By Mark Macias

Thought leadership is one of the best ways to distinguish your tech startup or business from its competitors, especially if you are a CEO. Your experience brings credibility while personal case studies can teach other tech startups or entrepreneurs how to do it better, which makes for a great business story.

When speaking with potential clients, I always try to get into their minds quickly to identify how credible they will be when speaking with the media. This is particularly important with tech startups that historically enter the business with little credibility. In these situations, it can be helpful to find unique personal stories that can help your narrative.

For example, we work with the CEO of a major lending organization who is also a Latino from Queens. Yes – his expertise is in financial, but he also brings a new dimension of expertise based on his life experiences. How does a Latino rise to the top of a lending organization that was founded by JP Morgan more than 100 years ago? How did he use his culture to help grow his customer base among Hispanics? How did he assimilate into a financial industry that is not known for its diversity? What did the streets of Queens teach him that he applies to the board room?

We used those same questions to get that CEO in the NY Daily News (story above) and later this week, he will be on CNN en Español in prime time, talking about what he learned on the streets of Queens and how he is applying it at work. Thought leadership is about introducing new ideas and life experiences so next time you’re brainstorming on publicity  ideas, go back to your roots and work backwards.

Macias PR was named the 2015 “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” by Finance Monthly. The firm was founded by Mark Macias – a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. Macias is a weekly contributor with CNBC.com and author of the communications book, Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media, which has been featured in the NY Times, Fox Business, NY Post and others. Macias PR has run media campaigns for tech startups, financial groups, service providers, nonprofits and politicians.