Jessica Osborn [00:00:00]:
You're listening to she's the business podcast.
Jessica Osborn [00:00:03]:
So, how to compete without really competing? Well, today, when there is more competition out there than ever before, I wanted to dive into this conversation with you and discuss why I believe analyzing your competitors is actually limiting your ability to thrive and grow more than what you think you are, are. So stay tuned. This episode is coming right up.
Jessica Osborn [00:00:31]:
Hi, I'm your host, Jessica Osborne. And in my 23 years of business and marketing, I've built many brands to become multibillion dollar companies. And just in the last ten years.
Jessica Osborn [00:00:44]:
I've built two online businesses of my own.
Jessica Osborn [00:00:47]:
From my dining room table with two little babies running around at my feet, I've made it my mission to inspire.
Jessica Osborn [00:00:54]:
You to get out of your own.
Jessica Osborn [00:00:55]:
Way and become the successful business owner who's living the lifestyle you really desire without all the hustle. This is she's the business podcast made by women for women. This is your weekly dose of motivation and inspiration.
Jessica Osborn [00:01:14]:
Hey, guys, welcome back to she's the business podcast. Awesome to be here with you today. And I've got a really interesting topic. Well, I think it's interesting anyway, but I think it's one that needs to be talked about because I'm seeing conversations about this out there on the interwebs, and I have a perspective on it and some things to share because I think that our world has changed. Things have come a long way in the last ten years, definitely in the last 20 years. My goodness, can you even remember what it was like back in the early two thousand s? And that really does have an impact on how we are thinking about our business today. And one of these really important things when we're thinking about our business, and marketing in particular, is about competitors. How do we think about our competitors, our competition, the market, how we're thinking about ourselves out there in the market with the competitors and the competition now, back in the 90s, which is when I did my marketing degree and in the early thousands, it was really common knowledge, common practice across the board.
Jessica Osborn [00:02:24]:
Like any business or marketing degree, any paper that you did was the way.
Jessica Osborn [00:02:29]:
To get out there and run a.
Jessica Osborn [00:02:31]:
Business is that you do some competitive analysis, and you analyze the market. You pick out who your competitors are, you analyze their strengths and their weaknesses against your own. You try to find differentiators, and you try to find a gap in the market so that you can create this space for yourself. And that was kind of, I guess, understood as the way to do things. And it's not that it is wrong or that you can't do that. But it does bring up an interesting perspective, because this entire premise behind it is that you need to compete against the other people out there, that there's not enough to go around and therefore you need to pitch yourself against others in order to win the clients from them. Now that's the underlying premise behind this. There's all this talk of gaining market share and how are you going to go out there and differentiate yourself against what your competitors are saying so that you're seen as different? Now, do we really need to be doing this today, in this day and age, now that we have personal brands? Which by the way, did not exist when those marketing programs and courses and university papers were written or the textbooks that you studied for them, personal brands just weren't around back then, that wasn't a thing.
Jessica Osborn [00:03:52]:
There also wasn't this huge amount of small micro businesses on the scene. Businesses tended to be larger. Small to medium sized business is up to 250 staff. Like that is not the majority of online businesses these days, which are what we classify as a micro business and predominantly personal brand businesses, especially if you're in a service space. So that's who I'm talking to here. I think there is a whole different conversation to be had if you're in a product based space, because your brand really isn't a personal brand. There are some who do it, but by and large, most product brands are based on the product or on a business. And you've got a whole different environment that you're in because it's not you they're buying, it's actually a product that you're buying.
Jessica Osborn [00:04:44]:
So you do need to kind of have something different there. But when we're talking about services and you're buying a service from a person who is running their own business, whether it's them or their team that's delivering it, you're really buying into them as a person. And we all know that we're different. We are crazy enough. But yes, maybe we can sound the same. And I would beg to argue that the reason why so many people sound the same in their business marketing communications is because they've spent so much time looking at their competitors. And so the words that come out of your mouth are the same words that your competitors have said because that's what you've been researching and reading and your brain has been filtering all of that in and storing it away, and then it comes out of your mouth and it sounds the same. So yes, you might want to review them so that you can sound different, but maybe you don't even need to review them at all.
