A (0:01)

You are listening to the Grow youw Local Business podcast where local marketing expert and life coach Leslie Presnell shares the strategies and the mindset to help you reach more people in your city and bring in a steady stream of clients. All right, let's dive in.

B (0:20)

Hey, welcome to episode 137. Today I want to talk about your competitors, but more importantly, the decisions you make in your business based on your competitors. Like the decisions that are keeping you stuck, keeping you playing small, keeping you invisible, maybe with you not even really realizing it. So if you are a local business owner, and you are if you're here, but chances are high that there are other people in your city doing the same thing as you or doing something close to it. And if not, one day there might be. Which is why this conversation matters today. I have been talking to several of my students inside the LocalPreneur Academy lately, or people on consults or even in my DMs or in emails. And it's getting brought up a lot about competitors or other people in your industry doing what you're doing or maybe even someone copying what you're doing. And I know if I'm hearing it from other people that there are a lot more of you who are really struggling with this. So today I want to show you some of the very specific competitor based decisions that may be holding you back. I really have noticed some patterns and I see us making decisions based on our competitors in four main areas and I want to walk you through each one just so you can check in and see if you are doing this in your own business. So number one, the first area we make decisions based on our competitors is with our content and with our ideas. So what this commonly looks like is we end up pulling back in our marketing, we withhold in our social media post, or we stop posting certain things, we stop sharing as much because we don't want our competitor to see certain things that they could take or they could copy. We feel like we're giving too much away and we don't want them to take our ideas. So that could look like not sharing client wins because we don't want them to know who we're working with or avoiding posting certain topics like any sort of educating or any kind of intellectual property because you don't want your competitor to copy it and share it as their own or, or even like sharing behind the scenes content. You don't want your competitor to know how your businesses run or how you do what you do. So what happens is we end up not Connecting with our audience, like not showing up as frequently, not showing up as the expert, all out of fear that our competitor will take it from us. So inside the LocalPreneur Academy, I have this tool called the local Client Filter. And the idea is it helps my students create and make decisions in their business based on their best clients. And really this is just a signal that we're not focused on our best clients. We're not focused on our clients at all. When we're in this situation, we're focused on our competitor. And here's the actual truth here. If your competitor needs post ideas, if they need information, if they need ideas, if they need educational content, they're just going to go get it from somewhere else. So you might as well just keep posting and sharing with your audience because when you pull back, they're not pulling back. They're going to keep posting, they're going to keep connecting with your people. And we want you to be the loudest voice that your people hear, the one they see the most. I started my business, my first local business in 2010. And over the years I have had ideas, events, products, intellectual property all borrowed from me. And my thought process is, first off, we're human. Like we get to have a human reaction to that. I'm not going to sit here and say it feels like rainbows and daisies. It does not. You get to have human emotions. But here's what I also know. I have the identity as a thought leader, as an expert, as that local go to person. And this is what I teach my students to develop inside the localpreneur Academy. And when you have this self image or this identity and you truly see yourself as a thought leader, you know that you're always just going to have better ideas. You're always just going to be on to the next thing, the next day, the next week. If someone took a content idea, fine. Like I'll be on to another one, a better one by tomorrow. If someone ripped off an event I was doing, which has happened multiple times, great, I'm going to plan an even bigger and better one. You have to see yourself like that, like an idea factory, as someone who's never going to run out of ideas. When you believe that about yourself, you won't fear sharing things, you won't fear showing up because you know what you're sharing is not your last best idea. There's just going to be more coming out of you, you know, there's always going to be more. So the second thing, another way that I see Us making competitor based decisions is when it comes to local networking and business relationships. So this looks like skipping networking events because your competitor might be there. Or not collaborating with other local business owners because the competitor might also be in on it too. Or maybe just not going to local events as much. Not connecting offline as much with your people because they might be there. Listen, you don't have to be besties with your competitor. You don't have to feel good about seeing them, but you do have to get uncomfortable with them being around. You have to get okay with being uncomfortable, I should say. So get really clear on how you feel when they're around. Maybe it's awkward, maybe it's anger, maybe it's imposter syndrome. Like get really clear on whatever that emotion is and just know that that emotion is the worst thing that's going to happen to you. The worst case scenario in any scenario is you're going to feel a negative emotion, you're going to feel awkward, you're going to feel angry, you're going to feel less than whatever it is. Allow that emotion to be there. Get really good at feeling uncomfortable and go to the event anyway. Meet people, do the collaboration, go network, go grow your business. Because what's the alternative? You don't go, you don't network, you don't meet people, you