How to Sidestep Brand Envy And Own Who You Are

We’ve all got them in our market space.

The successful rogues that make you scratch your head trying to figure out their secret sauce.

The guy with a lot less experience, but who has managed to build up an audience 20X yours.

Or the maven who lets it all hang out, giving you a glimpse into her day-to-day world, warts and all.

Studying your competition is a smart move—it’s your dues to stay current in your space.

But the danger sign starts flashing when your knowledge veers into brand envy. Where their success feeds your discontent.

There is a fine line between using your competitors’ success as fuel vs. allowing it to derail your own progress.

Case in point: you read an article that perfectly illustrates a point you’ve been making to your clients. Frustrated that you didn’t write it yourself, you become hyper-critical of your own work.

You sit on your ideas too long—your inner critic just can’t be satisfied—until your confidence starts flagging permanently (Jill Konrath shared how she escaped that fate here).

But that’s only one possible outcome.

Another is that you invest your energy in actively dissing one or two rogues in particular. You don’t even have to say the words out loud—just the fact that you get ticked off when you encounter evidence of their success means you’re focused on their game instead of yours.

It pulls your focus away from what makes you unique and, well, unforgettable.

You’ll never win the big stakes playing with someone else’s strengths—you have to define and leverage your own.

YOUR talents, passions, ideas and inimitable style of working and communicating.

To build market authority, you must not only define your own point of view, but develop a language and work style all your own.

As you get better and better at honing your edge, your audience AND your momentum will build.

Because the more you own who you are, the easier it is for your tribe to find you and sign on.

Use your competitors’ success as a sign that there is a robust market for your services. Learn from what they do.

But play the long game—your game—and you’ll be the rogue the others want to channel.

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