There Comes a Time When You Can No Longer Ignore the Nudge to Be, Do, and Have More
And this is where things get really interesting.
This is the good stuff.
The stuff you've seen others enjoying.
The stuff you've dreamed about for yourself (but haven't done anything about -- yet).
The stuff that's been waking you up at 3 in the morning for you can't even remember how long.
It's not a figment of your imagination.
And it's not going to go away until you decide to do something about it.
Which is why you're here.
You're here because your knowledge, your experiences, your wisdom matter.
They deserve a bigger stage.
You deserve to play a bigger game.
For yourself and for the world.
Listen, tossing and turning and getting twisted in the sheets gets old pretty fast.
Isn't it time to put that nudge in its place once and for all?
That's where the Elevate Your Expertise™ program comes in.
This is the good stuff.
In just 1.5 hours/week over the course of 3 short months, you will receive the generous gift of time for exploring your professional and personal experiences through the Elevate Your Expertise™ lens. The focus of this program is helping you to own your expertise, wisdom, and experiences in a deeper and more profound way so that you can advance and perhaps more importantly -- so that you show up in the world in a way you haven’t before -- as a genuine and powerful leader doing exactly what you are here to do.
During our time together, you will be able to reflect on, wrestle with, and collaborate about what makes you strong, unique, and valuable. You will gain clarity of purpose and develop a structured framework that will set you on the path to achieving your goals of getting paid for your hard-earned knowledge, "giving back" to future generations, transitioning into the next iteration of your career, even leaving a legacy.
Not to mention putting that 3-in-the-morning nonsense in its proper place for good.
While you will not write a book, launch a podcast, or build a course in this program, you will gain a deeper sense of what direction is best for you so that you don’t waste time or money hopping from one approach to another that aren’t aligned with your values and goals.
You will set the stage and gather the provisions you need for creating a leadership practice that may very well include any or all of these types of content.
You will walk away with specific and concrete means of sparking new conversations, cultivating curiosity, and honoring a professional community that has served you well throughout your years of dedication to it.
Here's what past participants have to say:
Registration for the Next Cohort of Elevate Your Expertise™ Coming Soon!
Put your name on the waitlist to be first to know when the next cohort of this dynamic program opens!
Tracy Imm
"The learning container Mary Lou creates gives you the foundation to figure out where exactly to spend your time and energy for accomplishing your goals."
Diane Gibson
"I am really immersing myself in this program and am so glad to be a part of it. The creative juices are flowing -- I so appreciate Mary Lou's patience, technique and approach – she is a great coach and teacher!"
Heidi Piper
"Working with Mary Lou helped me sharply identify the most important places for me to focus my time so that I can grow my business strategically this year. I'm grateful for the experience she created that allowed me the time to get valuable feedback and do my best work."
Why This Program Is Valuable
Hi, I'm Mary Lou.
Most professionals spend their entire lives working as experts within a specific industry. Over the years, they develop specialized knowledge and insights that have tremendous value to a wider audience -- yet they never do anything with it.
Too often, all that valuable knowledge and wisdom walks out the door when the expert moves on to a different career or retires.
This is why my program is so important.
Part of my mission is to help experts like you take all your wonderful knowledge, IP, and useful ideas to create a body of thought leadership and build a leadership practice that serves for years to come.
We are at a critical time in our collective history where the need for well-developed, thoughtful, and wise leadership is at an all-time high.
Learning how to organize and share what you've worked so hard to develop can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life.
I am committed to guiding you through that process so that what you ultimately decide to create makes a difference, feels right to you, serves a specific purpose, and makes you proud.
I look forward to supporting you on this exciting journey!
All my best,
Mary Lou Kayser
Results: After Elevating Your Expertise, you can expect to:
- Have a well-defined sense of purpose about how your experiences and knowledge can impact the world and make a difference
- Be confident about what your position in the world is and why it matters
- Leave behind old scripts and narratives that no longer serve who you are becoming as a thought leader
- Share a sense of belonging and community with people who are also saying yes to playing bigger and bolder
- Embrace your place at the thought leadership table, knowing what you bring is valuable and desired
- Show up more fully and authentically yourself without apology or a list of excuses
- Stop hiding your magnificence
- Understand the important role thought leaders play in the economy
- Feel more centered, energized, and enthusiastic about what's next for you
+Plus so much more!
