Feeling like just another business in a sea of competitors? In this episode of The Business Animal Podcast, Kim and Betsy break down three powerful ways to stand out in your local market without shouting louder or discounting deeper.

We explore:

• What a value proposition really is and how to define yours clearly

• Why your brand is more than a logo and how it shapes client experience

• How to define your niche and persona without boxing yourself in

If you want the right clients to find you, recognize themselves in your work, and happily refer their friends, this episode gives you the framework.

[00:00:00] Hi there, business animals. I'm Kim Beer and I brought a vision and I'm Betsy Bird and I brought a checklist. I love that, Betsy. It's true of both of us. I am so checklist oriented. It's ridiculous. You know what? I do have checklists myself. But they're more of a suggestion rather than something else.

They're just a way for me to track my vision, I guess, is how you might say that. They're a vision tracking system. You know, before we get too far into this, we should also mention in case anybody did not listen to last episode my voice is still kind of mangled. If you would like to know what happened, go listen to last week's episode or last episode posted, and you'll hear about what's going on with my voice.

So I have been very isolated this winter, so I don't think I've been subjected to a lot of germs and I'm very concerned about the airplane germs. I have to say, I have that same feeling about being on an airplane these days 'cause I feel like there's so many germs floating around right now between flu and COVID and RSV.

Yeah. And stuff that I probably would get anything, but luckily the voice thing, it doesn't hurt. It just sounds a little weird. Little squeaky. Well, that's good news. And speaking of crowded places, our episode today is how to stand out in a crowded local market. Wow. That was a segue. You love that.

if you're going, I don't know what my value proposition is, hold on to your panties we're gonna get there. And then brand and vibe. Like being able to establish very clearly what your brand and vibe is. And then understanding your. Oh, good grief, me not being able to talk. Understanding your specific niche slash customer persona is the third part of what we are gonna talk about today.

So what is it that makes you stand out and different? And it, particularly for those of you who have obviously local businesses, local based businesses, it really does matter in context because it only matters if you're solving a problem locally that other people don't solve for their clients. So what's gonna make you stand out?

At least that's how I think of it. What makes me different from other photographers in this market? I teach this specific thing as part of a class I do around the Business Model Canvas and the Business Model Canvas by the way, if you Google that, you will find a boatload of information on the Business Model Canvas.

Think of it as a visual way of doing business planning, and I'll link to the book and the authors and all of those kind of things. There's actually two books involved. There's one about building the Business Model Canvas, and then there's another whole book dedicated to value propositions, and I really think they're very

given. But the value proposition, it really helps business owners understand what they're bringing to the table for their customers. And it's answered in a few questions and honestly in the appearance of it it is a circle and a square, and the circle represents the customer and the square represents the business.

From the right to the left is what do you as a business offer, as a pain reliever? And what do you offer as a gain creator? And then how can you structure products and services to meet those goals for your customer? And the thing I love about this is it's customer first. I think when we start a business, we're in it for us.

That's why we become entrepreneurs is to solve a problem for ourselves. But once we transition into opening that open sign on the front door of our business, whether that's virtual or in reality, or whether it's just handing out business cards, it has to switch to be customer first, and that's what we're trying to do here.

that they're gonna be able to hold of their horse and their relationship with their horse. They're celebrating that relationship. They wanna have beautiful art for their home. They wanna have a really positive experience with a photographer. They wanna feel good about themselves. Those are all jobs that they're trying to get done.

What gets in their way is all of the things that you are able to fix in that proposition. And at the end, your pain relievers and gain creators as a business owner for whatever job that your customer is trying to do. That is your value proposition, and that's what you take into everything you do in your marketing because that is what is gonna differentiate you from everybody else in that market.

Like, yeah, that's my standard thing. Also, I think it is related, in my case, to like the experience and the personality, that they get. And this is a really good example because you have photographers who, their idea is they want to turn something around super fast. They want it to be an extra quick experience.

Really easy to. Sign up, maybe you don't have to talk to them on the phone before you, you book your appointment or whatever. They're, fast friendly service with a smile type thing. But there's other photographers more like me who have an entire thing. I do a lot of handholding with my clients.

Yeah, if you don't translate the value of working specifically with you, and part of the way that you do that is through your brand, which is our second of our big three, your brand is an experience. It's not just a logo. So many of us get stuck on, on its the graphics on our website, the sign on the door

speaking of that as really close to Valentine's Day as we're recording this, but you have two people and love is what's created in the relationship with them. In a business relationship, the brand is what's created between the business and the customer and the consumer. And so that unique experience that you bring to the table is the differentiator that goes beyond the value proposition to offer the next level of true support.

I don't wanna waste my time talking to people who are never gonna hire. So brands, you want them to repel as much as they attract. And if you're a solopreneur like I am, that really can be an extension. Your brand is basically an extension of you and your values and your personality and your stuff that's going out there into it.

