LinkedIn is full of 'thought leaders.' You know them. They post inspirational quotes over stock photos. They share 'frameworks' that are just common sense with fancy diagrams. They have 'entrepreneur' in their bio but you can't figure out what they actually do.
Let's be clear: thought leadership is real. It's when someone has genuine expertise, shares valuable insights, and advances their field. That's maybe 2% of people calling themselves thought leaders.
The other 98%? They're thought photocopiers. They take someone else's idea, reword it slightly, add a personal anecdote that may or may not be true, and present it as wisdom.
'Here's my framework for success: 1) Work Hard 2) Stay Focused 3) Never Give Up.' Wow. Revolutionary. Nobody's ever thought of that.
Or the classic: 'I failed at 47 businesses before succeeding. Never give up!' Closer inspection reveals they have one moderately successful consulting business now and the '47 failures' were ideas they had in the shower.
Real thought leaders: rarely call themselves thought leaders. Share specific, actionable insights. Give credit to others. Don't need to post every day to stay relevant.
Fake thought leaders: lead with the title. Share vague platitudes. Never admit they learned from someone else. Post constantly because relevance through repetition.
How to tell the difference? Read their content. If you finish and think 'that was interesting and useful,' real. If you finish and think 'well, obviously,' fake.
Crooks West is the patron saint of fake thought leaders. His LinkedIn is a masterclass in saying nothing with confidence. Every post starts with 'You know what, Branden?' (even though he's posting to thousands of people) and includes at least one 'Let me tell you something else...' that leads nowhere.
His legendary spontaneous mid-call epiphanies have become LinkedIn posts. 'I was on a call this morning and realized...' (Translation: I made this up five minutes ago.) Each one gets 47 comments from other fake thought leaders saying 'This!'