An Interview With Dina Aletras
Be consistent. There are exceptions, but I’ve found the best thought leaders are often saying the same thing over and over again but in slightly different ways. They make have five core beliefs, but they find ways to restate things frequently. I wrote this about Scott Galloway’s thought leadership strategy when he was first blowing up. You can learn a lot from him.
As part of our series about how to become known as a thought leader in your industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Josh Inglis.
Josh Inglis is the founder of Propllr, an award-winning communications agency that serves B2B technology companies across software, services, and hard tech. He is a frequent mentor for many early-stage startups through accelerators and incubators like Techstars and Polsky Transform. Josh was named a Top Tech PR professional by Business Insider and is an occasional angel investor.
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us! Our readers are eager to learn more about you. Could you provide some background information about yourself?
My name is Josh Inglis, and I’m the founder of Propllr, a Chicago-based strategic communications agency focused on B2B technology companies.
I am the classic inch-deep / mile-wide kind of person, curious about many things but not focused enough to go deep in any one of them. That’s one reason I’ve been agency-side the vast majority my entire professional career. What I’ve found in agency life is that it’s perfect for curious people who want to constantly learn and keep some sense of surprise in their professional lives.
My path to running my own business began in a way that’s pretty common for many founders: I was fired.
After the 24-hour pity party I found myself being encouraged by former clients and co-workers to go off on my own, and to not look for another job working for someone else. And better yet, they put their money where their mouths were and became first clients of mine.
So next, I had to decide where I wanted to focus. I looked back on my favorite client work, and there was one in particular that stood head and shoulders above the rest. I thought about what I liked most, and it was that I worked with founders, that the client was incredibly fast growing and innovative, and that my work made a tangible impact on the company becoming a unicorn over my 7 ½ years running PR for them (started with them in their first year and led PR through their IPO).
That’s when I decided I would focus on startups. That focus was great at the start, but through the years I found that not all startups and not all kinds of businesses were my cup of tea, and that other kinds of businesses could be just as stimulating to work for. So today we are 100% focused on B2B technology startups across three categories: venture backed startups, IT and consulting services, and hard tech.
It’s been a wonderful 13 — year run and I’m still learning constantly getting to learn about new industries, markets, technologies, etc.
On a personal side, I’m married (30 years this year) with two daughters, I love looking at lakeside properties on Zillow, and I have taken up fly fishing, finding myself very thankful to have spots to fish just minutes from my house in suburban Chicago.
What establishes you as an authority on thought leadership? Could you briefly share your expertise with our readers?
There’s a great phrase: Trust Beats Technology. You can have the best technology product for a given customer need, but you’ll ultimately lose business to the more trusted company. With that in mind, Propllr’s work with B2B technology companies is focused on helping them build trust, and we approach that task with a simple equation:
Authority + Credibility + Momentum = Trust
We work with clients to help them prove the authority of their people, to demonstrate the credibility of their companies and its offerings, and to establish momentum that suggest market leadership.
Specific to building the authority component of that equation, a huge part of our work involves thought leadership. In our world, that includes tactics contributed articles, expert content, speaking opportunities, podcast interviews, proprietary data and research, and so on.
So my expertise comes from doing this every day — mostly successfully — for decades.
Can you recall a funny mistake you made when you were first starting out? What lesson did you learn from it?
I don’t know that it’s a funny mistake, but it’s certainly ironic. I’ve spent my whole career building communications plans for clients, but when I started my own firm, I had no plan. I just started it. No goal, no objective beyond “do good work and try to earn a living.” It has worked out so far, but I think it would have been better and much more satisfying if there’d been a plan where I could say, at the end: “I did it.”
What are the most significant disruptions you foresee in your industry over the next five years, and how can businesses adapt to these changes?
It’s hard to answer any question about pending disruptions without leading with AI. In the communications world, so much of AI’s impact is focused on content generation, and to be honest it feels very much like the early days of SEO. Out of nowhere, SEO started taking bigger and bigger chunks of marketing budgets and content mills started churning out millions of words of copy for a few cents per word. That SEO disruption is one of the reasons we moved away from any B2C work and are now exclusively B2B.
But that disruption should be good for us. As B2B companies turn to AI to make still more bad content (but better than a lot of the SEO mills, to be honest), we’re working even harder to focus on the kinds of content that stand out from AI — where we are ghostwriting expert-driven content characterized by an individual’s experience, insights, opinion, anecdote, and hopefully filled with metaphor, color, and storytelling.
So in short, instead of zigging as all of your competitors run to AI-produced, try zagging to the kind of content AI can’t handle (at least, not yet).
Can you explain the benefits of becoming a thought leader? Why is it valuable to invest time and resources into this?
How does this sound? You’ll sell more at higher prices. Edelman, the giant communications agency, has found that to be true time and time again in their research. B2B buyers value it more than traditional marketing and sales materials, and they will pay a premium for the companies that lead with thought leadership. It’s that simple.
Can you share an example of a significant challenge you faced in your career and how you leveraged innovative thinking to overcome it?
What some call innovative I call look at a half-empty glass as being half-full. As a communications agency, our two key services are PR and content marketing. For some clients we just do one or the other, but we always want to do both. Until a couple of months ago, I had one person running content team, and one running the PR team, and the teams would meet regularly but separately. But then the PR team lead moved on to another opportunity. At first, I was bummed, because he’d made such a strong contribution to our success. But soon after I got excited, seeing this as an opportunity to make PR and content marketing more intertwined. That’s when I moved our head of content marketing into a role that also oversees PR.
