Be Different or be dead

May 6, 2024

Why You Need To Visit “BEDiFFERENTorbedead.com” NOW!

Why You Need To Visit “BEDiFFERENTorbedead.com” NOW.

Are you tired of the same old - same old textbook rhetoric and advice?

Feeling stuck and craving some inspiration and practical and proven advice from someone who has had a successful career in growing an early stage internet company to A BILLION IN SALES?

Look no further than BeDifferentOrBeDead.com!

This website is not your average, pedantic common platform; it’s a unique, unmatched and vibrant community dedicated to empowering individuals to embrace their uniqueness—being the ONLY ones who do what they do—and winning against all competitive odds in business, their career and their lives.

Here are three no-brainer reasons why you should visit BeDifferentOrBeDead.com NOW! and make it part of your daily routine.

1. Explore Practical & Proven Content You Won’t Find Anywhere Else

There’s a ton of content on my site that breaks down how I applied my BE DiFFERENT Audacious Moves to the many challenges in business, careers and your personal life.

▪️Leadership
▪️Business Success
▪️Careers
▪️Marketing
▪️Sales
▪️Customer Service
▪️Entrepreneurs
▪️Your Life

I’ve been actively sharing my experience and proven Audacious Moves for over a decade.
And it’s all “How To” material that is easy to read—“fog factor” is close to ZERO—and can be put to use immediately, unlike the theoretical CLAPTRAP espoused by many other sources.

2. Unleash Your ONLY Self

In a world that both teaches and encourages conformity, compliance and following the rules, BeDifferentOrBeDead.com celebrates nonconformity, contrarianism, disruption and how to introduce discontinuity as a key differentiation tool.

Through thought-provoking reality-based articles, personal stories and practical & actionable tips, Roy Osing’s blog and books inspire you to discover what makes you special, your quirks, passions, and individual authenticity and express them in a way that satisfies the needs of others—your company, boss and loved ones.

Discover the power of being unapologetically yourself and how it can transform your life and, more importantly, the lives of those around you.

3. Find Your Passion and Purpose to Get Out Of The Herd

Do you feel like you’re drifting through life with no clear sense of direction, being pulled to and fro by the populist narratives of the day?

BeDifferentOrBeDead.com provides practical and proven ways to help you discover your unique passions and purpose that will serve others in an exemplary manner.

From career advice to personal development strategies to successful business strategies, you’ll find guidance to ignite your inner fire, become The ONLY One who does what you do, and pursue your dreams audaciously and with confidence.

4. Join Others Who Want To Be Free Of Mediocrity

At BeDifferentOrBeDead.com you’re not alone on your journey to BE DiFFERENT and distinguish yourself from the “herd of sameness” around you

Connect with like-minded individuals who are also striving to break away from societal norms and embrace their unique path.

Share your experiences, offer support, and celebrate each other’s victories in a welcoming environment.

5. Take The Quiz To Find Out If You’re DiFFerENT

Do you want to differentiate yourself or your organization from the crowd around you and your competitors?
Take my Quiz to determine if you’re taking the right actions to achieve your objective.

My Quiz explores how you are currently applying the various aspects of BE DiFFERENT in your business planning, marketing, sales and customer service efforts. And it gives you direction on the area that needs the most attention NOW!

Have fun rating yourself (with no one watching you) HeHe.

Don’t settle for mediocrity when you can live a life that’s truly audacious, remarkable and extraordinary.

Visit BeDifferentOrBeDead.com today and embark on a journey of transformation from the norms of the day to a unique YOU that satisfies what others CARE about in a way no one else does.

Remember, it’s not about fitting in; it’s about standing out from the common herd and being proudly, unapologetically you.

Cheers,
Roy
My 100 Podcast Shows that will make your business and your career incredibly successful.

My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION will share the specific Moves I made to achieve jaw-dropping growth in an insanely competitive internet business.

”The Audacious Un-heard of Ways I Took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES” is the latest in my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

• Posted 5.6.24 at 05:44 am by Roy Osing
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April 29, 2024

Differentiation Really Sucks Today. Here’s How To Nail It

Differentiation Really Sucks Today. Here’s How To Nail It.

Differentiation: What’s the problem?

UNDIFFERENTIATION IS HAPPENING!

▪️COPYING IS RAMPANT!

You can’t be different if you’re in the COPY MODE.
Everybody copies everybody. Benchmarking is used as the ‘tool of innovation’.

It’s dishonest.

“Strategic convergence means that over time most firms end up in the same place. 
This is what happens if you all read the same books, watch the same Ted talks, hire the same consultants and use the same case studies.  This is accelerated if you use benchmarking which involves watching what your competitors are doing and copying them.
Emulation gets you to parity. But when everyone does it it gets you to strategic hell.” — Herman Singh LinkedIn Post

▪️CLAPTRAP & NARCISSISM DOMINATE!

