Paige Velasquez Budde of Zilker Media: 5 Things You Should Do To Become a Thought Leader In Your Industry

Conduct an online brand audit of yourself — As you analyze page-one of Google search results for your name, look at the social media profiles you have created in the past, the old YouTube videos that populate or your old biography on LinkedIn. Go through and clean up each of those assets to ensure your first impression — no matter where a consumer lands — represents you well. We always forget about that YouTube video we filmed several years back with the outdated content and bad lighting!

As part of our series about how to become known as a thought leader in your industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Paige Velasquez Budde, CEO at Zilker Media, an Austin-based agency building people-driven brands. Paige oversees all aspects of the company, ensuring team members and clients are fully supported to achieve a long-term impact on their mission. Her passion is dedicated to cultivating a community for Zilker Media’s team and clients. She has been featured as a speaker on digital marketing strategy and led workshops at national venues such as Harvard Medical School, Austin’s own Alamo Drafthouse, Zilker Park, Hilton Hotel, and for organizations such as Women Presidents’ Organization.

She has led the marketing campaigns and strategies for some of the world’s most recognized authorities, including The New York Times bestseller and Fortune Magazine Senior editor-at-large Geoff Colvin, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller and Hall of Fame speaker Sally Hogshead and many others. Paige has also counseled leading international brands such as Russell Stover and a2 Milk.

Her approach to people-driven marketing has been featured in many media outlets including Inc., Thrive Global, Texas CEO Magazine, Authority Magazine, Business News Daily and Business.com.

Paige is passionate about community involvement and volunteers her time with organizations such as Texas Tower, a collegiate publicity firm for the University of Texas at Austin students, to teach others about her career in the PR and marketing industry. She is also a member of the Junior League of Austin where she volunteers her time with many local nonprofits.

In her previous role, Paige was the digital director at Texas statewide official’s campaign where she oversaw online reputation management and executed campaigns with several digital and traditional components, setting digital fundraising records. She has also served as the Content Marketing Manager at Advantage Media Group and Shelton Interactive, where she partnered on marketing campaigns with business executives in the financial and healthcare industries as well as top publishing houses like B&H Publishing Group and Portfolio.

Paige graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, where she served on the alumni Texas Exes Communications Committee. She is a proud alumna and can be found cheering on the Longhorns at any sporting event and occasionally singing the National Anthem at Texas baseball and basketball games. Paige resides in Austin, Texas with her husband, Jordan. For more information, please visit www.zilkermedia.com.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

I grew up in a small town out in West Texas called Odessa. Throughout my time there, I was influenced by my parents, grandparents, teachers and mentors on the importance and value of community. Being a part of that special community sparked my love for building that sense of gathering for others. When I graduated high school, I left Odessa to pursue an education at The University of Texas at Austin (Hook ’em Horns!) and cut my teeth in several internships in the marketing industry.

Right out of college I joined a book marketing agency called Shelton Interactive where we focused on representing more than 30 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling authors. During my time at Shelton Interactive our team honed in on our passion for representing personal brands. That agency was acquired in 2016 by a publishing company — this acquisition provided our team with an opportunity to represent several authors who were business leaders, healthcare professionals and financial advisors.

Post-acquisition our Founder Rusty Shelton had the vision to start a new kind of agency that provided end-to-end brand management for people-driven brands. I joined the team during the first year of Zilker Media alongside two of our founding team members. I was excited about the vision and mission for our agency and the opportunity to lead our team through this next chapter of Zilker Media.

Can you briefly share with our readers why you are an authority about the topic of thought leadership?

Throughout my career, I have had the honor to work alongside and represent some of the world’s most impactful thought leaders and authorities. Our team at Zilker Media has worked with various thought leaders including CEOs, entrepreneurs, authors, healthcare professionals, speakers, lawyers and financial advisors to build people-driven brands. We work with these thought leaders to grow their brands by utilizing public relations, content marketing, digital marketing, quiz marketing and creative design.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

Our company Zilker Media is built by what we call people-driven brands — which are several thought leaders on our team with different expertise. Our company was started with three founding team members after an acquisition of a previous agency many of us had worked at for almost a decade. After I joined the team in the first year we started to grow very quickly and added key team members who we had worked with in the past, as well as new faces to the team. Now our leadership team consists of five individuals who have worked together on and off for several years. In addition to the talent, we have cultivated internally, our history and thought leadership has accelerated the rate we were able to build a strong culture we are proud of.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I have shared this story in the past, but it is still one that makes me live! A story that comes to mind is when we were celebrating the launch of our new website. I was so proud of the team’s work and passion throughout the project, I really wanted to celebrate in style. I ordered treats with our new logo and bought champagne so we could toast to the occasion. I ended up buying the BIG bottle of champagne not thinking about the implications of having to open the bottle. When it came time, the team wanted me to pop the cork…well, let's just say I could barely hold up the bottle with one hand. So after a couple of minutes struggling in front of our team to work the cork up, I finally popped it. The motion of the pop was a little much for me and half the champagne ended up on me and all over the floor. The good news…we still had enough for a toast! The lesson learned? Celebrate in style but don’t buy a bottle of champagne that is bigger than you.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define what a ‘Thought Leader’ is. How is a thought leader different than a typical leader? How is a thought leader different than an influencer?

What differentiates a thought leader is the desire to teach their audience and deliver consistent value versus trying to sell to their audience. We call this mindset, “mission-driven thought leadership.”

Most typical leaders are set on hiding behind the corporate brand they have dedicated themselves to for several years. Thought leaders are willing to step out from their corporate brand and engage with their audience and customers on a personal level — ultimately to become an onramp back to their corporate brand. Some leaders recoil at the thought of a personal brand and are hesitant to do this because they fear it can be perceived as ego-driven or bragging. The key is to approach your thought leadership with the right strategy and mindset to purely deliver value and make a bigger impact.

