Maybe you’ve even been struggling with how to make yourself stand out from the crowd. You’ve put ‘establish market differentiators’ on your project list. Perhaps you’ve taken a course, done a guided visualization, or even created a spreadsheet to tackle this, but eh, something feels off.

You can’t seem to get around to it.

If this sounds like you, I hear you. It can feel really hard to step back and see how’re you’re different from others in your field and then figure out a way to bring that forward in your business.

This might sound a little surprising, but the way you approach your marketing is one way to differentiate yourself.

Strategic and Well-Planned

When I was in the corporate world, we spent a lot of time talking about differentiating our company from a marketing perspective. We would work with the sales team and conduct SWOT analysis of our competitors. Then we'd sit down and go over each competitor’s strength and weakness, evaluating what opportunities, etc. were there. And from there we would seek to position ourselves most advantageously fill that gap.

It was all very strategic and well planned out.

The thing is that approach just doesn’t work for many heart centered business owners. It sure didn’t for me. It’s missing the most important piece – you, the real you.

Approaching marketing like that feels a little like entering an arts’ competition and surreptitiously going around to look at the other artists’ submissions before deciding which color palette or medium or subject matter would help your piece stand out more.  

A Different Approach

There is a different approach - one that comes from your heart, your essence. I believe everyone is born with a purpose and a unique way of being in the world that’s imprinted on your soul. This genius is singular and forms your divine essence.  This also means you have natural gifts and talents and strengths, areas where you shine.

For marketing your business, instead of starting from the premise: Ok, these are the rules, and this is how you have to market yourself, I believe in uncovering what you’re naturally good at and going from there instead. Marketing and making connections then become about leveraging what you’re naturally gifted at as a fundamental to how you show up and talk about your business.

For example, if writing comes easily to you and is something you love to do, then writing a weekly blog is going to be a significant focus of your marketing.  If however, you’ve got a wicked sense of humor, video might be an avenue to explore.

Or, even though it might require some patience or creativity given our current situation, if you really have an energy that comes through when people meet you face to face, you might look to make local events or mixing with people a cornerstone of your marketing plan.  If you have a beautifully soothing or maybe a particularly powerful voice, using more video, or a podcast in your marketing might be something that you could look at doing.

Getting Started

Here’s how you get you started thinking about how you can market in a way that automatically differentiates yourself from others in your field.

Grab a journal and a pen and set aside some time to stay with this exercise where you won’t be interrupted.

Take a few minutes to get still and centered. If you’re comfortable doing so, close your eyes. Ground yourself by taking three deep breaths and feeling your feet. Now answer the following questions.

1.    Gifts and Talents

What are your gifts and talents? These include things that seem easy for you that you’ve been doing since a child but never really noticed. You could be a performer, an observer, a writer, an adventurer., etc.

2.    Helping Hands

Is there anything that people always ask you to help them out with?

For example, colleagues and friends have always asked me to help them with their emails or texts, making sure they get the right tone or if the message is clear. This is especially true if it was a difficult email to write or if there was an emotional charge to the situation.

3.    Time Trances

Is there anything you do that you consistently lose track of time doing? This could be something like painting, or journaling, for example. Anything, really.

4.    Communication

Which ways of communicating seem effortless to you? Some people just naturally flip on the camera and can talk, for example. This doesn’t mean this doesn’t feel scary – it may very well – but once they’re in that element, they have an ease about them.

5.    others’ input

If you’re having trouble answering these questions, reach out to close friends or trusted family to help. Often, we can’t see what our gifts or talents are because we just think everyone else does the same thing so it’s not a big deal.

Once you’ve completed this, take a few minutes to review your answers and let yourself dream, asking to be shown one way you could bring one item you mention above into talking about your business.

You as The Foundation

Beginning with uncovering what's natural to you, what your gifts and talents are, and bringing those forward as you are marketing your business offers a profound shift from the way experts say you ‘need to market.’

When you start with you, the real you, your potential clients have the best opportunity to see the most authentic version of you. People can sense your genuineness and are more willing to trust you, a crucial element to stepping in to buy. And marketing becomes easier too. It feels more natural as well because you're leveraging your own strengths versus trying to follow a set of rules that weren’t designed for you or your business in the first place.

When you look and sound like you, the real you, you're automatically differentiated.

No SWOT, spreadsheet, or project tracker needed.

Photo by TOMOKO UJI on Unsplash