[NEW INSIGHT] Why multimedia is becoming a CEOs most powerful thought leadership tool in 2026
CEO positioning strategies are all about shaping how you, as a leader, are perceived by the people whose decisions matter most: investors, clients, partners, and your own team.
A strong strategy builds credibility, fosters trust, and positions you as a leader capable of making bold, informed decisions while guiding your company toward a better future.
In this article, we explore five key principles that leaders use to build credibility with decision-makers, from leading with the story behind financials to becoming a thought leader.
The first mistake many CEOs make when establishing themselves among decision-makers is thinking financials are everything.
While it’s important to demonstrate performance and show that your fundamentals stack up, it’s equally crucial to tell a story that encourages decision-makers to invest or become a client. Paint a clear picture of how your company achieves its success.
Because while your priorities might seem right:
Financials are backward-looking. They show what happened, not what is likely to happen next.
Performance isn’t always repeatable, as results can come from timing, one-off deals, or short-term wins.
Risk is often hidden, because customer concentration, fragile margins, or operational gaps don’t show up in toplines.
Numbers don’t explain decision-making, and investors want to see the thinking and strategy behind the results.
Meanwhile, a strong background story gives your company an identity, shows your passion for it, and highlights the challenges you’ve overcome as a leader.
Ideally, you want investors and potential clients to come into meetings already familiar with your thinking.
You create trust and give decision-makers a reason to believe in you.
This is why it’s crucial to underpin your CEO positioning strategy with regular content that spotlights your journey.
It’s far more effective to build a following and engagement over time by drip-feeding insights about your goals, interests, aspirations, and lessons learned rather than trying to convey all of that in a single meeting or quarterly update.
Ideally, you want investors and potential clients to come into meetings already familiar with your thinking, your priorities, and your approach. Then, when you present financials, they aren’t the whole story, but the raw data that supports what you've said.
In many ways, a CEO’s comms is just as qualitative as it is quantitative. Investors and clients want to understand what it’s like to work with you. And a trustworthy, credible image is a big part of that.
Consider:
How you founded your company and why.
Challenges you’ve overcome along the way.
Lessons learned from successes and failures.
Your vision for the company’s future.
The values and culture that guide your decisions.
Besides much more. Be as transparent as you can.
In many walks of life, you’ll hear the saying “If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail”. When it comes to crafting your CEO positioning strategy, it couldn’t be more true.
Because while you need to create content that is strategically aligned with your own goals, you need to be in tune with your audiences’ wants and needs, too.
Otherwise, any messaging you share on social media, the media, and at events isn’t going to connect. And it certainly won’t build credibility.
Case in point, consider sitting down with the investors and clients you already work with, understand what they care about, what influences their decisions, and what gaps they see in the market.
It gives you the foresight to anticipate what matters most to your audience, so your messaging resonates.
Then, shape your messaging around those insights so every piece of content speaks directly to the people you want to win over.
You can also actively engage with channels you produce content across, speaking to journalists that write for investment publications and other online thought leaders relevant to your audience.
For instance:
A journalist writing about venture funding can teach you what stories resonate, which trends are capturing attention, and how investors think about opportunity and risk.
A peer producing content in your industry can teach you what challenges others face, how to frame your ideas, which messages stick, and what qualities inspire trust and confidence in leadership.
This doesn't make your CEO positioning strategy cheap. It gives you the foresight to anticipate what matters most to your audience, so your messaging resonates.
You’ll also gain technical tips you can use to improve your communication, such as if jargon is necessary or whether more simple direct language is best.
For instance, sometimes you don’t need much text at all. A short video can paint a clearer picture of who you are. And it’s easy to overlook these formats until you see their impact firsthand.
Your CEO positioning strategy should always lead with value. And certainly not ego.
If there’s one central theme to this article, it’s finding the right balance for your CEO positioning strategy. At the heart of that: don’t overly promote yourself.
This is another mistake CEOs rush to make.
They see the competition for investment or clients, and overcompensate by thinking “I need to produce as much content as I can, I need to share everything about me, I need to impress. Otherwise, my CEO positioning strategy will fail.”
But all that happens is:
They oversaturate their content, confuse audiences with mixed messaging, and weaken the overall strength of their campaigns.
They share content that doesn’t move the dial, appears self-indulgent, or comes across as unprofessional, which undermines credibility instead of building it.
They turn investors and potential clients off before they’ve even met them, reducing the number of meetings they earn and limiting their chances of success.
