How to BREAK OUT instead of BLEND IN

"Blending in is for Cuisinarts, not for companies, consultants, creatives." - Sam Horn

Quick. How are you different or better than your competitors?

Why should people choose YOU you instead of the other guys?

If you want to stand out from the crowd vs. get lost in the crowd, you've got to be first-of-your-kind. When you're one of a kind, you become THE go-to choice of your decision-makers.

Here's a quick example of how a unique positioning can help you pop out of your pack.

A restaurant was losing money because no one was coming to their happy hour.

Why? Well, there were dozens of restaurants in the area offering happy hours.

No wonder they were losing money. They were like everyone else. And being common is a prescription for getting overlooked and undervalued.

The restaurant manager kept looking for something customers wanted and needed but couldn’t find anywhere else.

He finally had a lightbulb moment one evening when a customer tied his dog up outside while he came in for a cold one.

Aha! Why not offer a special for dog-owners who were out walking Fido and Fifi after they'd cooped up in the house all day?

The restaurant could put out water bowls, dog treats and give special discounts on dog-inspired beer (Don't laugh, it's a thing. Flying Dog, Double Dog, Doggie Style, Hair of the Dog, Ugly Pug, The Dog Ate My Homework.)

This was a good idea but they needed to give it a catchy name so it would get it noticed. What could they call this petworking opportunity?

Well, one way to coin a clever name is to use a technique called Alphabetizing from my POP! book. Let's see, this is a happy hour. Let's run that through the alphabet.

Appy Hour, Bappy Hour, Cappy Hour, Dappy Hour." Eventually you get to Yappy Hour!

Bada boom. What a fun name.

You may be thinking, “Big deal, so it’s a clever name.”

You bet it’s a big deal. The Washington Post wrote an article about the Alexandria, VA Holiday Inn's wildly popular (and profitable) Yappy Hour.

That article was picked up by newspapers across the country which generated FREE nation-wide publicity that drove year-round traffic and quadrupled revenue.

All for a few minutes of brainstorming.

If your business, brand, book, blog, podcast or offering isn't making as much money as it could or should, chances are you're getting overlooked because it doesn't POP!

Your goal is to come up with your own YAPPY HOUR - something intriguing and unique that people want and need and can't currently find - so people want to know more.

One way to do that is to use these four steps from POP! to Alphabetize a NERD (New Word).

1. Write down ten words you'd use to describe your priority project.

2. Now, run each of those words through the alphabet, changing the sound of the first syllable to match the corresponding letter.

3. Look/listen for a fresh word that gets your eyebrows up or that makes you laugh. If it elicits a visceral reaction from you, it's likely to get a visceral reaction from others.

4. Next, go to a domain registrar site (like GoDaddy) to see if the .com is available for the "normal" fee of $12-18 a year. If so, GRAB IT to protect it, then start using your NERD in your marketing, ads, website copy, blog headlines, etc. to capture people's attention.

As Kurt Vonnegut said, "You've got to be a good date for the reader."

If you want to stand out in a sea of INFObesity, use these tips to create something people haven't seen before that gets what you care about in their mental door.

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Want to create something refreshingly appealing so you're a good date for your customers? Check out my CLARITY Weekends, coaching services, POP! and Got Your Attention? books.