#226: How to Stand Out in a Sea of Sameness

Welcome back to another edition of the Course Creation Incubator podcast. I’m your host, Gina Onativia, here to get you excited about building your next course workshop live cohort, whatever it looks like. I’m here to challenge you and to push you to take action. And this week I want to talk about how do you stand out in a sea of sameness.

 

So if you are a teacher online, if you are an entrepreneur, if you are a medical practitioner, if you are a financial advisor, and you feel like you don’t stand out, you don’t know what you bring to the table, that unique. We’re going to workshop it today. We’re going to talk more about it today and we’re going to break down a few of the questions that I love to ask.

 

In order for you to figure out what makes you unique. How do you stand out in a sea of competition in the online marketing world? Now, before we get started, this episode is, of course, brought to you by our done for you, of course, creation and marketing. If you want high touch, personal custom course creation and marketing. Check out course creation boutique dot com slash course.

 

To learn more how to be just one of the few done for you clients that we take on every quarter. We are called the boutique for good reason. Okay. Now let’s dive in and talk a little bit about what it means to stand out and why we want to have that unique secret sauce and that selling proposition that makes you the one that people desire, that makes you the one that people choose.

 

And so often people don’t think about this, right? They just put out their services. Especially something that people just feel that they need right? Like life insurance or doctors or medical care. Right. So but we all want to stand out and be unique because when there’s so much competition out there, especially in an online marketing world, people are going to ask, why you Why should I choose you?

 

Why should I go with you? Especially when objections are oftentimes a lot of times objections are time, money. But a lot of times it’s, well, I’ve tried everything else. Why should I take a chance on you? Why should I spend money on you? I was doing this coaching call. I was doing this workshop last week and talking to a woman who is a neurodiverse expert for children, and she was asking me, Water.

 

What do I do when folks say, you know, I’ve spent so much money on these other experts, especially something like neurodiverse kids, and they’re not willing to take a chance on me? And I said to her, You’ve got to really define your approach. They really need to know that they’re getting something different with you and you have to show them how you are going to bring them results.

 

You have to show them why you are unique and what you do, or else they’re never going to go with you. They’re never going to have that trust, because that’s what we’re really talking about today, right? How do you get people to trust you in a completely untrustworthy world? Boatswain mentor of mind, storyteller, ex-NFL player, talks about that all the time, like trust is at an all time low.

 

How do we connect with people when trust is at an all time low? And I’ll link to that amazing podcast I did with Beau in the show notes. And I’ve got four questions that I want to share with you, and this is what I do when I sit down with clients. So we also have a marketing audit that we do a link to that in the show notes as well.

 

These are the questions, some of the questions that we ask in that audit, depending on what you want to change and if you want to stand out and if you want to update your brand. And the first question is, well, what do you want out of your brand? Right? What do you want to represent? And I think sometimes we get a quick start, especially for coaches or consultants.

 

We get the first couple of clients. We just spell it out like if we’re financial advisors, like, Hey, I got my first couple of clients. Where am I? I’m a real estate agent, and we just put the generic on our websites and on any messaging that we have. Instead of thinking about what do we want to represent? Who do we want to represent?

 

What really makes up our brand and what makes our brand special? I was just doing a coaching call today, talking to someone and he’s like, You know what, This is a great question and this is something that I need to go away and ask. And I said, Well, as part of his package, let me interview some people so I can get their firsthand accounts of what makes you so special.

 

Because let’s be honest, sometimes when I mean, I could ask my question, I could ask myself that all day, Right, Gina, what makes you so special? But it’s hard. It’s hard to articulate when you’re thinking about yourself and you’re not working with you. Right. To say, hey, this is what makes your brand so special. This is what you bring to the table.

 

So interview someone or hire somebody to interview, right? Hire a writer to interview some of your clients. Past clients, current clients, students to get a sense of what makes your brand so special, what makes you stand out. So that’s first and foremost. What do you want out of your brand? What’s a conversation that you want people to have when they hear about your brand?

 

Right? Do do you want them to get excited about it? Do you want them to feel like they have hope? Do you want them to feel like they’re taking action immediately? That’s what I want out of my brand. Right after working with Gina, after listening to her on a call. After workshopping with her, I took immediate, massive action.