The Elevate Your Expertise™ Curriculum
During our time together, we will cover the following topics:
1
Weeks 1-3: The Call to Thought Leadership, Discovering Your Purpose as a Leader, Defining Your Leadership Position
In the first part of our time together, we will explore the call to thought leadership including the many extrinsic and intrinsic rewards of embarking on this journey. What exactly are you in for? How do you prepare yourself for this exciting new adventure? How do thought leaders think differently than experts? You will also have time to zero in on what matters most to you and the expertise you want to turn into thought leadership. What will your purpose be as a thought leader? What values anchor you and your content in this exciting new role? How will your thought leadership make a difference to others? Who specifically do you want to reach with your ideas? What future do you want your thought leadership to help build?
2
Weeks 4-6: Developing Your Leadership Practice, Joining the Conversation, Building Your Thought Leadership Roadmap
The second part of our journey will be about how to design your time so that you can work on transforming your expertise into usable content. What boundaries do you need to put in place? How do you communicate your needs for uninterrupted focus time to the people in your life? We will explore ways to start, enter, and/or join conversations about your thought leadership in various industries. We will also examine the different kinds of frameworks, including the pros and cons of each so that you will have a clearer sense of the framework that's right for you. Finally, you will create a strategic roadmap you can follow as you move deeper into the process of building out your thought leadership in the format that makes the most sense for you at this time.
3
Weeks 7-9: Becoming More Visible, Slaying Monsters & Dragons, Owning Your Leadership Perspective
In the third part of the program, you will explore ways to come out of hiding to be more visible as a thought leader in your space. We will also tackle what Steven Pressfield calls Resistance -- those monsters and dragons that show up to block us from forward progress right as we are about to get going. What patterns of Resistance have you noticed in your life? What are some of the most common ways people hide themselves and their brilliant work from a larger audience? How can you begin to take ownership of your leadership perspective so that it feels second nature?
4
Weeks 10-12: Communicating with Power, Sharing Your Leadership Story Authentically, Choosing the Right Challenges as You Build Your Practice
In the final segment of our journey together, you will learn some of the unconscious ways people undermine their power and authority when communicating their message. That will lead into looking at simple ways for flipping those habits into ones that allow you to communicate your message with power (and without apology) so that more people can learn about you and what you do as a thought leader. How can you develop new habits around expressing what matters most to you? What does being an authentic leader look like and how can you tell your story so that the right people hear it? Are certain times and conditions better for going after new challenges and testing and launching new ideas? How do you build a leadership practice that serves you and your audience?
Program Framework
Once you're accepted into the program and you've signed the official participation agreement, you'll receive a Welcome Message with program logistics. We will meet each week over Zoom for the duration of the program. Program materials will be sent to you each week. By the end of the program, your expertise will no longer be in limbo: you will have a clear and specific plan for how to best present your knowledge, experiences, and expertise through thought leadership that is aligned with your most authentic self and the goals you've set for what's next.
Specific & Strategic Content
Each week's content is intentionally designed to build on each other so that you experience a rich and rewarding process from start to finish. Program materials are provided every step of the way, along with recommended resources for anyone who wants to explore concepts in more depth.
Community Focused
We believe in the power of building a strong learning community together where your ideas and contributions are encouraged and welcome. We want to ensure you get the most out of your time in the program. That's why we keep cohorts small and have a specific application process in place to make sure everyone is a great fit.
Useful & Practical Applications
Theory is great, but without application it remains theory only. This program gives you real-world examples of concepts in action, along with plenty of time to put into practice the concepts you learn, applying them to your unique situation and desired goals.
Grounded in Best Practices of Adult Learning
All content is designed using the best of adult learning theory. This means you are ensured of experiencing world-class instruction, along with cohort dynamics that will enhance what you're learning.
