How you doin? It’s Q & A Tuesday, that’s right.
Today for Q & A Tuesday, Sarah from O-My-Raw writes:
Q: “I’m launching a new raw-foods business and I only have one main competitor. I can’t
seem to get her out of my mind.” Will she think I’m a fraud? Will she hate me? “I
know that competition is good for business but how far do I take it? Do I introduce myself?
Do I attend the raw potlucks that she hosts in town or do I keep to myself and stay focused
on my own client-based?”
A: First of all girl, we have all been there. We’ve all started something new and then
seen someone further ahead than us which all results in what is known as the dreaded “Comparison
Hangover”. The Comparison Hangover is what you get when you go on a bender. You spend
way too much time thinking about, obsessing about, and googling your competition and then
you wind up feeling like ass.
So your first assignment is to spend the majority of your time working on your own business
so you can make it as amazing as it can be. If you really want to kick some major butt,
you want to stop thinking small. Don’t look at just one competitor, you want to look at
what’s happening in your entire industry because the truth is, there are tens of thousands
of raw-food coaches out in the world and they are all peddling on the same shiznit. Ask
yourself, what objections or frustrations are customers having with hiring raw-food
coaches and how can you look outside or if there is something outside of the box to innovate
your industry? For example when I first started out, there were couple of key competitors
that I too obsessed about, but then I got smart and stopped looking at just competitors
and started looking at the whole industry and asked myself how could I do things differently?
So when I first got started most people in personal development or in business advice
everything was touchy feely, it was very conservative, no one was doing what I like to call in Jersey
“Real Tawk” and no one was keeping it fun and light-hearted and doing things that
were edgy so of course I came along and changed that. Another example is many of the conferences
that I would go to in either personal development or business conferences where known as “pitch
fests” meaning that you get there and all it was one pitch after the other to sell you
these really expensive programs or just everybody on stage was just a dog and pony show so that
really didn’t feel so good to me so I created a conference called JRich Happy and Hot Live
which is a pitch-free conference and it’s been selling out year after year one. One
of the reasons is because it’s very different that in anything else in the market. You can
and should do this too.
Make a list of everything that happens in your industry that you think should change
and go then ahead and change it. You want to make your business different, a full expression
of you. Once you make thatthe foundation of how you are spending your time, it’s going
to be a lot easier to get to know that “big” competitor and in all honesty, she’s not
really a competitor she’s a colleague of yours and it’ll be great for you to get
to know her. And since there are plenty of clients to go around, wouldn’t it be awesome
if you guys can send the overflow to each other. So for example you might come across
a client that is not really perfect fit for you, maybe you can filter that client off
to your colleague and on the flip side, it’s likely that if you start sending her business
with someone is not a good fit for her, she’s likely going to send them to you. Bottom line
is competitors need not to hate each other. She does not have to be your evil arch nemesis
So let’s land this plane, here’s what I want you to do Sarah: put all of your energy
and attention into making your business as great as it can be it means you’re going
to look at the whole industry and seeing how you can make your business different and better.
And of course get to know that fine young lady, she’s not a just competitor, she’s
a colleague.
That’s my A to your Q Sarah, thank you so much for asking it. Now here’s what I want
to know from you. How do you deal with competition in your industry? Do you have tips, or stories,
or strategies to share? I would love to hear them. Leave a comment below or even better
yet, leave me a video response. If you don’t want to know hoe to leave a video response,
it’s right here. And of course if you are watching this video on your mobile phone or
your iPad and you can’t see nothing right here but you can see a how-to on the link
below in the description and just make sure you title your video response “How To Deal
With Competition”. If you like this video, hit the like button and please share it with
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have a great day and I’ll catch you next time.