Be the Willy Wonka of Your Industry

This long weekend, I watched the new Willy Wonka (and loved it).

There were many things I loved about it but the one key thing that I loved most of all was the fact he was disrupting his industry. He had the vision and the belief in his idea and didn’t listen to what his peers wanted him to do. After all his new thinking, would upset the status quo and lose them money. The old guys were threatened by his new thinking and superior product. Sound familiar?

This rings true in so many businesses and industries today. Many traditional businesses in an industry like the way things are and their mantra of “we’ve always done it this way” is recited daily because don’t want change. I remember when I worked in radio, I would constantly hear those words from the old guard “this is the way we do it”

You don’t need to be the next Uber or AirBnb in your industry to have an impact or disrupt. It can simply mean a new way of approaching a client issue, a new product idea, a new system… something that is different to the norm.

Think about what everyone in your industry does. Do they all market on the same platforms? Do they have the same client onboarding process? Do they all invoice or charge the same way? Note them all down and then consider what things might be annoying or challenging for your clients. Is there something that you could do differently that solves that issue for them?

Being the Willy Wonka of your industry means you stand out. You have a clear point of difference. You aren’t afraid to think outside the square. You have a clearly defined vision for your business within your industry.?

When everyone else goes left, you can go right. You don’t need to blindly follow what the industry does. I ?see this a lot in professional services. Recruiters, lawyers, accountants … just following what is already being done and scared to REALLY stand out, despite them telling you they have a strong point of difference (that is so well hidden, no one can see it).

So, think about how you can be the Willy Wonka of your Industry. If you have a fraction of his success then you will be doing something right.

As a bit of a rebel marketer, I like to think I’m a bit like Willy myself. I don’t believe that social media is the holy grail and that every business needs to be on multiple platforms, or running expensive ads, or dancing in stupid Tik Tok’s. Yet the marketing industry, as a whole, will tell you otherwise. But I am going to go right when they go left.... because it is what I believe AND I like to make my own rules.

Want help? You know what to do ??