Jessica Osborn [00:05:40]:
Like, why not actually just use your own words that come from within you, within yourself, without even needing to worry about what your competitors are doing. Now that we're in this intimate age, the opportunities have exploded for clients who you can reach, who you can serve. All of the things are so much bigger than they were ten years ago, 20 years ago. Absolutely. We're talking like we're on a completely different planet than what we were on in the early thousands. And what that means is, yes, there are a lot more competitors out there in this space. There are a lot more opportunities out there in the space, which is fantastic, but there really isn't a scarcity of opportunities. It's not like you need to go up against someone and pitch yourself against a particular competitor in order to win business, because people don't buy based on that.
Jessica Osborn [00:06:35]:
Nobody is out there looking at you like your two products on a supermarket shelf and comparing your ingredients list or the features that you have on your box and going, well, I think I like this one over that one. No one is really doing that. You're either drawn to someone or you're not. And the more that you understand, the best way that you can stand totally within your power and have authority and be able to draw your clients to you is by not even worrying one iota what your competitors are doing. They're not you. It's not your business. They're over there running their business. And good luck to them.
Jessica Osborn [00:07:11]:
There's more than enough for all of us. And that's my personally held belief. Now, as I said back in the day, all we knew was that you did go out there and analyze competitors and try to figure out how to pitch yourself against them. But you just have to think. Now, like, even if you think that you're in a market that's really minimal, saturated, and big players, like, take for example, we'll take the world of it and software because we all know it. We all use a computer, and there used to be two primary operating systems. There was the Apple iOS and there was Microsoft Windows. Now, every computer came with one of those.
Jessica Osborn [00:07:50]:
It was either Windows or if you bought an Apple, obviously it came with Apple's operating system. Now, you'd think, well, is Google wanting to come into this market with an operating system? Are they thinking, well, I've got to figure out what the difference is between these two and try to find a gap, or are they thinking, hey, we're going to build our own operating system. We're going to go out there and the people who we're going to attract will be the ones who don't like Apple and don't like Microsoft. And there's plenty of those out there, right? I'm sure you can think of many people who are like, great. Now there's another option that's great. I'm not just limited to these two. So it wasn't a matter of Google needing to figure out a way to differentiate themselves and to be different. They already are different.
Jessica Osborn [00:08:32]:
They're coming in there with their own flavor of doing things and doesn't mean that they have to be different from either one of the others if they believe that was the right way to do it. It's best to just go with what you specifically want. And that kind of brings me around to the best way to be giving yourself the best chance in this kind of environment where there are so many people and you don't want to be like plain vanilla up on the wall. Like I've already said, maybe try not looking at your competitors and look instead at your market. Look at your clients. Get to understand them so deeply that you can speak directly to them because that will, for one, set you apart. But the next thing, and most importantly, is really, it's down to your specificity, which means your niche. So how specific are you really being in your niche? If you're feeling like you need to analyze competitors and find a way that you can be different, if that's happening, then I would say that's a massive red flag sign that you have not gone specific enough in your own niche, because as soon as you are specific, you're already steps apart from them.
Jessica Osborn [00:09:42]:
You're already in creating your own space, and it just happens organically. So anyone who's sitting there thinking, well, no, but I do sound the same as the competitors. Great, now you know what to do, right? You know that actually that's a sign I can get more specific. And yes, we need to be more specific now than we did five years ago. Definitely than we did ten years ago, 20 years ago. Gosh, it wasn't even a thing. Right? There was very little specificity on the scale that we know and breathe now these days. And we do this with everything.