 

I called my team. I said, We need to change this or for our launch, we’re going to change or we’re going to update. Like, that’s my hope for my brand. What’s the hope for your brand? Write that down. Okay, So that’s number one. That’s my first question that I asked. The second question is what’s your repeatable system for results?

 

And I’ve talked about this in other podcasts as well, especially when you’re first starting out thinking about your courses and your workshops and your life cohorts. The system is what’s so important. And I mentioned financial advisors. I met, I mentioned practitioners. They want to know how you’re going to be different. Like especially more and more people are hiring medical practitioners a la carte, right?

 

They’re doing a different kind of health care system. Well, why should I hire you? What’s going to set you apart for advisors? What’s your system? If I go with you, what are the first three or four steps that we’re going to do together? Because when people see a repeatable system, they feel there are results at the end, right?

 

 

They feel, okay, I’m going to walk through that system with you and then and then I’m going to see transformation happen. I’m going to see the promise fulfilled. And I don’t know about you guys, but anytime I hire a contractor, an agency, anyone, the first question I said is, okay, day one, what process are you going to lead me through?

 

 

When folks hire us, we’ve got processes and systems for course creation, for marketing, for customer journeys, for audits. And we pride ourselves on those systems because that’s how we get results. We lead you through a process that gets results. So what is your repeatable process for results? What’s your system? Guys, it does not have to be fancy. We do not need to overthink this.

 

I like doing this call today with this guy. And I said, It doesn’t have to be fancy. It can be very basic. It can be very 1 to 3. But sometimes people just want that and basic can be great. Okay, foundational can be awesome. They see the path with you and they want to do business with you. Okay?

 

So repeatable system, especially for courses, right? So we I’ve talked about if you go to my Post-it exercise process, figuring out what the overarching system is so important when we’re doing courses, but when we’re talking about your brand overall too, that’s what I’m talking about today. What’s on your website? Okay. In terms of your repeatable system. Second question, third question, what’s your solution?

 

Why is it unique? What’s your approach? Right. And for some of you, you might not have a very unique solution like you might. I brought up life insurance, right? So you’re selling the same life insurance as the guy in the next village. However, it’s your approach to it. Or maybe how many times you check in with someone or you have a team that is really special.

 

Okay. That’s why your solution is so special, right? So even in a sea of the same product, you can stand out. I want everyone to hear that even in the same product, in an environment with the same product, you can stand out. All right. And then the fourth component or the fourth question, and trust me, I ask maybe a dozen questions.

 

These are just four to get you started. How do you stand out is what’s your story? What’s the background on this? Right. So a lot of times somebody with a great niche, especially, I’m like, where did that come from? What’s the back story on that? How did you get here? I came across this book that’s coming out about eco anxiety, and there is such a thing as an eco psychologist or climate change psychologist.

 

 

I thought, How do you get there? Right. What’s the story behind that? And this author has an awesome story about like working on fishing boats in Alaska, falling in love with different outdoorsy type things and great, great story behind it. You guys have a great story behind whatever it is you’re doing and we need to share it. Okay.

 

 

You need to share your story. I’m going to link to that podcast I did with Boat and which is a really great precursor to figuring out how to shape your story. A link to the podcast I did with his wife, Dawn Easton, as well, and people connect with you and build trust with your story. So going back to that first question, what do you want your brand to represent?

 

It might be tied into your story. Oftentimes it is tied into your story and how you got your start or how you cultivated your practice. If you coach a certain way, Perry Mortimer, who I’ve had on the podcast, is a past client, is a great example of this, and Perry often talks about his upbringing and how it has shaped who he is as a coach, and he talks about that story.

 

It makes him even more endearing, makes people trust him immediately, and then he talks about his brand. What makes him unique. He talks about his system for results and his solutions. Right. But it starts with that story about his upbringing and his childhood. And it’s oh, so powerful. So I want you to think in terms of how can you share your story and then and then share it so it connects to your business.

 

All right. Well, hopefully these four questions struck a chord for you. And if you feel stuck or if you feel like you don’t stand out a lot of times again, because we got a quick start with our businesses. And then now we’re taking a step back at looking at our websites, looking at our messaging, looking at who we are and what we represent.

 

These are four great questions to ask in terms of your brand, what you want it to represent, your system, your solution, and then your story. All right. If you’re interested in done for you service to map out your content, set up your platform, launch without the overwhelm, go to of course creation boutique dot com slash course to learn more.

 

Until next week go create be you and be brilliant and get it done.