CLAPTRAP meaningless expressions still used to stake a competitive position:

BETTER, BEST, #1, LEADER, PREMIUM, MOST COMPELLING, MOST RELIABLE. GREAT TASTING. FIRST EVER, LOWEST COST, & MOST TRUSTED.

Examples…

“Canada’s largest and most reliable 5G network”

“America’s Most Popular Meal Kit.”

“The smartest way to get around.”

“The simplest path to customer delight.”

▪️ASPIRATIONS INUNDATE!

“We’re in business to save our home planet.”

“To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.”

“Our mission is to make the world happier and healthier

“Champions of Customer Service”

Differentiation: What’s the solution?

“THE ONLY STATEMENT” — “WE ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO…”

▪️️The ONLY Statement answers the question “Why should I do business with you and not your competitors?”. It is a specific expression of what YOU promise THEM and clears the roadway of narcissists, aspirationalists and CLAPTRAP artists.
▪️The ONLY Statement is binary. It either exists or it doesn’t unlike CLAPTRAP and ASPIRATIONS.
▪️The ONLY Statement is measurable unlike CLAPTRAP and ASPIRATIONS.
▪️The ONLY Statement is about THEM not YOU!. It speaks to someone else and what they need from you. It’s NOT about the value and benefits YOU think you deliver.
▪️The ONLY Statement is NOT a tactic. It’s an expression of strategy. It exists to serve a strategic purpose and must have a Strategic Game Plan to provide context for it.

The ONLY Statement Process

#1. Declare your growth goals — HOW BIG do you want to be?

#2. Determine the Customer Groups that have the potential to deliver your growth goals — WHO do you intend to SERVE? Focus on the critical few Groups; avoid mass market thinking here.

#3. Determine what the WHO CARES about, not what they “need”. The “need” space typically has many competitors and prices are forced downward making it tough to maintain healthy margins. Definitely a place you don’t want to hang out.

If, on the other hand, you are able to discover what your WHO CRAVES, DESIRES, COVETS AND LUSTS FOR, you will find few competitors and the ability to charge higher prices because people are generally willing to pay more to satisfy their emotional appetites.

Have a conversation with your WHO to uncover what they CRAVE. “What keeps you awake at night?” to a business is a great way to start the discovery process.
On the consumer side, gentle probes around their lifestyle will yield the desired result.

#4. Draft your ONLY Statement—“We are the ONLY ones who…”—by either matching your existing skills and competencies with the CRAVINGS of the WHO or by defining what you NEED TO BE in order to satisfy their CRAVINGS.

To the latter point, you may have to reframe your business to be able to deliver what your WHO CRAVES because you’re currently devoid of the required capabilities to do it.

“Lawn Care Services Co. is the ONLY service partner who delivers personalized home care services to homeowners.”

“Marine Co is the ONLY complete service partner committed to delivering solutions to grow a boat dealer’s business.”

#5. “Unpack” your ONLY Statement. Provide more detail on some of the words and phrases contained in your ONLY to enhance the understanding of exactly what it means.
This granularity is critical in order to avoid the CLAPTRAP syndrome and be able to communicate it to your WHO in clear concise terms.

In the Lawn Care Services ONLY Statement, the unpacking exercise could look like this:

▪️By “service partner” we mean…
▪️By “personalized” we mean…
▪️By “home care services” we mean…
▪️By “homeowners” we mean…

Don’t be afraid to provide too much unpacking information. The more detail you provide the clearer it is and the easier it is to communicate to your employees and your WHO.

#6. Treat your ONLY as a draft. Your ONLY Statement is never done, it’s always a draft and will need to be tweaked when circumstances change — competitor moves, customer behavior, economic fluctuations, political policies.

Be prepared to shift ONLY emphasis when you spot changes.

#7. Test your ONLY. Before patting yourself on the back for the great work you’ve done, TEST your ONLY Statement to make sure it accurately addresses what your WHO CRAVES. Talk to a selected number of the WHO directly and discuss it with your frontline employees.

If it’s not relevant to what your WHO CRAVES, keep working on it until it works for THEM.

There is so much clutter out there on “The Brand Promise” and “Unique Selling Propositions” that do little but propagate the differentiation problem.

They don’t establish differentiation because they communicate what YOU think about YOU.

Breakaway to The ONLY Statement. Why? Because I invented it and it took a startup to A BILLION IN SALES!

Cheers,
Roy
My 100 Podcast Shows that will make your business and your career incredibly successful.

My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION will share the specific Moves I made to achieve jaw-dropping growth in an insanely competitive internet business.

”The Audacious Un-heard of Ways I Took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES” is the latest in my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

• Posted 4.29.24 at 05:38 am by Roy Osing
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April 22, 2024

How Being Boring Will Make You Extremely Successful

How Being Boring Will Make You Extremely Successful.

