Are you operating in an echo chamber with your business?

In my last post I spoke about the confidence that comes from really knowing who you are, what you have to say on your subject, and how to say it, which comes across with so much impact that it can be described as so much more than content.

But here is the problem that faces all of us as entrepreneurs today: the echo chamber.

I wrote an article for Entrepreneur about how co-working impacts innovation for startups - one of the problems which is prevalent is the echo chamber.-

Only ever asking your immediate networking circle for feedback can be dangerous.

We become used to hearing validation of our ideas, we become used to hearing that we are great, or that this is a great angle, or that all is going well when it fact...it may not be in the wider world.

The same could be said of using social media networks as echo chambers, of existing solely within certain networks for that validation that we seek.

When we only see people doing what we perceive to be right, it becomes difficult to challenge any perceptions.

Whether you are on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, a sub Reddit, or you are lurking around certain blogs and websites which validate your opinion, the echo chamber is a real problem - both online and off.
(I would like to hat tip someone in my network whose thoughts I really admire and who has been talking about the echo chamber danger recently. Michael Roderick’s daily emails are phenomenal, and you can find them here.)
 

To truly connect to your brilliance, to challenge your thoughts, expand your knowledge, your business and your view on the world, varying your perspective is so important.

I talk about this in the Brilliance Ignition process, that doing something new every day is crucial, as is outputting something new, in some form, every day. 
(My daily email is currently that format for me)

When we synthesise information through our lens that is informed by the world around us whilst working within the context of others, we begin to create informed opinions, and we are allowing ourselves the space to have different ideas.

This is where true thought leadership lies - in questioning the echo chamber, in bringing new perspectives, and in challenging yourself on a regular basis to vary that perspective and to output every day.

There's a guy who I respect greatly, who I often see down one of the café's that I co-work in. His name is Anthony.

Anthony changes his perspective every hour and a half, which I find incredible; he purposefully changes where he works to vary his networks, to vary his conversations and to vary his experience of any given day.

He is also someone who builds a great deal of varied networks by partaking in different reading groups, discussion groups, and a whole range of social networks.

I love the fact that Anthony expands his experience of conversations and of environments by intentionally changing the way that he lives and works, and builds that into his day.

I also love to do this, but on a much less frequent basis; I like to mix up working by myself at home, or in a library, with various coworking places, cafe's, and towns, so that I'm meeting different people, having different conversations, experiencing different environments.

We don't exist in an echo chamber by ourselves, and nor should we expect to come up with new ideas and groundbreaking concepts, perceptions, and thoughts if we don't allow ourselves to broaden that outlook.

So, yes, you are already brilliant, it's already within you.

You know so much already from your combined experience, expertise, approach, and personality, BUT you can escape the echo chamber and create a varied environment for yourself easily be intentionally changing perspectives.

So tell me - can you identify your own echo chambers?
Leave a comment and let me know where they are.