170. How your upbringing has programed you to fail at business – with Brad Powell
You probably spend a lot of energy, a lot of time, and as you’ve grown older, a lot of money trying to fit in.
Whether it’s the clothes you buy the car you drive, the job you try and go for where you’re trying to basically be part of the group.
You’re trying to blend in to get by.
You’re trying to blend in so that you feel safe and you feel comfortable.
And if you’re in business for yourself, it’s absolutely the wrong thing to be thinking about. It’s the worst place to be putting all your energy into. In fact, this is a prime example where your upbringing has been programming you to fail at business.
“There’s no such thing as fitting in. Life is a pair of skinny jeans, and you are a big fat ass.” Comedian Tom Papa
Do you agree or disagree…? (Listen up for my take)
Resources:
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Take the Standout Business Scorecard & get the steps to create an Unforgettable Brand in just 5 minutes: https://awesomevideomakers.com/scorecard/
Transcript
Brad Powell:
You know, we spend a lot of energy, a lot of time and, as we grow older, a lot of money trying to fit in, whether it’s the clothes we buy, the car we drive, the job we try and go for all of these kinds of things where we’re trying to basically be part of the group. We’re trying to blend in to get by. We’re trying to blend in so that we feel safe and we feel comfortable. And if you’re in business for yourself, it’s absolutely the wrong thing to be thinking about, it’s the wrong thing to be putting your energy into. I was scrolling through my YouTube feed and I came across this short by comedian Tom Papa and he was talking about fitting in.
Tom Papa:
You know what? There is no fitting in. I don’t fit in, you don’t fit in. There’s no such thing as fitting in Life is a pair of skinny jeans and you are a big fat ass. That’s it. It’s uncomfortable being a human being.
Brad Powell:
Right? So there we are. Life is a skinny pair of jeans and we’re all just a little too fat to fit in there. There’s so much going on all around you that, by putting all your energy into blending in, no one is ever going to notice you. No one is ever going to take notice of the gifts that you have and the solution that you provide and the good work that you are doing. We really need to try and do something really different and stand apart, and the good news is that it’s actually easier than you think. Just by being a human being, you do stand out Like. You are unique and you are different, and there is no one else quite like you, and so, in fact, it’s really fruitless to try and blend in, because the more you try to blend in often, the more you will stick out and the more you will seem oh no, I don’t fit in. I don’t actually fit with this particular group. I feel like a misfit. This is the banner that I’m going to encourage you to embrace, like, if you’re feeling like a misfit and you feel like you don’t fit in, great, lean into that and lean into the characteristics that you have that make you unusual, that make you quirky, that make you a little bit different and distinctive than all of the rest, because those are the traits and the qualities that are going to endear people to you.
Brad Powell:
Welcome back to the Standout Business Show. This is the podcast for business leaders and entrepreneurs who refuse to blend in. I’m your host, brad Powell, so one of the things that I’ve been doing as I look into the new year 2025, is just around the corner. So I’m looking at well, what can I be doing that is a little bit different and a little bit distinctive going into the new year and what can I do to break some of the patterns from what I’ve been doing up until now? One of the things that I’ve been doing with great regularity now for about three years is this show. As we go forward into the next year, I’m really thinking about breaking the pattern of what the show is like and I’m wanting your help.
Brad Powell:
As I look back over the last three years, I realized I’ve been doing interviews almost every week. So if you add all those weeks up, it’s over 150 interviews that I’ve done with over 150 different business experts and leaders who, in their own way, are refusing to blend in, and we’ve been talking about the different ways that they stand out and the different ways that they can help you be different in your market. That’s a great resource, like there’s a huge archive now of all this information, and I’ve got this network of all these people who can bring a lot of expertise on this topic to the table. And the question is well, what could I do to harness that and take advantage of a lot of the work that I’ve already been doing? And what I’ve come up with is I’ve created a new resource and I’ve called it the Standout Business Scorecard, and this resource is something that you can take advantage of. You can go to the scorecard and it will basically ask you a set of questions. There’s just 15 questions. They’re all yes or no, so you can go through it really quickly. It only takes about two to three minutes and it will help you rank yourself on how well you and your business are making the impact that you want to and whether or not you in fact stand out. And it ranks you on three different criterias ranks you on personal branding, it ranks you on market differentiation and it ranks you on online presence, and you’ll get a score at the end that will give you personalized recommendations, not just from me, but from the past guest experts. This is a terrific way for you to see where you are and see the places where you may need to grow and develop.
Brad Powell:
So why am I doing this? Well, one of the main reasons is that I want to deepen my relationship with you Because, after you go in and you answer all these questions, I’m going to be able to see the places where you’re doing really well and the places where you need help, and that’s going to help me figure out what are the things that I need to be talking about in the future, in the new year, as we go forward, and, of course, what kind of guests do I want to bring on. That will be most helpful. But the other part is that, as more and more people take this scorecard, I’m going to get a huge amount of data and information about the audience as a whole, and I’m going to be able to share that in a variety of ways, saying hey, you know what? Here’s a bunch of people who clearly have issues and trouble in this particular arena, and this is a pattern that I’m seeing and we can all learn from that in terms of here’s an area where clearly there’s a lot of work that needs help with, and I can bring in people who are really knowledgeable in those areas and we will all benefit from that.
Brad Powell:
So if you’re interested in taking the scorecard it’s really quick, it’s free
Just go to https://awesomevideomakers.com/scorecard/ and you can jump right in and find out your standout score. That’s all I’ve got for you today. Thanks so much for tuning in and we’ll see you next time. I just want to remind you that if you’d like to go and get the entire archive of the Standout Business Show, you can go to http://standoutbusiness.show and it’s all there all the audio, all the video, all the extra stuff that I put in there only for our listeners. And until next time, thanks again, so long.
