The Digital Contrarian

TDC 074: The First Trillion Dollar Thought Leader: Being Known for How You Think, Not What You Consume

• Ryan Levesque • Episode 74

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TDC 074: The First Trillion Dollar Thought Leader: Being Known for How You Think, Not What You Consume

Why being known for how you think beats influence every time.

Episode Summary

In this episode of The Digital Contrarian, host Ryan Levesque dives into the critical distinction between influencers and thought leaders in the AI era.

You'll learn why chasing followers is the wrong game, how thought leadership transforms ideas into equity, and discover the unsexy immediate next step to start building your own trillion-dollar personal brand.

Question of the Day 🗣️

Are you planting fruit trees or ordering DoorDash with your content strategy? What's one idea you could turn into an email this week?

Key Take-aways

  • Influencers rent attention from algorithms; thought leaders build mental real estate in decision-makers' minds
  • Markets already treat certain personal brands as multi-billion dollar assets (see: Elon Musk's pay package)
  • Thought leadership lives in the "important but not urgent" quadrant—it's fruit tree behavior, not DoorDash behavior
  • Most people never build one because they chase quick hits instead of planting for generations
  • Start with one email about one idea you have energy around right now—then do it weekly for 12 weeks

Timestamped Outline ⏱️

00:00 – The trillion dollar thought leader shift
00:21 – Influencers vs thought leaders: The wrong game
01:36 – Elon Musk's trillion dollar personal brand
02:06 – What thought leadership actually buys you today
02:22 – Company value and deal flow (Edelman LinkedIn data)
03:31 – Optionality: When opportunities find you
04:07 – Talent magnetism: Attracting operators who think
04:34 – Durability: Personal anti-fragility
05:32 – Why doesn't everyone build one?
05:47 – The fruit tree vs DoorDash behavior
07:06 – The "no shortcuts across the green" rule
08:20 – Your small unsexy immediate next step
09:34 – Closing thoughts

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Credits

Host: Ryan Levesque
© 2025 RL & Associates LLC. All rights reserved.

The first trillion dollar thought leader being known for how you think, not what you consume. We've all been told that we need a personal brand, but what most of the internet means by that is to become an influencer. Post more, grow faster, show every corner of your life, no thank you.

Now the problem with that is that in the age of AI, if you are a founder, an investor, an advisor, or a person of substance, as Adam Grant describes, that's actually the wrong game. The game that actually compounds is not influence in the social media sense, it's thought leadership, i.e. being known for how you think, not what you consume. And as we've just welcomed our most recent cohort of category of one thought leader clients this past week, it's reminded me of the key distinction between influencers versus thought leaders in this post AI world. 

Here's the contrast as I see it. So you've got influencers, which optimize for visibility and engagement. They're known for their lifestyle, the car, the trips, the food, the brands, you know what I'm talking about. 

Thought leaders, on the other hand, optimize for insights and usefulness. They're known for their ideas, the frameworks, the predictions, their theses, and the way that they see the world. Influencers rent attention from the algorithm, whereas thought leaders build mental real estate in the minds of people who actually make serious decisions. 

And that distinction matters financially. In fact, with Elon Musk's most recent pay package from last week, love him or hate him, we may be witnessing the world's first trillion dollar personal brand. In other words, markets already treat a certain kind of personal brand, the idea and reputation kind as a multi-billion dollar asset. 

They just don't book it on the company balance sheet, which brings us to what a post AI thought leadership brand actually buys you today. Now in our post AI world, increasingly filled with AI slop, a real thought leadership brand transforms your original ideas into equity. And this shows up in a number of different concrete ways. 

For example, number one, company value and deal flow. Effective thought leadership exerts a surprisingly strong influence on sales and pricing. In fact, according to the Edelman LinkedIn B2B thought leadership impact report, thought leadership can be a more powerful marketing tool than traditional methods and makes people more willing to seek you out and even pay extra for your expertise. 

But at the same time, most thought leadership producers underestimate the level of impact that their content is having in the market. So check it out here on the screen. Now translated into plain English, when your ideas shape how buyers see their problems and you consistently produce strong thought leadership content, you stop being just another vendor and instead you become the one who actually gets it. 

Now this gives you pricing power, it gives you credibility and authority in your market, and ultimately it gives you a line of people wanting to do business with you. This is the whole category one positioning that we've been exploring together in recent issues of the digital contrarian. Now in addition, a real thought leadership brand gives you number two, optionality. 

