Executive Thought Leadership Content Plan
Three documents and three sheets that measure an executive's real voice from their own transcripts, so a first draft already sounds like them.
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Voice Profile
Before a Single Number Is Measured
Five dimensions, each counted from the executive's own transcripts and memos rather than described in adjectives.
| Average Sentence Length | |
|---|---|
| Contractions per 1,000 Words | |
| Direct-address Rate | |
| Absolute-certainty Rate | |
| Ownership-language Rate |
A voice guide written as adjectives cannot be checked against. A draft either falls inside these five measured bands or it does not.
Most executive thought-leadership plans start with a voice guide built from adjectives: a few words like "confident" and "approachable," plus a short list of dos and don'ts. Adjectives cannot be checked against, so two reviewers approve two different drafts and the executive still rejects both. It matters because 64% of target buyers and 63% of hidden buyers spend more than an hour a week reading or watching thought leadership before a deal reaches a rep. A piece that does not sound like its author gets noticed for that before anyone reads what it argues.
Naomi Petrakis, the fictional CEO of an industrial-sensor company called Verrallis, gives this pack its worked example. Her Voice Profile is measured from 20,036 words of her own talks and internal memos: 13.6 words per sentence, 30.3 contractions per 1,000 words, and zero instances of "leverage," "unlock," or "robust." Four early drafts, written against a generic "confident, approachable" brief before this profile existed, ran to 24.8 words per sentence with almost no contractions and five times her real rate of unqualified certainty. Naomi's own markup changed 33.8% of those drafted words.
The next four drafts, held to those same five numbers instead of a paragraph of adjectives, came back only 10.2% changed. The voice-related share of editing fell from 26.9% to 3.4% of drafted words, while the factual-edit share held flat near 6.8%. Topic Bank then ranks her unpublished opinions by Engagement by Topic's resonance rate, shares per 1,000 views, which is why category critique, published more than any other tag, ranks last of six. The same sourced, dated opinions can also supply an authentic quote for a press release instead of a generic one.
What's in the pack
Voice Profile
Five measured dimensions, sentence length, contractions, direct address, absolute-certainty rate, ownership language, counted from real transcripts and memos, never guessed at.
Point-of-view Register
Only positions the executive has actually stated, each sourced and dated, so a draft never rests on an opinion invented to fill a topic slot. The same register can back an award or speaking submission's strongest claim just as well as a byline, or supply the new evidence an analyst briefing needs once a published note has already gotten the story wrong.
Article Drafts
Two finished pieces written against the measured bands, so the next draft has a real example to match rather than a description to interpret.
Topic Bank
Every open point-of-view entry ranked by its tag's real engagement history, so the easy topic to write does not outrank the one that resonates.
Engagement by Topic
Past published pieces grouped by tag and ranked on shares per 1,000 views, the active-response rate, rather than on passive views alone.
Publishing Calendar
A realistic cadence with draft and review dates sized to how long this executive actually takes to turn markup around, plus review reminders.
How to use it
- 1
Send transcripts and memos, or start with an interview
Hand over talk recordings, podcast appearances, and internal memos the executive wrote themselves, or start with a short recorded interview if little exists yet.
- 2
Five numbers get measured, not guessed
River counts sentence length, contractions, direct address, and certainty language across the real corpus, and flags any word that never appears at all.
- 3
Every topic traces to a stated opinion
Point-of-view Register only accepts positions the executive has actually voiced. A topic with no register entry becomes an interview question instead.
- 4
Each edit gets sorted, voice or fact
When a draft comes back marked up, River splits the changes into voice-related and factual, which is what proves whether the profile is still working.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes, with no signup and no card, and the download is the whole pack rather than a preview of it. Edit with AI is the other path: send River the executive's own material and it measures their real profile instead of this worked one. More packs sit in the template library.
What format are the downloaded files?
Three Word documents and three CSV sheets in one zip. The documents open in Word, Pages, and Google Docs, and the sheets open as real spreadsheets in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets rather than a table flattened onto a page.
How is this different from a normal thought-leadership content calendar?
The usual calendar names topics and dates and tells you to write in an authentic voice. This one measures that voice first, as five numbers from real transcripts, and ranks topics by what the executive's own audience has already shared rather than by what sounds timely.
The executive hasn't published much. Is there enough to measure?
Talks and internal memos count as much as published writing, and most executives have more of both than they think. Naomi's worked profile leans on five conference or podcast transcripts plus two dozen internal memos, not on a large existing body of bylined articles.
Doesn't a good ghostwriter's judgment make this unnecessary?
Judgment is exactly what a corpus-measured profile protects, because judgment applied draft over draft compounds small, individually reasonable edits until the voice has drifted. Checking each new draft against the original transcripts, not the last approved one, is what catches that before the executive does.
Can the media list and pitch pack use this register too?
Yes. A pitch angle is only as credible as the opinion behind it. The media list and pitch pack works better fed by a register of positions the executive has actually stated than by a generic claim written to fit the news.
What does Edit with AI actually do?
It installs this pack as a private workspace and asks for talk transcripts, memos, or recordings. It measures the five dimensions, mines real stated positions into the register, and drafts the next piece against those bands rather than an adjective brief.
Find out what the executive's own voice actually measures at
Send talk transcripts, memos, or recordings. River counts the five dimensions, mines real stated positions, and ranks what to draft next by what has already resonated.
Edit with AI