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Episode #107 - Are You Really My Competition, Doing The Same Thing?
Episode 11130th April 2024 • Speaking From The Heart • Joshua D. Smith
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This podcast has enjoyed the company of many various individuals, business owners, everyone in between. However, have you ever felt slighted, or disheartened, by the sheer amount of success and not sure how to best navigate in the same footsteps as my guests? This episode focuses on not following other’s success, but paving the way towards YOUR OWN STEPS to success! Paying attention to the competition in terms of awareness is critically important, but distinguishing yourself from others is key to long term success. Being impressive with your offerings may be one thing, but carrying a level of service and commitment is key to the improvement of all, which allows us to all win!

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Intro/Outro By: Michael Dugan, Podcast Host: Voice4Chefs

Transcripts

Intro:

Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

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determination all converge into

an amazing, heartfelt experience.

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This is Speaking From The Heart.

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Joshua: Welcome back to episode number

107 of Speaking from the Heart, and I

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am not going to compare you to anybody

else today because I really want to

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talk about you, and why you should stop

comparing yourself to everybody else.

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That's right.

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It's about understanding why it's so

important to focus on you, even when

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you have all these other influences

and distractions surrounding you.

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In order for you to become the best

version of yourself, you have to start

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putting away what everybody else is doing,

and if there's anything that I've learned

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about doing this, especially as I was

preparing for this episode, it's that

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I need to be more self aware of this so

that I can see not just my true potential,

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but to worry not about what everybody

else is doing around me, so today, I

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really want to focus on some strategies

and some ways that maybe that will

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help you to not go down this dangerous,

slippery slope that we often deal

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with when it does involve competition.

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Now it's funny that I talk about this

because as you have been following along

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with me for over 100 episodes, you know

that I am no stranger when it comes to

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understanding and even connecting with

a variety of different people when it

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involves not only their coaching business,

but even other businesses as well.

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Some of the people that I've even

interviewed have either stepped aside and

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have done other things to pursue their

happiness, or they have decided to go

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a whole other direction and stay in the

business of what they're doing, but do

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it in a vastly different way, whether

they're authors, whether they are dealing

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with their own businesses, whether they

are even coaches in my own industry,

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I know for a fact that it's about

understanding the differences that we all

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have, but at the same time, respecting

that it's their journey, not ours.

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I would often be distracted,

for the longest time, about

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not only what those people are

doing, but how they're doing it.

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I always thought that I had to be

something better than them, but then I

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realized that it's not about being better,

it's about augmenting what they provide

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and what I can provide differently.

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In other words, my story and the

offerings that I even provide,

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are vastly different from what I

might even see from somebody else.

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I could learn a lot from even engaging

with their services, and I would even not

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be ashamed to tell you the numerous amount

of people that I wish, if I had millions

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of dollars, I would invest in each and

every one of those businesses that I

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would choose, but it's about not just

understanding what we have as differences.

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It's not just about understanding

what we can create as value.

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It's about learning and exploring that

we have our own steps to walk when it

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comes to that success, and the sheer

amount of success that we have in

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order to navigate through that means

understanding what our differences are.

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Now, in other episodes I've explored

with you the possibility of even writing

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these down; knowing what you are as your

strengths and weaknesses, and even dealing

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with the opportunities and threats.

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In other words, doing a SWOT analysis

for your own benefit, but it's not just

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about understanding the competition.

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It's not just understanding what makes

you different from everybody else.

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It's about distinguishing

yourself from others.

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It's distinguishing not just the things

that they do, but really, what you

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are and what you bring to the table.

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I've had many clients in which I explored

this personally and professionally

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on an individual level, but also on a

business level as well, and it's always

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interesting to see the vast differences

of some people willing to walk through

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it, while other people are not yet ready

to walk through it, and I've had plenty

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of no's, but I've also had plenty of

yes's, but it doesn't always mean that

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the yes's and no's translate because of

the things that we are willing to do,

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but it's often the money that talks the

most, so if you're sitting here today

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and you're thinking that money is no

object, and I'm willing to throw my

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dollars into anything that will make me

better, that's not the right way to do it.

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Have that connection with someone

that you really truly value, along

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with understanding that maybe they can

provide something of unique value, from

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their perspective, that will help your

perspective be even brighter, so don't

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throw your money away; that's one thing.

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The other thing and what I see more

often is the money that is never

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spent, because they're afraid of

what that change would look like.

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They're afraid of what the unlimited

potential and benefits are if

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we're able to walk through and work

on ourselves with somebody else.