stop being visible, you stop growing your audience. All because you didn't want to feel a negative emotion when you were around the competitor. So again, they continue to grow. Instead, because they're networking, they're collaborating and meeting more people. So the third way I see this show up is in pricing and offers and we make competitor based decisions based on that. So this looks like making business decisions based on what our competitor is doing. So maybe you see their price is lower, so you lower your price to avoid being too expensive. Instead of learning the skill set of how to position yourself locally, or learning the skill set of how to talk about what you offer and so your people see it as a value match. Or maybe you see that their price is higher, so you raise your prices, but your confidence isn't there yet, so you aren't able to go out and confidently talk about what you do and make offers and sell and bring people in, but because you raised your prices too early, before you were ready, or based on a circumstance that had nothing to do with you or your audience or your business. Or maybe you create new services in your business because you see that your competitor is doing something and you feel the need to compete and stay relevant. But it really leads you to feel frantic and chaotic and you're showing up kind of urgently and graspy and versus like saying grounded and growing with like the current offers that you have and that you decided on originally. Or on the flip side, maybe you do want to bring in a new service or a new offer, but you know, it's something that they also do and you don't want to offer it out of fear. Out of fear that people will think that you're copying them or that people will think that, you know, you're just doing it because they're doing it. So again, it's like we're thinking about this, them, not our clients. Like what our clients really need and how to get them the best results. So the fourth way I see this show up, how I see us making competitor based decisions is when it comes to support and education decisions. To me this can have one of the biggest growth and revenue impacts on your business. And I see it constantly. So here's what that looks like. It looks like not going to conferences or not going to local trainings or classes again because they may be there. Or not enrolling in a program that could grow your business because they may already be in it. Or not enrolling in a program because they may eventually join if they find out you're in it. There is a cost to this. You slow your growth. You stop yourself from getting the information, the coaching, the skills that your business needs. Meanwhile, your competitor keeps growing. I see this also happen within programs like not asking for feedback or putting, not wanting to put your ideas out there in these containers to get help around your ideas because again, you're afraid if they're in there, they may take your ideas. Which goes back to the first point of really like clutching and holding on to your ideas versus just moving faster in your business and trusting that you're just going to have more and more ideas coming out of you. Like, let's just get this one out there fast and go again. Like who cares if they rip it off? It's just one idea, it's one post. Like there's hundreds more coming and they're going to see your idea as soon as you put it out in the world anyway. So it's really slowing yourself down and like just getting the feedback or support or whatever you need in the meantime. Or another way I see this come up for people is not wanting to ask questions in a program or in a coaching container because they don't want their competitor to see how they're struggling or to see that they are struggling at all. And again, this comes back to stopping yourself from growth. All because you're not willing to feel uncomfortable. So what's the negative emotion that you think you will feel if that person is in the program and hears about your struggle? Will you feel exposed? Will you feel vulnerable? Will you feel shame? Will you feel embarrassed? Like, get really clear on what that emotion is and know that that is the only emotion that's stopping you from growing. And the sooner you can allow that emotion to just be there, the sooner you can give your business what it needs to move forward again. It's not that you have to feel great that the person's in the program. It's not that you have to be excited that they're there, but it's about allowance of the negative emotion. Allowing yourself to feel vulnerable, allowing yourself to feel exposed, allowing yourself to feel embarrassed or shame. Allowing those emotions, letting yourself get in. Learn what you need to learn. Develop the skill sets you need to develop. Develop the mindset that you need. That's how you succeed. It's when you don't allow the emotions and you avoid them. Your business stalls, you hide, you don't show up, you don't ask for help, you don't ask the questions, you don't get the information you need, you don't get the knowledge that you need. You don't learn the skill sets, you don't give your business what it and you don't grow that way, but they do. But we want you growing. That's why you're here. So before we wrap up, I want you to ask yourself, where am I making competitor based decisions in my business? Where am I holding back right now because of a fear around a competitor? Where are you keeping yourself small? Where are you not giving your business what it needs to grow? And if you're ready to stop hiding, finally build your business based on local strategy with the confidence and with the mindset to implement it. Come join me inside the LocalPreneur Academy. It's where you'll learn how to stand out locally, how to grow your following, how to create content to get fully booked no matter who else is in your city. All right, my friends, you've got this. Click the link in the show notes to check out the LocalPreneur Academy and I hope to see you inside. Hey. If you enjoyed today's episode, I want to invite you to check out my program, the LocalPreneur Academy. This is the only program for small business owners who want to become the local go to in their industry with a steady stream of clients. You can find more information@lesliepressnell.com and I'll see you inside.