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March 18, 2025 16 mins

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Thought leadership has become a buzzword — and frankly, it's losing all meaning. 

In this episode, I call out the watered-down nonsense parading as thought leadership in online business. I break down what true thought leadership actually requires: originality, courage, and conviction. You’ll hear the difference between being an expert, an authority, and a true thought leader, and why people should stop chasing the title and start doing the work. 

I wrap with three actionable steps to grow your authority today, and a warning for anyone mistaking visibility for value.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Business Blasphemy Podcast,
where we question the sacredtruths of the online business
space and the reverence withwhich they're held.
I'm your host, sarah Khanspeaker, strategic consultant
and BS busting badass.
Join me each week as wechallenge the norms, trends and
overall bullshit status quo ofentrepreneurship to uncover what
it really takes to build thebusiness that you want to build

(00:23):
in a way that honors you, yourlife and your vision for what's
possible, and maybe piss off afew gurus along the way.
So if you're ready to commitbusiness blasphemy, let's do it.
Hello, hello blasphemers.
All right, let's get real.
Okay, in the online businessspace, it's not enough to be an

(00:44):
expert or an authority anymore.
Now you have to be a thoughtleader.
Everyone wants to be a thoughtleader, and the problem is most
people already think they areone, because apparently all it
takes now is a Canva carousel, a$27 ebook and a personal story
with a mildly traumatic twist.

(01:05):
Throw on the words authenticityand alignment and like what?
Suddenly you're leadingthoughts.
No, you're regurgitating thesame bullshit as everyone else,
just in a moderately differentwrapper.
Here's the conversation no oneis having, and I am so pissed
that nobody's having thisconversation.
Thought leadership is not atitle you give yourself, it's

(01:28):
not a brand aesthetic, it's nota vibe, it's a responsibility,
it's a level of status noteveryone can or is meant to
achieve, and it requiresoriginal thinking, contextual
understanding and the guts tosay things that actually
challenge people to think.
Hence the thought part ofthought leadership.

(01:49):
Right, most of what's beingsold right now as thought
leadership is just regurgitatednonsense.
People are mistaking moderatelycontroversial, hot takes, pokey
content as thought leadership.
They're not saying anything new.
They may just be saying thesame shit as everyone else, but
in a different way, and a lot ofpeople are.
People are also mistakingcontent volume for intellectual

(02:13):
value.
And here's the thing repeatingsomeone else's message in your
own words isn't leadership.
It's actually just academicplagiarism with better lighting.
Let me give you an example.
I think I've been pretty clearon what this podcast is about,
right?
And yet every fucking week I'llget three to four cold pitches

(02:36):
in my inbox from people wantingto be guests or pitching guests
on their behalf.
The pitch is always the same aseveryone else's.
Oh, I show people how to makesix figures or I help you get
more clients, but I do it withmy special methodology and it's
all the same outcome, but theirstory is different.
And I get it.
That's fine, that's business.
That's what we all do.
We all offer the same, likehalf dozen services.

(02:58):
That's not the problem.
We all have our own specialsauce and methodologies.
That's not the problem.
We all have our own stories.
That's not the problem.
The problem is that's notthought leadership.
I do it with my framework.
That's not thought leadership.
I do it with this particularangle.
That's not thought leadership.
I have 11 million followers.

(03:19):
That's not thought leadership.
Oh my God, it's not thoughtleadership.
Not only are they pitching thesame as everyone else, but when
I push and say okay, cool, howdoes what you do differ?
How is it changing the niche orthe industry?
How does it make people stopand go?
Oh, wait a minute, huh, that'sinteresting.

(03:41):
When I ask those questions, notone single person has come back
and said here's how.
Not one, not a single one,because the reality is very few
people can articulate that part.
In fact, when I first startedshifting my own business last

(04:01):
year, I was told by my coach tomake thought leaders.
That was what my coach told meto do and honestly, I really
struggled, because you can'tcall yourself a thought leader.
I've always known that youcan't.
Other people have to see you asone, but I think that we've had
so few true thought leadersover the years.

(04:22):
A lot of people don't reallyknow what constitutes a
legitimate one.
Now, thought leadership isn'tsafe, and that's kind of the
point.
Right, thought leadershipshould make people uncomfortable
.
It should challenge the statusquo, not just be intentionally
controversial to get people tofeel some kind of way.

