✍️ how to make thought leadership actually work

Spend enough time on LinkedIn and you'll eventually notice that almost everything gets labeled "thought leadership."

A company announcement, a press release with a 🎉 emoji, a Claude-generated list of hot takes on the LinkedIn algorithm.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped asking whether any of it actually changed someone's mind.

So we sat down with Tyrona "Ty" Heath in Cannes to settle it. Ty leads thought leadership go-to-market at LinkedIn, co-founded the B2B Institute, and served as jury president for the Creative B2B Lions this year. Ty spends her days helping LinkedIn think about what earns trust and credibility in B2B.

Spoiler: We call too many things thought leadership.

Let's get into it.

Ty gives it to us straight: Thought leadership is extremely overused, and most of the substance on our feeds doesn’t actually qualify.

“Being in the thought leadership space really means getting to the truth of an idea or problem. It means having evidence-based thinking and data to help people better understand, to illuminate an idea. There's additional rigor to it that rises to the level of thought leadership,” she said.

Translation: Company news has a role. Thought leadership serves a different one. Its job is to help people understand something they couldn't before.

Helping someone understand a problem they couldn't crack before — now we’re talking.

How marketers actually make it happen

Ty's perfect content flywheel has four parts: strategy, creative, distribution, and measurement. Here's what she recommends.

1. Start with a problem, then find the right expert.

Instead of starting with an executive and simply giving them a microphone, you should start with a problem first: 

• What do your best-fit buyers keep struggling with? Start with their problem, not your exec's bio — the challenge you want them to come to you for.

• What question do you get asked in every sales call? The recurring objection or "how do you handle X" is usually the problem your exec is already the answer to.

• What does your industry accept as true that deserves a second look? This could be a take your data supports but most people in your space are too cautious to say out loud.

• What can you own with 2 or 3 answers? Ty’s method is deliberately small: Get clear on "the 2 to 3 areas you want to invest in," then hit them from a fresh angle every time.

“The first thing an executive needs to know is where you're running before you start running,” she says. “Get really clear on the two to three areas you want to invest in.”

2. Add judgment.

Research creates evidence. Experience creates perspective. Thought leadership happens when someone exercises judgment about what those things mean. 

• What does this information actually mean?

• What pattern are you seeing that others aren’t?

• What conclusions are you willing to stand behind?

“How do you bring your voice, your interpretation to your post?” she asks. “What does this mean, your judgment, to the conversation?”

3.  Distribution comes next.

Most companies still treat the company page as the center of their LinkedIn strategy. Ty thinks that’s backwards.

People follow people long before they follow logos. The company page reinforces the brand. Executives, subject matter experts, and employees bring people through the front door.

4. Measure what actually matters.

Ty's last prong is knowing what "moving the needle" looks like for your case.

Success isn't simply impressions or engagement. It's whether people understand your company differently than they did before.

• Are you shifting how buyers perceive the brand?

• Are you getting a committee aligned around a decision?

Those are the signals that tell you you’re building authority instead of simply publishing content.

You can’t fake conviction

LinkedIn is preparing to release new research called The Credibility Code. The research asks a timely question: In a world where content is easier than ever to produce, what makes you believable?

Ty’s answer wasn’t a framework, but 5 words.

“I have to be me.”

She explains, “I can't be multiple versions of me. I try to bring as much of myself to it, because I don't want to wear a mask in one context versus the other because I think that's what ultimately cuts through. Can people feel the energy? Can they feel how passionate you are about it?”

It's an intuition that LinkedIn's upcoming Credibility Code research is beginning to support.

“One of the elements people talked about is the enthusiasm, the passion they can feel with which you're speaking about a topic — which means you actually have to be passionate about that thing, and you have to be you.”

Press publish anyway

You can use AI to organize your thinking, tighten a draft, or summarize research. AI can help express conviction. It can't create it.

That's why so many executives hesitate to publish in the first place.

The work matters, the ideas feel personal, and it can be uncomfortable putting them out into the world. If an idea matters to you, it will usually feel vulnerable to publish.

“Even with that little bit of anxiety, you press the button. Get it out there. You'll never feel 100%, especially if it's something that matters,” she said.

Campaigns that got us talking: Nike turned the internet's "the World Cup is scripted" running joke into one of the tournament's most talked-about campaigns, with Easter eggs, nostalgia, and a few well-placed shots at FIFA and Adidas. The best campaigns know what the audience is already saying.

AI spotlight: This World Cup produced more surprises than X. Cape Verde drew Spain. Paraguay sent Germany home. Every team also had access to the same AI-powered scouting assistant, which may have leveled the playing field. 

Stuff that makes us scroll back up: Every time a team was knocked out of the World Cup, DoorDash had Zlatan Ibrahimović deliver a custom, and brutal, farewell. One idea, dozens of fresh executions.

Grab your party hats because The Standard officially turned 1 this month! 🎂

That’s 12 months of marketing rabbit holes, strong opinions, questionable jokes, excellent interviews, and subject lines we argued about for far too long.

We started this newsletter because we wanted to make something marketers would actually read. 1 year later, that’s still the standard. Here are a few pieces we’re especially proud of:

• ✍️ how one newsletter generated 3 $5M+ referrals

• ✍️ can you just make it go viral?

• ✍️ trust-as-a-service

• ✍️ our AI marketing survey results are in

The fastest way to make a copywriter question reality:

“Can you make it more conversational but also more authoritative but also shorter but also explain everything?”

Honorable mention: “Can you make it punchier?”

Bad ads

We stared at this DoorDash ad for a while trying to figure out why it made us lose our appetite. 

AI-generated ribs and soap anyone? *cancels order*

The World Cup is over and The Standard is officially 1 year old.

Over the last 12 months, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about originality. The campaigns that saw something everyone else missed. The marketers willing to have an opinion. The marketing leads who made the thing before they knew exactly how it would perform.

Original ideas rarely feel completely safe. Conviction means putting more of yourself into the work. And when the idea matters, a little hesitation may be a sign that you’re onto something.

So bring the perspective only you can bring.

See y’all next time. 

— the storyarb writers’ room 🫡

Oh! And another thing... 

Here's a fun one for your next trivia night: Freelance didn't start with writers. It started with medieval mercenaries whose lances were "free" to hire. In 2026 the job description has changed and the weapons are now gone. The freelancer's refusal to pledge allegiance to any one boss, however, is eternal.