When you’re clueless about what makes you special
I’ve told you about my $250,000 Ph.D. in business, right?
It was exquisitely personalized – teaching me business from the inside out –
which is why it cost so much. 😆
I paid for it with a $25K upfront investment, no salary draw, & plenty of sweat equity.
Take that part about the sweat literally – it was a fitness studio startup.
At the beginning, I constantly thought, “I’m just a teacher. I don’t know anything about business.”
I was good at getting shit done, but there was nothing particularly special about me.
Have you ever done that? Dismissed yourself, I mean?
Dismissing ourselves is often easier than having hard conversations about
…money
…boundaries
…expectations
I was clueless about what I brought to the table
So for 3+ years, I convinced myself that not getting paid was “Fine”.
That working too many hours a day was “OK”.
Not having boundaries “Doesn’t matter”.
No one else in the company said these things to me. T’was all in my head.
My partner Trish – the company founder – is a fitness trainer with a contagious motivational style who gets her clients results.
My partner Leslie – a creative problem solver – was our “HOW” person. Presented with any trial, she will overcome it while serving everyone’s needs.
Leslie & Trish were both mightily VALUABLE!
Trish differentiated herself by being the idea generator with content expertise, and Leslie differentiated HERself by making problems disappear with ingenuity.
Me? I suffered serious mindset shit.
My beliefs - my IDENTITY - were the problem.
I didn’t see myself as an entrepreneur.
I saw myself as a teacher who didn’t know what she was doing.
As a do-er - simply implementing other people’s ideas.
That IDENTITY was firmly in place as I shifted into BEing an entrepreneur…
BEing creative…
BEing a valuable voice in the room with an experienced opinion….
It became hard to undo all that “I really don’t belong here”… “Thanks for even having me” bullshit I’d fostered at the beginning.
Then…when I really WANTED to be paid…
And NEEDED boundaries…
I didn’t BELIEVE it in myself, so it felt impossible to get.
Looking back, I created value from Day One.
Your job, right now, is to BELIEVE that for yourself. See it, own it.
And identify your unique selling point. Your Value Proposition
From Wikipedia:
“A unique selling proposition (USP) refers to the unique benefit exhibited by a company, service, product or brand that enables it to stand out from competitors.
[It] must be a feature that highlights product benefits that are meaningful to consumers.”
If you are a solopreneur and you want to convey what’s beneficial about your company, business, product, service, etc. –
You must identify this first within yourself.
Wherever you are on your business journey, there’s some place in your business you’re not realizing your value.
You’re pulled in a thousand directions!
Or you have no time to scale & grow.
Or you’re exhausted…
Or getting new clients is too hard.
Which ALL means you’re probably not making enough $$$.
Knowing your USP is NON-NEGOTIABLE.
Too many entrepreneurs don’t spend enough time to understand this.
What are you bringing to the table? (Don’t tell me ‘nothing’. It’s not true.)
Think about brands YOU LOVE. Brands you LIKE. Brands you LOATHE.
The coffee you choose to drink. And the stuff you’d never touch. WHY? What’s the diff?
Your tech of choice. What kind of computer, tablet, or phone do you use? Why?
We CHOOSE brands because they offer us something special.
Price. Taste. Convenience. Delivery methods. Quality. Access.
See it in other brands. Then see it in yourself.
Wherever you are in the arc of your entrepreneurial (and life) journey – don’t count yourself out.
You’re NOT like everyone else.
It’s time to see it, name it, & adopt it as your identity.
Talk about it.
Normalize it.
Share it with your audience.
What’s yours?
Having trouble figuring this out? Here’s a free 13-minute training to help you get going with this.
See if it helps you move the needle on this struggle! Comment below & let me know what you realize!
