July 1, 2024

Why It’s Critical For a Business To Be Different

Why It’s Critical For a Business To Be Different.

In today’s competitive marketplace, standing out from the crowd is essential for business success.

Here’s why being different is critical:

#1. Distinctive Brand Identity
Being different helps a business carve out its own unique identity in the minds of consumers.
A strong brand identity fosters customer loyalty and sets a business apart from its competitors.

#2. Market Differentiation
In a saturated market, differentiation is key to attracting customers. Offering something unique or innovative gives consumers a reason to choose one business over another.

#3. Increased Visibility
Being different can generate buzz and attract attention, helping a business gain visibility in a crowded marketplace.
This can lead to increased brand awareness and ultimately, more customers.

#4. Adaptability and Resilience
Differentiated businesses are often more adaptable and resilient to market changes.
By offering something unique, they are less susceptible to price wars and can maintain their value proposition even in challenging times.

#5. Customer Satisfaction
Providing a unique product or service that meets the needs of customers in a way that competitors cannot, leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

#6. Innovation and Growth
Differentiation encourages businesses to innovate and continually improve their offerings to stay ahead of the competition.
This focus on innovation can drive growth and profitability in the long term.

Being different is not just beneficial but critical for businesses in today’s competitive landscape.
By embracing their uniqueness and offering something distinctive to consumers, businesses can stand out, attract customers, and thrive in the market.

Cheers,
Roy
My 100 Podcast Shows that will take your business and your career to astronomical heights.

My Podcast Show 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 Unheard of Ways I Took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES” is the latest in my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

• Posted 7.1.24 at 04:08 am by Roy Osing
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June 24, 2024

Why The Grateful Dead Were Remarkable In Business

Why The Grateful Dead Were Remarkable In Business.

The Grateful Dead is often celebrated for their iconic music, but their prowess in business is equally noteworthy.
Despite operating in a notoriously volatile industry, the band, through their contrarian and disruptive mindset managed to build a thriving enterprise that defied conventional business wisdom.

Here’s why the Grateful Dead were amazing at business:

#1. Innovative Marketing Tactics — The Grateful Dead pioneered BE DiFFERENT or be dead marketing strategies that centered around cultivating a strong community.
They encouraged fans to record and share their concerts, which created a grassroots promotional network long before the internet age.

#2. Fan-Centric Approach — Unlike many bands that focused solely on album sales, the Grateful Dead prioritized their fans’ experience.
They understood the value of creating a loyal fanbase and went to great lengths to accommodate their needs, including offering affordable ticket prices and creating a sense of inclusivity at their shows.

#3. Diversification of Revenue Streams — The band recognized the importance of diversifying their revenue streams beyond album sales and concert tickets.
They ventured into merchandise sales, licensing, and other innovative ventures, creating a sustainable business model that withstood the test of time.

#4. Adaptability and Flexibility — The Grateful Dead were adept at adapting to changing market conditions and evolving technologies.
They embraced new distribution models and were early adopters of internet technology, recognizing its potential to connect with fans and distribute their music.

#5. Embracing Collaboration — Collaboration was at the heart of the Grateful Dead’s success, both musically and business-wise.
They fostered a collaborative spirit within the band and with their extended network of artists, promoters, and business partners, which allowed them to explore new opportunities and expand their reach.

Conclusion — The Grateful Dead’s success in business was no accident; it was the result of innovative thinking, a deep understanding of their audience, and a commitment to fostering a sense of community.

By embracing unconventional strategies and staying true to their principles, the band built a lasting legacy that continues to inspire entrepreneurs and artists alike.

As Jerry Garcia said “You don’t want merely to be the best of the best, you want to be the ONLY one who does what you do.”

Cheers,
Roy
My 100 Podcast Shows that will take your business and your career to astronomical heights.

My Podcast Show 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 Unheard of Ways I Took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES” is the latest in my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

• Posted 6.24.24 at 04:46 am by Roy Osing
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June 17, 2024

How To Turn 5 Common Ways Into Unheard-of Ways

How To Turn 5 Common Ways Into Unheard-of Ways.

My theme is BE DiFFERENT or be dead.

If you’re not different in a way your customers CARE about, you won’t stand out from your competitors and you’re not likely to make it.

But if you’re caught in the web of doing stuff that everyone else does and buried in the common herd, there are ways to break out.

Check out these five Common Ways Transformations and watch for more in future posts…

Common Way #1: Use AI to create your content.

It’s becoming commonplace to create content—blog posts, reports, essays—using AI.

Ask “Write me a blog on BE DiFFERENT or be dead” and your friendly AI Bot will write you a blog post populated with common content it finds on the internet.

You, the writer, offer no originality at all if you simply transcribe and publish the AI output.

The Unheard-of Way is to morph the AI “narrative of the many” to your own “narrative of ONE” by leveraging the AI content with your own personal twist that satisfies the needs of your particular audience.

Of course you have to WORK to achieve your OWN narrative. You need to understand what your audience CRAVES and you must present content that stands out from what others do.

Common Way #2: Follow “Best Practices”.