Jessica Osborn [00:10:18]:
You just have to look at yourself and how you choose what you're going to buy, what you like. What sort of breakfast aerial are you buying? Like, there's no longer just wheat bicks and Musli and porridge. They were the kind of the options when I was a kid. Now there's 15 different types of porridge. Now there's Musli clusters, granola, all of the different ones, gluten free, just paleo. So many options. So we know to a much greater degree of specificity, exactly what it is that we want and what we don't want. And we're choosing our choices based on that, not based on whether one is saying that they're better than one of the other ones.
Jessica Osborn [00:10:57]:
Like we're really uninterested in that. We're much more interested in who is the best, what is it that I want, and the one who's most clearly talking to me about what it is I want, then that's clearly who I'm drawn to as well. So, as I said, wouldn't it be a better use of your time instead of analyzing your competitors, instead of giving away your power to them and limiting your perspective based on what they're doing? Because it does limit you. It does put you in that viewpoint of what are they doing. And if you're creating your ideas based on what you see them doing, then you're kind of in the same boat that they're already in. So you're limiting your ideas instead of doing that, research your market, research your potential clients and research yourself. Understand what your core value is. This is the job, the work that you're going to do on your niche, on getting really specific, on understanding what is that core value that you can bring.
Jessica Osborn [00:11:54]:
You're already unique. All it means is that you're just going to start communicating that better. You're going to communicate it in a way that people really feel aligned to you, and that's how you stand apart. It's so easy and so simple, and really, we can move so far away from that scarcity mindset of needing to go up against other people in order to find clients. You absolutely do not. And good luck to anyone who's doing that. That's the old way. I think that's a very military focused way of doing business, but it's not the only way.
Jessica Osborn [00:12:32]:
And so anyone who's telling you that you have to do it that way, that's their perspective. And there's another way that you can do it that may feel more aligned for you, may feel actually a lot nicer and easier. And guess what? You don't need to spend all this time comparing yourself. And I know that from experience, because I'm speaking here from experience. Yes, I have done competitor analysis before. I have been the one who's compared myself against others. We all have. But when you're doing that, then you're creating this unknowingly creating what we call impostor syndrome, even without realizing it, because you're suddenly looking at others and comparing yourself to them.
Jessica Osborn [00:13:17]:
And often you're getting a perspective that is only inside your own head. And it's really, I think, for your own confidence, for your own ability to actually stand in your true authority and really reclaim your personal power, which turns into your business superpower. To reclaim that back means that you need to draw that from within you. And there's no way you can do that. When everything you're doing, you're reflecting what you're seeing externally. You need to actually be shining out what is within you right now, because you have it already. You have the value, you have your expertise, you have your knowledge, your way of doing things. And letting that come out is how you compete.
Jessica Osborn [00:14:02]:
It's how you compete because that's what your clients are looking for, and they're looking for you. Yes. You're not going to be for everyone, and you don't need to be. You don't need to convince them that they should buy from you if they're actually really more aligned to someone else. No, absolutely not. They should go and buy from the person they're most aligned to. Your job is to help people to discover that alignment with you. So open up.
Jessica Osborn [00:14:28]:
Be more of yourself. Really stand on your box and say what it is that you're all about. Let's stop watering ourselves down. Let's stop trying to be vanilla. Let's stop trying to please everybody and be that pleaser. Let's get out there, stand up in order to stand out. And that is my advice to you. So there we go.
Jessica Osborn [00:14:50]:
That's my episode for today. I felt really called to share with you this perspective because I want to help. I want to see more women succeed in business and following these old principles of business and marketing that have come from men. Let's just say it. Yes, men wrote the textbooks. Men were the ones that were the business leaders back in the day. And this has all come from their way of thinking about business. But it doesn't have to be done that way.
Jessica Osborn [00:15:21]:
And I think that as a female running a business now for, wow, it's been 14 years since I started my first one. That's quite a while, isn't it? It always makes me sort of gasp and shake my head when I think about how long that's been. But it doesn't have to be done that way. And it's taken me a while to figure that out. I definitely did not figure that out for the first eight years of me running my own business. Before that, I'd had. Well, I'm trying to think how many years it had been before. So about 22 years, is that right? Or twelve years anyway, of working in corporate before I'd even started my own business.
