In the Beginning
Like many entrepreneurs, I realize now that I was so naive when I started my first business.
My brother and I started a web design and marketing firm and we were so excited at first.
Everything was going to be great, we were going to be famous...
Then reality set in.
We quickly became frustrated that we weren’t getting the results we wanted. We were struggling to get new business and things needed to change fast.
As the sales guy, it was my job to convince customers that we could help them with their marketing. But we had no credibility in the marketplace and no client referrals to work off of. I felt like I was spinning my wheels and going nowhere.
Every proposal I gave to a prospect was critical for us. Yet prospects were collecting proposals from several other more established companies in the market and we would lose the deal. The biggest challenge was that every proposal the prospect got was vastly different in price and features often leaving them confused with what they really needed.
As the “internet consultant” I would always try to convince them that they had to compare apples to apples. This is a common line used by sales people who want to ensure that the prospect is able to properly compare one product to another.
Like most sales people I found it gave me mediocre results.
Finally, I realized that even if I succeeded with this approach – all I had done was become another apple.
Why fight to be the best apple, when you can be something different.
In a whole world full of apples what people really want is to eat an orange.
I realized that this is why so many businesses struggle.
We are unable to separate ourselves and communicate our distinctions. We get lost among a sea of competitors. We are so busy trying to fit in with all the other apples, we forget that what people really want is something different, something better.
We ended up changing our brand to Orange Marketing, started celebrating what made us unique in the marketplace (helping businesses find their uniqueness and educating them on how to do it) and customers flocked to our door.
This principal became a core part of who I am.
It started applying to all areas of my life and changed the way that I looked at the world.
Some people are happy to be just another apple. I look at them as being redundant. The world doesn’t just need another business, or another person for that matter.
Rather, what the world really needs is YOU.
Complete authentic you. Not some carbon copy of someone else. And the same goes for your business.
Those of us that don’t accept mediocrity and being part of the status quo, who are willing to take the risk of standing out and creating our own personal imprint on this world are the one’s that find success in life.
In Your Career
In Your Home
In Your Relationships
In Your Community
When we discover who we are, and who we can be. When we understand what makes us different and why that matters. When we realize the power of becoming our own unique “orange” we find happiness, success, and begin to achieve our personal goals and dreams.
This has been my journey of self awareness and finding my uniqueness, and I believe that it can help you too.
Sincerely,
Max Kalles