It’s a common practice to “Gargle Google” and search for a solution that someone else has successfully employed to solve a problem you have.

Applying someone else’s solution to your circumstances and expecting a miraculous outcome is a non-starter. It rarely happens. It’s a lazy approach to innovation.

Find a Best Practice and copy it is the way most people approach problem solving.

The Unheard-of Way is to CREATE a unique solution that fits with YOUR exact purpose and at the same time helps you to achieve an advantage over your competitors.
Try alternative approaches until you discover one that is “the least imperfect” of the number of imperfect options available.

A “close enough” solution is all you’re looking for because finding a perfect solution to anything is an impossible task and while you’re trying to find it, you’re not DOING anything!

The Unheard-of Way: Find YOUR own “just about right” solution, EXECUTE it pristinely and achieve more success than the crowd around you who are copycats.

Common Way #3: Strive to be popular.

It’s commonplace that people seek to be popular, to be like others in the tribe they like.

Fitting in with the “cool crowd” occupies copious amounts of time and yet when you do fit in, you’re bland, mediocre, standard and average because you are like everyone else in the popular herd.

The Unheard-of Way is to look for different and disruptive themes to the popular narratives/themes/beliefs/approaches of the day.

Seek to be UNPOPULAR; NOT be seen as yet another member of some popular theme lacking any individual personality.

Common Way #4: Reduce prices to meet the competition.

Every business—yes EVERYone!—tends to cut prices in the face of relentless competitive pressure.

They believe that if they are not among the lowest price suppliers in the market they will surely lose.

The problem with this short sighted strategy is that low prices will NEVER build long term customer loyalty because as soon as you cut prices, your competitors follow suit and before you know it you are on a spiral to the bottom.

The Unheard-of Way is to deliver sufficient value and benefits to your customers they will be prepared to pay HIGHER prices, and your business becomes a VALUE play not a price play.

Common Way #5: Use CLAPTRAP to define your uniqueness.

Differentiation is the most critical issue in business today in my view.

Organizations struggle with declaring what makes them unique and generally use CLAPTRAP words like “better”, “best”, “Number One”, and “Leader” to establish their edge.

This approach doesn’t work. Everyone claims their “best” so using the expression is meaningless and has ZERO benefits.

The Unheard-of Way is to use The ONLY Statement to declare how you are DiFFerENt from everyone else.

“The ONLY Statement is a powerful reminder that in a world of “me-too” products and services, standing out is the key to thriving. By embracing ONLY differentiation and focusing on value, you can carve your own path to success.”

Common Ways are for the crowd who are content with being the same as everyone else.

Unheard-of Ways are for those who strive to be different; who want to distance themselves from others.

The world needs Unheard-of People.

If you’re tired of the coddling and crave more unfiltered takes, subscribe for weekly doses of uncomfortable truths.

Cheers,
Roy
My 100 Podcast Shows that will take your business and your career to astronomical heights.

My Podcast Show 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 Unheard of Ways I Took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES” is the latest in my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

• Posted 6.17.24 at 04:53 am by Roy Osing
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June 10, 2024

How To Make A Choice: Swallow Or Spit?

How To Make A Choice: Swallow Or Spit?

We are In-The-Moment people.

We love to engage in anything that comes our way that gives us instant gratification.

We all love pleasurable moments.

Notwithstanding this love affair with spontaneity filled with NOW! pleasure, there can be painful unpleasant results.

Here’s a scenario that everyone in business has experienced…

▪️You’ve just put your strategic plan to bed after gruelling days of hard work and acrimonious debate.
▪️You’ve decided on a specific direction that you believe will satisfy your growth imperatives.
▪️You get an email from a colleague who has a proposition for you to consider. It’s positioned as an opportunity that will add top line revenue or produce amazing cost savings.
▪️You want to take advantage of new opportunities and so you decide to go for it (plus, you know this person and are confident they will only bring you “good stuff” to consider).
▪️You call a meeting with your team to discuss the matter and the resources that will have to be applied to assess the new idea’s potential.
▪️ You put other projects on hold since you don’t have sufficient resources to look at the potential new opportunity AND keep current projects on the move
▪️Since you’ve done this type of thing before, your team questions what the priorities are in the organization since they always seem to change when a new idea comes up.
▪️After a while, you observe little progress is being made on your strategic plan. Execution fades. Performance languishes.

What’s going on?

This is the spiral you experience when YUMMY presents itself—a new opportunity too good to pass up—and you decide to “Taste & Swallow” as opposed to “Taste & Spit”.

YUMMY is the over-the-transom work that begs chasing and distracts you from executing your strategy.

Successful strategies require focus and YUMMY is that temptation that wants to do exactly the opposite.

So be careful when you receive the invite to look at a too-good-to-be-true opportunity that isn’t contemplated in the strategic direction you’ve chosen.

Sure, on the odd occasion it might turn out to be worthwhile, but in my experience most of the time it’s a deadly waste (I’ve seen startups die because they chased YUMMY and forget their purpose.)

Taste and Swallow or Taste and Spit.

Be careful what you choose.

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 6.10.24 at 04:25 am by Roy Osing
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