Recognizing Your Unique Asset

Every business has a unique asset — something that they are KNOWN for that truly sets them apart from all other choices. It’s your secret sauce, your guarded recipe, the way you do it here,  your patented magic. Some businesses never fully become aware of their unique asset — and those businesses don’t reach their potential. In this episode, Kim and Cara walk you through how to discover your unique asset and give you ideas on how to use it in your marketing and service.

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Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a

gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how

to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques, and tools

that will take overwhelm to obedience school, and have you

wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts, Kim Beer, and

Cara Taylor Swift.

Hey there business animals, it's Kim with

Be More Business

and Cara with Fast Horse photography.

Welcome to The Business Animal podcast Cara and

I have an interesting topic to talk to you about today. And I'm

going to tell you a little bit of story of why this is one of

my chosen topics of why I brought this up in our meetings.

Years ago, I went to it was a conference for business

consultants, basically that were affiliates of a certain product.

And they had a keynote speaker that came on that I absolutely

loved, I cannot remember her name, I should probably look

that up at some point. And I listened to her keynote and

since have like extrapolated one little small idea I got from the

keynote into being something that's much bigger in my own

business consulting world. And what she said was every business

has a unique asset, they have something that they're known

for, that truly sets them apart and makes them really different.

It's the secret sauce. It's the guarded recipe, it's the way

that you do it here. It's your patented magic. And the thing

that I recognize in working with small businesses, literally

1000s of them every year is that some of them, or a lot of them

actually, I don't think ever become fully aware of their

unique asset. And I don't think they reach their potential

because they don't really capitalize on that. So that's

our topic for today. Cara, are you excited about this topic?

I am I'm I'm just happy to be here today,

actually, and this is a good topic. And it is something that

I think a lot of small business owners don't even think about,

you know, they think about trying to be all the things or

trying to put all the information out about their

business. But if you can focus on your unique asset, you really

stand out from the crowd.

Absolutely. And I love what you just said about

small business owners focusing on all the things right, one of

the crazy things about marketing in particular is that the more

that you try to include every little piece of things, the

harder it becomes for you to build a business. And when

you're marketing, the more people that you're talking to

the harder it is for people to hear you. And that is a good

point about having that unique asset for your business. Or

actually, this conversation isn't about having it, it's

about finding it then utilizing it

putting it to work exactly, exactly putting it

putting it to work

to work in your business. So our big three number one is for you

to find that what is the one most unique thing about you and

or your business. And then our big three, number two is for you

to assess that how or if you're even using that asset at all at

this point. And then finally, big three number three is how do

you make your unique asset more prominent in your business, your

marketing and your service? So let's dive in. For me

personally, when the speaker asked that question, what is

your unique asset and I sat in that room all those years ago, I

thought, my unique asset because I'm in a room full of business

consultants, right? You could reach out in either direction

and find a business consultants really easily. And I thought

what makes me different from all of these people.

And I would imagine that you have a lot of

the same strengths and techniques and processes and

those sorts of things. So it's kind of like everybody in the

room has this baseline of characteristics and things that

they do that just kind of comes with it. So how are you

What do I bring? What's my patented magic that I

different?

bring to the situation? Because you're exactly right. Every

person sitting in that room pretty much offered the exact

same service, and they may have had niches and target markets

that were slightly different. But if you boiled us all down

into one thing, it would be really easy to say this is what

this roomful of people does. And as I looked around me I thought

what what do I have that's different, what is what is truly

different about me and the immediate answer that came to me

was my ranch. I came from a very different background than those

other people in the room. It was in Arizona and it was in a very

it was in Phoenix. So it was in a big city. And the people that

were in the room came from all over the world, really. But the

mass majority of them if I would say not all of them, they didn't

come from a small farm in Missouri. You know, I was the

only person in the room that came from a small farm in

Missouri, I was the only person in the room that probably was

the second generation rancher on that small farm. So I brought

all of this unique thoughts around my ranch. And I had

already to some degree incorporated that, like I'd

started writing about the fact that I always feel that ranchers

are, you know, they're some of the original entrepreneurs in

Are you looking to bring awareness to

growing food for a village or a community even in long ago,

historic times that may have been like the only entrepreneur

your equine based product or service or create a unique way

in town, and farmers also had to be sustainable. They had to

think about the long term, they had to figure out how to do

things in a production way, a lot of my business was centered

for your audience to feel connected to your brand? Quality

around the lessons that I had learned over the years about

being on this farm. And being that second generation child

that was here with agriculture, and working in partnership with

animals that were my team and understanding the sustainability

horse photos, tell your story and breathe life into your

of agriculture and how that really relates to small

businesses. And it just started to explode in my head about Wow,

that really is my unique asset in my business. And honestly,

marketing. They draw your customers in and create an

it's wonderful that people can come here and experience the

ranch and in conjunction with their business building. But

truthfully, I carry it with me everywhere I go. And I bring it

emotional connection. Powerful images, communicate your core

into everything that I do. And I hadn't recognized that before

that moment in time. And so it was a big realization for me.