So you know, when it comes to branding, at least for solopreneurs, I always say start with you. And what it is that you stand for and what you vibe with, and that's a good place to start when it comes to branding. It is a great place to start, and I believe if we peek into the future, we have an episode coming up in the next episode of Business Animal.

If you're sitting here listening and going, I don't have a brand, I don't know what you're talking about. I've got a business name and a tagline, but that's about the extent of it. We're gonna help you out in the next episode. We're gonna talk a bit about how do you even start to peel back those layers and start that relationship?

People think of niche oftentimes as a prison cell that they're stuck inside. If I pick a niche, I'm gonna be corner holed over here, and I don't even know where they would find the key. Don't think of it that way. I'm gonna give you a better metaphor. So we're all animal people around here think of this as a lovely corral with an open gate, a clear, inviting, accommodating, safe, trustworthy, well maintained.

That doesn't preclude somebody that is in the dressage world coming in and riding in your arena. It's just not the most ideal situation for their horses where they want a little bit harder footage. Harder footage where they want a little bit harder footing for the, for their horses to be able to perform their maneuvers.

You're gonna always have an outlier or two here and there. What you're saying is this is who I'm best for. I'm best for reining horses, but that doesn't mean that dressage horse can't come over the year two and play in my arena. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I love that. I do wanna talk about my favorite way to create personas.

And Betsy and I had a little moment before this that gave me an even better way to do it. But I'm gonna give you my traditional way first, and then we will add the better way. When I teach persona to business owners, I do it using the trademark name of Barbie because I think Barbie is something we all know exists, and we've all walked past a toy aisle with Barbie in it, or if you wanna replace Barbie with the superhero or whatever.

It'll come back around. I'm totally worthless when it comes to Barbie. I know you didn't play with Barbies, you weirdo. I'm like, I'm pretty sure she had somebody named skipper, but I think that's it. Skipper. Skipper is the one that grew up. See, you knew more about Barbies than you thought. I was like, I thought, but Skipper.

Skipper was like a little sister or something. It is. It's a little sister. But yes you twisted her arm and she grew up and got boobs and everything. It was a whole thing. And I, of course. disected Skipper to see how that happened and concerned my mother beyond repair. So there's a piece of Kim trivia for you that will entertain you there.

Think about what would your customer quote unquote Barbie look like? What accessories would they have? What would come in the package? What would be the words that are above the package? And if we wanna put a nicer twist on this for horse people in particular, think about your Breyer horse. Breyer horses are branded.

I see named horses in Breyer packages, and they come with all the accessories that go with their unique brand and vibe. And when you're aiming at a customer, it is much easier to think of them. In the way as aiming at a persona customer, let's put it that way. It's much easier to think of them as real people where they have all of their accessories with them and the things that they do and have in life.

Anyway, I'm off of that. What else do you have to say to add about personas? Well, I think I would throw in there that with personas, a lot of it comes down to the behaviors versus the demographics of the personas. Oh yeah, absolute. Absolutely. So more along like the mindset and the decision making style that a persona has.

But to me it matters much more what their mindset is when they think about for example, their horse or their dog. Like how do they feel about that dog? Because that's gonna affect how much money they spend, where they're willing to spend it, are, is it like their dog is. On a chain outside all the time, or in the backyard all the time and they interact with it once a day.

Or is that dog sleeping in their bed and eating the finest food and playing dress up and or doing all the dog sports or like what exactly is it, how they feel about that dog? And that really does affect the persona that you're trying to attract. Depending upon what clients you wanna work with.

And if, when we think of our persona, we think of as they are now, and then that transformed persona as well of how we affect that individual who comes into our business. So I think that's worth adding as well. What would be the next level that we add. So your customer persona probably has a gorgeous piece of art hanging in her home

and is willing to show that off to whoever walks through the door. Yes, I think that's an amazing way to think about it. Absolutely. My customers like to, or my customer personas like to brag about their horses the minute Yes people walk in the door, or their dogs for that matter. They like to drag people into their living rooms and show them their artwork, and then they take 'em to their bedrooms and show 'em more artwork.

All right, so let's wrap this back up and talk about the three things we talked about in standing out in a crowded marketplace. Number one definitely know your value proposition and know how to position that, know your brand and your vibe and how that differentiates you from your competition.

And then finally get really familiar with your niche without worrying about being exclusive, and also loving the fact that your exclusiveness does tend to urge the wrong people out of your market. And then finally, creating that persona from both aspects of who they are now and the transformation down the line.

You can also visit the business animal.com to catch up on previous episodes, including that one that we did last time to hear the whole story of how Betsy lost her voice. We look forward to connecting with you on social media and in other haunts where we might run into each other. Thanks so much for hanging out with us today.