When Everything Sounds the Same

Hard work used to be a differentiator.

Show up earlier. Stay later. Make more calls. Send more emails. Grind harder than the next person.

That was the advice for decades. And it worked, because most people weren't willing to do it.

But here's the problem: hard work isn't a differentiator anymore.

Now we have people building bots to work 24 hours a day, so they only have to work four.

The grind has been automated. Effort has been commoditized.

So how do you differentiate yourself when you can't outwork the machines?

You lean into the things that most people still aren't willing to do.

The Sameness Problem

Line your website up with the pages of your top three competitors. Remove the logos. Remove the colors. Just look at the copy.

Can you tell which one is yours? (I’ve worked with clients who have actually guessed wrong).

If you can't, neither can your customers.

Most B2B companies sound exactly alike. "Trusted partnerships." "Exceptional service." "Our people make the difference."

None of that is wrong. It's just not different.

Your messaging becomes wallpaper. Present but invisible. Taking up space without making an impression.

And now, with AI writing everyone's copy, the sameness is accelerating. It's aggregated mediocrity at scale.

The Human Advantage

In a world where everything else is becoming commoditized, specificity is the human advantage.

Are you willing to dig in and get hyper-specific about what you actually do to help people?

Are you willing to sit down with your biggest and best customers and ask them for specific validation around why they chose you?

Are you willing to lean into the humanness of what you do?

Most people aren't, and there’s your advantage

The bots can outwork you, but I'm betting big that they can't out-human you.

The full piece is here. 

Speaking of Being the Real Deal

My #ThankfulThursday post this week was about Larry Long Jr.

You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him.

If you've ever seen LLJR's Midweek Midday Motivational Minute, you know the energy. What I've learned from collaborating with him is that it's not a persona. It's not an act. It's the real deal, on and off the field.

Larry is one of the most generous people I know. I've never left a phone call with him without him asking if he can do anything for me. And some of those calls were when he'd already talked me off a ledge or given me consolation for what I was going through.

That's what being human looks like. Showing up fully, every time.

The bar is so low you can step over it. Most companies can't clear it because they've never done the work to know what makes them different.

Do that work. Clear the bar.

Cheers,
JB

P.S. If you want help figuring out what "good" actually looks like in your organization, the assessment is here. 14 questions, 10 minutes, free.