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That can often be the most scariest

thing in the whole entire world, but

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yet, having that level of commitment,

that service to ourselves, in which

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we put an investment of ourselves, is

something that I even talked about in

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a past episode in which I entitled, "Is

Coaching Just a Luxury?", and I feel that

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even time and time again, when people

don't listen to that, I think about the

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fact that maybe there is something that

I missed in that episode as the formula

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to that true success, because if you

really are thinking about it, coaching

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might not just be about the luxury aspect,

but also about what is in it for me.

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What is in it for me?

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And it's not just about the selfish

aspects of what we are dealing with,

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it's about the universal application of

what we're ultimately able to accomplish.

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That should be one of our benefits of

exploring what coaching is all about.

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When I think about this, and I think about

the fact that many people haven't had

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the chance to walk through these sort of

episodes of their lives in which they want

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to work on themselves, something strikes

me as interesting about this formula.

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The amount of people

that never respond back.

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The number of people that just give up,

and they're not willing to walk forward.

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Have we lost our energy and our drive

because of all the other pressures that

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are pressing down around us, and easily

enough, I can understand the human

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condition, allowing all those other

fears, those anxieties, even depression

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for that matter, get the very best of us.

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I talked about in a previous episode about

the importance of not only identifying

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what that means for you and how that works

in your overall life, but how you can

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balance that with the achievements that

you can achieve, but yet at the same time,

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grinding when you need to be grinded.

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You have to keep the process moving

forward, and even if you don't do it

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with somebody else, how do you do it

with someone, or even yourself, for that

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matter, that will hold you to the fire.

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One of my past guests and I have continued

to talk about this, even outside of our

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episode, which I won't mention who that

person is out of the respect of our

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privacy of the conversation, but what I

really find interesting about what our

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strategies, and let alone our journeys

are, have been about understanding the

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differences about how we each go about it.

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While one person might find that

one thing is really a struggle, the

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other person is saying, "Nuh uh uh.

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That's not a struggle.

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That's to your benefit.", so it's

all about seeing it from another

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perspective in order for us to

say that we're much better off,

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because they envy what we're doing.

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They are creating that value that

often times we forget that we offer,

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while at the same token, I'm able to

do vice versa: point out something in

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their life in which they think it's

a struggle, but yet it's really not,

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and they're rocking it, and that they

are going to be okay down the road.

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Those things is really

why we value competition.

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It's what makes us

competitively push forward.

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It's almost as if the human race

really depends on each other, always

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striving for that best idea, that

best feature, but yet, when you think

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about it, in the United States alone,

we always have competed across other

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countries in order to become excellent,

in whether it's scientific ventures,

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political gains, or even in wartime.

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No matter which way you want to

look at it from a political, social,

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economical, cultural, whatever way you

want to theorize, when we are looking

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at our competition, we should be not

looking at really what they're doing

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as the same thing, but how they're

doing it differently, and that is why

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I feel it's so important, especially

in the coaching world, to always

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distinguish that we are looking at ways

in which we can do things differently.

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It's not about doing the same thing

over and over again, thinking you're

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going to get different results.

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That's the definition of insanity, and

trust me on this, your podcast host

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definitely has had a lot of insanity, but

we also need to understand that trying

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an idea today, and trying it five years

from now, especially if we know that the

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conditions are different, is a vastly

different conversation than just trying

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to do the same thing over and over and

over again, thinking that we're going to

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have a different result in the present

time, but we have to be able to understand

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that if we're going to walk into those

footsteps of what other people are doing,

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be prepared for the consequences: having

lawsuits, even being infringed upon with

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your own rights of autonomy, being able to

understand that even those successes that

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other people have, don't easily translate

into the successes that you will have.

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I always thought that maybe I can

do public speaking differently.

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That was mainly the premise of why I

wanted to start my own business, because

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I felt that there was something missing.:

Connection, and whether you want to steal

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that idea or not, that's totally up to

you, but I always value the relationship

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that I have with every client, and I

even value the fact that I want them

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to succeed; I'm in it with them, but

even just beyond that, I always want

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to make sure that they're doing okay.

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I want to feel like I am empowered to help

others achieve their best interests, and

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for you, if you're not sharing that same

sentiment in which you're able to create

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that value, in which you're able to do

the hard work, in which you're able to pay

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attention to those that are around you.

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If you think that you're always going to

have to compare yourself to somebody else

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or something that they're doing, you're

doing it all wrong, and it's funny because

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those words repeat in my brain after

almost 20 years of friends and family

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saying the same thing to me that I'm

on my own time clock and that it's okay

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that I'm not equaling to everybody else.

