How to Be a Thought Leader in a Crowded Market – with Sara Connell

In this episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast, I had a great chat with thought leader Sara Connell. We talked about what it really means to be a thought leader these days, and how being authentic and thinking outside the box are key. Sara busts the myth that everything’s already been said, and encourages people to lead with their own voice and ideas. We also got into why being visible matters now more than ever, touching on things like the “trust recession” and Google’s “zero moment of truth.” She shared super practical tips on how to stand out—even in crowded spaces—and make sure your audience is actually paying attention. Plus, we talked about writing books, and Sara gave some smart frameworks to make the process less overwhelming. If you’re a coach, course creator, or membership owner wanting to boost your influence, this episode is full of helpful insights.   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST Your voice is still needed—even in a crowded space. Sara debunks the idea that everything’s already been said. She encourages you to lead with your own thoughts and trust that your unique perspective can make an impact. Visibility builds trust—if done right –We explored how being seen isn’t just about showing up, but about showing up with intention. Concepts like the “trust recession” and Google’s “zero moment of truth” show why strategic visibility matters more than ever. Writing a book doesn’t have to be overwhelming – Sara shares simple frameworks to help you structure and write a book efficiently, turning what feels like a massive project into a doable, powerful tool for influence.   If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Sara on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Website Connect with Teresa on Website, (Grow, Launch, Sell), Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook   Transcript Teresa: Who gets to decide that you are a thought leader? Is it an industry gatekeeper, social media, algorithms, or something much closer to home? In today's episode, I am sitting down with Sara Connell to discuss all things thought leadership. We'll be challenging the myth that everything has been said before, and even when there is no original content, how you can still become a thought leader in those spaces. But here's the reality check. You can't be a thought leader if no one's listening. So we also look at visibility, head on exploring concepts like the trust recession and Google's fascinating zero moment of truth that changes everything about how audience find and connect with you. As an online business owner, becoming a thought leader is going to accelerate you and your business. So this is a must listen for all of you course creators, membership owners, and coaches. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. How are you doing today? I hope you are good. I am very excited about today's episode. I get excited about all the episodes to be fair, and if I didn't, I wouldn't be putting the episodes out. That is a true thing. But today I am interviewing someone who was new to my world and I didn't [00:02:00] know her name is Sara Connell and she, sometimes I get agency or not. Sometimes I get agencies pitching me a lot and lots of the times. Well, I get a ton of pitching, if I'm honest. We probably get two to three people pitch a day to come on the podcast. So it's actually really unusual for me to have someone on that I don't know or haven't had some connection with. But you know when you meet someone and you are instantly like, oh my goodness, I love you. You are amazing. She was awesome. We got on so well. The conversation was brilliant. It's a little bit longer than the normal. It's not ridiculously long, but it's like 40 something minutes that I'm actually interviewing her, but it was because she was so brilliant and I loved it. And you know, the wild thing, I've just come to read her bio to do this intro. There's stuff on here that I'm like, damn, I wish I'd spoken to her about that, because we didn't even, like, there was so much we could have talked about and so much we could have gone into, and actually we didn't even talk about some of this stuff. So basically she's a [00:03:00] five time bestselling author and the founder of Thought Leader Academy, where she helps coaches, experts, entrepreneurs, scale, impact, and create six and seven figures by becoming a bestselling author and an in demand TEDx speaker. She is obsessed with personal growth, peak performance, and transformation. Some of the things I saw in her bio, well first off, she's been featured in Oprah, New York Times. Good Morning America today. Forbes entrepreneur, TEDx, and she's had books nominated for National Book Awards and L Magazine book of the year. She's done. She's a championship rower, completed five marathons and practiced yoga and meditation for 20 years, and she's an avid traveler and LED retreats in lots of different countries. She's also a mom of a 13-year-old and. Like, there's just so much on here that I could have like talked about. She's had, she's recovered from sexual assault and addiction, and again, we didn't get into any of that because we just, I just like started talking about the subject that we're talking about and it just went on and it was brilliant. [00:04:00] So what we talked about, which kind of makes sense given that she is a, helps people become thought leaders is we talked about being a thought leader. And really, you know, that was the right thing we talked about because that's what she does. But we talked all about who decides you're a thought leader. Like it's always really perplexed me of like, I'm a thought leader. Well, who said, do I get to say I'm a thought leader? Or does someone else have to say I'm a thought leader? So she talks about how we decide or how. We can decide that we're a thought leader. She also talks about how it's connected to our own internal thoughts. And I have to say, I didn't think about this at all. Like if you'd said to me, we're gonna be talking about thought leader, what do you think is gonna come up? Internal thoughts and what we think ourselves actually didn't feel like. It would come up, but it did, it was great. We also talk about how do you become a thought leader in a world where nothing is new. There is no original topic, like everything has been talked about a thousand times and she gives an, uh, an example. But another [00:05:00] example that I was thinking about as I was writing this intro was Ali Abdoul. Now, I'm, uh, I, especially a big fan of his, but that sounded a little bit like. I'm a big fan. No, I just enjoy watching his content. He does stuff on YouTube and his main stuff is around productivity. It's actually now about lots of different things, but really productivity was a thing he got really well known for. And obviously there are hundreds, if not thousands of books, blogs, podcasts. Videos about productivity and how to be productive, and yet he was able to bring out a book on productivity and be very successful and have a YouTube channel about productivity and be very successful. So much so you would say he's a thought leader in the space, but that subject has been talked about so many times, and one of the things that she talked about is how we can become a thought leader in a very noisy space by focusing on a particular aspect. That's exactly what Ali did. He had a book that's called Feel Good Productivity, and his is very much about productivity [00:06:00] associated with being happy and finding things fun and that sort of stuff. She also covers things like why we need white space or thinking time and we need to make