AP 0422: How Do I Deal With a Much Larger Competitor?

AskPat 422 Episode Transcript

?Pat Flynn: What up, everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 422 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Before we get to today's question from Brian, I do want to thank today's sponsor. First up, is Lynda.com; that's L-Y-N-D-A dot com, a site that I've used several times. I know people on my team have used it many times as well to help them learn stuff in the most efficient way, because this is the number-one online learning platform, with over 3,000 on-demand video courses to help you strengthen your business, technology, and creative skills. I've used it to learn how to use software when new software updates come out with different products that I use. This is where I go first, with learning how to use my DSLR camera. There's also a lot of stuff related to income tax that I watched as well. You can also check out things with … There's so many videos on here, and these aren't regular YouTube videos that anybody gets to put on there. These are people who have created studio-quality videos that Lynda has asked to come and produce for them. You've got to check it out, because you can get a full access, 10 day free trial, by going to Lynda.com/AskPat. Again that's L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash AskPat. All access, check it out.

All right, here's today's question from Brian.

Brian: Hi, my name is Brian. I have a website called AskADaddy.com. I've actually called in before; the first time I called, in I did not have the website up and going. I was asking about if I needed a website in order to create a podcast. Since then, I've created the website, I've started creating content in, putting content and videos on my website. I'm gaining somewhat of a following; it's still relatively new, but again, I've been doing this less than three months. My question is, I know that you have said in the past that we should not look at competition in a bad way, necessarily, and that we should partner with them and share their content. My question is, is that still the advice that you would have if your competitor is a whole lot more established than you are? The reason I'm asking again, I have a competitor out there … I don't really think that they are a competitor, I don't want to say that because I find this is a field where we can definitely … It's needed, and we can help each other, but they have a lot more going for them. They have a lot more content, they have a lot greater following, all this stuff, and so I'm kind of nervous that if I share that with the people that I have that are following me, then possibly they might say, “Well, why do I need to follow Brian at Ask-A-Daddy? I can just follow this other individual and get everything from there.” What are your thoughts? Thank you. Bye.

Pat Flynn: Hey Brian. Thank you so much for the question, and congratulations on your new podcast. Three months in and you are already feeling you're building a following. I think that's great. It took me, as a reminder to everybody, over a year and a half for me to, on Smart Passive Income, with Green Exam Academy, and several other sites, to really get to a point where I felt like things were going strong. You're on your way; congratulations.

Let's talk about this competitor thing. In any niche world, and there's always going to be other people in the space that we're in, and I've always said, “Don't see them as competitors; don't try to think of them as the enemy.” You want to think of them as potentially someone you could partner with, somebody that you could link to. I think that is something that has helped me across several different niches, and I know that this is the same for others. When you can connect with somebody who, and like you said, this person is further along than you, that's actually a great thing. If you develop some sort of relationship with this company or this website or personality, that's great for you, because you have so many things that you can gain from this relationship. Of course, you want to be able to provide value to this other person as well, at which case, it would seem like it would make sense to link to this other person.

However, I love the question, because if you begin to link to this other person, if you begin to share them as a valuable resource, what is it that people are going to say? “Wow, there's this other site out there. It's better; it's more established. Why should I stay with Brian? Why should I continue to follow Brian?” That's a question that you need to answer right now. When people ask themselves, “Why should I stay with Brian?”, if you can't answer that question then you're not doing what you should be doing on your website, because the whole purpose of connecting with other influencers out there is to give them an opportunity to share views as someone who has some unique ability, some unique selling proposition, something that is different than what they have.

If you have yet to figure out what it is that is different about you and what you have to offer then yes, I would absolutely worry about this, because then you would be sending people over to a site that's better. But if you have something unique and different, even though you might be sending your people to another site that, maybe it's more established, maybe they are more professional, or maybe they've been doing this for a while and have more content, they're going to continue to come back to you if you have that something different: “Oh, that site's great, and I'm starting to discover all these other cool sites out there in the space, but you know what? I like Brian's because <blank>.” What is that “blank,” Brian? We all need to know what that “blank” is. When people start to talk about the space that you're in, you want people to easily come up with an answer to fill in that blank. It's like, “Oh, man, Brian's site. I love his site. He's the one who <blank>.” What is that blank? You should all know what your blanks are. For me, “Oh, Pat Flynn's site, he's the one who comes out with these income reports. He's the one that shares even all his failures in this internet marketing space. He's one of the only guys out there, in this internet marketing space, where everybody's talking about rich cars and mansions, he's the only one that seems to be down to earth, and he drives a 2012 Toyota Sienna and a 2004 CRV and he's a family guy. That's what I love about Pat: he's a family guy.” That's what people say about me, and I know that because I've ran surveys, and those are the things that people love.

I'm wanting to get out of you, I wish I could just talk to you back and forth right now, that's one of the drawbacks of having this kind of conversation. But again, this is how I am able to help the most people and answer the most questions, and of course we can follow up and continue to talk about this later or on Twitter, hashtag #AskPat422. The thing is, you need to know what it is about yourself that makes yourself unique. We've heard this over and over and over again: a great way to put it is, what's your unique advantage? You need to know what your UA is, your unique advantage, so that you can build these other relationships without having to worry about sending people away, because they're always going to come back to you because you have that UA. What is your unique advantage? That's probably the main focus out of this podcast episode here, for everybody who's listening, and especially you, Brian. That way, you don't have to worry, and these people who are, quote, “competitors” can become your partners, and they will partner with you and your product when you come out with it, because Brian's the only one that does this, and you can partner with them because they're the only ones that does that.

My only worry is that you're doing what everybody else is doing already, but hopefully you're not doing that. A really easy way to figure this out, especially if you're just starting out, Brian, for everybody out there, if you're just starting out, you might feel like you're at a disadvantage. Actually, you have a lot of advantages over these larger websites and brands out there. You have the ability, more than anybody, to make a real connection with the person on the other end. Your podcast listeners, Brian, ask them to email you and tell you what they like about the show. Ask your email subscribers, “Hey, what is it that you like about what I'm doing here, and also what can I do to improve your experience?”

The information that you're going to get back is going to be in and around your unique advantage, and when you discover what that is, you must own it. Make that part of your brand, put that on your website, put it onto your business card. That's what's going to make you stand out. If you don't know what that is, you ask the people who are coming to you, “Why?,” and they will tell you.

Brian, I hope this makes sense. For everybody else out there, if you want to continue this conversation on Twitter, use the hashtag #AskPat422. We can continue this conversation there. Brian, thank you so much for the question. We'll send you an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show, and you'll hear from my assistant in the next couple of weeks to collect your information for that. For everybody else out there listening, if you have a question you'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com. You can ask for it right there on that page thanks to the widget from SpeakPipe. Thanks to the guys at SpeakPipe. They're great. They make recording these and putting them in the episodes very easily. Again, that's SpeakPipe.com.

I also want to thank FreshBooks.com for making it super easy for all of us to organize our finances from the income to the expenses to invoicing as well and they've served over three million small business owners and they can help serve you too, just like they've served me. They're great, and you can get a 30-day free trial by going to GetFreshBooks.com and by entering “AskPat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section. Again, that's GetFreshBooks.com, enter AskPat.

All right, here's a quote to end this episode by Sir Richard Branson. He says, “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes, then learn how to do it later.” Cheers, take care, and I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat tomorrow. Thanks.