Solution to "Not sure what makes me unique" so you can stand out in a crowded market

You’ve known for a little while that you need to build, or rebuild, your brand.

If you do, you’ll have a powerful presence that feels good to be putting out there to be seen more.

A bit of a confidence pill if you will.

Doing that is creating an asset in your business that can make money for you while you sleep. And lets you make an impact in the world. Which is exactly what you’ve always wanted.

Heck, it’s even why you got into business in the first place.

But maybe you’ve run into one simple little problem: how do you figure out what that thing is that makes your brand unique so it stands out, especially in a crowded market?

I’m going to assume here that you are a changemaker, coach, healer or purpose-driven small business owner that does something that a lot of other people do.

And that you just can’t seem to be able to articulate what you do in a way that gets you clients.

There are 2 solutions to this I recommend.

One is the “hard” way. The other is the “easy” way.

Solution #1: Do the research & figure it out

There are entire books written on how to do this. These methods are even taught to marketing students in their college classes.

Because for traditional big companies, this is the only way to figure out what makes a brand unique.

It’s called creating your Value Proposition which is defined as a statement that conveys why a customer would choose your company and how it differs from competitors.

And says Harvard Business Review that “Without a strong value proposition, your ideal customer won't understand how you are the best person to serve them, how you're different and why they should choose you over other solutions.”

Another way to phrase this is that it’s what you do better than anyone else for your customers. 

The steps for this are:

1) Define Your Buyer Persona

2) Analyze the Competitive Landscape

3) Define Your Unique Strengths

4) Articulate the Specific Benefits

5) Differentiate Yourself as the Preferred Provider

6) Create a Clear & Concise Statement

7) Test and Refine Your Value Proposition.

If this list makes sense to you, or when you google “how to create a value proposition” and the articles that come up resonate with you, GO FOR IT.

This means that you have a logical, analytical way of moving through life and you should let this strength lead the way.

In addition to the steps above, there are mind maps, frameworks and formulas that can assist you.

A real-life example of a value proposition is this one from a company we probably all know:

Airbnb exists to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, providing healthy travel that is local, authentic, diverse, inclusive and sustainable.

I’ve been in many, many strategic meetings figuring this stuff out for companies. The bottom line is that you put your best thinking around these steps and then test in the market to see how it goes. It’s not a stretch to say that it’s all just being “made up” though it is generally being “made up” by professionals who’ve had some training doing this.

Because this type of work is generally done for big companies, there’s not much other choice except doing it this way.

But if the above leaves you wondering how in the heck you could figure that stuff out for yourself as a solopreneur or purpose-driven small business owner, let’s move on.

Solution #2: Use a personality typing system to articulate your special sauce

Here’s what I do for myself and usually do for my clients.

Find a typing system you resonate with. Astrology, StrengthsFinder, Enneagram, Gene Keys, Human Design or whatever draws you toward it and sounds somewhat true to you.

Dive into the system just enough to understand what it tells you about your strengths or what makes you unique.

This might be your life purpose or other elements that the system points out that come together to create the unique human being that is you.

Use that information to riff on and come up with various ways of saying that uniqueness. To riff on means to experiment with a thing or idea, coming up with novel or different ways of expressing it.

Basically it's brainstorming other ways of saying the same thing. Set it aside for a few hours or a day.

Then go back and choose your top two or three favorites and run them by your audience (or people who fit your ideal client description if you don’t have an audience) to get their input.

Take the favorite one or the one that got a response that you liked and viola! There’s enough of a unique edge to hang your brand around.

I use Human Design & Gene Keys to do this with myself and clients because it not only gives you a lot of detail on your life purpose which is the main “work” you should do in this lifetime but it also tells you other helpful to the branding process details like who your ideal clients are, what challenges they are having and what your brand voice is.

Using a personality typing system to build your brand around is no more “made up” than traditional branding methods. In fact, it might be more accurate for solopreneurs, changemakers and micro business founders because these businesses are so influenced by the personality of their owner.

In my experience, don’t shy away from using woo or mystic appearing information when you’re a small business owner because it can often be a shortcut that works to your benefit.

In either situation (Solution #1 or #2), it’s about doing it quickly so you can test it in the market and see how it does. 

If you’re like me, you’re not just a solopreneur but also So. Many. Things.

As a mother, time is scarce for me and I can’t risk building something for months. Or investing thousands of dollars into something only for it to fail, so I advocate for quickly testing and refining things until they are working.

Using Human Design to build your brand is one of those techniques because it makes building a brand so fast. Since the information is “given” to you in your chart, it takes away a lot of the steps.

This destroys procrastination.

If you know you need to start building, or rebuilding, your brand but you’re either procrastinating, or you’re finding yourself complicating the process, I’d like to teach you my entire process – whether you’ve never done your brand before or if you’re a seasoned entrepreneur.

The course will begin next week on Wednesday, Sept 25th.

The sooner you join the better though, because I’m getting immediate feedback from those that join early and using their questions to make sure I cover everything you need to hear.

So if you want your personal questions about building your brand to get answered, join now, and fire them at me starting today.

I hope to see you inside!

>>> Create an ultra-simple, ultra-profitable brand in less than a week using Human Design

Tomorrow I’m going to share my confidence boosting techniques for anyone who tends to avoid marketing because you’re afraid of rejection.

Whether you build your brand using Human Design or go the more traditional route, you’ll want to read this.