I am coach and mentor. Like most small companies, I’m self-employed, one issue is to make potential clients find me. Another issue is how to stand out in the crowd. There are lots of coaches and mentors, how can I be different and make a difference?
I have two questions that I work with:
• What can I do differently?
• What can I do that my competitors don’t?
I don’t think there’s a final answer to any of those. It’s about Kaizen, gradual improvement, and keeping an eye on what my competitors do.
Eagle or Duck?
Yesterday I came across Be an Eagle, not a Duck, a great story posted by Keith Stoeckeler that’s on a related topic. The story is about Wally the Cab Driver and how he changed his business. As Keith said: “Small changes can make a large impact.” Wally got his inspiration from a quote by Wayne Dyer:
Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.
Wally the Cab Driver made a choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles. He put in a few changes at a time, gradually improving his business.
I intend to soar with the eagles. What about you?
Mission statement
Wally the cab driver in the Eagle or Duck story above had this Mission Statement:
To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.
That mission statement is short and to the point, easy to understand and also fairly easy to measure. It reminds me of this quote:
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupe
Twitter connects
@Amy Stark recommended that I should take a look at Convince & Convert. I liked it, subscribed and decided to follow @Jay Baer. Then Jay tweeted about @Keith Stoeckeler and the story above.
Thanks for posting about this Bengt, and I’m glad you took to the story as much as I did.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Thanks Bengt. It’s fun to play 6 Degrees of Keith Stoeckeler. It doesn’t have the same ring as “Kevin Bacon” but Twitter makes it easier.
It’s a great story and it’s fun to see how connections work on Twitter.
I like it when good ideas spread worldwide. I should add @Prebynski into the twitter connection sequence, because I learned of @JayBaer from Brandon @Prebynski . Thanks Brandon <= central #Indiana geek who named his dog WEBster.
I have Kevin Bacon beat any day of the week.