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While I write for some of the world’s biggest publications, these days I find myself sharing my knowledge with more and more people via audio. I’ve been lucky enough to appear on Mario Porreco’s The 10-Minute Mindset, Brian Kelly’s The Mind-Body Business Podcast, Tim Alison’s Screw the Naysayers, Mark Struczewski’s Podcast, and in the coming weeks Chris Scarfo’s The Scarfo Show and Bruce Eckfeldt’s Thinking Outside the Bud.
Last week, Tony Winyard kindly invited me to appear on his podcast Exceeding Expectations. It won’t go live for a few weeks, but during our conversation, we talked about the importance of creating something special for clients. It’s something that Steve Sims talks about in his bestselling book, Bluefishing. For those who haven’t read it, I consider it a must-have for anyone looking to take their business to the next level.
As children, we do what we can to fit in. Standing out usually comes with repercussions. If a kid’s too fat, too tall, too skinny, too weird, too weak, or too something, they tend to get teased or bullied. However, once we enter the business world it’s a whole other story.
If you want to be successful, the last thing you want to be is average. The competition is fierce. You want to find a way to differentiate yourself from those around you. It doesn’t matter where you are, what you do or how old you are, you need to create your own personal USP.
For those unfamiliar with the expression, a USP is a unique selling point. It’s the reason why people buy from you over anyone else.
Think about the big names today. They all have their USPs. Google is synonymous with search. Apple has the iPhone and iPad. Microsoft has Windows. Coca-Cola has Coke. Amazon dominates delivery. People buy from them because they are the best.
Growing up before the Internet, our choices were limited to those in our local area. No longer. Today our competition is halfway across the world and down the street. That’s why it’s imperative to find ways to separate ourselves from them.
Take me. At age 26, I walked away from a job and started my entrepreneurial journey. I bought into a franchise system and built my school from the ground up. It wasn’t easy, let me tell you. But after a few years, I was able to hire staff and at one point had seven people working under me.
Then something in changed. I saw what was coming and knew I needed to prepare for it. I built a second school with a partner, worked with another group of entrepreneurs to build up their school, all in the hopes of learning new skills. Turns out I made the right decision though it wasn’t what I expected.
While I started down one path, I ended up going completely in the opposite direction and now find myself a time management consultant.
My reasoning was based on two concepts
1. Impact
2. Evergreen
The one thing I loved about teaching was helping people transform their lives. The only problem with it is it takes years to learn a language. I wanted to find a way to influence people’s lives fast and the one thing I found students struggled with regardless of their chosen profession was time.
The second piece had to do with the incredible advancements being made in technology. I wanted to find an area that would survive the coming winds of change.
Today, I’m a native English speaker who has resided in Japan for over 20 years and am a time management expert. That’s my USP.
Thanks to YouTube, books, podcasts, and seminars, you can become pretty much anything you want: a Facebook Ads expert, a marketing expert, a LinkedIn profile expert.
The choice is yours.
The question is, what do you want to become?
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