When your thinking is visible, interesting opportunities suddenly start finding you. For example, you've got advisory opportunities, speaking invitation, partnership offers, investment deals that start showing up in your world. In fact, I've personally seen all of the above show up in my life after going all in on this strategy 74 weeks ago. 

I've been invited to serve on advisory boards, international speaking opportunities, and even received an invitation from my alma mater earlier this week to present at the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship at Brown University. This takes us to number three, talent magnetism. Strong operators want to work with people whose ideas challenge them. 

If your thought leadership is out in the wild, it acts as a filter, repelling people who don't vibe with your worldview and attracting the ones who read your stuff and think, I've been waiting for someone to say this out loud. It shortens the trust building cycle with future hires, future partners, and future investors. You're not starting from zero, which takes us to number four, durability. 

Last week in issue number 73 of the Digital Contrarian, the efficiency versus resiliency dilemma, we explored the topic of fragility in business. Influencer style brands are super fragile, just like the ancient Bezerra espresso machine, which I encountered at a cafe earlier this week. When you change the algorithm, you kill the reach and the so-called brand suddenly evaporates overnight. 

In contrast, a thought leadership brand is portable. Companies can be bought and sold, platforms can rise and fall, but your ideas, your judgment, your reputation for being a deep thinker about important things, that travels with you for life. So in that sense, thought leadership is a form of personal anti-fragility. 

It benefits from time and exposure instead of shrinking under it. Which brings us to the question, why doesn't everyone build one, a thought leadership personal brand? Well, if the upside is this obvious, why aren't more people putting their thinking into the world with regularity and consistency? Well, it's because thought leadership lives squarely in the important but not urgent quadrant of the Eisenhower matrix. It's like planting a fruit tree. 

You dig the hole, you stake the tree, you water it. For a long time, it looks like a stick in the ground, but then in time, eventually it will produce food for generations. Meanwhile, DoorDash will bring you dinner tonight, but it will leave nothing for you or your family to eat tomorrow. 

If you need leads this month, run a quick promo. Need revenue this week? Chase after a client. Need a dopamine hit? Post something spicy and watch the likes roll in. 

But publishing thoughtful ideas is fruit tree behavior. Chasing quick hits is DoorDash behavior. And of course, we all know the proverb, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.

The second best time is today. But the tyranny of the urgent wins. The inbox is full. 

The team is pigging you. There's a fire to put out. So the whole, I should really start publishing my single source of truth newsletter and build that strategic content ecosystem gets pushed into next month, then next quarter, then next year. 

In fact, most people won't ever do it, or they won't stick with it long enough to see the compounding results and won't resist the temptation to chase whatever shiny new object is trending this week. But that is exactly why it's such an advantage. Which takes us to the no shortcuts across the green rule. 

On a recent tour of a private school with my son, the guide mentioned a small rule. Students aren't allowed to cut across the central green to get to class. They have to walk around it. 

Now cutting across would save a few seconds. It's the obvious path, but the school is deliberately teaching a habit. Don't take shortcuts just because you can. 

Now there's a content version of cutting across the green, churning out shallow posts, mimicking whatever is performing on social media this week, chasing after virality instead of writing what's true for you. Now you can absolutely generate attention that way, but you end up with followers who are there to be entertained, not to be led. A thought leadership brand is the opposite of cutting corners. 

You walk the long way, you research, you test, you refine. You're willing to be early on some ideas, late on others. You say fewer things, but you mean what you write. 

As I often say to my two boys, there are no real shortcuts in life, only long cuts in disguise. Which takes us to a small unsexy immediate next step. Now the risk with an episode like this is that it turns thought leadership into yet another overwhelming project. 

Start a podcast, launch a YouTube channel, write a book, redesign your website. Next week, of course, when things calm down, which as you and I know, they never do. Instead, try this. 

Pick one idea that you have energy around right now in this moment. Turn it into a single email. Now send that email to your list, no matter how small that list may be, and start with that today. 

Do it now, right here, right now, today. Then do the same thing once a week for the next 12 weeks. Now, 12 pieces won't make you world famous, but they will clarify your own thinking, start planting those fruit trees that we talked about, and begin the slow and quiet process of being known for something that matters. 

Remember, the market pays a premium for people whose ideas help it make sense of the world. Influencers tell you what to buy next. Thought leaders help reshape your thinking. 

That is the brand worth building. Okay, I'll leave you with that for today. Have a great rest of your week. 

Remember to hug the ones that you love. Until the next episode, I wish you all my best. Take care and talk soon. 

Goodbye.