And it shifted a lot of things for me, which I'm very, very

values and highlight the benefits your product offers.

happy about when it comes to finding your unique asset for

your business. Cara has some wonderful ideas for you about

where you might go hunting for that if you're sitting in your

car or your tractor, or you're listening at your desk and

Ultimately, proving your business is a voice your

you're going what is my unique asset? I don't have an immediate

answer for that question.

customers can trust. It's time to use dynamic images that

Well, this is a good place to start. So start thinking about

define your small business and separate you from the rest of

the herd. Fast Horse photography's professional photo

library features 1000s of searchable images available for

businesses just like yours. And guess what? 100% of those images

things like your location in your community, are you the only

person that's providing services in that location? That might be

are horse related. Now finding the right horse images for your

simply a unique asset that you can start with. Do you have a

unique service that you provide that your competition's not

providing? Do you have an exclusive product that you can

offer that maybe isn't available to other folks that work in your

website, social media, and marketing needs is easier than

same industry? But another unique asset could just be you,

your personality, the way that you like to work and your team,

maybe you have a team and other businesses don't have the option

of having a team. Your reputation could also be another

ever. Help your audience see that your brand offers the

unique asset how people know you in the community. It could be

that you provide services to a really small set of clients,

maybe to a unique population. For example, I work strictly

with horse owners. So for me in my community of photographers, a

answers they are looking for. Search for the perfect images

unique asset might be that I provide services to horses and

their people. It could be that the way that you do business,

your processes and your procedures might be very

different than your competition. It could also be the types of

equipment that you have access to or that you use. Maybe you do

for your equine business right now. Spur your customers into

something really different in my community of photographers, for

example, a unique asset might be that I can come on site and

shoot and then show you your pictures right there on site. So

that might be different from other photographers in my area.

action with FastHorsePhotography.com. That's

It might be that you have a really unique skill set a

certification or degree that allows you to stand out from the

crowd in your area and just adds a little clout to what you do.

And it could also be your brand and the way that you do business

fasthorsephotography.com.

or service, just that unique brand that's strictly yours.

Absolutely. And that unique brand. So when we

were prepping for this episode, Cara asked me a little bit about

that. And the way that I interpret this because I think

for a lot of businesses, it is their brand. It's how they show

up and what they bring to the table. And for your business,

for example, Cara, I see that for you, you have a very unique

way of showing up for your clients. You're their realist,

but you're also their cheerleader. The degree that you

offer service to your clients is exceptional in a world of

photographers that do offer already exceptional service. So

to be the exceptional in the exceptional crowd is definitely

a unique asset. But as we were talking about this, I explained

a story of memory that I had. So my very, very, very first job

that I really never talked about was flipping burgers at

McDonald's. I was a cook at McDonald's. I didn't know that

about you. Yes, I was all of 15-16 years old, I don't even

think I could drive at the time. And it was a summer job. And it

paid a crazy amount of money. I think it was like $2.50 An hour

or something. But McDonald's had a very unique way of doing

business and that they're one unique asset at the time now

things have shifted a little bit, and they've changed their

branding around. But at the time, it was fast. Like the way

that they produced hamburgers was better than anybody else

could do it. That was the one thing they did, everybody could

depend on McDonald's being fast. And the way that it happened

back when I was a teenager was McDonald's would like cook all

of the food ahead of time, like I would make a big batch of

hamburgers. And I would put them all together and I would stick

them in these bins that had like a warming element to them. And

then when you drove up to the drive thru, or came to the front

thing, they would hand you your food, it was like immediate, it

was like I ordered and boom, my food is in front of me, which

back in the day was harder to get. And then Burger King comes

along and Burger King capitalized on making their

unique asset, something that McDonald's couldn't do very

well, which was Have it your way, it was such a prominent

part of their marketing because you could order your food and

they would make it right then in there, like they put the

toppings on the burger. And I noticed that very stealthily, if

you were if you're an old folk like me, you will have noticed

that now McDonald's has really adopted Burger Kings way of

doing things because they now make everything sort of fresh to

fresh todays. But But back in the day, when somebody had to

order something special. Like if you didn't want onions on your

burger, it was the secret code to get your fresh burger,

because that meant that I had to cook it completely from scratch

for you while you waited, which sort of killed the whole unique

asset concept. Because the burgers came with onions and all

of the ones in the little bin that were waiting for humans had

onions on them. So that might be a better way of looking at I

know it's not an Well, technically not an animal based

business. But you can see how that way of doing things and the

branding, how that became that unique asset?

