The Spotify approach to becoming a thought leader

The Spotify approach to becoming a thought leader

The advent of the CD listening station was a life-changer for me. I’d sit at the music store (remember those) for a couple of hours sampling the latest album releases, looking for something new and exciting to add to my collection.

At the time, it was a big deal to be able to listen to before buying. This is how I first discovered The Cranberries in 1992.

Today, a $10-a-month subscription to Spotify or Apple Music gives you access to endless collections of genres, artists, and albums.

Want to hear some klezmer jazz fusion? It’s just a couple of clicks away. Whatever your need or desire, the Internet’s infinite shelf space will provide.

I often think about how this idea applies to thought leadership and making your expertise available online. When someone goes online looking for insight, help, and guidance, they don’t want to work with just any expert.

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Isaac Newton's Guide to Growing Your Business

Isaac Newton’s Guide to Growing Your Business

I glared at the organic pile of refuse in the back corner of my yard, clutching a garbage bag in one hand and donning a gardening glove in the other.

For a month, the job of cleaning up the mass of plant material left by the previous occupants had weighed on me. I shivered to think about the creepy crawlies that lurked below the rotting leaves, weeds, and twigs.

Every time I’d thought about tackling the task, there were plenty of other household things to do that were much less, well, gross. And so, I had put it off.

But I knew it had to be done given it was likely a contributing factor to the bugs in the yard.

I finally mustered a bit of resolve.

I’ll just grab one or two handfuls and put them in the bag. That’s all. It’s a start. I can always do more later.

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Content creation doesn’t need to be so overwhelming or time-consuming. Here are several ways you can do to grow your audience faster.

How to Grow Your Audience Faster

“My business needs more visibility, but I struggle to be consistent with content creation. There are just too many things to keep up with. I don’t have time or energy for it all.”

A client recently said this to me on a call and it’s something I hear often.

Consistent content creation is vital to growing your audience and brand authority.

Too often, I see people struggle to keep up with this due to a lack of time and energy or they are simply just overwhelmed.

Content creation doesn’t need to be so overwhelming or time-consuming.

The key is to get as much ROI as you can out of every piece of content you create through syndication and repurposing.

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Scaling a thought leadership business means you have to continually hone your ability and your company's. Here are seven quick ideas to do that.

To scale your business, you must also scale _____

Everyone’s eyes glazed over.

The instructor continued drawing on the whiteboard, explaining how sounds are made up of a mix of frequencies.

The class was The Physics of Sound — a joint effort between the music and engineering schools.

The music students struggled to understand waveforms and the physics of sound. The engineering students struggled to grasp the concepts of pitch and timbre.

I could feel the confusion and overwhelm permeating the room.

What was missing?

In a word…

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While we’re all feeling beaten down by everything going on in the world right now, we can keep taking one step forward at a time.

When you’re feeling beaten down and are tempted to give up…

I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling, feeling crushed. Not a single cell in my body wanted to get out of bed.

I’d put everything I had into finding the right apartment in Brooklyn by August 1 when I needed to move and now all hope of making that happen had been dashed.

It was now July 29. The day before, I’d found out I didn’t get the apartment I had my heart set on. The landlord strung the application process along for a week just to choose someone else in the end. They’d received numerous applications and chose someone else.

(Getting an apartment in NYC is akin to putting an offer on a house and going through the process of applying for a loan).

Who’d have thought there would be so many people looking for apartments to move into during COVID?

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