John Hall is co-founder and CEO of Influence & Co., a content marketing agency that helps companies and individuals extract and leverage their expertise to create, publish, and distribute content to their key audiences.

In five years, John has grown Influence & Co. into one of the largest providers of high-quality expert content to more than 1,000 of the world’s top publications. Under John’s leadership, Influence & Co. was ranked No. 72 on Forbes’ “Most Promising Companies in America” list in 2014 and was named Empact’s “Best Marketing and Advertising Company of 2014” at the United Nations. Influence & Co. was also recently mentioned in Inc. as the No. 1 company dominating content marketing.

John has weekly columns for Forbes and Inc. and has contributed to more than 50 publications, including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, The Washington Post, and Mashable. John was recently recognized as a “must-see” and one of the most authentic speakers in Forbes. His talks have inspired thousands of leaders, marketers, salespeople, entrepreneurs, and others to improve their performance.

“If you don’t work hard on thought leadership, you will be passed by a competitor who does.” - John Hall

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

Thought leadership: why it’s something you have to do
Creating a thought leadership content marketing blueprint
Why your blogs should have the author’s name for a byline -- not the agency’s name
Strategies for creating content that isn’t generic
How to build thought leadership into your schedule so that you actually spend time on it -- and what to do if you can’t
Finding the ideal mix for publishing content on your own site vs. externally
Big mistakes agencies make with their content
Why thought leadership content marketing is here for the long haul

Ways to contact John:

We’re proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 103: Thought Leadership Isn’t Optional, with John Hall

Build a Better Agency Podcast