Well, I think the big part of that is just

identifying, you know, what sets you apart. And for McDonald's,

that example you gave it was super fast. They were one of the

first real fast food industry leaders. So what are the

distinguishing characteristics that really set you apart in

your animal industry? So start thinking about that. And I

recommend, you know, one of the things that I think was super

helpful for me is make a list of all the things in your business

that you feel are unique. And then Kim and I were talking

about this, and she says this is where you get to choose the one

that makes you you, you know, but making that list and kind of

going through and thinking okay, well, I'm different here and I'm

different here and just making that list, do the activity of

that. And then you get to, in some regards, choose what that

unique asset is. Another good thing that I've done in the past

is is solicit feedback from your clients, your past clients. And

you can do this in a couple different ways poll them, you

can contact them and ask them you can also you know ask for it

in the form of testimonials. You know, when you're requesting

information about the service that you provide, you can tailor

your questions in a way that you can help learn you know, what

they really felt set you apart why they decided to work with

you. And look for those things out there that you hear again

and again about your business. So one of the things that I hear

all the time is, you know, I'm blown away by your

professionalism, you know, and your support through this

process. That comes up again and again and again. And that to me,

you know, it's something that I think about, okay, so people

really appreciate this part of it, maybe they've worked with

photographers in the past that weren't as professional. So your

unique asset should really be unique to your business. So

you're looking for things that aren't something that happens in

your competitors business, it's not something that you see

routinely. So like Kim's giving the example of sitting at this

conference in a room full of coaches, and probably every one

of those coaches had something in common, they had things that

were routine as part of an average coaching business. So

what you're doing as you're looking for that one thing that

sets you apart, and it really needs to become a recognizable

part of your brand, which I think moves us into big three

number two, Kim, do you think

Absolutely, And that one is assess how or if

you're even using that asset.

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So back in that room, I was not using this ranch as an asset at

the time, particularly I was, like I said, I was only writing

a few blog posts here and there about it. But what I discovered

was when I started or when I guided sales conversations to my

background in agriculture, and my background with land and

nature, and horses, and all of those things, people really

started to listen in a very, very perked up ear way, they

were kind of mesmerized, because they'd heard it all before in

these very businessy terms. But here we were talking about, you

know, topics like how we do prescribed burning here on the

ranch, and how it burns off all of this clutter that gets into a

pasture. And what happens is, yes, there's a lot of a lot of

scarring and a lot of destruction. But in that

destruction comes back life tenfold from what it was before

the pasture was burned. So being able to use that as a metaphor

for a business that feels like tired or cluttered, or I hear

from a lot of small business owners, I am overwhelmed. You

know, okay, so you're overwhelmed, and you don't feel

like you're growing. So let's like burn away all of that stuff

that has accumulated and let's get some fresh growth in there.

And it really does stimulate that. So So using the metaphors

from the ranch, people really started to listen to me in a

very deep and meaningful way that I got their attention. And

I became memorable, which is when you're doing marketing is

like your number one goal, right? You want people to

remember you for you.

Well you set yourself apart and you found

your audience.

Absolutely. And when I go back into that

community now of other businesses that do exactly what

I do, they know me usually as the horse girl, I'll tell you,

one of the biggest differences I made is I've always been I

wasn't embarrassed of my agricultural background, but I

always felt a little weird dragging it out in really high

end business situations, right because I worked in a corporate

job I felt like I needed to have on you know, like skirts and

heels and dress really nicely and very businessy three piece

suit attire. And that day was the day that I stopped showing

up to a lot of my speaking engagements, the ones that I

knew people weren't going to freak out on me. I stopped

showing up into speaking engagements in business attire,

and I started wearing my jeans and coming in and in a nice

shirt and jeans and clean boots. But it became part of who I

showed up as and it was so much more authentic because you know

me, Cara, you know me as that person right? Can you imagine me

wandering around? And

Yeah, I can't picture you in a three piece

suit

Three piece suits and pumps and that kind of

stuff. It's not me

your pantsuit.

Yeah, and and so another big thing that I did in

that moment that I changed was I changed my biopic, on all of my

slides where I introduced myself, I changed it to me with

the horse and it really sparked conversations in the room

because when it flipped to me with the horse, and I'm sitting

in this group of business owner business owners, right that I do

a lot of instruction with city, very concrete jungle folks. And

so I flipped to that and they see the horse and I can always

see him go, what on earth? Is there a, why is there a horse in

the room with us? And then I explain my background and about

the ranch and it always brings up three or four people at the

end of the presentation that either talk to me about their

horse experience or talk to me about agriculture. So what I'm

trying to get out with this number two is take that moment

and see, are you really using your asset? And if you aren't,

why not? In my case, I was terrified. I thought these

people are not going to take me seriously. If I show up with

jeans on and a horse in my slideshow, they're gonna be

like, oh my god, she is some country bumpkin that doesn't

know jack about businesses and entrepreneurship. And I'm like,

Yeah, I know it better because I have this, this is where I've

been. So ask yourself for your own business. Where is that at?