It seems that often businesses forget that it’s the simple things that breed success, like being boring and keeping their promises.

It’s a human thing: make me a promise, keep it and I’ll remember that you’re honest and I will continue to do business with you. And, I’ll mention you to others.

This strategy seems too simple, but many organizations actually fall short of following through with what they say they’re going to do to their customers.

This is a travesty, and it’s an important reason why businesses don’t achieve the results they expect.

What “being boring” means

— Deliver what you promise all day everyday.

Always keep your promises if you want to create a loyal base of customers.

— Always meet the customer’s expectations.
— Do the basic things right. You don’t have to be flashy.
— Pay attention to detail.
— Be consistent.
— Boring is an element of Humanity which is missing in so many organizations.

Why being boring is important for businesses

Being boring is an essential element of developing customer loyalty.

Customer loyalty = Deliver your Core Service flawlessly (getting it right all the time is “boring”) + Create a breathtaking service experience + Have a Service Recovery Strategy for when you screw a customer over (and you will).

If Core Service is NOT consistently delivered without a glitch, the loyalty-building process cannot be started.

But don’t assume that being boring on its own will create customer loyalty because it won’t.

BEING BORING IS A DISSATISFIER.

If you are boring—aka meeting customer expectations—they give you a “C” on your service Report Card because they expected that.
And trying to exceed expectations by improving your Core Service won’t work as a loyalty-building tactic because for Core Service the best you can do is earn a “C”.

Save your money and make investments in the Service Experience.

But if you are NOT boring and you break promises, you get an “F” on your Report Card, customers rant to others how crummy you are and storm away from you.

You cannot create a “gasp-worthy” service experience with anyone if you’ve broken your Core Service Promise (Missed or late delivery, lost luggage, defective product etc.)

How being boring gives a business a competitive advantage

Because being boring—a.k.a—delivering your Core Service flawlessly all the time—is the foundation of the loyalty building process.

“IF YOU’RE NOT BORING, YOU’RE DONE (OR SOON WILL BE!)”

You cannot make loyalty-building moves (creating delightful service experiences for people) when they’re angry because you’ve broken your Core Service promise to them.

There are few (if any) businesses that include “keeping promises” as a Core Value of their organization, and therefore have “boring” as a key strategic driver of how they behave when it comes to customer engagement. If you have it, you’ll be unique.

By focusing on making the delivery of your Core Service immaculate, you will likely be the ONLY One in your space with a leg up on architecting a loyalty-building customer engagement process leading to gasp-worthy serving experiences.

Few organizations pay attention to “The Customer Basics”. They are too busy fussing with razzle-dazzle technology and applying the tactic of the day—AI, App’s for this, App’s for that—which offer little strategic value in terms of differentiating themselves from their competitors.

The type leadership required to be boring

— Build a Boring Culture where keeping promises is a Core Value of the organization.

— Develop “How can I help?” Serving Leaders who identify and remediate the “pinch points” in your product or service delivery processes that prevent employees from keeping promises made to customers.

— Recruit and keep Frontline Focused Leaders who are constantly listening and responding to matters they raise regarding service delivery systems and processes.

— Have “Detail Freak” Leaders with an eye for small details. Delivery system breakdowns usually occur from small causes; you need leaders who understand what boring is, and are able to spot small friction points that get in the way of flawless delivery of Core Service.

How I was a boring leader in the company you took to A BILLION?

▪️We build a Service Strategy around “Promises”. It read…

“We are easy to do business with. We care.
We provide and support innovative quality solutions.
We make promises and always keep them.
If we fall short of our strategy, RECOVERY will be our #1 priority.”

▪️ Measure customer perception relentlessly.

▪️“Cleanse the Inside” program to eradicate friction and pinch points in delivery systems.

▪️My “Leadership By Serving Around” style allowed me to expose process flow issues.

▪️I held regular “Bear Pit” Workshops to discover Core Service breakdown points.

▪️We engaged customers in re-engineering Core Service processes rather than making the exercise an inside expert view of what was needed to make processes more effective from a customer engagement point of view.

▪️Established cross functional process owners with an owner for each critical service delivery process across all functional departments. I was able to establish “single

If you want to develop a sustainable base of loyal customers, BE BoRING.

Cheers,
Roy
My 100 Podcast Shows that will make your business and your career incredibly successful.

My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION will share the specific Moves I made to achieve jaw-dropping growth in an insanely competitive internet business.

”The Audacious Un-heard of Ways I Took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES” is the latest in my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

• Posted 4.22.24 at 05:36 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink

April 15, 2024

YOU do YOU. Why It’s Important. How To actually Do It

YOU do YOU. Why It’s Important. How To actually Do It.

“You do your thing and I’ll do mine.”

