How Listening To The White Noise May Elevate Your Business

The phrase “cut through the white noise” is considered sound advice in business—focusing only on the important things and drowning out the excess chatter. But what if the white noise is the key to your success, especially in the developing or pivoting stages?

While focus and vision are indispensable, they alone might not lead to the most nuanced decisions. Startups and new businesses often lack the diverse viewpoints and learning experiences established enterprises have. Listening to the white noise here isn’t about getting lost in the abyss. It’s about broadening your perspective and potentially finding golden nuggets within the chaos.

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Listening To The Noise: An Alternative View

The benefits of listening to solicited advice in the initial stage of a new project or venture can be detrimental to a company’s success:

• Diverse perspectives fuel innovation: new voices bring new ideas. The goal isn’t to act on every suggestion but to use them as ingredients that might enhance the final product.
• Early validation and course correction: if several people identify the same potential issue with your concept, it’s an inclination to step back and re-evaluate. This feedback loop early on can save time and resources.
• Building a supportive community: although not all suggestions are the right course for your operation, those who offer them could become valuable allies or mentors. By acknowledging and considering their input, you build bridges with a network that you might rely on in the future.

Meet Geeks And Experts

Sneha Saigal, cofounder and CEO of Geeks And Experts, created a platform for startups and scaleups to hire fractional PR talent on a contract basis. However, the company was initially started to connect founders with experts in different industries to help grow their businesses.

“We knew we wanted to work with founders at the early stages when it is hard to actually get resources out there,” the cofounder shares. “It was more focused on micro consulting. So it was trying to connect them with experts for bite-sized advice to get the ball moving and to move the needle for their companies. But having looked at the market trends, we realized that a lot of the founders didn’t even know what kind of help they specifically needed.”

Saigal also realized that many of them had budget constraints to deal with. Unfortunately, many of their clients wanted a mentorship program, which didn’t align with the GE vision. Instead of building something and looking for users, the cofounder backtracked and looked for the founders’ pain points—her conclusion: many lacked public relations and the foundation for hiring a publicist.

GE went from a one-time advice platform to a subscription model, evolving the idea of being everything to everyone and becoming a niche marketplace. They surveyed the PR specialists and companies to understand what each side needed to grow and scale.

“I was prone to taking feedback from everybody,” Saigal states. “Then I realized I was getting confused with the advice everyone would give. So that made me realize that the earlier product that I was trying to solve was not necessarily solving somebody’s problem because people can tell you multiple things. So here’s what I did to filter that out: I specifically spoke to the decision-makers who would be my ideal customers down the line. Listening to the quote-unquote white noise from your customers will help you successfully pivot. The other thing I did was listen to my gut.”

Saigal was hesitant to niche down. She felt like she was leaving a lot of money on the table. However, listening to others’ feedback gave the company a unique position within the market. GE now partners with the New York Small Business Development Center, where it will start hosting state-wide educational webinars this month.

How To Skillfully Engage With The White Noise

• Cultivate a reflective approach: actively seek out perspectives that differ from your own. Then, take the time to reflect on them. How might this idea alter or enhance your current trajectory? Is there a piece of wisdom here worth exploring further?
• Set clear boundaries: distinguish between advice that’s well-intentioned and that which is merely critical or discouraging. Be discerning about whose input you value. Limiting the noise you engage with means you can give more weight to the opinions you hear.
• Don’t neglect your intuition: your instinct is one of the most critical tools at your disposal. Use it to sift through the noise. If an idea feels right, investigate further. If something immediately contradicts your vision, there’s likely a reason why—but it’s crucial to figure out what that reason is.
• Stay agile: while a clear vision is essential, understand that initial plans are subject to change. Staying agile allows you to adapt to new information and even pivot if necessary.

Listening to the white noise doesn’t mean surrendering your direction. It has the potential to unlock creative insights and innovative solutions; it encourages a dynamic dialogue with market trends and consumer needs, ensuring your strategy remains relevant and responsive.