Here’s what people are saying about Mary Lou
Ellen Recko
Retired Director of Business Operations within New Business Group, Intel
Competent & Compassionate
"Mary Lou is not only someone with years of experience practicing what she preaches, she is also a great connector -- compassionate and motivational at the same time. Highly recommend engaging with Mary Lou for anything related to leadership development and how to bring your best self to the game."
Larry Bowman
Non-profit Founder, Retired Educational Leader
Purposeful
"Sometimes we forget that life is more than just our job or what we do in retirement or as we get older. Wherever we are in life we need to have a purpose and with that purpose comes a personal brand that we have used for years without knowing it. Mary Lou does a phenomenal job of helping professionals realize the value of it. I learn something new from her every time we interact!"
Claudio Toyama
Executive Coach, #1 International Bestselling Author
Friendly & Thoughtful
"Mary Lou is easy to work with and makes the learning process straightforward. I could not have achieved my big goal of turning my expertise into thought leadership without her guidance."
Traci Esteve
Cyber Risk Management, The Standard
Generous Instruction
"Mary Lou goes the extra mile to ensure that her programs are useful and on point. She knows how to build communities fast so that everyone feels comfortable with each other. Her generous nature makes learning fun and practical!"
About Mary Lou Kayser
For more than a decade, Mary Lou Kayser has worked with professionals to turn their years of expertise into meaningful thought leadership so that they can make a bigger impact and difference with what they know.
Through her popular podcast, Play Your Position, she has brought the stories of 100’s of thought leaders to an international audience in more than 80 countries – on topics ranging from leadership to personal transformation to overcoming adversity.
With a flair for big picture thinking and simplifying complex concepts, she has dedicated her life to teaching professionals how to capitalize on current trends for leadership and business success. Often referred to as a "secret weapon," she has a friendly, generous, and no-nonsense approach to working with clients.
From her days as a white water rafting guide on the Kenai River in Alaska to the years she devoted to formal education, she lives and breathes all things servant leadership. Today, as an author, entrepreneur, podcaster, and teacher, she brings a solid track record of delivering desired results to her students and clients through a variety of programs and services -- including this one!
Frequently Asked Questions
Convenience and flexibility are the most common advantages of online programs. Access to relevant, world-class instruction from the comfort of your home is another advantage. Smaller cohorts, blended learning, and opportunites to interact with the program leader also make an online program attractive to many professionals looking to learn specific skills and methodologies.
Because community and connection are two core values of this program, there will never be more than 10 participants in each cohort.
We will meet in a private and secure Zoom room each week at the designated time. Once you've received your Welcome Packet, it's a good idea to schedule out each week on your calendar. For your convenience, a reminder email will be sent the day before each session.
Program materials (e.g., worksheets, slide decks, etc.) will be sent to you at the email address you use to register for the program.
Weekly calls will be recorded and made available for seven days after each session.
You will be able to ask questions about course content and materials in the private LinkedIn Group, as well as connect with Mary Lou via email between weeks.
I recently reached the exciting milestone of publishing the 300th episode of my podcast, Play Your Position. More are on the way!
That's a longer story than I have room for in this text box :-) but in a nutshell, when I was in college I worked for four summers for a small, indpendent eco-tourism company located on the Kenai River about 100 miles south of Anchorage. As a rafting guide, I was primarily responsible for putting on a salmon bake followed by a 2 1/2 hour river float for guests who came from the cruise ships docking in Seward. It was the best summer job I ever had!
My #1 goal is that when you finish this program you can say without hesitation that you received fantastic value...and are ready to meet the future that needs you.
A final note from Mary Lou...
I'm excited you're considering joining me in this program. What you know is too valuable to stay locked up in files on your hard drive or sealed in a box in your garage. The adventure into thought leadership has been one of the greatest of my life. Because of the incredible experiences I've had from saying yes to sharing my expertise with a larger audience and witnessing the incredible results my students and clients have enjoyed, I've invested a lot of time into building this program so you can succeed, too. Join me in September for this amazing program!
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