Today for Q & A Tuesday, Sarah from O-My-Raw writes:

Q: “I’m launching a new raw-foods business and I only have one main competitor. I can’t

seem to get her out of my mind.” Will she think I’m a fraud? Will she hate me? “I

know that competition is good for business but how far do I take it? Do I introduce myself?

Do I attend the raw potlucks that she hosts in town or do I keep to myself and stay focused

on my own client-based?”

A: First of all girl, we have all been there. We’ve all started something new and then

seen someone further ahead than us which all results in what is known as the dreaded “Comparison

Hangover”. The Comparison Hangover is what you get when you go on a bender. You spend

way too much time thinking about, obsessing about, and googling your competition and then

you wind up feeling like ass.

So your first assignment is to spend the majority of your time working on your own business

so you can make it as amazing as it can be. If you really want to kick some major butt,

you want to stop thinking small. Don’t look at just one competitor, you want to look at

what’s happening in your entire industry because the truth is, there are tens of thousands

of raw-food coaches out in the world and they are all peddling on the same shiznit. Ask

yourself, what objections or frustrations are customers having with hiring raw-food

coaches and how can you look outside or if there is something outside of the box to innovate

your industry? For example when I first started out, there were couple of key competitors

that I too obsessed about, but then I got smart and stopped looking at just competitors

and started looking at the whole industry and asked myself how could I do things differently?

So when I first got started most people in personal development or in business advice

everything was touchy feely, it was very conservative, no one was doing what I like to call in Jersey

“Real Tawk” and no one was keeping it fun and light-hearted and doing things that

were edgy so of course I came along and changed that. Another example is many of the conferences

that I would go to in either personal development or business conferences where known as “pitch

fests” meaning that you get there and all it was one pitch after the other to sell you

these really expensive programs or just everybody on stage was just a dog and pony show so that

really didn’t feel so good to me so I created a conference called JRich Happy and Hot Live

which is a pitch-free conference and it’s been selling out year after year one. One

of the reasons is because it’s very different that in anything else in the market. You can

and should do this too.

Make a list of everything that happens in your industry that you think should change

and go then ahead and change it. You want to make your business different, a full expression

of you. Once you make thatthe foundation of how you are spending your time, it’s going

to be a lot easier to get to know that “big” competitor and in all honesty, she’s not

really a competitor she’s a colleague of yours and it’ll be great for you to get

to know her. And since there are plenty of clients to go around, wouldn’t it be awesome

if you guys can send the overflow to each other. So for example you might come across

a client that is not really perfect fit for you, maybe you can filter that client off

to your colleague and on the flip side, it’s likely that if you start sending her business

with someone is not a good fit for her, she’s likely going to send them to you. Bottom line

is competitors need not to hate each other. She does not have to be your evil arch nemesis

So let’s land this plane, here’s what I want you to do Sarah: put all of your energy

and attention into making your business as great as it can be it means you’re going

to look at the whole industry and seeing how you can make your business different and better.

And of course get to know that fine young lady, she’s not a just competitor, she’s

a colleague.

That’s my A to your Q Sarah, thank you so much for asking it. Now here’s what I want

to know from you. How do you deal with competition in your industry? Do you have tips, or stories,

or strategies to share? I would love to hear them. Leave a comment below or even better

yet, leave me a video response. If you don’t want to know hoe to leave a video response,

it’s right here. And of course if you are watching this video on your mobile phone or

your iPad and you can’t see nothing right here but you can see a how-to on the link

below in the description and just make sure you title your video response “How To Deal

With Competition”. If you like this video, hit the like button and please share it with

your friends and if you want more awesome tips for your business and you life, come

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email on the upper right hand corner of our website. Thank you so much for watching and

have a great day and I’ll catch you next time.