SATURATION

In other words the concept that you are in a crowded market, or looking to enter into a market that has already been overly marketed and serviced. A concept resulting in this horrible word entrepreneurs, authors, speakers and the like seem to dread… saturation! (said as if I was a motocross announcer).

This one might seem small, but it is a perfect example of how small little deceptions and misconceptions can have a massive effect on our lives and our business growth.

So many of us who have that entrepreneurial dream to either build our own empire or just create a second stream of revenue base our decisions on this classic business concept.

I do believe that an important part of business success comes from looking at a market and going where there is little to no competition.

In fact Thomas J. Stanely, Ph.D. author of the book “The Millionaire Mind” states that one of the top 10 reasons listed when interviewing hundreds of millionaires is just that. They knew they did not want to have to work as hard as it takes to take on heavy competition.

So if that is a researched fact, then why am I saying it is an excuse?

Let’s define saturation and competition.

For the purpose of our conversation, and dealing with why we resist marketing ourselves as experts, I will define competition as a fact of life but saturation as a perception, or better yet, how we are choosing to see the fact of competition.

Imagine for a second that you wake up one day with a burning passion to create a new line of cars, lawn mowers, health shakes, work out programs or even yet another social media platform.

You’re insane right? Well only if you are not willing to look for the opportunities in those crowded markets. In every industry there are weaknesses that allow for someone to come along and exploit.

Energy – Green Mountain Energy

Transportation – Electric cars or even low cost cars such as Kia

Social Media – New platforms that don’t create connections but facilitate them such as ping.fm, peoplebrowsr or tweetdeck.

The point is simply this: Yes there is competition, and yes you should look at that competition very clearly. But if you are an author, speaker or any sort of business person that will be in front of people you have one key ingredient, one secret weapon that can carve out a piece of that market faster than any technology, degree, or product.

YOU!!!

That’s right true believers. You.

I have spent my life showing people from every imaginable background and business how to leverage themselves to gain their market share and it starts by simply stopping the khaki game.

If you’re not familiar with the khaki game, I can sum it up with this quote that I heard from a girlfriend.

“Being boring is a choice. Those khakis and mild salsa didn’t create themselves!”

KHAKI TALK

No offense to all my khaki wearing brothers out there. Khaki pants and fashion is not really the point here.

Each one of us has a completely unique mind that has been shaped and forged from billions of impressions that all come together to create a single unique view of the world and its challenges.

So it doesn’t matter if you’re selling insurance, donuts, or civilian space travel. You see it differently.

The key is that you have to give way to those thoughts and allow them to be heard.

This is what truly lies beneath this excuse, as it does with all of them. FEAR OF REJECTION.

So let me leave you with this one question.

If you are scared of rejection from clients, customers, and especially your peers, then how has that worked for you up to this point?

Take a true assessment of your business.

Are you doing what you love?

Do you enjoy your clients?

Do you actually respect your peers and value their opinions?

If you answer no to any of these questions then you would probably truly benefit from what we see as rejection. It is “rejection” that shapes our business for the good.

Your life view and opinion will attract those that you will enjoy working with and for. Those that will value your business so you are not constantly asking for them to value your time and expertise.

Where there is saturation there is IMMENSE potential. Saturation tends to be the thickest in markets where the actual humanity is the hardest to find.

Every one of us wants to communicate with a human, purchase from a human, and work with a human.

If you don’t believe that then go ahead and call for tech support the next time your system or phone has crashed losing all of your work and pay attention to your very first reaction when an automated message comes on.

And if you don’t believe me well… then… I encourage you to “reject” me! LOL. I’m just that much closer to my true market!

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You may not be shocked to hear that I address this with clients on a daily basis.

What you might be amazed to learn is that many of them have been in their area of knowledge for over 20 years. What’s more, many already have books, radio shows, and have appeared on TV numerous times!

How is this possible?

With just a quick peek behind the curtain you will quickly learn that a very significant number of well-known and famous therapists, speakers, authors, politicians, etc. still deal with anxiety attacks over this one common fear.

