he sought a way to revolutionize publishing but couldn’t see the right opportunity—until the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. Recognizing AI’s potential to organize and structure content, he and his team reimagined how non-fiction books could be created, merging cutting-edge technology with traditional editorial expertise. Chapters is tailored for first-time authors—professionals with wisdom or unique perspectives but unsure how to navigate the challenging publishing landscape. The platform begins with simple, AI-driven questions: What’s your topic? Who’s your audience? What tone fits your message? These answers quickly generate 5,000 to 20,000 words of raw material. Editors then refine the draft, turning conversations into polished manuscripts. The system integrates your existing content—blogs, podcasts, or presentations—while maintaining a closed environment to ensure the work remains entirely yours. What sets Chapters apart is its human touch. Every project is paired with a best-selling editor who provides insight, asks follow-up questions, and ensures your story shines. This blend of AI efficiency and editorial expertise turns the daunting process of writing a book into an approachable, streamlined experience.   Three Key Takeaways: • Chapters.io makes publishing accessible: By combining AI-driven tools with human editorial expertise, it simplifies the process for first-time authors, turning conversations into compelling manuscripts.   • AI as a powerful organizational tool: The platform leverages AI to structure content, ask tailored questions, and fill in gaps, making it easier to generate high-quality material efficiently.   • Human touch remains vital: Every project is supported by a best-selling editor who ensures the final product is polished, personalized, and impactful. This blend of technology and expertise redefines the book-writing journey.   Dan is disrupting the publishing industry and he isn't the only one.  If you want to learn more about what Thought Leaders should know about the changing publishing landscape check out this video from Peter Winick.

How do you turn decades of expertise into a scalable thought leadership business? Ruth King, known as the Profit & Wealth Guru, shares her journey from one-on-one financial coaching to becoming a best-selling author and AI innovator. She began by helping small businesses demystify their financial statements, but quickly realized her reach was limited. Writing books became the answer. Her first book, "The Ugly Truth about Small Business: 50 (Never-Saw-It-Coming) Things That Can Go Wrong...and What You Can Do about It," featured lessons from 50 entrepreneurs, offering readers practical insights into navigating difficult challenges.. It struck a chord, leading to a series of books that continue to impact readers globally. Publishing was just the start. Ruth took her ideas to a wider audience by leveraging TV, radio, newsletters, and now podcasts. Weekly newsletters since the '90s have built her credibility, while speaking engagements and media appearances have kept her message evergreen. Her approach is simple: stories over statistics. Sharing real-life examples from her clients makes complex financial principles relatable and memorable, ensuring her audience stays engaged. As technology advanced, Ruth embraced AI to scale her impact. Recognizing its potential during a Mastermind session, she and her team developed a groundbreaking AI tool to simplify and analyze messy small business balance sheets. Rooted in her decades of expertise, this tool standardizes processes and delivers insights at scale—no Zoom required. It’s a game-changer for small businesses seeking clarity and growth. Ruth’s next move is clear: scale the AI solution by partnering with professionals who serve small businesses. Accountants, CPAs, and referral partners are already helping bring her vision to life. For Ruth, it’s not just about the numbers; it’s about empowering entrepreneurs to grow profitably, build wealth, and create lasting success. Three Key Takeaways: • Stories Simplify Complexity: Ruth King’s success lies in using real-life client stories to make financial principles accessible and memorable, demonstrating the power of storytelling in thought leadership. • Scaling Expertise Through AI: By embedding her decades of knowledge into an AI tool, Ruth has transformed her expertise into a scalable solution that helps small businesses make sense of their financials without needing her direct involvement. • Long-Term PR is Essential: Thought leadership isn’t a one-and-done effort. Ruth’s ongoing use of newsletters, speaking engagements, and media appearances ensures her message remains relevant and her audience continues to grow. Ruth understands that to have maximum impact you have to be able to go to scale.  If you want to learn more about "Scaling You" check out this video by Leveraging Thought Leadership CEO Peter Winick.

What if the key to saving the planet wasn’t more regulations or money, but a new kind of leadership? Rajeev Peshawaria, CEO of Stewardship Asia Centre and author of "Sustainable Sustainability: Why ESG is Not Enough" and "Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader", joins Bill Sherman on Leveraging Thought Leadership to discuss how his career pivoted from financial services to championing climate responsibility and social sustainability. He shares how a career in HR and leadership development revealed the limits of conventional approaches and sparked his passion for Steward Leadership—a model built on purpose, values, and a long-term perspective. Rajeev’s research into over 100 global companies found a surprising pattern. Organizations thriving while solving environmental and social challenges weren’t driven by financial incentives or regulations. Instead, they were guided by a values-based approach rooted in independence, long-term thinking, ownership of today’s challenges, and creative resilience. These principles formed the backbone of the Steward Leadership model, a framework that marries purpose with profitability and proves businesses can do well by doing good. Spreading this message has been both strategic and successful. Rajeev’s team collaborates with governments, business schools, and agencies worldwide to promote Steward Leadership. By showcasing companies with decades-long track records of balancing profit with purpose, they’ve captured attention and inspired action. Leaders are drawn to the idea that societal impact and business success are not in conflict but can amplify each other. Rajeev’s vision for the future is bold yet focused. By influencing just 20% of the leaders they reach, the Stewardship Asia Centre aims to create a ripple effect powerful enough to drive global change. With a clear-eyed embrace of the 80/20 rule, Rajeev is betting that a minority of committed leaders, armed with the right values, can shift the trajectory of businesses—and the world. Three Key Takeaways: • Leadership, Not Incentives, Drives Sustainability: Successful companies solving environmental and social challenges aren’t motivated by regulations or financial incentives. Instead, they operate from a values-driven leadership model rooted in purpose, long-term thinking, and a commitment to societal impact. • The Four Pillars of Steward Leadership: The Steward Leadership model is built on four principles: independence (the belief that helping society benefits business), long-term thinking (beyond quarterly gains), ownership of challenges (profit while solving problems), and creative resilience (innovating to address global issues). • The 20% Ripple Effect: Rajeev’s strategy focuses on influencing just 20% of leaders touched by his work. Leveraging the 80/20 rule, he believes this minority of purpose-driven leaders can create a powerful ripple effect, transforming businesses and society for the better. Rajeev not only understands what type of leaders we need, but he knows how to find them.  As a thought leader can you clearly describe your ideal client? If you're not sure make sure to read this article by Thought Leadership Leverage CEO Peter Winick for tips on getting a clear picture.