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My theme is BE DiFFERENT or be dead. If you’re not different in a way your customers CARE about, you won’t stand out from your competitors and you’re not likely to make it.
But if you’re caught in the web of doing stuff that everyone else does and buried in the common herd, there are ways to break out.
Check out these five Common Ways Transformations and watch for more in future posts.
Common Way #1: Use AI to create your content. — It’s becoming commonplace to create content—blog posts, reports, essays—using AI.
Ask “Write me a blog on BE DiFFERENT or be dead” and your friendly AI Bot will write you a blog post populated with common content it finds on the internet.
You, the writer, offer no originality at all if you simply transcribe and publish the AI output.
The Unheard-of Way is to morph the AI “narrative of the many” to your own “narrative of ONE” by leveraging the AI content with your own personal twist that satisfies the needs of your particular audience.
Of course you have to WORK to achieve your OWN narrative. You need to understand what your audience CRAVES and you must present content that stands out from what others do.
Common Way #2: Follow “Best Practices” to solve problems and meet new challenges. — It’s a common practice to “Gargle Google” and search for a solution that someone else has successfully employed to solve a problem you have.
Applying someone else’s solution to your circumstances and expecting a miraculous outcome is a non-starter. It rarely happens. It’s a lazy approach to innovation.
Find a Best Practice and copy it is the way most people approach problem solving.
The Unheard-of Way is to CREATE a unique solution that fits with YOUR exact purpose and at the same time helps you to achieve an advantage over your competitors.
Try alternative approaches until you discover one that is “the least imperfect” of the number of imperfect options available.
A “close enough” solution is all you’re looking for because finding a perfect solution to anything is an impossible task and while you’re trying to find it, you’re not DOING anything!
The Unheard-of Way: Find YOUR own “just about right” solution, EXECUTE it pristinely and achieve more success than the crowd around you who are copycats.
Common Way #3: Strive to be popular and fit in with the cool crowd. — It’s commonplace that people seek to be popular, to be like others in the tribe they like.
Fitting in with the “cool crowd” occupies copious amounts of time and yet when you do fit in, you’re bland, mediocre, standard and average because you are like everyone else in the popular herd.
The Unheard-of Way is to look for different and disruptive themes to the popular narratives/themes/beliefs/approaches of the day.
Seek to be UNPOPULAR; NOT be seen as yet another member of some popular theme lacking any individual personality.
Common Way #4: Reduce prices to meet competitive challenges. — Every business—yes EVERYone!—tends to cut prices in the face of relentless competitive pressure.
They believe that if they are not among the lowest price suppliers in the market they will surely lose.
The problem with this short sighted strategy is that low prices will NEVER build long term customer loyalty because as soon as you cut prices, your competitors follow suit and before you know it you are on a spiral to the bottom.
The Unheard-of Way is to deliver sufficient value and benefits to your customers they will be prepared to pay HIGHER prices, and your business becomes a VALUE play not a price play.
Common Way #5: Use CLAPTRAP and Aspirations to define your uniqueness. — Differentiation is the most critical issue in business today in my view.
Organizations struggle with declaring what makes them unique and generally use CLAPTRAP words like “better”, “best”, “Number One”, and “Leader” to establish their edge.
This approach doesn’t work. Everyone claims their “best” so using the expression is meaningless and has ZERO benefits.
The Unheard-of Way is to use The ONLY Statement to declare how you are DiFFerENt from everyone else.
“The ONLY Statement is a powerful reminder that in a world of “me-too” products and services, standing out is the key to thriving. By embracing ONLY differentiation and focusing on value, you can carve your own path to success.”
Common Ways are for the crowd who are content with being the same as everyone else.
Unheard-of Ways are for those who strive to be different; who want to distance themselves from others.
The world needs Unheard-of People.