{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"What Works","title":"EP 325: When Opportunity Meets Sustainability With Tara McMullin","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1452,"description":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat if your biggest opportunity didn’t involve doing more but doing less?\n\n\n\nWhat if scaling back and simplifying wasn’t only a way to make your life better but a way to build a more successful business, too?\n\n\n\nThis month on What Works, we’re exploring opportunity—how we discover it, how we decide to pursue it, and what we do to take advantage of it.\n\n\n\nLately, I’ve been thinking about how we are prone to waiting until “opportunity” comes to us nicely packaged and easy to use.\n\n\n\nWe wonder if the latest social media platform will be the key to growing an audience or if the new trend in products or services will unlock a new revenue level.\n\n\n\nBut I find that the best opportunities don’t come nicely packaged.\n\n\n\nInstead, opportunities often present themselves in messy ways—a series of “What if?” questions, a loose synthesis of seemingly unrelated information, or a jarring new perspective on an old problem.\n\n\n\nAnd I have found, over and over again, that the best way to notice these messy, half-formed opportunities is to put myself in the thick of other people’s “What if?” questions and the din of their seemingly unrelated stories.\n\n\n\nI’ve discovered my best opportunities at conferences and meet-ups, as well as in masterminds, direct message threads, and even when I’m doing podcast interviews!\n\n\n\nWe have a whole world of information at our fingertips.\n\n\n\nBut what’s really useful are the ideas that are filtered through our conversations and connections—curated, social ideas that help us turn questions into opportunities.\n\n\n\nThese settings hold one of the keys to new opportunities because they help us see things in a new way. They change our perception of what’s possible by presenting options we might not have ever considered on our own.\n\n\n\nAnd this is key.\n\n\n\nBecause no matter how creative we might be, it’s hard to come up with a completely unfamiliar idea. Instead, we use what’s familiar or known to make smaller leaps.\n\n\n\nThis contributes to the phenomenon...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/AmfGeDL96-fhMaeOcqmX7TK_eWrvTLco6OJj2QpZtZI/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80NGUx/OWY5ZDg1M2E5MmU3/ZjEwOWVmNDM3MWVh/ZjZlOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}