I was at the circus this weekend and I'll be honest—I wasn't sure how it was going to be done, as we were promised 50 acts in 100 minutes... yup, a new act every 2 minutes—or, as it turned out, sometimes 3 acts at once!
But every act was different. Yes, there was more than one balancing act, and daredevil act, and clowning-around act. There was more than one magic act, more than one juggling act, climbing act, swing act and unicycling act (!), but they were all DIFFERENT.
There really were 50 different acts in 100 minutes and actually, where some of the acts were performed by more than one person, you could see how each performer did their 'thing' differently.
And that's the point. You might DO the same thing as someone else—you might have the same skill or qualification—but everyone's Thing (with a capital 'T') is different.
When you realise that your Act is different to everyone else's, you have a Monopoly in your marketplace. You become the only person that does what you do the way you do it. Or, put it another way, if people want to come and see YOUR act they have to come and see YOU. The chap down the road doesn't do YOUR act—he might do one like it, but it's not the same—it's different. Just like you are different to the chap down the other road and so on.
Having a monopoly is brilliant if you are the business owner. Now when I was studying for my Economics degree we were taught that monopolies were bad, as they can charge what they like and restrict supply in a market—which I agree with when they are a utility company or telecoms provider, but... HELLO! Charge what you like and restrict supply if you want to? —that sounds perfect for a business celebrity business. This means you get to choose what your prices are—not have them dictated to you by the market—and also lets you supply as much or as little of your Thing as you want to. And who doesn't want that?
All you have to do is KNOW and tell people that your Act is different, that you do your Thing differently because it's YOUR Thing and they won't need to go see what the chap down the road is doing.
Here's another way to think about it: all singers sing songs. But all pop stars have different Acts. A Lady Ga Ga fan is not necessarily also going to be a One Direction fan, and a Rolling Stones fan is not necessarily going to be a Beyonce fan who isn't necessarily also going to be a Michael Buble fan! Because while they all sing songs, I am sure you can see they all have very different Acts! And they are all most definitely doing their Thing (well, with the exception of One Direction, maybe!).
So get your Act together!
And know that your Act is different to anyone else's Act when you do it 100% your way doing your Thing.
Want to talk more about this?
Thanks for the post. It is so easy to get caught up comparing ourselves to others that we fail to see our distinctiveness in competitive, often over-saturated, markets. This was a helpful reminder that our real competitive advantage is makes us unique, our individual experience and approach to doing our own Thing.