(04:43):
That is not thought leadership.
Controversial to get people tofeel some kind of way that is
not thought leadership.
It should spark actual dialogueand it's meant to push
conversations forward.
But most of what I see today issafe, bland, inoffensive noise,
sometimes moderately offensiveAgain, people just being
intentionally pokey to get yourattention and calling it thought

(05:06):
leadership.
But that's not what it is,because most people who create
content are terrified of notbeing liked, so ultimately
they're playing it safe, evenwhen they're pretending to stand
out there and be bold and brashand authentic and audacious and
even I'm guilty of that rightwe all want to be approved of,

(05:31):
especially in these onlinestreets.
But the bottom line is,ultimately, thought leadership
makes you think about somethingyou thought you already knew in
an entirely different way, andtrue thought leadership requires
a level of understanding on atopic or a niche that most
people just do not have.
Because, if I'm beingintentionally controversial

(05:54):
right now, the vast majority ofpeople in the online space
aren't even experts.
They're parroting what theircoach or some guru told them.
Real thought leadership requiresbeing able to see into the
future, to see the possibilitiesof things and how they could

(06:15):
change or don't change and whatthe outcome would be.
It means having a unique pointof view and consistently living
in it.
Real thought leaders areconvicted to their perspective,
their purpose and their beliefs.
In a way, very few other peopleare.

(06:35):
Their expertise and authorityin a particular area makes them
the sought-after person in theindustry that everybody else
turns to for guidance.
Why?
Because you lead with yourthoughts.
You lead with your thoughtsaround a topic.
You lead with your thoughtsaround a topic.
You lead with your thoughtsaround a particular
specialization.

(06:55):
And here's the thing if yourmessage doesn't do that, it's
not thought leadership.
Thought leadership isn'tsupposed to be easy.
It's not supposed to fit into aneat three-step formula.
It's supposed to disrupt andprovoke and stretch people's
thinking.
And when I say provoke, again,I don't mean intentionally

(07:17):
controversial and pokey forlikes and attention.
So if you're not willing to bemisunderstood, criticized or
even called out not that that'sa necessity, but that's what
happens with a lot of genuinethought leaders, because they
are thinking at a level that therest of us really can't do,
naturally we need them to comeand disrupt our paradigms, so

(07:42):
they are willing to bemisunderstood, criticized and
called out.
And if you're not willing to dothat, you're not thought
leadership material, and I can'tsay it enough.
It is not the same as beingcontroversial or deliberately
pokey.
Now here's what pisses me offAll of this fake thought
leadership is clogging the spaceand it is making it harder for
real visionaries to be heard,and I've talked about this on a

(08:05):
previous episode.
There are visionaries and thereare dreamers, and too many
people are actually dreamers,not visionaries.
And women, especially women ofcolor, are being coached out of
their power, told to tone itdown, make it more relatable, be
more marketable.
No, no, I'm putting my footdown.

(08:27):
It stops now.
If your ideas are too big fortheir frameworks, their
frameworks are the problem.
And while everyone else is busyplaying the game, dancing for
the algorithm, chasing virality,you are out here trying to say
something real, something thatmatters.
So let me say this loud andclear your voice does not need
to be diluted to be heard.

(08:47):
It needs to be sharpened to cutthrough the noise.
If you're tired of watchingmediocre voices dominate the
conversation, calling themselvesthought leaders, and all
they're doing is justregurgitating the same bullshit
as everybody else in their niche, while your vision sits on the
back burner.
I want you to hear something.
Not everyone deserves a mic,but I know you do.

(09:12):
And do not aim for thoughtleadership.
You just need to start speakingto your ideas, get clear on
what you believe and aim tobecome an expert, first, like a
genuine expert, and then agenuine authority.
That's it.
That should be the goal.
Do the work.
Don't chase the title.
Now I know you can aspire to bea thought leader.

(09:36):
The title itself is ultimatelygranted to you.
It's not something you claim,but you can do the work.
That sets you up.
That sets you up to be thego-to authority in your space,
because that's what you want.
You want to be an authority.
You want to be the person thateverybody in the industry looks
to for guidance and for ideasand for vision.

(09:56):
So I'm going to give you threequick things you can start doing
today to start to grow as anauthority in your space.
The first thing is do not quote.
Stop quoting people and insteadaim to be quoted.
What most people do is repeatsomething interesting or thought
provoking that someone else hassaid and then talk around it.

