An investment in thought leadership - for yourself or your org - compounds over time. Starting earlier in your career will have a greater impact. So what's stopping you from getting started? For today's episode, I've invited Vaishali Dialani to chat with us. Vaishali is a Senior Customer Experience Strategist at Konabos Consulting; a full-service, end-to-end, digital experience solutions agency. Vaishali paints a picture of her earliest journey in thought leadership by participating in everything she could find, and every event possible – often leading events, even though it was early in her education and career. By taking these initiatives she was able to get speaking and presenting opportunities that strengthened her confidence and opened the door to networking prospects. Meeting a connection at a conference is great but you need to follow up to foster that new relationship.  Vaishali shares how she does active outreach, reaching out via LinkedIn to grow her network.  She goes beyond people she has met in person and explains what you should be looking for in a contact before reaching out. Finally, Vaishali shares how growing up in India and being from a blended family gives her unique perspectives that she uses to enhance her Customer Experience (CX) work.  We learn how her personality not only affects the CX work she does but also how her personality is blended directly into the work.  In this episode Vaishali shares incredible advice for starting the thought leadership experience, excelling at customer experience, and nurturing a network of value.  Three Key Takeaways: ·         Thought Leadership doesn't have to be industry changing ideas.  If you have thoughts and opinions - share them! ·         You are never going to know everything about your field of expertise.  Share what you know now, you can share now. ·         People don't invest enough in learning.  You can never know enough and can always be sharpening your craft.