appreciating your uniqueness

It’s okay to steal from others sometimes in your marketing, we all do in some way, but imitating another will end up hurting you… and not necessarily how you might think.

I’ll start appropriately enough, with “stealing” from Oprah Winfrey:

“It all boils down to one thing…it is your ‘relationship’ to the source, and that relationship to that which we call God, or don’t call God, or don’t even know…is God. It is ALL that really matters…when you surrender, and stop resisting, and stop trying to change that which you cannot change, but be in the moment, be fully open to the blessings you have already received, and those that are yet to come to you, and stand in that space of gratitude, and honor, and claim that for yourself, and look at where you are, and how far you have come, and what you’ve gotten, and what you’ve accomplished, and who you are. When you can claim ‘that’, and see that, the literal vibration of your life will change. The Vibration of Your Life Will Change.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

I love this because to appreciate who you are, how far you’ve come, what you have accomplished; these are all elements of your uniqueness. Uniqueness is my theme of the month!

So often we spend time comparing ourselves to others. Measuring our accomplishments with theirs, what we have, how far we think we’ve come verses others, even how many Instagram followers. This can lower “our vibration” as Oprah says. You or I might use different words, but I think we get it, right? The higher our “vibration” the more magnetic we are to others and to what we are looking to create in our lives.

The enemy of personal success is comparison. So… the opposite is appreciating your uniqueness!

That said, the path to finding your uniqueness and celebrating it, especially in a public way, like in your marketing videos, Facebook lives and public speaking can be daunting. You don’t want to mess up! Remember one of the top 5 human fears is Public Humiliation. Yup. Right up there with Death.

So I get it. We all get it. For that reason it can be tempting to imitate someone else… someone that is successful in your field. Things are working for them, so why not, right?

The problem is… you risk hiding your gifts, your uniqueness, your special flavor… it can all go away if you imitate someone else.

Now I am not saying that it’s a bad idea to watch and even research others and steal from them THINGS that work… I’ll show you the difference.

I succumbed to imitation way back in the beginning of my coaching business. I was an actor, so it was natural for me to become someone else… so of course, I thought this would work!

At the time, the online leader of conversion was Ali Brown, the Ezine Queen. So I found a sales video of hers, and copied it. I mean, I dressed like her, created a “set” like hers, did my hair like hers and even used a script modeled after hers (intonation and all).

Results for me?

Crickets.
Nada.
No conversions.
Hardly any Likes.

Because… I can’t be Ali. Only Ali can be Ali. You can only be you, and that is a fantastic thing! You know you better than anyone.

In the videos that followed I experimented with showing more of “me” and you know what? Interaction increased with followers and I actually felt like the videos got easier to do.

Don’t shy away from adding your personal flavor to the mix of marketing for your business, add as much as you can. You’ll probably find it feels better too!

Now as for what we can “steal”:

It’s okay to duplicate the look of a video, or the “feel” of it. If you like a video shot outside, then do that!

We can steal a “call to action” that seems comfortable to us. Or even an introduction.

I admit I stole a phrase from a fellow speaker. I used to HATE to talk about my story, I preferred to just launch into helping the audience with what they needed. Then I heard a speaker say, “Before I go any further, I’d like to make sure you know where I am coming from.” I loved it. I realized when I put that phrase in place, that the audience WAS HELPED by knowing where I was coming from. They needed to see that I had struggled with speaking, and self-confidence and standing in front of people as myself. So, stealing that phrase really helped me and the people I speak to.

If this resonates with you please share this and share your experience in the comments.

It really helps others to know that they are not alone!