Everyone tells you to Be You

They also tell you to differentiate what you do, but let’s be honest…

…being you isn’t a business proposition.

And, how many ways can you really differentiate life coaching, business coaching or dog training?

It’s frustrating.

And so you create charts and notes trying to makes sense of your unique thing except that you end up spending way too much time thinking…

…judging your you-ness for not being cool enough
…fearing everyone else has their unique thing nailed down
…and you’re twenty paces behind them
…and you’ll never be able to catch up
…and your business and your bank account and your root touch ups will suffer
…and, and, and

Whoa mama, there’s a better way.

The answer:

IS NOT ABOUT BEING YOU OR DIFFERENTIATING WHAT YOU DO.

IT’S ABOUT DISRUPTION.

Recently, I spent time researching one of the world’s brightest and shiniest stars on upcoming market trends.

During a keynote talk he shared something that went a little like this:

“Differentiator isn’t enough today. If you’re investing in protecting your dfferentiator, you’re not seeing whats coming next. Without this foresight, you can’t prepare your business for growth.”

I couldn’t agree more and what he said next made me scooch forward in my chair:

“Old world business was about creating one-size fits all offers because that’s the way it’s always been done.

New world business is about disrupting buyers by understanding, and then delivering, on their need states.”

This is precisely what I mean by disruption.

Disruption that comes from an empathetic understanding of what your people need and want, then giving it to them.

It’s really not complicated.

We’ve spent so much time following the big guns in our markets that we’ve forgotten how to lead.

How can you differentiate by disrupting?

• develop hyper personalized offers and content that feed your peoples hunger for adventure, entertainment and mental challenge.
• make what you create more convenient, simpler to synthesize, grasp and execute.
• embrace radical transparency because trust never goes out of style and it’s even more necessary – and expected – moving forward.

That’s it…ish.

There’s one more piece of this disruption strategy that involves what your people NEED.

And it’s not what you probably think.

More on that next time.

PS. Do your people still need and want to connect with you? YES! Being you is vital for connection BUT…

…the success of your business positioning can’t fall solely on your personality – that only works for the Kardashians and even they have a strategy behind every booty pick, selfie and s*x tape floating around the internet.

The challenge isn’t about being a more unique, souped up version of you, it’s mostly not about you anyway. It’s about making what you do and how you deliver it more about them.