Standing Out From The Crowd
At the start of 2018 I dived into a new year with a mantra: be bold, be brave. I made a string of large bunting - one flag for each letter - which I hung above my bed. I bought a new notebook. And I quietly stayed home jotting down ideas until I’d worked out how I was going to achieve boldness and bravery. This part took some time, but I got there… eventually.
That was the year in which I quit my full time job, returned to music school, started performing in public again, put myself out there - musically - on social media a bit more, found some writing work which paid more than twice the hourly rate I had been earning previously (and I was still not charging enough, apparently), and it slowly dawned on me that I had been living my life according to others’ ideals.
Standing out from the crowd is something I have always been attracted to, but until I unraveled the above debacle and started living life on my own terms, I hadn’t fully appreciated the benefits of this way of being; both in life and business.
I’m proud to say that I wasn’t a sheep when I was younger. I didn’t follow fashion trends to the tee or listen to the music that everyone else listened to, like my peers. Yes I wanted to be different, but only because I didn’t want to be like everyone else. It wasn’t until much later that I wanted to stand out from the crowd because I understood the fact that it felt good to be ME.
First it seemed obvious: stand out from the crowd, everyone! Embrace your uniqueness! Shout from the rooftops! Dye your hair yellow, wear lightning bolt earrings and find the brightest purple lipstick you can find! The same could be applied in a business sense.
But what happens when your star sign isn’t Leo? Or when you don’t have performance blood running through your veins, and are therefore not all that comfortable putting yourself - or your business - out there in a public way?
Ooh, this sounds like a challenge - and I like it already.
It’s time to shift the perspective on what “stand out from the crowd” means so that it can be applied to anyone, or any business.
One definition I found thanks to a trusty Google search was “unusual”, which I can imagine would put some people off because it carries negative connotations. In actual fact, the word “unusual” means “not ordinary, not common, exceptional”. I like where this is going…
I’m not talking about being off the wall, out there, or brash. I’m simply talking about doing things differently. Moving away from tag lines that become ambiguous, letting go of bland copy that no one - and I mean no one - actually enjoys reading.
Being brave enough to stand out from the crowd will mean the difference between people looking at your brand, and people engaging with your brand. And oh how sweet engagement is. Engagement means connection. Enjoyment. Satisfaction. Actively participating in this thing we call life.
Imagine what it would be like if every person and every business owned what it was that made them, them. Not be bound by the things that they thought people wanted to see? It’s about being true to the things that make you, or your business, unique, while also finding - and highlighting - the things that make you different to all the rest.
In my mind the opportunity is for businesses who get this, to shine. Embrace the quirks, celebrate the things you do well, acknowledge the things that make you uniquely you. Catch people’s attention for more than just a transaction. Even though we’re operating in a noisy, crowded business landscape, I truly believe this is possible.
The outcome, aside from giving people a proper thrill when they come to read your communications, is pure joy. And there’s always room for more joy.