It’s Your Time to Break Through, with Dorie Clark

What this episode covers

Having a great idea is one thing, but getting it out there and making sure it’s being heard by the intended audience is quite another. The tools that have allowed us to spread our ideas more easily have also made it more difficult to be heard. We’re all exposed to a torrent of media on a daily basis, so how can we stand out? We live in an increasingly noisy world and our attention is being demanded from every direction. Having a breakthrough idea is difficult enough, but these days, it’s only half the battle. How do successful entrepreneurs, thought leaders and community figureheads not only develop life-changing concepts, but communicate them effectively so that they’re not lost among the white noise of modern life? For her latest book, Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It Dorie has been speaking with some of the world’s foremost thought leaders on just this topic. In this episode, she will be sharing some of her valuable insights with us. She’s found that to be really influential in your professional sphere or particular industry, you don’t need to formulate an original idea or invent a new product. You can popularise an idea that has been overlooked or synthesise concepts to create something new, captivating and valuable for your audience. The second part of the conundrum of the breakthrough idea is creating a community of followers who will act as a ‘legion of ambassadors’ and help further promote it. This is something that can put people off for a number of reasons. Firstly, as mentioned before, everything in our lives is becoming faster and more convenient. So, the idea of spending a year, two years or five years creating a following for your idea can seem daunting. Secondly, we often look at successful people who are much further along a particular timeline from ourselves. The success that may have taken ten years to create appears effortless as we haven’t seen all of the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into ensuring that success. This can discourage us from trying, but it should be remembered that all of these success stories started somewhere. Maybe in a year, two years or even ten years, you will look back on today as the day your success story began. About Dorie: Dorie is an author, marketing strategist, consultant and renowned public speaker. Her work has been featured in TIME, Harvard Business Review and Entrepreneur. She’s also the author of two ground-breaking books, Reinventing You and Stand Out, which have helped thousands of professionals around the world better identify and develop their unique brands and ideas as well as how to make them stand out. She is also an adjunct professor of Business Administration at Duke University, has taught at Emerson College, Tufts and Suffolk University and guest lectured at such esteemed institutions as Harvard Business School, NYU and MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She has worked as a consultant and speaker for clients as diverse as Yale University, Google, Morgan Stanley, the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In addition to that already hugely impressive CV, she’s also an award winning journalist, one of Forbes “25 Professional Networking Experts to Watch in 2015” and has appeared regularly on NPR, MSNBC and the BBC. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast Episode: In this small business podcast episode, we challenge the problem of how to find your breakthrough idea and how to build a loyal following around it. Dorie’s Actionable Tips: * Use a niche strategy. Don’t attempt to stand out in too broad a field. Narrow it down and become an expert in a particular niche. This is a fantastic way to establish yourself quickly and...