Jessica Osborn [00:16:03]:
But it was a long time. Like we're talking years and years, decades of experience, plus a degree, plus all that learning to figure out that this way that I've been taught that, I thought that was the only way to do things. And that's what you needed to do. And to be smart, you needed to do that competitive analysis and your swap strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. I don't know how many of those I did back in the day, but I thought that was the way you did it. And now I'm just so glad to find out that I've got a totally different way of looking at it now, in that I don't need to be trying to figure out how to take from someone else because there is more than enough to go around and I can just attract the people who are most aligned to me, which means that you can do it too. Beautiful, isn't it? So thanks for hanging out today. I appreciate your presence here.
Jessica Osborn [00:16:55]:
I hope you're enjoying the podcast chiefs of business. We are getting really close to the 200th episode, which is definitely going to be a milestone for me. So I'm going to put my thinking cap on and come up with a way to celebrate it. It's close to three years that this podcast has been running, very close, and it's been here every week. A new episode for you every week, and actually more than one a week for the first year. So I appreciate it. I hope that you've been gaining a lot of value from it. I always love to hear from people who listen in.
Jessica Osborn [00:17:26]:
So if you aren't yet a subscriber, please hit that subscribe button so that this comes into your feed. You get a new episode every single week. And there's so many amazing women that I interview other entrepreneurs with their own stories, with their own advice sometimes. And we dive into all sorts of topics because I'm so interested in all of the ways that we can optimize ourselves, our business, our life. To really have the life that you want, that you really want to have that dream life, well, it's going to take a lot of different things that goes into it. And that's why I try to bring you that really great breadth of expertise and knowledge that we have here in our entrepreneurial community. So if you would have been enjoying it, then I would appreciate it so much if you would hit that five star rating below the episode here or on the podcast page and please drop a review. I'd love to hear what it was that you like about it.
Jessica Osborn [00:18:30]:
And of course that helps other people to find our podcast and listen in as well. So thank you. I appreciate you. And I'll be back again next week with something else really fun to talk about.
Jessica Osborn [00:18:42]:
Isn't it just so frustrating when you.
Jessica Osborn [00:18:45]:
Know that out there, there are so.
Jessica Osborn [00:18:47]:
Many people that actually need your help and there's many actively looking for somebody just like you, yet all you seem to attract as the OD tire kicker or really uncommitted client that's kind of dabbling and they don't light you up, they really don't get great results. And you're thinking, what does it actually take to attract clients who are committed, who are happy to pay proper prices for what it is that I do and that I can help to have really great results. What is it going to take? Well, it's not in the activity of what you're doing.
Jessica Osborn [00:19:23]:
Here's the thing. It's usually something else that's a bit.
Jessica Osborn [00:19:26]:
Deeper, and I'm sharing with you what that is in my training, it's called five keys to premium paying clients. And I'm going to share with you. What are these five things that you.
Jessica Osborn [00:19:37]:
Need to have in your strategy so.
Jessica Osborn [00:19:40]:
That no matter what tactic or activity you choose to do, it actually works like it works. You attract the right clients, the ones who are ready to work with you, the ones who are ready to pay and sign up.
Jessica Osborn [00:19:53]:
So get yourself over to my website.
Jessica Osborn [00:19:56]:
Now on jessicaosborn.com tmf. Register for this free class and let's dive right in. So once again, that's jessicaosborne.com tmf and the link is below in the show notes as well. I encourage you to register now. Allocate just over an hour of your time, maybe up to an hour and a half so you can take some notes and really reflect on the things.
Jessica Osborn [00:20:21]:
That I share with you in this class.
Jessica Osborn [00:20:23]:
And let's train your year this year. Let's make your business actually turn into.
Jessica Osborn [00:20:29]:
Your dream business together. Close.
