Why B2B thought leadership matters—and what’s stopping leaders from owning it.
*This article was kindly contributed by StudioSpace agency, No Two Fish.
Most B2B companies are overspending on advertising and underinvesting in something far more powerful: the voice of their leaders.
In the last 12 months, I’ve worked with SaaS companies, tech startups, financial services firms and media businesses on refining their GTM strategy—tightening their positioning, shaping their message, and clarifying the story they tell the market.
But after the positioning work is done, something strange often happens.
The leadership team nods along and loves the story.
And then hands it off to marketing and sales.
What gets missed?
Several critical connection points:
•Their own network—the audience that already trusts them
•Their authentic voice—the most relatable, human message in the business
•Their deep expertise—packaged not as content but as conviction
•Organic content that makes paid media work harder
•Authority in the market—not just for the company but for the humans behind it
•That irreplaceable moment when a buyer says: “I trust them. They get it.”
According to LinkedIn & Edelman research:
73% of decision-makers say thought leadership is the best way to assess a company’s capabilities, while 75% say one compelling piece of content was enough to get them to explore a solution they weren’t even considering.
So why the hesitation?
Here’s what I’ve seen hold leaders back:
They don’t see themselves as “thought leaders”
(They think it means being loud or performative.)
They don’t know where to start
(Blank page. Busy schedule. Too many ideas—or none.)
They believe it’s a marketing job
(When in reality, their voice is the differentiator.)
But here’s the truth:
You don’t need to be a content machine.
You need to know where your thinking adds value and how to capture it without the need to block out time for ‘writing.’
The content that connects sits at the intersection of three things:
Problem
The real concerns your audience has—their fears, concerns and unanswered questions.
Perspective
Your lived experience applied to those problems, delivered with clarity and depth.
Possibility
What you believe is possible for your audience—and what it will take to get there.
I now work with leadership teams to embed thought leadership into their workflow—not as a side project but as a strategic asset.
We use the right AI tools, combine them with human insight, and build systems that make it easy to capture what you already know and shape it into content that builds connection, trust, and authority. At scale, with ease.
This doesn’t just position the business.
It positions you.
