Leveraging Thought Leadership | Sue Yasav | 287

Our guest today is Sue Yasav, CEO and Founder at Marquette Marketing LLC.  Previously she was the Vice President, Thought Leadership and Content Strategy at Synchrony Financial. Sue discusses her early work at GE Captial building value proposition for credit card brands and the processes she developed that she would later apply to many other topics.  She discusses moving to Synchrony and having to build value for a brand that wasn't instantly recognizable.   In addition to building processes, Sue was involved in developing content and talent to speak about the brand so customers would understand what the company stood for, who they were speaking to, and why a customer would want to be involved with the brand.   We discuss what successful thought leadership means to Sue, how to measure it, and how to identify when something isn't working and adjust the course.   We wrap up with Sue giving some critical advice for anyone seeking to move into a thought leadership role at some point in their career.   This is a great episode for anyone seeking to better understand and build value in their brand. Three Key Takeaways: * Thought Leaders need to understand what a brand stands for and how to portray those ideals in order to successfully build brand value. * The manner in which content is ingested has changed and thought leaders need to do the proper research to connect with their audience where they are, not where you want them to be. * The measurement of successful thought leadership is often gauged by being asked to speak in the media, be part of a panel, or being quoted.