Today’s meaning of “influencer” closely aligns with the presence and following on social media. Ultimately, influencers are selling products or services through their social media channels. Social media influencers have become a respected career over the last few years. Thought leaders are different because they do not solely rely on social media to reach their audience (although social media is incredibly important), they focus on owning the connection to their community.

Can you talk to our readers a bit about the benefits of becoming a thought leader. Why do you think it is worthwhile to invest resources and energy into this?

Investing in your personal brand with a mission-driven thought leadership mindset allows you to become the trojan horse for the corporate brand and mission you represent. Ultimately, you should become an onramp back to your company. As a thought leader, you can build a level of trust with your consumer a way your corporate brand can not.

If you are a leader or entrepreneur, it also sets the foundation for future opportunities. For example, serial entrepreneurs that invest in their personal brand do not have to start from scratch every time they start a new venture. If you decide one day you want to start a foundation or another product line, you can leverage your thought leadership as an onramp to grow that organization.

Let’s talk about business opportunities specifically. Can you share a few examples of how thought leadership can help a business grow or create lucrative opportunities?

A strategic thought leadership approach can fuel positive word of mouth as well as lead generation for your business. When we work with companies to help them grow, we focus on how to identify thought leaders among the team to build a people-driven brand. The more people you have on your team that are willing to invest in their personal brand, the more powerful your brand becomes because you are opening up several different lead generation opportunities you did not have before.

Ok. Now that we have that behind us, we’d love to hear your thoughts about how to eventually become a thought leader. Can you share 5 strategies that a person should implement to become known as a thought leader in their industry. Please tell us a story or example (ideally from your own experience) for each.

1. Own your first impression — In today’s landscape the first impression of an individual is not happening over the phone or in-person, it is happening on page one of Google search results. If a journalist or prospective client were to Google your name, are the page-one results a good representation of your brand? Are you even discoverable? If you are not discoverable, you might consider “changing your name” by branding yourself with your full name or with a middle initial.
2. Conduct an online brand audit of yourself — As you analyze page-one of Google search results for your name, look at the social media profiles you have created in the past, the old YouTube videos that populate or your old biography on LinkedIn. Go through and clean up each of those assets to ensure your first impression — no matter where a consumer lands — represents you well. We always forget about that YouTube video we filmed several years back with the outdated content and bad lighting!
3. Craft your personal mission statement — Now more than ever, it’s important for thought leaders to speak up during challenging times and to stand for what they believe in. If you focus on crafting a short mission statement for your personal brand that also aligns with the goals of your company, that statement will be a guiding light as you develop your personal brand.
4. Involve others in your thought leadership — My favorite way to use content marketing for thought leaders is as an excuse to reach out to someone they want to build a relationship with. Whether you are conducting a podcast, interview series or writing a piece for a media publication, look for opportunities to shine the spotlight on other companies and leaders. This strategy allows you to interact with target relationships on a peer-to-peer level and build goodwill towards a long-term relationship.
5. Have a micro media mindset — Thought leaders do not approach building their personal brand with a marketing mindset. Instead, they act as if they were the editor-in-chief of their own media outlet. They put out consistent and valuable content that people want to gather around time and time again. The opportunity of today’s media environment is people are turning away from the general mass media and turning towards micro media (and thought leaders) to consume content.

In your opinion, who is an example of someone who has done a fantastic job as a thought leader? Which specific things have impressed you about that person? What lessons can we learn from this person’s approach?

Sara Blakely of Spanx is a thought leader I follow consistently. She has built a personal brand that is distinctive and delivers consistent value while staying aligned with her company. I believe Spanx has been exposed to a new audience because of her personal brand growth. She has built an authentic brand on social media to share several different pillars from her life — including her personal musings of being a mom of four. Sara has also introduced several different ventures beyond Spanx that have catapulted from her personal brand presence.

I have seen some discussion that the term “thought leader” is trite, overused, and should be avoided. What is your feeling about this?

I believe there are some misconceptions about the term thought leader that makes people recoil away from it. Sometimes it is perceived as if someone is saying, “Hey! Look at me!” That is because it has been approached unsuccessfully that way by some people. The mindset of a thought leader is what is most important — the goal of thought leadership should be to create opportunities to make a bigger impact.

What advice would you give to other leaders to thrive and avoid burnout?

Building a brand is time-consuming and many people may not be able to invest the time needed in their personal brand. To be successful and avoid burnout, you must decide what is the highest and best use of your time to drive your mission forward. For many leaders, it is going to be filming video interviews with target relationships every week. From there, marketing teams can create media angles, social media content, blog content and podcast episodes.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I have always been a champion of pouring into young women. Today’s society is incredibly different because every transaction and decision is visible to everyone online. I believe it’s so important to teach young women how to have a healthy relationship with social media, build offline relationships and create a personal brand they are proud of. The media environment can be used for so much good — it’s up to our society to bring value and continually shape it that way.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young,” — Henry Ford

I’m a huge advocate for life-long learning. Some of the most successful people I admire continue to stay curious in life and are always looking for opportunities to learn. Plus, I want to stay “young” as long as possible!

We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have a lunch or breakfast with? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I would love to have lunch with Gary Vaynerchuk — he is a thought leader I admire in the marketing industry. He constantly pours into delivering value for his followers through live Q&A sessions on social media as well as meet and greets after his speaking events.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can visit Zilker Media at www.zilkermedia.com or follow me on Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn @PaigeVelasquez.

Thank you so much for your insights. This was very insightful and meaningful.