Yeah, I think it sounds to me, like also, you

made yourself one of the more memorable people, you know, you

were so unique and different that everyone knew who you were

in a sea of a bunch of people that were very similar and

Absolutely. Think back to McDonald's on their

trying to fit in and trying to be like everyone else, like you

were the one that probably most people remembered, you know, you

had that unique element. So that's amazing, which I think

rolls us into number three, how can you make your unique asset

more prominent in your marketing and service? I mean, Kim started

right away, she changed the way she dressed, she went back to

how she wants to feel comfortable, she changed our

marketing image to better, you know, clarify who she is. And

that was a great place to start. But I think the biggest thing is

you have to talk about it. So for Kim, she had to talk about

the ranch, you know, she had to make that part of her story and

the examples that she gives in the way that she teaches and

coaches elements of the ranch came into that and the people

that find you and gravitate to you appreciate that you have to

write about it, you have to use them in your you know,

repeatedly in your marketing. So you can't be like a one hit

wonder where you talk about it once and then hope that people

remember it, it has to be a continuous presence in your

marketing.

sign. If you look at McDonald's signs, I think even today, it

says billions and billions served back when I worked there,

it was like they would have a number that actually changed.

But the focus hasn't shifted off of that we do things fast, we

serve lots of people food fast, that's on their sign, it's right

underneath their logo, it's something that has become a meme

in our life long before memes were memes. It's such a part of

their brand that it becomes so ingrained in culture. And the

same thing needs to happen for your business in that when you

do find your asset, you do want to be remembered for it, you do

want to make it a focal point. Because again, you don't want to

have the same old tired conversations that your

competitor is having, especially if your competitor hasn't quite

realized yet that they have a unique asset and gone and done

the work like you're doing you're 10 steps ahead of them if

you start the conversation in a place that they never even get

to. So I think that that's a great plan in making it more

prominent.

Absolutely. So you're talking about it,

you're writing about it, you're using it repeatedly in the

market. The next step is you need to have the people that you

work with talking about it and recognizing and sharing it and

it needs to come from them as well that word of mouth piece of

it. So one of the ways that I do this is when I request

testimonials, I ask questions that lead and encourage people

to talk about the unique asset. So I'm not the only one that's

talking about it, you then have word of mouth and you have other

people talking about your brand your business and what makes it

unique. So I don't know. Have you done much of that Kim, where

you then have other people talk about your unique asset?

Absolutely. I want testimonials about what

it's like to come here to the ranch and work with me and the

horses in the Gestalt process. I want businesses to talk about my

down to earth sustainable practices that I provide for

entrepreneurs. I definitely yes, I asked leading questions that

help people and also for the person who's answering the

questions and helps them identify why they chose me why

they want to work with me. And I do think you want to see that

overall in all of your business. When you're choosing this unique

asset, when you decide that that's what you want to bring

forth, make sure it's something that is really something you

love and are passionate about. And I also encourage you to seek

in some of the darker corners like for me recognizing that my

difference in the crowd was going to be something that I

very much of it is authentically me but I didn't bring out very

often was a big wake up moment for me in my business. And over

the years. I brought it in more and more and more and I keep

expanding on the idea and and processing it further into my

business. And so keep on looking to make it more and more

prominent.

Absolutely. And then the last little piece

of that is we talked about in episode 58 competitive research,

right? So if you miss that episode, pop back over there and

take a listen to episode 58. But you should be doing competitive

research because you want to know what your competition's

unique assets are, as well. And you want to see if they're

trying to copy your unique asset because once you take off and

you're doing some incredible stuff with your brand and your

business, then you might find out that your competition is

trying to piggyback on that a little bit. And there's not

necessarily much you can do about that as a business owner,

but it gives you the knowledge so that you can keep building on

that and growing and being the best that you can be in your

market.

Yep, you can dive deeper or go higher than the

competition is on that particular topic

because it's unique to you.

It is it is it's a fun process to sit and examine

your business for what exactly is the unique thing that you

bring to the table? And I would love to hear from you guys, I

know Cara would as well, what is your unique asset that you

bring? What did you discover in the process of taking a few

minutes or a few days or a few weeks even to think about how

you show up in your for your target market? And what can you

do to make that a really unique conversation in a world full of

conversations that tend to repeat?

That's right, we want to hear from you guys.

So hop over to The Business Animal on Instagram and Facebook

and let us know what is your unique asset? What is the thing

that sets your business apart in your community? We want to hear

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you guys so much.

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