Last night over networking drinks, a good friend said those dreaded words:

“The market is saturated, it’s become difficult for me to do business and I’m seriously questioning whether I should continue.”

Ahhhh! I wanted to flail my arms and say, “hold your horses, speedo!”

The market is always competitive. Unless you’re a disruptor innovating a product or service that’s never existed, you’re  gonna have competitors offering similar (or the exact same) things.

There are millions of writers, designers, coaches, trainers, retailers (the list goes on) in the world. Does that mean you should pack it in? Throw your hands in the air screaming, “sod it, what’s the point?”

‘Course not! It just means you need to get clear about the difference you offer.

You have to give people a reason to go to you.

AND you need to find “your people”.

The people who will love what you do because of who you are and how you do it.

So What’s Your Unique Spin, My Friend?

Finding your story isn’t just about sharing a powerful message – it’s also your signature style and method. Much of business is standard, but the one thing that can never be standard is YOU.

You’re simply impossible to replicate.

You might offer similar products and services in a crowded market, but who you are and how you do things is completely different.

Are You Capitalising On It?

Let me put it this way:

Your personality, voice, expertise, and personal WHY is all part of your story – so is how you roll.

And by that I mean, you have a unique way of doing things and making people feel.

Is there a way you can articulate it, draw it out, or even make it a centre part of your methodology?

For example, say you’re a coach who happens to have a degree in psychology and masters in museum studies.

You’re passionate about culture and history but haven’t found a way to make it relevant to coaching. Why would you? You wonder. They’re separate industries.

And my response to that is: so what? They inevitability influence your perspective on things.

(BTW, anthropology and self-help aren’t typically paired with storytelling, but hay-ho, that’s my thing).

Why not include a personalised tour of your favourite museum as part of your coaching package (no one said you had to play inside the box) so you can discuss goals while learning local heritage? Maybe use your “museum study” background can shape the way you do things. Who knows, maybe you create an “exhibition into the human mind” package that blends your knowledge with coaching? Go crazy with it.

The idea is to take your personal history, story and expertise to create a totally refreshing copycat-free spin on what you do.

As another example, take my friends at GiftYARD who sell and deliver hampers. They’re millennials with backgrounds in fashion and engineering with a distinct style – so their hampers are curated from hand-selected ingredients, with their own story and quirk. To top it off, they offer hand-drawn cards with calligraphy and personal interpretations. Not just any old hamper, that’s for sure.

And you, my friend, have a uniqueness no one else can copy and your tribe’s out there waiting for it.