How Susan Cain Found Her Voice

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Self-improvement, Arts, Books, Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Susan Cain always knew she wanted to be a writer. But her path to becoming one was anything but straightforward. She took a creative writing class in college and came away convinced she wasn’t very talented. So she pivoted: law school, white-shoe firm, eyes set on making partner. Seven years later, a senior partner walked into her office with life-changing news. It wasn’t going to happen. “I burst into tears,” Susan recalls. Three hours later, she quit. Within a week, she enrolled in a creative non-fiction class. A few years after that, despite never having published a word in her life, she sold her first book, Quiet, in a bidding war. Today, she ranks among the most successful non-fiction writers of her generation. In this episode, Susan takes us inside her journey from rejection to literary sensation, revealing the unexpected lessons she learned along the way. Today’s episode first appeared on Author Insider, our newsletter and community for anyone who wants to turn words and ideas into income. Learn more at authorinsider.nextbigideaclub.com. Subscribe to Susan’s Substack, The Quiet Life, at thequietlife.net

Transcript

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0:00.0	LinkedIn Presents
0:02.0	Hey there, it's Rufus Griscombe, and this is a bonus episode of the next big idea.
0:14.0	Do you have a book in you? Have you ever thought about starting a podcast or a substack?
0:20.0	My guess is there's a decent chance that you have, because I know you're a curious student
0:26.6	of the world, because you listen to this podcast, and we live, after all, in a golden age of
0:32.6	personal expression. But how do you go about building a business as a thought leader today?
0:38.6	A decade ago, things were simpler.
0:41.2	You could focus on writing great books and trust that your agent, editor, and publishing
0:45.7	house would take care of the rest.
0:47.8	But if you want to succeed today, you have to not only find your authentic voice and
0:52.6	distinctive message, but also figure out how to systematically build an audience.
0:59.0	You have to study all the various platforms on offer and the strategies for using them effectively.
1:06.0	This gave us an idea.
1:08.0	Over the years, we've gotten to know hundreds of top thinkers who found very different
1:12.8	pathways to success in the modern media environment.
1:17.2	Why not ask them, along with the industry experts on the cutting edge of AI and social media,
1:22.7	to share what they've learned with a broader community of aspiring writers.
1:28.0	We decided to call this community Author Insider.
1:31.4	It launched a few months ago.
1:33.5	And you can sign up at authorinsider.nextbigideaClub.com.
1:40.3	So far, we've had conversations with folks like Daniel Pink. It's important to begin with the idea or the argument or the story and then say, what is the best way to convey this?
1:54.4	And I think today, a book is not always the best way to convey it.
	...

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