The major focus of your business is to define and offer those services, ideas, and products that people can’t get anywhere else. I had to think about that because the work I do could be considered “airy-fairy”.
I offer an experience not a service
My first marketing coach, Veronika Noize, figured out that unlike anyone else in the class, I was the only one who was offering an experience, not a product. I am continually grateful to her for recognizing that because, from the beginning, I’ve had to do my outreach a bit differently.
Here’s the catch. Inner growth is tricky to measure. I have to find ways to help people recognize and accept the powerful and sometimes subtle changes my work brings them.
We each offer an eclectic mix
Whatever you offer, you’re doing it with your own unique mix of insights, knowledge and interpretation. That’s going to automatically and organically set you apart from all others in your field.
Just as it sets everyone else apart.
We need to figure out what we do for people that they can’t get elsewhere.
What sets you apart?
I think about esoteric concepts and figure out how to apply them to life.
Now, that sets me apart.
My work is the integration and application of philosophical concepts that resonate with me.
What sets you apart?
Look for clues within your passion
Figure out why you find this (idea, service, product) relevant, interesting, valuable, and exciting. If you’re not passionate about the work you’re doing, no one else will be either.
In this moment in time, I’m deeply called to figure out my spiritual foundation. I’m focusing my work on self-awareness, spiritual expansion and soulful service. They are connected, and interactive, but they each call for separate words, separate steps, and separate degrees of awareness. And each of those steps takes practice.
This calling is so strong for me that rather than start with what my target community needs, I explore and develop my own need for clarity and let my Deeper Song Community find me. I’m following my passion and my inner calling.
What do you give them that they can’t find elsewhere else?
Look at your uniqueness. Examine your passion. Review your gifts. Now figure out what you give people that they can’t find anywhere else.
This may be a service, this may be teaching, this may be an idea to consider. Your combination of skills, interests, passion, knowledge and desire to serve shapes what you offer and sets you apart.
What do you get out of your work?
You need to be doing work that expands you, that grows you, that takes you to the next level.
I’m learning and stretching and absorbing new ideas that resonate with me and my journey. I have created methods to expand my self-awareness. I have explored insights that deepen my spirituality. I share what I discover with others. I’m working on shaping my place of service.
How can you translate what you get out of your work in a way that can help others?
We learn by doing. We also learn when we teach. I learn when I write. How does the work you do help you? What do you learn? How do you change? Can you do that for others?
Share what you need to know
I share philosophical ideas that can change people’s lives. If you resonate with the general direction of my work, you’ll invariably find some idea that resonates deeply with you. If I’ve done my job right, you’ll understand the concept and have some ideas on how you can apply it to your life.
That result is your interpretation and integration of life-changing concepts.
Share what you need to learn
I have a need to explore my personal struggles and successes around feeling relevant. The need to feel relevant is universal so I share what I figure out. Aging is inevitable and has a wide range of manifestations that I seek to understand as I experience them. Those needs make me focus my work on self-acceptance, harvesting the crops only I can produce, learning new skills so I can reach a new audience, and in general sharing my passion and wisdom. I share what I need to learn. And people gain new insights for their own lives.
Figure out ways to apply this idea, service or product that only you can provide
A turning point in my writing was when I first came to the Center for Spiritual Living. At the end of the Foundations class, I created a small booklet that explained the form of affirmative prayer we were taught. I gave it to my class. The response to that choice helped me realize that I had a gift to explain the complex in simple terms that was helpful to others and I like to write in short forms. That booklet was translated into Spanish and Russian and I went on to write others, one of which ended up on the websites of Centers for Spiritual Living all over the country.
You just never know.
What do you do for people that they can’t get elsewhere?
Trust that because you are offering your unique combination of knowledge and insights, you are the only source for your particular work. That means people will find you energetically as well as intellectually.
Learn to identify that uniqueness and explain it to others through the words on your website or in the services you offer. Put what you do into as few words as possible so people get it.
What sets me apart – my gift – is that I explore complex philosophical concepts and transfer my understanding into interesting, entertaining, thoughtful, relevant “information products” that have the ability to change lives.
That’s what I do for people that they can’t get elsewhere.
What do you do for people that they can’t get elsewhere? How do you explain that to them?
TO SING A DEEPER SONG CONSIDER
Hw to Walk Beside Someone in Service
How Are You Harvesting Your Crop?
Fitting In Is Not What You Do To Be Extraordinary
How to Develop Your Distinctive Voice
32 – How to See Your Work As Art