(10:19):
But from now on, if you hearsomeone say something or you see
something a quote whatever thatmakes you go oh okay, don't
write down what they said orwhat you read.
Write down what it made youthink about or how it made you
feel.
Then create content, becausethat is the easiest way to

(10:41):
create original content thatdoesn't need attribution to
someone else and then let peoplequote you.
Now, having said that andthinking very much of the Mel
Robbins scandal that's currentlyhappening around her, let them
book.
If you do take someone's idea,please attribute them, because

(11:02):
the reality is very few ideasare original enough that someone
else hasn't thought of themfirst.
So, yeah, if you see somethingthat inspires you to create
content around a differentperspective of it, it's just the
bigger thing to do to creditthe original person who made you
think that it's still originalcontent for you.
Right, your spin on it canstill be original.
Number two think about yourindustry, your niche, whatever,

(11:25):
and what about it drives youabsolutely batshit bananas.
What's your take on it?
When you share your opinionsand, of course, those should be
backed up by facts, becausewe're not out there doing fake
news, bullshit when you shareyour opinions, you challenge the
status quo, and that's whatmakes someone stand up and take
notice.
Right, that's what makes peoplego.
Oh, wait, a second, she'sactually saying something

(11:45):
different, important,interesting.
So here's what I want you to doI want you to take five minutes
today and just think about whatin your industry or niche
drives you batshit crazy.
Then I want you to post it toyour favorite social media
platform and tag me so I canshare it.
Okay, and number three and thisone's the most important one

(12:08):
Can you please validate yourideas with someone who knows how
to be disruptive, like someonewho's actually already
disruptive in this space, notjust someone in your friend
group, not your coach or anyoneat your workplace, because, as
hard as this may be to hear,most people, most people will
listen to what you want to saythrough the lens of their own
fear and insecurity and willtell you oh, that's too

(12:29):
controversial, that's tootriggering, that's flat out
crazy or that's wrong.
They'll project their own fearand discomfort and envy onto
your genius and they willprobably bristle a little bit at
the audacity that you have towant to say something like that,
because the truth is, mostpeople love the comfort and
safety of being sheep.

(12:50):
Most people are looking forapproval rather than change, and
you do not want to be a sheep.
So dig into that inner dragonand find someone in your corner
who can hold and support youthrough the inevitable fallout,
the inevitable pushback, theinevitable hmm, wait a second

(13:15):
that comes from being anauthority, especially when you
lead, disrupt and challengethoughts, because that person
will understand and they'll tellyou when what you're actually
saying is actually unique.
So find that person to validateyour ideas.
That is super, super important.

(13:35):
Now, this is a short and sweetepisode, but I got really
annoyed with how many people I'mseeing.
There was a post the other dayfrom somebody who was like do
you consider yourself a thoughtleader?
And honestly, I just wasshocked at how many people were
like yep, absolutely I do.
Eh, no, do I consider myself athought leader?
No, not even close.

(13:58):
But that's what I want you totake away from today's episode
the more you seek likes, followsand approval, the less likely
you are to truly share thethoughts that I know you have
that are potentially paradigmshifting.
And if that really is what youwant safety, stability, comfort,
you know, hey, no problem.
Like, go for it.
Like, not everyone is meant forthought leadership, not everyone

(14:18):
is meant to be an authority.
We need experts who are happypushing along the status quo.
But if that's not your idea ofa good time, then start taking
small steps in the direction oftrue authority.
Do the work and if you do needsupport figuring it out, hey,
book a session with me.
My session is called Bitch,brainstorm and Boom.
We spend 90 minutes gettingreally fucking clear on what you

(14:41):
want.
We start with 30 minutes ofjust brain dumping all of it out
of your head.
We spend the next 30 minutesmaking sense of things and
organizing it in a logicalmanner and in the last 30
minutes we devise a clear planof action for you.
You get to figure out whatexactly your expertise and
authority is and we put a plantogether for you to get there.
It's only 350 bucks, it's thelowest price offer that I have

(15:06):
and it's the easiest way to workwith me, and it is the catalyst
that's actually helping womentake back their purpose and
kickstart their momentum on apath they actually wanted to be
on in the first place, becausethat's important too.
You cannot be an expertauthority or, one day, a thought
leader if you're not doing whatyou're actually meant to be
doing.
If this episode hit a nerve orlit a fire, do me a favor Share

(15:29):
it with someone who's ready tostop playing nice and start
playing real.
And remember just because it'scommon practice doesn't mean
it's not complete bullshit.
You can't have success withoutthe BS.
I will talk to you next week.
That's it for this week.
Thanks for listening to theBusiness Blasphemy Podcast.
We'll be back next week with anew episode, but in the meantime

(15:51):
, help a sister out bysubscribing and, if you're
feeling extra sassy, rating thispodcast, and don't forget to
share the podcast with others.
Head over tobusinessblastfamipodcastcom to
connect with us and learn more.
Thanks for listening andremember you can have success
without the BS.
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