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I'm autistic.

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I don't have a relationship

with someone that I can love.

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I don't have the biggest glamorous house,

let alone even the biggest apartment.

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I don't have all these things that are

really important, but yet, it's all

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about what we judge as that importance.

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It's the value that we decide

that we want to give to them.

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When I think about all my competition,

all the coaches that I've had on the

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show, and what I will have on the show,

it's not about what they're doing.

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It's about what I can learn from

them to grow as a human being, but

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yet not compare myself to them.

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That is what makes this such a special

relationship with each and every person

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that I've even had on this show, and

that I continue to grow all across

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the country, let alone the world.

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It's really funny when I think

about Speaking From The Heart and

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how many people I have reached.

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In a way, the competition of a

podcast has even exponentially

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grown to mass proportions.

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Who wants to really spend their time on

personal and professional development and

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get some wise tips from people that I've

had on the show, let alone even some of

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my own experiences, but yet, when I see

the consistency of people always wanting

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to follow, to see what's coming up, I

always think about the fact that those

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people are investing in themselves, and

it's just only one person's perspective

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out of the many multitudes of people

that they get to listen to, but

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distinguishing yourself from somebody

else is really the long term success that

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we can all reach, and that oftentimes

means listening to your competition.

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Now, if you've followed along so far of

all the things that I've said, you might

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notice a little bit of a contradiction.

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If I'm telling you to not follow

them, but yet to listen to them,

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which one should I be doing?

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Should I really be following them,

or should I not be listening?

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Truth be told, you should be doing both.

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Have a little bit of one ear to

the ground, while the other ear is

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listening to all the other things

that you're saying about yourself.

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There has to be balance, and with balance,

everything that you ever thought that was

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out of sight, out of mind, can potentially

become better, so when the next time

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that you want to approach somebody that

you really think is your competition,

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think of them as your friend, and

when you think of them as your friend,

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think of them as your competition.

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We're all striving to be better,

one way or another, that's

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why we even do businesses.

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That's why we even help out

volunteering with other people.

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We even help with organizations that

are achieving a greater aim, because if

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anything has really taught us about human

history, and the thousands of years that

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have existed in our evolution, it's that

we're always there for somebody else.

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Whether we were on the right side,

or even the wrong side, and the

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difference of understanding if you

want to be on the right side or

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the wrong side, means understanding

who your competition really is.

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You're not competing against the clock.

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You're not competing

against finite resources.

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You're not just competing against all

the things that might be happening,

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from an outsider or insider perspective.

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What you're really competing with

is how much you're really wanting to

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carry yourself to a level of service

and commitment to help yourself be the

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improvement that everybody wants us to

see, because when you're able to stand

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on the steps of where Rocky Balboa

was able to cheer after completing

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his workout in many of the Rocky movie

franchises, in many of the Rocky movies

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in which I have talked about, one

thing has become critically important.

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It's about celebrating those

successes, and I want to see you be

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able to celebrate those successes

where other people might've failed.

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They might've been able to learn something

a little bit different because of their

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unique experiences, so the next time

that you feel disheartened and you feel

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that the sheer amount of success that

you can achieve is out of reach, and

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when you often think that maybe you

can't do some of the things that other

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people are doing, including some of

the people that have been on my show.

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Think about the fact that you are

just saying things that are you

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competing against yourself, and do

you really need one more person to

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compete against, even if it's you?

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I would think not.

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What's really more important than anything

else is to you understanding what is

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so important to create that value.

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To create that opportunity of a lifetime,

and oh yeah, maybe even listen to some

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of what your competition is saying, so

that you can get a competitive advantage,

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because we're all in this together.

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Whether you are thinking that you're

my enemy or not, is irrelevant.

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What really matters more than anything

else, is for you to create that best

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opportunity that has yet to succeed,

and whether you have failed before or

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not doesn't mean that you can't get

back on the train again, because the

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train is soon departing, and I'd rather

have you as one of the passengers,

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even if we're running against each

other in a competitive train race, one

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competitor train company against another.

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At least we're all striving

for success, and that is what

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we are all able to achieve.

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Thanks for listening to episode

number 107 of Speaking from the

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Heart, and I look forward to

hearing from your heart, very soon.

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Outro: Thanks for listening.

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For more information about our podcast

and future shows, search for Speaking From

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The Heart to subscribe and be notified

wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Visit us at www.yourspeakingvoice.biz

for more information about potential

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services that can help you create

the best version of yourself.

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See you next time.

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