6-point plan for the brand that's You

In these competitive times, it is increasingly important for us all to distinguish ourselves from our competitors. It applies equally to those in corporate life as to those in business for themselves.

Here's a 6-point plan for getting ahead of the pack.

1. Know what you do - for others. Yes, it is important to know what you do, but don't focus inward. I say a bit more about this under Point 6, but your starting position is to consider what your market wants, and how you can be of commercial benefit to others.

2. Identify a pain that you can remove. Is there a weakness that your customers encounter, to which you have the solution. Focus your 'offering' on magnifying the pain and then showing how you can remove it. You then become the long-awaited Solution.

3. Do something right. Apart from removing a pain, there could be something positive that you could do, something that adds to the collective good, something that no one else has thought of doing.

4. Mix with the right people. We all need reinforcement, and we get that from like-minded people, whose own thinking reassures us that we are on the right track. If you network, be selective and don't commit to regular meetings that lead nowhere. If you don't feel uplifted after spending time with certain people, and if they don't understand the things you say, it may be time to move on. Remember, too, that we are judged by the company we keep.

5. Drop the toxic folk. Some people are just plain bad for you. Maybe they are chronically negative, maybe they don't respond well to your enthusiasms, maybe they drag you down in other ways. Leave them to the professional therapists and move along. Don't let them infect your mind or use up your energy.

6. Project your one defining benefit. What's the ONE thing that defines you and distinguishes you from the following pack? Spend time finding out. Get feedback from those you trust. Challenge your first thoughts about it. Then make it the core of your business offerings and everything you say about yourself.

For example, I work with words. I write and deliver speeches and presentations, and I write books about verbal communication. I help others with their speeches and presentations. The central factor is a way with words that gets results. No verbal wallpaper.

So my focus is: Words that Work.

What's yours?