Remember: your CEO positioning strategy should always lead with value. And certainly not ego.
Decision-makers place higher value on companies, or people, they don't have easy access to.
On one hand, that means tapping into what your audience cares about. And on the other, it’s prioritising quality over quantity.
A few thoughtful, well-crafted thought leadership pieces will have far more impact than dozens of shallow updates.
And if you’re concerned about consistency, then it's a good idea to create a content calendar.
This allows you to:
Plan your social posts for two or three days of the week, ensuring balance and diversity.
Book contributor slots with a publication, whether that’s to share a monthly byline or one-off quote.
Align your comms with your company to avoid confusion.
Finally, don’t model your CEO positioning strategy on the handful of high-profile CEOs who seem to appear in headlines every week.
Their visibility often comes from the scale of their company or the weight of their name, not from deliberate positioning you can easily replicate.
Besides, constant exposure isn’t always positive. Being everywhere all the time can dilute credibility as quickly as it builds it.
When it comes to investors and potential clients, you need to embody the scarcity principle: decision-makers place higher value on companies, or people, they don't have easy access to.
Though it might seem scary or unnatural to put yourself out there as a thought leader, this is one of the best ways your CEO positioning strategy compounds credibility.
As a CEO that wants to be recognised as the best, you need to become a spokesperson for your industry or your sector when it matters most.
Such as when:
Regulation changes.
Markets shift.
Funding tightens.
New technologies emerge.
These are the moments when decision-makers are actively looking for guidance. They’re reading the news more closely, attending events, speaking to peers, and forming opinions about who they trust and who they don’t. If you’re absent from those conversations, someone else will shape the narrative ahead of you.
Though it might seem scary or unnatural to put yourself out there as a thought leader, this is one of the best ways your CEO positioning strategy compounds credibility into influence. So, build familiarity within your sector as early as possible.
In terms of big events specific to your company, staying visible is just as much about your internal image as it is externally. Employees and board members are all watching, forming opinions about your leadership long before an investor or client does.
When your team believes you're making important decisions responsibly, they become ambassadors of your leadership, encouraging clients, investors, and industry peers to trust you.
As long as you can communicate well, both internally and externally, people will at least understand the rationale behind them.
What you must look out for above all are the seemingly complex choices regarding executive members who are underperforming or the call to pivot away from a product, service, or strategy that isn’t working.
Sometimes, those decisions won't be popular. But avoiding them entirely can leave your reputation far worse off. You need need to address them fast and head on.
As long as you can communicate well, both internally and externally, people will at least understand the rationale behind them.
Above all, you need to show stakeholders that you are decisive, accountable, and in control. And that’s everything in the eyes of a client or investor.
Decision-makers want to understand not just what a company does, but why it's moving in a particular direction.
For the most part, your CEO positioning strategy should be optimistic.
The best way to show this is with a clear point of view and direction for your company and sector.
For example:
AI experts share visions for how emerging technologies will transform industries against the backdrop of skeptics, showing confidence and reducing anxieties.
Sustainability leaders outline their roadmap for reducing emissions while others question feasibility, demonstrating strategic foresight.
Fintech CEOs highlight opportunities in financial inclusion even as markets fluctuate, reinforcing credibility and optimism.
All of these examples matter because they go beyond simple messaging: they create differentiation in a crowded landscape, reinforce a forward-thinking and responsible mindset, and show practical problem-solving in action.
From optics alone, decision-makers immediately get the perception that you’re someone that should be taken seriously.
The clearest showcase? A digital profile filled with headlines highlighting your unique perspective and viral posts that amplify your ideas to wider audiences.
From optics alone, decision-makers immediately get the perception that you’re someone that should be taken seriously.
But much deeper than that, they can see that you're invested in your company, industry, and aspirations for the long term, which signals productivity, stability, and sound judgment.
These are the qualities decision-makers look for when deciding who to trust with their capital, partnerships, and future bets.
It’s about being present in the moments that matter, leading with insight rather than just numbers, and demonstrating the judgment and vision that decision-makers respect.
The tips in this article give you the foundation you need to step into a meeting with potential investors or clients with confidence, knowing your credibility precedes you.
By consistently producing thoughtful, strategic content, engaging the right audiences, and showing up when it counts, you build trust before a single question is asked.
When all is said and done, your CEO positioning strategy isn’t about ego or constant visibility. It’s about being present in the moments that matter, leading with insight rather than just numbers, and demonstrating the judgment and vision that decision-makers respect.