Now both teams meet together once a week, and they more frequently share ideas, collaborate, and learn from each other. We’re already seeing it pay off with opportunities to do more work for clients.
Now that we have covered that, we’d love to hear your advice on becoming a thought leader. Can you share five strategies that someone should follow to gain recognition as a thought leader in their industry? Please include examples or stories from your own experience for each strategy.
1 . Be consistent. There are exceptions, but I’ve found the best thought leaders are often saying the same thing over and over again but in slightly different ways. They make have five core beliefs, but they find ways to restate things frequently. I wrote this about Scott Galloway’s thought leadership strategy when he was first blowing up. You can learn a lot from him.
2 . Avoid imposter syndrome. People often think they’re not expert enough to be thought leaders, but one of the only differences between them and the folks who they see in publications, on stages, and on podcasts is that those people raised their hands for those things.
3 . Think of your “a-ha’s”. I don’t recall who told me this, but what are those inside-baseball things that you think of as common knowledge but that other folks would be surprised to learn. That kind of education is great thought leadership.
4 . Come up with a quotable quote. It’s not always enough just to have a smart take. Sometimes you need a clever way of framing things. I actually wrote a blog post about quotable quotes if anyone wants to check it out.
5 . Read and write. A lot. The “leadership” in thought leadership should mean something, but it’s hard to know if your thoughts are leading if you don’t know what others are saying. Also, by seeing what others say, you’ll have instant reactions to much of it, helping you formulate new thoughts. And once you have a kernel of an issue to noodle on, get your ideas down. For many people, writing is the best way to figure out what you actually think!
How do you foster a culture of innovation within your organization, and what practices have you found most effective in encouraging creative thinking among your team?
I don’t have any special insights here, but I think the companies that do this best are the ones whose managers avoid being prescriptive about what needs to be done, allowing their teams to figure it out. This is really hard and requires strong planning so that creativity doesn’t die at the hands of urgency.
Who do you think is an outstanding example of a thought leader? What specific qualities impress you about this person?
Andy Crestodina from Orbit Media is a great thought leader in the area of content marketing. While he has the track record to be arrogant, he’s friendly and approachable. Perhaps more important, he’s consistently focused on the same subject matter; he never strays. And I love that he shares expertise on content marketing because it’s important to his customers, not because his company, Orbit, is trying to sell it as a service (they’re not!).
How do you stay informed about the latest trends and developments in your field, and how do you incorporate this knowledge into your strategic planning?
I have zero plan on that. But I love reading and I’m an avid podcast listener. And I think it helps that I have a few creative bones in my body, so my imagination is pretty active. When I hear an idea it’s not hard for me to see how it might apply to my life or work, or to project out into the future.
Some people feel that the term “thought leader” is overused and has lost its impact. What are your thoughts on this?
Too many people equate thought leadership with the act of writing or speaking. But if you’re not sharing something that’s at least a little bit uniquely yours, you’re not leading.
How do you balance short-term business goals with long-term strategic vision, especially in a rapidly changing market?
I don’t know that in the agency world there is such a thing as a short-term goal. I mean, there are client projects we’ll work on, but for the agency itself, you have to think in years, not months. Too many things can change based on factors outside your control. Now if short term means one or two years, then I think you need to set standards for what to manage to whatever KPIs are most meaningful. For me, growth is good, but more important is to have long-tenured lasting clients and financial strength that can help me keep great employees.
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? How has it been relevant in your life?
Mine comes from Pitbull, though I’m quite confident he was paraphrasing someone:
“Ask for money, get advice. Ask for advice, get money twice.”
This has happened for me time and time again. In fact, it’s how I started Propllr in the first place. I talked to two former clients for their advice on my options, and they both offered to be my first clients if I started my own agency.
Many influential figures in business and entertainment follow this column. Is there someone you’d love to have lunch or breakfast with? They might notice if we tag them.
It’s sad. The first two names that came to mind were Andre Braugher and Anthony Bourdain, RIP. Doubt those meals would be possible now. But shoot, here are two: Phoebe Bridgers (hopefully I can bring guests) and Dave Grohl (I’ll take that one solo). I’m not even a huge Foo fan, I just love his vibe.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Just like any self-respecting thought leader, I’m on LinkedIn, and just like any self-loving thought leader, I’m on Twitter.
Thank you so much for your insights. This was very insightful and meaningful.
About the Interviewer: Dina Aletras boasts over 20 years of expertise in the corporate media industry. She possesses an in-depth understanding of growth, strategy, and leadership, having held significant roles at some of the UK’s largest media organizations. At Reach PLC, the UK’s largest tabloid publisher, she served in various director capacities. Additionally, she held leadership roles at The Independent Magazine Group and DMGT. Her extensive knowledge spans editorial, digital, revenue, sales, and advertising.
Upon relocating to Switzerland, Dina took on the responsibility of managing and promoting the international section of Corriere del Ticino — CdT.ch pioneering the English page “onthespot.” She also was the Co-Editor of Southern Switzerland’s first official Italian and English bilingual magazine.
Josh Inglis of Propllr: 5 Things You Should Do To Become a Thought Leader In Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.