Stop Following the Followers

If you’re just copying what everyone else is doing, and 80 percent of the market is doing that, you’re just going to be seen as part of that group. So stop following the followers! If you want to differentiate, it starts with that. How am I communicating my strengths to an audience that actually needs the strengths that I’m able to deliver?

David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the topic, Stop Following the Followers. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey, David. Once again, a great topic for our discussion. This one is hard. Sometimes we are sheep and we’re not following a leader, right? We’re following everyone else who’s following that leader.

Why are we doing that?

David: Yeah, great question. Why are we doing that? I know in the early stages of my business, I did that all the time. When you don’t know what to do, you’re basically looking around to see what other people are doing, and very often they don’t know what they’re doing either.

I particularly remember in the early stages of my business where I would look at somebody who I saw as a competitor in my space, and I would say, okay, well, what are they doing?

And sometimes I would do that pretty indiscriminately, not even realizing that they may have been in worse shape than we were at that point, and I’m looking at what they’re doing.

Now, fortunately, I’ve always been able to learn as much from bad example as I have from good. And to me, that’s like a superpower.

If you’re able to do that, it is extremely helpful. If you look at something that someone else is doing and you say, you know what, I am not doing that. And you see something that you like and say, well, I am going to do that. That’s extremely helpful.

But very often we don’t know who’s doing extremely well and who’s not doing as well.

And we see something we like, and we may imitate it. We may try to copy it. But, it may not be working for that person, and it very well might not work for us either.

Jay: Yeah, or I think understanding what is making them successful and what you’re seeing them do, that doesn’t mean that’s what makes them successful.

I mean, there are many people out there who are successful in spite of all of the mistakes they’re making. And that really frustrates me, David, when I see that, because here I am busting my butt to try and do it right, and I see other people that are… it’s like they’d have to work hard to mess things up.

They just fall in a bucket of gold everywhere they go. Drives me crazy. It’s like when I was in the radio business, we had a consultant who was paid incredible money and we’re like, why does this guy know what he’s doing?

Well, he happened to work for somebody who achieved major syndication. Well, just because he worked for that guy doesn’t mean that he’s the reason that guy was successful. And that doesn’t mean we should listen to everything that he says.

David: Absolutely. I’ve got similar radio horror stories. I think we’ve all had experiences like that. We’ve also probably had experiences where we see someone, and our impression is that that person is successful, is smart, is doing things right, and is doing things well.

And that’s not always the case. Because we don’t really know what’s happening behind the scenes. In our work with clients, one of the reasons we have the brand we have, TopSecrets.com, is that there are things that people don’t know that can help them.

Whether you want to consider them secrets or whether you just want to consider them things that somebody’s never learned, doesn’t really matter. But it’s a fact.

And I’ve had conversations with people who say, “oh, there’s no such thing as secrets in business.” And I’m like, “I completely disagree with that.”

I completely disagree because while there are a lot of things that are common in business, and a lot of things that everybody knows. For every one of those, there are probably three things that only a small percentage of the population know.

And when you’re able to engage in those activities, when you’re able to follow those types of approaches, it dramatically changes the results.

If you dismiss the idea that those type of things even exist, then you’re not even looking for them anymore. And it sort of dooms you to have to continue imitating whoever you happen to come across and It’s a matter then of trying to either reinvent the wheel and hope that it works or copy what other people are doing and hoping that works.

But even in those situations, if the person that you’re copying is extremely successful, but you’re only copying the part of the iceberg, you can see the part of above the water. You may be missing out on the majority of things that they’re doing that you have absolutely no idea about.

Jay: Yeah, such a great point. I do believe there are, quote, universal truths out there, right? Like you said, maybe 3 percent of what the highly successful are doing that can be duplicated.

But again, it’s about knowing yourself. Is that something that you can even do? Because a lot of time that speaks to somebody’s talent. It’s like I read 7 Habits for Highly Successful People and I’m like,it’s not t just highly successful people, it’s people who are already extremely organized.

Right, because I wanted to write seven habits for highly successful slothful people or who are not well organized, so for everyone who’s focusing, “Oh, all I have to do is what this guy says,” it’s not going to work that way.

David: Right, because that’s the difference between copying what someone is doing and adapting it. And I think anytime we just try to copy exactly what someone else is doing, it’s doomed to failure.

Once again, in our work with clients, if I were to say to everybody that comes in to work with us, okay, you have to do cold calling, or you have to do social media, or you have to do paid advertising. A lot of them would say, well, okay, but then they’re not going to do it.

And so we look at what are the things that actually have to happen. And we’re a lot more flexible in terms of the methods they use to get there, so that they can engage in activities that they will actually perform.

They’ll do things because they like doing them and they’re willing to do them.

What I find is extremely disheartening for a lot of business owners in particular, is when they’re trying to copy a method of performance that they absolutely hate and that leads to frustration. It leads to burnout and it leads to businesses closing down because they just feel like I can’t do this.

And the reason they think they can’t do it is because they haven’t figured out a way to adapt the things that work to their own personal strengths. And in my view, that’s really the only thing you can do that is going to ensure your ongoing success.

Jay: Yeah, I love that. Adapting versus copying. Copying, you would think, would be the easiest. I’ll just do what that guy does.

But so often we talk about being self aware and knowing what you would be good at, because some people are amazing at cold calling, right? They’re amazing, but that speaks to their skill set what makes them feel successful. I could never do it.

I’ve never been able to do it. But I have found other ways through technology, because I’m really good at the follow up call. And I’m really good at closing. I’m not good at the cold call.

So if I can get another way to generate leads or have somebody else do the cold call and then I do the follow up, well then that has worked very well for me.

David: Yeah, and when we think of the idea of adapting versus copying, a lot of that goes to the function of communication. We see what somebody’s doing and we try to copy that as opposed to adapting it to our own personal strengths.

And that is such a huge mistake because we end up saying the same things. We end up coming across as exactly the same in the marketplace, which does not differentiate us at all.

And if you’re copying somebody who’s already established and who actually resonates with that message, it’s going to be very difficult to compete with that. Because most people who are smart in business, will create messaging around their abilities, what they’re good at.

They don’t just copy something that somebody else is good at because it’s a recipe for failure.

And when we look at the communication aspect of it, finding your own unique voice, finding your own unique approach is absolutely critical.

Now, it doesn’t have to be 180 degrees from other things that you’re hearing, but it has to be different enough to be able to position you as something that is at least somewhat more interesting, something different enough that someone would say, “Hey, I’d like to learn more about that.”

Because if you’re just copying what everyone else is doing, and 80 percent of the market is doing that, you’re just going to be seen as part of that group. So if you want to differentiate, it starts with that. How am I communicating my strengths to an audience that actually needs the strengths that I’m able to deliver?

Jay: Yeah, I, love that. you know, I’m in a very niche business. And so I only have four or five competitors in the country, which is amazing. And the other four or five, they all operate in the same way.

If you call them for a consultation, you’re going to get exactly the same thing from all of them