The statement implies that we will each do it a different way. Our own way.

The only thing missing is the notion of uniqueness. Is “our thing” really uniquely ours and no one else’s?

Are we truly the ONLY one who does it the way we do?

Or is it really YOU DO THEM in disguise?

This is an important question because we live in a world seeking popularity, to conform to the norms of the day.
To be politically correct, being careful to not step on the toes of someone else who seems to have more command of the narrative governing how one should behave than YOU.

The truth is, we rarely DO YOU! We may think we do, but we don’t.
We conform. We comply. We act according to a set of rules set by others. Heaven forbid we have an opinion that is different from “a marginalized” group in our society.

And when we do this we declare our individuality. This is fake! We’re not being individualistic, we’re being “herdaslistic”, joining everyone else who is afraid to break away from the shackles of conformance expectations.

It’s extremely important that YOU do YOU!
We need truly unique solutions to today’s challenges, not shrink wrapped boilerplates offered by custodians of popularity.

Here’s my playbook to DO YOU!

Play #1. Stop “Gargling Google”

Google is a great tool to discover someone else’s story. “How to” stories on how other people approach a problem and the solution THEY came up with are good learning sources.
But the problem is most people copy someone else’s story rather than discovering their own.

“Gargle and Swallow” Google is a DO THEM Move typical of a copycat. You become a member of the common denominator crowd.

“Gargle and Spit” Google, on the other hand, is a DO YOU! move.
You taste what others are doing, you suck every morsel of learning you can from their action, you decide on a different course of action and finally you Spit the Google play out.

Play #2. Put the textbook down

If everyone follows the same textbook rules and prescriptions, all that happens is the herd of sameness increases.
You won’t find your Special Sauce in a textbook; rather you will find the rules, algorithms, formulas and theories that everyone else uses.

Special Sauces come from stepping away from standard, “industry accepted” methods of doing things.

Special Sauces are the outcome of observing what the textbook says and doing something differently.

Play #3. Ignore Best in Class

Best in Class is a figment of some “expert’s” imagination. It’s a standard that someone with some level of academic credentials and presumed credibility says is the “right” thing to do.
Why on earth would you follow someone else’s prescription if you’re on the hunt to find the special YOU?
Crazy but most of the population does it.

I suggest you find someone or some organization who really sucks at something. Study them to discover how you might morph something they do to work for YOU!

Play #4. Avoid AI

And then there’s Artificial Intelligence which is being promulgated as the Magic Dust to solve the problems of the day.
Your clue to why I have several issues with AI is in the word “artificial”. Apart from the efficiency aspect of AI in the capability it has to process enormous amounts of data quickly, in the world of DOING YOU! AI is artificial in the sense that it relies on the opinions, work and results of others to produce an output that is nothing more than a super blend of the masses.

For example, if you want to write a blog post on “How to Develop a Brand Promise”, AI will create the post using information it gathers from sources on the internet by applying a predefined algorithm (written by someone who actually knows something about how to build a brand? Right? Probably not!).

The benefit: your post will be created quickly and expressed according to the language norms of the day (devoid of politically incorrect expressions and following basic English language protocol).

The drawback: the result will not be YOU! It will have ”rounded edges” of the many, not the Edges of YOU!
It will not offend anyone since the algorithm it uses is intended to avoid offending anyone. It will present no unique analysis or opinions; rather it will regurgitate a populace’s view of the topic.

To DO YOU! requires originality, audaciousness and creativity, not an artificial tool whose sole purpose is to aggregate common thought. AI is not the friend of YOU!

Play #5. Put your fingerprints on everything you do

Using any tool such as AI, crowdsourcing and population extrapolation is by definition YOU DOING THEM!
The only way YOU can do YOU! is to create something yourself,  ONLY YOU!

So, look at what the population says and…

▪️Do something DiFFEREnt.
▪️Go against the flow.
▪️Do a “right angle turn” to the path others are on.
▪️Disrupt common opinion.
▪️Don’t put your hand up and agree with what the herd is doing. Keep your Jan down and go find something gasp-worthy.
▪️Put your own twist to popular stuff.
▪️Be audacious and outrageous.
▪️Ask “How can I do this differently?” when confronted with a new challenge.

We need YOU to do YOU!

There are too many people out there who DO THEM!

The crowd is unimaginative.

The crowd is dull and boring.

The crowd will never create anything.

The crowd sucks (good thing I don’t use AI otherwise “suck” would have been deleted as inappropriate… HeHe.)

Cheers,
Roy
My 100 Podcast Shows that will make your business and your career incredibly successful.

My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION will share the specific Moves I made to achieve jaw-dropping growth in an insanely competitive internet business.

”The Audacious Un-heard of Ways I Took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES” is the latest in my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

• Posted 4.15.24 at 03:44 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink