3 Tips To Being An Original Voice

We are living in a constant echo chamber. All forms of media from blogging to podcasting can easily fall into the trap of just echoing what everyone else is saying. Scores of new media expressions start daily, but very few are saying anything new. Very few voices can be heard through the clanging of that which comes from the echo chamber.

You may think that it can be hard finding your voice, but with a little work and direction it may be easier than you think. Also, many choose to be an echo because it's the direction in which the crowd goes. It takes guts to be a voice. Here are few tips to get you started on your way.

Commit Yourself to Being a Life-long Learner
Individuals that are voices are life-long students and readers. Read and listen to everything you can get your hands both within your niche and outside. Don't limit yourself. Buy books, audiobooks, go to seminars and webinars. Read as many blogs as you can and subscribe to and listen to as many podcasts you can listen to and more. Subscribe to trade journals and magazines. Become an information magnet.

Make it Your Own
Read it and chew on it (as a cow chews on its cud) over and over again until when you communicate about it it becomes your own. If it's not yet you, don't write about it or speak about it. Keep digesting it piece by piece until it becomes a part of your own mental DNA.

Don't always in a hurry, voices will always gather a crowd that will stop in listen if it's fresh and new.

Become an Expert/Superhero
When you make it your own you now position yourself to be able to speak from the place of an expert or a superhero. Experts and superheroes are those that have discovered their voice and know who they are.

These are just three simple tips are developing your originality, but if you apply them you'll notice a difference in how you blog, podcast, present etc, Just remember voices are those individuals that are always in demand, echoes come and go like the ocean waves.

Are you a voice or an echo?

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photo credit: frank peters

Technorati Tags: new media, presentation skills, self-development

Comments

[Minter]

I am a huge believer in points 1&2. But, it seems to me that the niche approach is the big ticket: expert/superhero by another name. I have been idly thinking all along that the blog need not be so "defined" but as I get more and more out there, and the numbers of blogs increase, it is increasingly clear that, if I want to grow, I will need to refine my approach (limited to 'my voice' on my topics into more of a specialization. Thanks for the tips.