Applications are now being accepted!
The HarvardAE Thought Leadership Writing Incubator (TLWI) is designed to help aspiring thought leaders find, frame, and write their best stories. Created in partnership with The Institute for Thought Leadership (IFTL), the 10 week program offers subject-matter experts skills and tools to find and write the stories that position you as a thought leader in your niche.
Program Overview
Taught by journalists, this program gives you the skills and mindset you need to share more knowledge in the form of stories. This helps you gain visibility and win the trust of your audience, critical steps in the entrepreneurial process.
The stories you create won’t be blah-blah content. They will be stories born of your thought-leadership niche that help your audience begin to solve some of the highly complex problems they face.
Apply starting January 9 through January 19. Randomly selected participants will be notified by January 23 via email and provided with a payment link. Non-refundable payment is due no later than January 26.
Program starts on Tuesday, January 30.
Cost:
HarvardAE members: $399
Non members: $499
The program gives you:
The ability to write better, faster and with a process that makes writing less “painful”
Less time wasted on writing stories that are too academic or technical
Skills in articulating value and communicating that value to clients and investors
Methodologies and tools to establish a long-term writing and ideation habit
The confidence you need to publish your ideas and have conversations with colleagues, clients and investors about them
The incubator kicks-off with a Story Boot Camp taught by Rhea Wessel, during which you’ll write your first article. In the weeks after that, you’ll draft another two articles for your business with the help of your personal story coach who meets with you for 1 hour to discuss any blocks you’re having and review your texts line-by-line to help improve them.
The program is limited to 20 participants.
Time commitment
Online Sessions Weekly: Approximately 2 hours a week
One Personal Coaching Session: 1 hour
Who is this program for
The only requirement is that we ask all participants to commit to writing three articles.
What to expect
Phase 1 - Gearing Up: Gaining skills and empowerment
Write your first draft. (2x3-hour workshops)
Self-assessment and set goals
Phase 2 – Gaining Momentum: Establishing a personal thinking and writing practice with story coaching and writing support
Let the writing begin. You will draft your articles on your own and then meet with your assigned story coach. Story coaching is not simply an editing session. This is where the skills that were instilled during Boot Camp are turned into capabilities.
You have the option to visit hosted, drop-in group writing sessions to carve out time for writing and get support. Group writing sessions are a key format for getting words on paper and making sure you cultivate the ideation and writing discipline.
Phase 3 – Program End - April 9, 2024
Submit your best article to be reviewed and judged by a jury of journalists
Awards ceremony and feedback session
Post awards ceremony, if your article is specific to innovation and/or entrepreneurship, you may submit it to HarvardAE. One article will be selected and published on our website and our social media accounts.
About Rhea Wessel
Rhea Wessel is a writer and founder and head of The Institute for Thought Leadership. A former finance and tech journalist, she is now focused on training subject-matter experts in the language of story, as well as ideation and messaging for companies. As a journalist, she wrote for the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and CFA Magazine. More recently in her work for companies, Rhea has written and edited thousands of stories about more than 30 industries. She has worked for companies such as Accenture, Roland Berger, Allianz Global Investors, BASF and Siemens. Rhea is a graduate of Columbia University. Her book, “Write Like a Thought Leader,” was published in 2022.