Louder Than Words Bookcast

Developing your voice is a lifelong journey. You never fully “arrive”. However, if you don’t have a clear sense of where you’re going, you’ll likely drift through your days until you one day realize that you’ve allowed the pressures and unremitting sameness of daily life to cause you to settle into a mold you never chose. To continue to grow, you need to embrace a few natural principles that I talk about in chapter nine of Louder Than Words. More: Episode 09: Up The Curve.

In today’s marketplace, no one works in a vacuum. We all have to do our work in the company of others, and for many of us, we also have to lead others in doing great work every day. The leader is the chief “dot connector” for the team. This means that you are constantly looking for patterns and helping everyone else see the opportunities in front of them, even before they can see them on their own. You have to help everyone around you develop their collective voice as a team. That’s what we’re going to talk about today, as we cover chapter eight of Louder Than Words. More: Episode 08: Your Team’s Voice.

It’s not what you know that makes a difference in your life, it’s what you do about it. You can have all of the understanding in the world of a topic, but if you don’t put it into action, you won’t see change. That’s why it’s important – if you want to find your sweet spot and make your ideas resonate with others – to have some daily practices that help you do so. In this episode, we’ll talk about some of those practices as we cover chapter seven of Louder Than Words. More: Episode 07: Everyday Practices To Develop Your Voice.

You can have a great sense of who you are and what you’re doing in the world, and a sharp sense of vision, but if you lack mastery of the skills necessary to bring that vision into the world, you will not be effective. No one will listen to you, because you will lack credibility. If you want others to listen to you, and better yet, to act on your ideas or respond to your work, then you need to achieve mastery of a few key things: timing, and skills. That’s what we’re going to talk about on today’s episode of the bookcast, with insights from Chapter Six of Louder Than Words. More: Episode 06: Mastery.

You don’t do your work in a vacuum. Whatever kind of work you do, you probably have to collaborate with others, serve customers, and regularly explain why your idea is the best one in the bunch. But in order to do that effectively, you have to have a vision for the outcome you’re trying to achieve. In today's episode of the bookcast, we discuss how to define your Intended Audience, and how to make your idea precise and consonant. More: Episode 05: Vision.

This week, we begin our discussion about the three drivers of the "voice engine" by diving into Identity. Do you know what really drives you? Better yet, do other people? If you want to be respected by others, and you want your work to stand out, people have to know where you stand. More: Episode 04: Identity.

In any endeavor, there will always be a gap between how great we want to be, and how great we truly are at the moment. This is the aspiration gap, and it plagues many creative pros. However, there is a specific process we can follow to close it, and in this episode (and chapter of Louder Than Words) I explain how. More: Episode 03: The Aspiration Gap.

How to overcome the three barriers to developing your voice. More: Episode 02: The Hurdles.

Learn to use the Voice Engine to make your ideas resonate. More: Episode 01: The Voice Engine.

Welcome to the Louder Than Words Bookcast, designed to help you develop your voice and go to the next level in your work. More: Episode 00: Introduction.