Years ago, someone copied “my” closing story at a conference. I realized that if anyone could just duplicate what I offered, what I say on stage, I had a problem. It wasn’t a matter of price or marketing: copycats can always be cheaper. Nor was the solution ramping up the volume: that works for factories, not people.
“It’s not your slides or data or quotes that matter,” said my mentor. “That is only a tiny slice of what makes you YOU. You have to offer the rest of the story. Figure out why people want to spend time with you. Nobody can copy that.“
I wouldn’t solve this with the usual “business” tools. So I applied another part of my brain. I took my camera for a walk in Italy for a week. One rainy day I captured this moment. Decent, maybe, but so what? Unsure, I put it online, looking for reassurance.
“Enter it into a contest,” said a client.
“No way,” I replied. “It’s not that good.”
“It is to me,” she said.
“Why?” I asked.
“You show us things differently with your camera,” she answered. “Just like you do on stage.”
The dots began to connect. I entered the contest.
Friends, family - and lots of clients - voted for it. And voted and voted and voted. I was stunned. Aren’t we told to keep our business and personal life separate online? What’s “in it for them” if I’m not sharing the latest market data or talking about the newest business trends?
“You won!” my friend texted a few days later. “Your photo that only you could take has helped you tell a story that only you could tell. People voted for the picture because they voted for you.”
There was the secret: We were in the contest together. Just like we’re in life together. Our talents extend beyond the technicalities of our work. They are tools that help us do what we do in the special way only we can do it. What makes You valuable cannot be separated between work and play, and shouldn’t, because what people ultimately buy -
Is more YOU!
“Now you’ve become a list of One,” said my mentor when I returned home.
What makes you special is more than your stuff.
Weave your play into your work and
Connect in ways nobody can copy.
Your people will gladly go along for the ride.
The real contest isn’t how we rank against competition.
It’s whether we become number one in our relationships.
You won’t have “to differentiate” anymore
When others see a little bit of themselves -
In YOU!