That fear isn’t public speaking or rejection.

It is “what happens WHEN someone DISCOVERS that I am not REALLY an expert?” and it is one of the subtlest forms of self-sabotage and deception.

Let’s dig down deeper on this epidemic that plagues all of us at one point or another in our careers.

Looking at the language we use has always been an effective method for seeing into our issues.

3 primary lies layered into this fear are what keep thousands of us from achieving our best and working so much harder than needed.

LIE #1 – WHEN

We have all heard the phrase “it’s not a question of if but when.” Most of us live by this concept of life. Disappointment, loss, rejection, abandonment, the list goes on forever. While I am by no means an unrealistic “dreamer”, I do believe we embody what we expect.

In the last blog post, I walked you through an exercise designed to prepare you for the “worst case scenario”. But the truth is that most of us spend our lives running from events that will never take place.

AT LEAST THEY HAVE A REASON TO RUN

In over a decade of marketing, training, speaking, directing and producing, I have never had someone try to prove that I am not an expert. The fact is, even IF you are wrong on a fact relating to your expertise, 99% of people will forgive that IF your intention was to help people.

However, if your intention was to make as much money as possible and you’re arrogant, then you deserve what happens next! I say this because that is the exact formula for ensuring the humiliation of being called out.

Plus you don’t have to constantly tell everyone you are an expert. IF you are, others will say it for you!

LIE #2 – DISCOVERS

Listen to the very intent of this word. You are already accepting you are NOT an expert and that there is something to be “discovered”. IF you are going around saying you are the world’s foremost expert in your field, then you are calling out skeptics to test your claims, but that’s not what we are doing here.

We are simply stating the truth.

An Expert is only required to be "Smarter Than the Average Bear"

You have a greater amount of experience and “working knowledge” than the average person on the street.

There is simply nothing to be “discovered”. However, it is a great exercise to acknowledge this fear and list any element of your business or marketing you feel could be “discovered” to not be true. Maybe you have just embellished facts where you didn’t intend to. Now is the time to correct that and keep your claims legit and simple.

Remember: people buy from benefits much more than they do features. You only provide benefit to a client is when you are seen as an expert.

LIE #3 – REALLY

Another tell tale sign you simply are not believing you provide the value that you do.

Always come back to the definition. Do you have a greater working knowledge of a subject than the AVERAGE person on the street? If the answer is yes, then you are a budding expert… yeah REALLY!

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While there are many sides to this conversation let me just give some of the basics today.

Stop with the enforced e-mail forwards already! Trying to force or bribe people to forward your info to a friends or family in order to be rewarded or win looks skanky in today’s ultra-permission-based world. Especially when you tell visitors nothing about their friend’s or family’s privacy in the space directly next to the e-mail form.

A true viral campaign gets forwarded because consumers are compelled to do so by the glory of the content, not because you bribed them with points or something else.

What absolutely will not work:

Suggesting that e-mail recipients forward your message to their friends and family will not work. Adding a line at the bottom of your e-mail that reads Please feel free to forward this message to a friend is more likely to get it deleted than forwarded.

What absolutely will work:

Offering something worthy of sharing like a valuable discount, vital information or offering an incentive for sharing like additional entries into a sweepstakes or an added discount or premium service will work.

Relevant or timely information, research, or studies that are included in your e-mail might encourage the recipients to share with their family and friends. Interactive content like a quiz or test, especially if it’s fun, will inspire forwarding.

Jokes and cartoons are almost always forwarded to everybody the recipient knows.  Why?  Because they are entertaining and entertainment is meant to be shared.

A really cool multimedia experience is always going to achieve a lot of pass-along. Rich media is new and the novelty and tech factors alone are often enough to make the e-mail recipient eager to share it.

Oops!  Almost forgot one really important thing.You can craft a brilliant e-mail following all the rules, but if a consumer visits your site and has an experience less that what was promised, you are going to achieve viral marketing, alrightÖthe bad kind.  So be certain that your product or service is ready and is as advertised.

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