Full Transcript 

Jen Liddy

One of the things that we hear from our clients is how do I stand out?

There are a million people in the marketplace who sound like me, who do what I do, who have the same expertise and training that I have. What it does is it exhausts us when it comes to our marketing because we just feel like we're just white noise in the space.

Today, Claudia and I are talking about differentiating yourself and making yourself a unicorn in a very noisy online market.

Why don't we get started with your perspective?

Claudia Schalkx

When they become entrepreneurs, many people kind of forget the life they had before, and they need to bring that into the mix of who makes them because we are the sum of our experiences.

For instance, I have a client who was a lawyer or still a lawyer, though he doesn't practice anymore and became a coach. He asked me exactly the same question - there are so many coaches, and coaching is not a profession. You don't need to be qualified as a coach to be called a coach, so there are a lot of people who call themselves coaches, and they are not even prepared.

So how do I differentiate myself? The trick is that if he combines his experience as a lawyer and positions himself as the ideal coach for lawyers because he has gone through it, he knows the stressed lawyers feel, and he can't speak their language.

He's now learning to bring that into his message and into his communication because that separates him from other coaches. It doesn't mean he cannot be a coach for other people because he's actually an executive coach, so everybody who wants to grow in their career is in good hands with him. He's given the right choice, the better choice for coaches who are lawyers because he understands their challenges. You can create a mix of your previous experiences, which makes you only a richer professional and allows you to create richer experiences.

For instance, in your case, the way you incorporate teaching into everything you do is remarkable.

Jen Liddy

I'm hearing this doesn't mean that that's who you niche down to necessarily like he doesn't have to be a coach for lawyers. And I don't have to be a content creator or a business coach for people who are teachers coming into the entrepreneurial space.

We're talking about blending who you were with, who you are becoming, and I have to say, I really wanted for a long time to kind of tamp down the fact that I was a teacher. I wanted people to stop thinking of me as a teacher!

I wanted them to think of me as a business person who had brought to life businesses and understands the pathway to do that. It was only kind of recently that I realized the teaching part of me keeps popping up.

Claudia Schalkx

I had the same thing because I'm a marketing generalist, and I do really spend a lot of time remaining as a marketing generalist. It means I need to read about search engine optimization, websites, design, branding, and communication content.

That takes a lot of time because I need to be knowledgeable on an ocean-wide of things, not necessarily in-depth, but enough depth to orient my clients into who would be the best specialist. They need somebody who keeps this helicopter view of the situation.

Otherwise, you will be spending a lot of money thinking your issue is content and its mindset or vice versa. For a long time, I struggled because I was surrounded by specialists the moment I realized that, in my eyes, and no offense intended, that specialist is, in my eyes, the easy way out.

You only focus on one thing: being a journalist kind of came higher in the ranking for me. And I still think that makes me special because there are less and less generalists. I think entrepreneurs need somebody they can talk to about the different aspects of their business.

And that is my difference - that is where I leverage.

Jen Liddy

What makes you a unicorn is that you can see the overarching 30,000ft up in the air view and then direct people to what they need exactly in these different realms because not everybody has the same problem.

Claudia Schalkx

Yes.
Even in that, I do specialize because I focus on marketing foundations like finding your ideal client, your message, and fine-tuning your offer. Besides that, I do branding and websites - I don't push that in my message, but when clients say, do you know somebody, or I see the problems, I can help them. It's very nice for them because we are already working together, but I don't push it in my message, and I don't even have it on my website.

Jen Liddy

Making yourself a unicorn is kind of weaving in everything that makes you unique instead of suppressing or ignoring them.

If somebody's told you that you have to be a specialist, I really want people to think about their experience, their training, and how can they fold it in and embrace it?

Claudia Schalkx

Yeah.

Embracing it is the hardest part because all these forces in the market push you, and even I say to my clients, choose one client.

That doesn't mean you're dropping the other things; it means that you are focusing your time and your resources into the past that will deliver your results faster.

Jen Liddy

I want to just stop here for a second because I'm basically in a comment I just said, embrace the aspect of yourself that makes you special, which for a lot of us, we either haven't thought about it, or we haven't recognized it because we're swimming in it.

Teaching is like breathing to me - I don't really think that it's special until I watch somebody else try to teach something, and I realize that I'm trained specifically in this, and it's part of my natural proclivity.

One of the things I really want to say is when you are looking at what makes me special, you might need somebody to reflect it back to you. So you might need to talk through that with somebody and for you. The insights that you have when you work one on one with somebody or even just have a conversation, the intuition you have, and the fact that you can get laser-focused is, I don't know if you take it for granted, but it's not something that everybody is good at, and it is what makes you special.

Because it comes so naturally to you, you might think that isn't anything special, so I just want to ask people to think about what does come naturally to them and acknowledge that it is probably the thing that makes them special.

Claudia Schalkx

Yeah, and if you have something negative, it can always be turned around.

For instance, I was trying to see what could go wrong. My father was an engineer, and when I was a kid, I would go with him to the construction area, and the first thing he did was be careful here, be watchful there, and for the rest, you can do whatever.

My first job in the industry was exactly the same thing - be careful here, because this world can explode, and I was born and raised in Venezuela, where nothing went according to plan; I had to be extra watchful of what could go wrong.

It kind of became very ingrained in me, so I am trying to see what can go wrong. But when you turn it, that allows me to see what's not working in a business very fast. I can help my clients that way to plug the holes, but for a long time, everybody said to me, you are so negative, you only see the bad thing.

It was hard. But then I realized when somebody said to me, "Claudia, have you seen how fast you are?"

