by As entrepreneurs and biz-owners, we’re lucky.
Like ‘regular folks’, we may sometimes feel the weight of expectations of others, BUT we can choose our own paths, make our own decisions.
We don’t have to make a right when everyone tells us to. We can make a left. We can ignore the turns and keep heading straight.
No, you don’t have to be on all the social platforms, try all the marketing tactics, use all the apps promising to help you CRUSH IT, TRIPLE YOUR TRAFFIC, SMASH YOUR GOALS, AUTOMATE YOUR ENTIRE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.
You get to pick and choose.
You get to decide where your energy goes. It’s your call.
Sometimes we just need a reminder of that. Because we’re also prone to FOMO-driven hype cycles:
Hearing about the latest hyped Hot New Thing…
–> seeing peers and competitors using it (enter FOMO!)…
–> worrying about being left behind by the ‘early adopters’…
–> trying Hot New Thing out, aka spending time and energy on another learning curve…
–> making Hot New Thing a part of our workflow…
–> telling customers about it…
–> wait, what… people are talking about a NEW Hot New Thing?
–> ok, better move onto that…
And on it goes. Often it’s not even FOMO.
It’s FOATBMO: Fear Of Appearing To Be Missing Out.
We’re all prone to worrying about what others expect from us in our businesses – just like in our non-biz lives.
But there has to be a limit to that. It takes discipline, but it’s important.
As entrepreneurs and biz-owners, we ALL get to say no once in a while.
We don’t always have to justify those decisions either. Sometimes your instinct is right…
But there’s room in your business for careful consideration of ideas –> making a choice –> moving forwards.
You’re allowed to simply say something is “not for me.”
Try it, it’s fun. I do it all the time.
Working on weekends: not for me.
Outsourcing content creation: not for me.
Facebook: not for me.
Donald Trump: not for me.
Gifs and memes: not for me.
The Beatles: not for me (overrated).
Sourdough bread: not for me (inedible and overrated).
Ah, that feels better already.
The decisions we make in our lives and businesses – large AND small – add up to something:
They’re what make us unique.
They show our clients and customers WHO we are, and WHAT we stand for… which, when used in our messaging, helps attract more of the right people, while showing the wrong people we’re simply not for them.
If you’re a solo biz-owner or service provider, you get to decide all of this for yourself. Yay! Like I said, we’re lucky.
If you’re the head of a startup or larger company, the process is a little different but no less important to your messaging.
Every time you say “not for me” to some new distraction of your time / energy, you’re flipping a big old bird to FO(ATB)MO.
And remember: just like Bad Hair Days, most of the time the people you’re worried about noticing won’t even notice.
In fact…
Some may even take your abstention from Hot New Thing as evidence of a discerning, independent mind behind a smartly-run biz. They’ll remember that when they’re doing their own weighing up of pros and cons.
Because not all influencers are ‘Influencers’ 😉
(Sure, others will think “OMG look at Grandpa / Grandma still on Crusty Old Social Platform / not using Hot New Thing, what do they think this is, the noughties? Lololol”… but let’s face it, those people are dicks and usually make terrible customers.)
So, how can you highlight what’s Not For You in your messaging?
If you sell physical products, maybe you talk about how you avoid using a cheaper type of packaging or choose a delivery method which is less harmful to the environment, because you and your company genuinely care about sustainability, and you decide that cutting corners at all costs is Not For You.
If you sell digital products, maybe you decide not to add upsells at every turn, because it’s annoying your customers and gives 95% of them a sneaking feeling of Buyer’s Remorse even while it sometimes makes you extra cash from 5% of them, so you decide that’s Not For You.
If you’re a service provider, maybe you decide you don’t need to outsource your client support to a VA just because you heard Tony Guru does that and he works with, like, hundreds of valued one-to-one private clients a month (yeah, right)… so you tell your clients you’ll respond personally to everyone who pays you for your expertise instead, because leaving people who place their trust in you feeling undervalued in the name of efficiency is Not For You.
You get the picture.
It’s basically about honesty and integrity in business, about showing people what you stand for and what you’re opposed to.
And if doing this makes you a ‘marketing misfit’ too, I say embrace it.
I say it’s time to use your inherent, incomparable YOU-ness to communicate better with the people you want to work with, and filter out those who are Not For You.
I believe in this so strongly I’m developing a new way to help solo service providers and independent biz-owners put more of their unique selves into their messaging.
I think you’re gonna dig it.
It’s a little different from the work I do with companies who want to Sell Unique, because it’s tailored more for people whose personalities influence their work, and who often work one on one with their clients and customers.
So: consultants, freelancers, course & community creators, even some startup founders whose unique vision or personality is a key part of their product or service.
If that sounds interesting to you and you’d like to know more about it, join my email list below and you’ll be the first to know when it’s ready.
