A few months ago, I posted a personal story on LinkedIn that was a little taboo.
After posting content regularly for more than 6 months, I was frustrated.
It didn’t feel like I was connecting with people as deeply as I wanted to.
I knew I wasn’t showing enough of my true colors.
So my coach and I talked it out.
We agreed that being yourself online is simply not the same as being yourself in person.
I told him that when I meet new people in real life, I often say something a bit shocking to gauge their responses. This is how I can quickly tell who I’ll mesh with most.
Because I like talking about the crude things that make us human. That we all share.
Death, sex, bodily fluids, farts, burps, the dark things we think about and wonder if we’re normal, the weird things we do when no one’s around…
My closest friends are the same way. Within hours of meeting for the first time, we divulged ‘embarrassing’ stories to each other.
One of those stories for me is the time I crapped my pants while in a Skype meeting with a client. I recounted it to my coach and he cracked up, just like I knew he would. He gets me.
Then he asked me if I’d be willing to share it on LinkedIn.
Hmm.
I think I said something like, “Yeah, I think so. I mean, it’s something I would do in person anyway. Even with a group of strangers.”
But it wasn’t nearly as ‘natural’ for me to do this online.
It seemed more like a bid for attention. And of course, that’s exactly what it was.
After all, I’m doing this kind of thing to build an audience for my business. And to build an audience, I need to get people’s attention as they scroll along.
Standing out is the best way to do that.
You stand out by telling the stories only you can tell. By sharing the knowledge and expertise only you have. By pushing yourself to be as much yourself as you can through a screen.
If you do a good job, then the people you’d most likely mesh with will like what they see and stick around for more.
If you don’t stand out in some way, you won’t grab attention, and you won’t build an audience.
Here are 3 essentials it takes to stand out:
1 – Stop hiding behind the online business facade
I’ve coached many entrepreneurs who were hoping an online business could mean creating an offer, putting up a great sales page and people would somehow find it and buy with a click.
This digital funnel would mean that they didn’t need to put themselves out there. They could instead focus on delivering their service.
This may seem naive but there were a lot of very smart people who hoped this was possible.
When they understood this wouldn’t actually work, they’d start putting themselves out there. Posting on social media, creating videos, starting groups etc.
But the majority of them didn’t do it consistently and stopped or pivoted completely before they got any traction.
Their expectations of what online business was were very different from what it actually is.
This is partly because of the years and years of messages about how easy it is to start an online business. And partly because we still hope and believe that it’s possible to build it and they will come.
2 – Be freaked out and/or bored and do it anyway
So you can’t hide behind your website or landing pages because online business requires being visible. Consistently and persistently.
When something feels scary to say but it matters. When it’s going to repel the people you don’t want in your audience.
Do that. Over and over.
And on the flip side, when you feel like you’ve said the same thing a bazillion times and you’re so over it, keep sharing it.
Because what feels like a bazillion to you is maybe 3 times to someone who’s been paying attention.
3 – Be super clear and specific about who you help, how you help them, what you value, and who you are.
The first 2 essentials of standing out are mindset foundations you need to stand on before you can do the standing out.
This third essential is positioning. It’s knowing where you stand in your market.
And more importantly, who cares most about the value you bring.
To have a business that brings in consistent sales, you need an audience of people who value what you can do for them.
My preferred approach is to build a smaller and higher quality audience. Not doing what many influencers and gurus do: build an indiscriminately large audience that is only kind of maybe a little interested in what you do.
Building a smaller, more aligned audience takes precision.
People who are values-driven will buy from other values-driven people who share similar values.
The only way they can know if that’s you is if you get super clear and specific on what you stand for. And you boldly stand where no one else has stood before.
This is not something you can do on your own. You need an outside perspective to figure this out.
I’ve never met anyone who knew exactly what was most interesting and resonant about their business or even themselves.
And this is where the really hard work begins.
The successful entrepreneurs I’ve worked with were consistently showing up in videos, email, social for 1-2 years before they got to $100k/yr.
Then they had to get more specific and clear on what they stood for and keep putting that out there for another 1-2 years to grow profitably and scale beyond 6 figures.
Sure there are some people who make money faster. They are the exceptions.
While we might all secretly hope we can be one of those exceptions, it’s better to go with the odds…that we aren’t.
You have a much better chance of succeeding in business if you are clear on what it takes to do it.
And let’s face it, there are other less put-yourself-out-there ways to make money as an entrepreneur.
But you’re not doing those because you’re not in business only to make money. You want to work with people in a meaningful way and…
You don’t want to become rich by making things happen behind the scenes.
I know I don’t.
You want visible recognition.
You want to be seen as an expert.
You want to be known in your corner of the world.
Standing out is something you want.
So what are you willing to do to make it happen?