By the Ocean
Partly Sunny 77 Degrees
6:48 a.m.
You need to have a USP, a unique selling proposition. That’s what they tell you. You have to be different and unique. Otherwise, no one will notice you!
There are a lot of problems with this line of thinking. The biggest problem is that it is limiting. For some, it’s a great way to be miserable!
I’ve been writing emails like this one for the past 14 years. Every day of the work week, another one goes out. I have experimented with countless USPs and have come to a very interesting conclusion:
I don’t have one. Instead, I have many thousands of them.
I have a unique selling proposition that lives inside the heart and mind of each subscriber to this journal. And inside of each client I’ve ever worked with.
There’s one inside of you. I don’t know exactly what it is. And I probably will never know.
AND THAT’S THE WAY IT WORKS!
I know this is true because I hear about all of these USPs through the people I end up working with.
The mind doesn’t like this reality. It has to know. It has to be in control. It has to influence. It has to feel important! It has to know what it’s about!
These are all the requirements of an individual who has allowed their mind to rule their life. It’s miserable. I know. I used to be one of these people.
Another problem with the great search for the USP is that you’re looking for something you’ve already got.
You’re already unique and different. That’s how you came. The issue is you spent decades being trained to forget that. That’s why the world has no idea what you’re about or what makes you special. Depending on your amount of brainwashing, you might have no idea either.
You are already different. The work is to understand that, to leverage that, to demonstrate that.
All of this doesn’t mean you can’t be clear about your products and services, about who they are for, about how they are better.
But you don’t have to suffer through the USP Mind Games. Focus on SHOWING the world, not TELLING the world.
With enough demonstration, you attract the people who want YOU.
Being YOU is the most valuable USP you’ll ever have.