That is the good side of being trained to see where it can go wrong is that you can see very quickly, but it's not working. If people criticize you, pay extra attention to it and don't let it wear you down but ask questions.

Jen Liddy

Almost like how is this a gift for me? How is this something that I actually use to propel myself or to help other people?

One of the things that we wanted to talk about is your piece that examines your unique journey to create your uniqueness in the marketplace, and what I want to ask people, then, is what kind of unique voice does that give you? How do you say things? What kind of language do you use? What's your tone? What's your style? What are all the things that come together based on all the things you've done, all the training you've had, all the pieces and parts kind of synthesizing together.

How does that create a voice for you? I think people really struggle with voice - we're actually going to talk about it next month, or actually, we're going to talk about it in December inside my membership site and really teach it.

We can talk about it here because people don't think that people think, first of all, I need to sound like everybody else. And I think there's nothing more untrue because if you sound like everybody else, you just become white noise.

Claudia Schalkx

Yes. I think voice is something that you find in time.

Of course, you need some guardrails for your brain to identify what works in your voice. One of the things is, when do you shine? When do you feel less uncomfortable? When do you feel most natural? That is probably your voice, but it's hard to keep consistent with your voice because our modes change, and we have hard days.

There are things that allow you to be consistent with your voice, but you need to identify what is the format in which your voice comes out more naturally. We've discussed this in the past, and it's already an icon of example, but I always complain that when I write, I am boring, and I am serious.

But when I talk, I am more natural, and you can like my sense of humor or not my directness. When I speak, it is softer than when I talk, and when I write, my thoughts are more structured and organized, taking out the spontaneity of my voice and personality.

It's something that happens in a period of time, and you just have to be very alert to the signals and keep working on it.

Jen Liddy

How would you describe your voice?

Claudia Schalkx

Irreverent.

I am transparent, and in everything I share, I try to teach people something that solves a problem they have.

Jen Liddy

Yeah.

Claudia Schalkx

That is essentially my voice.

Jen Liddy

Who do you tend to follow of the people you really like to see who come into your email inbox or follow online? What voices do you tend to be drawn to?

Claudia Schalkx

The voices that are in some aspects, like mine, are transparent and direct but have a sweetness that I feel I don't have.

For instance - you! You have a sweetness that is not sticky. I am like a train and go straight, you are like, softer and both methods work. I would use yours first.

Both things work, and those are the voices that attract me. People who are very clear and are generous with what they know, and they don't do stingy.

Jen Liddy

The ones I'm attracted to are very similar - they're direct, light, and fun.

I have unfollowed a couple of people because they don't fit me anymore, and like you said, finding your voice is really a journey, and sometimes your voice will change over time. I have found that my voice did change over time. When I started in business, I was much more of a let's get this done, productivity, almost like a harder edge, but I have softened over time because I have also softened in my personal life.

I don't drive myself the way I used to drive myself, so my voice has softened slightly. If someone is looking for a harder edge, I'm not that person. And that's fine, and our voice is not for anybody.

I do think while your voice is evolving and you're finding your voice, it's important to know that you're not for everybody and that some people will fall off, and that is just part of the entire process.

Claudia Schalkx

Definitely.

You set up a branding, you start, and as your business evolves and you have good and bad experiences, and you see what works and what doesn't work and how people react, you take a step back and review your branding and fine-tune it.

You need to have a foundation to work on, so it's like marketing; you need to have a foundation. Who is your ideal client? What is your message? What is the offer you're bringing? What is the content? What is your voice right? When you see that, then the things that happen, then you can see how your evolution is and how you want to incorporate it or notice that you're derailing completely and course correct.

Jen Liddy

While you're talking about evolution, one of the things you want to consider is what does your audience need. I used to really think about this one aspect of my audience, especially in the beginning. They were very resistant to planning, so I would kind of drive them with the "No, we're going to get it done. We're going to get it done. We're going to get it done."

And as my voice changed, my audience changed too, and it's less we're going to get it done and more focusing on what choices are you making? Like, more reflective in that way. The last thing I wanted to say about voice and your content is to know your audience, know who you want to work with, what voice will go along with that.

You really do need to be true to yourself, and again, it's all experimentation, like folding in what is your audience and what is your audience and who is your audience and who are you? And how do those things work together and just remembering it is evolution.

It's not static.

Claudia Schalkx

I keep an eye on the market because sometimes the market changes.

For instance, this is more noticeable with products instead of services. Let's suppose you have a bakery, and you bake healthy muffins if that's possible. You market them as healthy muffins, so the people leaving the gym in front of your bakery come to your bakery because they are buying healthy muffins.

The bakery next to you bakes exactly the same muffins, but it calls them keto muffins. The product is the same, the people are the same, but the market has changed because keto is now the same.

People are all moving towards that, and you have to keep that in mind to make sure that you continue leveraging on your uniqueness because that is what prevents you from falling into these gray areas where the market sways and you can manage it.

Jen Liddy

I want to just say that if you are struggling with feeling like you're a unicorn and feel like you're just a generalist, you can't find your footing.
One of the things that can help is having your own signature system that is created for you. We find your people, system, content, and voice emerges from that, and that's the work that Claudia and I do together.

And so I invite you to get on her calendar, which I've linked to the website, which is where you can find more about Claudia.

I'm going to also link how you can learn more about our signature system. It's called your signature system, and you will get a program designed specifically for you to help you become a unicorn in the marketplace so that you know what to say that actually sounds like you and feels like you so that you can work with the people that are just right for you.

Thank you, Claudia, for again, your insights today - always love our Monday chat!

Claudia Schalkx

See you next week. Bye!