How To Make Your Business Sound Unique (Even If It’s Not)

I heard a tugboat outside. Did anyone else hear that?

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching Marie TV, the place to be, the creative business in life that you love and snuggle with and kiss and marry, all that good stuff. This is Q&A Tuesday. That means there’s questions and there’s answers. Today’s question comes from Nani and she writes, “Aloha, Marie. I’m 45 years old, a mother of five and just graduated from massage school. I’m looking to start my own business and build clients, but I don’t want to sound like every other massage place in the area. How do I stand out from the rest? Everybody uses the words therapeutic, relax, getaway. Those are great, but I need to find something amazing to say. I know I’ll be successful. I just want to be unique. Mahalo, Nani.”

Nani, this is an awesome question. When you’re first starting out in business, it really can feel like everyone is saying and selling the same old thing. As you already know, being a samey in business is just a recipe for disaster. When you’re finding it hard and struggling to come up with what to say to sound unique, I think the best place to start is with what I call The Four P’s. P number one is your purpose. This is your story. Your reason for being. P number two is all about your principles. In other words, what you stand for in your business. P number three is about the people. That’s who you stand for or your ideal clients. P number four stands for what pisses you off. In other words, what really frustrates you about your industry, the other products or the other services that you’re competing against? Here’s the thing about these four P’s. They’re amazing because it really helps you really unearth what’s unique about you and it can help you articulate your uniqueness in your copy. In other words, the words that you use to describe your business.

Now, two quick caveats about these P’s. Number one, since this is a short video, I don’t have time to go in depth on all of the P’s, but you should do this on your business in your own time. Number two, when it comes to writing your copy or talking about your business, you don’t need to reflect all four P’s in every little bit of your copy. You can just pick one as a jumping off point.

Let’s play. We’re going to pick two of your P’s to brainstorm some unique copy. This is what you can do for yourself at home. Let’s say at this point in your business, you’re pretty standard, right? You’ve got the same massage tables, you’ve got the same hot rocks, you’ve got the same whale sounds.

Oh, hi girl.

Wow. Whale sounds have changed. Where you really differentiate yourself is in your purpose or your story and your people, the people you serve. Now, we know from your story that you told us in the beginning, you’re a busy mom. Of course, that’s part of your purpose. Now, I’m just making this next part up. Let’s imagine that your people, the ideal customers that you serve are also busy moms who are totally stressed out. Yes, they love their kids, but they also fantasize about some alone time. Instead of saying relaxing and therapeutic, let’s dig a little bit deeper.

What’s her idea of relaxing and therapeutic? Probably it’s time away from her kids. What stresses is she looking to get massaged away? Maybe it’s everyone saying, “Mommy, mommy.” Maybe it’s waking up every day at 5:00 AM or always having to make school lunches or never having a second alone. Just make a list of all the ideas that come to mind and then we’re going to put them to use.

Instead of a picture of hot rocks that says come relax, how about that same picture that says the ultimate kid-free zone? Instead of release your stress, how about 45 minutes of no one saying, “Mommy, mommy,” or because you deserve a nap too. Or, how about some of these? Again, we’re just brainstorming here. Wish someone would give you a timeout where got-to-pack-lunch stress melts away? Slipped on a Tonka truck? We’ll fix you. Obviously, these are made up examples about your made up ideal client. The point here is you can go back to any of your four P’s and generate loads of ideas. If you want a little more help writing totally unique copy that makes you samey-proof, get your butt over to thecopycure.com. It’s an awesome in-depth training program and if you sign up, you’ll get some free writing tips right in your inbox. Let’s land this plane now on a tweetable.

If you want your business to stand out, samey words are the first thing to cut out. That was my A to your Q, Nani. I really do hope it helps. Let us know how it goes. Now, I would love to hear from you. How do you find the words to sound unique and to stand out? If you like what we share today, take any of your four P’s and brainstorm. As always, the best discussions happen after the episode, so head on over to marieforleo.com and leave a comment now. Did you like this video? If so, subscribe to our channel and it would be awesome if you shared it with all of your friends. If you want even more incredible resources to create a business in life that you love plus some personal insights from me that I only talk about in email, come on over to marieforleo.com and sign up for email updates. Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on Marie TV.

Ready to find your voice and sell with heart? We’ll show you how. Get started now with our free writing class at thecopycure.com. Side effects include enlarged profits.

Who doesn’t like a compliment? Let me clear my throat. I hope you don’t mind. I had some lunch. Kale. Is there a gnome having some drinks upstairs? Party gnome, please come save me. That’s a wrap.