You Have No Competition Because They Are Not You

If you prefer to listen rather than read, please scroll to the bottom of this post for the audio version.

[Jill’s Note: I wrote a version of this post in a Facebook Group for budding coaches last summer and was reminded of it yesterday as I was listening to the classic Og Mandino’s “The World’s Greatest Salesman – Scroll #4.” Apparently my last blog post on approaching people with love instead of judgment reminded my sister of Scroll #2 in that book which is why I was listening to it in the first place. Great minds think alike as I could relate to much of what Mandino says as it relates to business. He’s a little more “Go get ’em tiger” than I ever was, but his overall message was very similar to how I ran my business for over 18 years. Mandino’s Scroll #4 starts out:

“I am nature’s greatest miracle. Since the beginning of time, never has there been another with my mind, my heart, my eyes, my hands, my hair, my mouth. None that came before, none that live today, and none that come tomorrow can walk and talk and move and think exactly like me.”

To me, this notion has always been the key to business success as you’ll see from my post below written long before I ever heard of Og Mandino! – Jill ]

You Have No Competition Because They Are Not You

To me, no matter what business you’re in, there’s no such thing as competition.

Oh sure, there may be others offering something similar to what you or your company offer, but they are not you! It’s easy to see this as a solo practitioner. Nobody else has had the experiences you’ve had. Nobody else knows what you know. Whatever you do or say will resonate with some and not with others. And the same goes for everyone else.

Which is GREAT!

You never have to worry about what anyone else is doing or saying because they are not you.

The real world application of this means that you don’t need to (nor should you) copy what anyone else is doing. While it may be helpful to look at what others are doing in your space in order to help generate some useful ideas, you still put your own unique spin on those ideas and deliver it in your own special way.

You are you.

And you have knowledge and wisdom that nobody else has. Therefore you have no competition because they are not you.

Surprisingly this is even true with large companies that don’t have one specific individual defining their brand. How it’s done is through their Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Every company, brand and even solo practitioner needs to have their own USP. Yours is that thing you have that nobody else has. In the coaching world, for instance, it’s your insights. But it can also be your background with what you did before you got interested in coaching. It’s everything you’ve learned, seen, endured and been through up to this point in your life.

In other words, never be afraid to give away all your “secrets” to anyone, even if you think they’re going after the same clients you are. They are not your competition.

They are not you!

–Jill

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