About seven years ago now, my husband and I decided to finally just go ahead and make our marriage formal and get married. We had already been together for 14 years and this was my second marriage, so I wanted it to be somewhere warm and next to the water this time. My first wedding was a big Italian style wedding in the early 90s with a big fru-fru dress and all. Crazy town. I wanted to do it how I envisioned it this time; very intimate and somewhere in the Caribbean.
We began shopping around with a travel agent for different islands and she comes up with one I’ve never heard of before. I was immediately reluctant to the idea. If no one else I know is going here and it isn’t as chain-y as these other places I know of, could it really be any good? My husband assured me it would be just as beautiful. But my skepticism remained. It just didn’t look like a popular, well-traveled destination.
Our wedding party of 14 arrived on a nearby island before taking a boat ride to the island we were staying at. It was a lovely ride complete with complimentary rum punches and when we pull up to our island, it took my breath away. There were flowers everywhere and a lush green mountain which a cloud sits atop and supposedly never moves. The people who greeted us at the dock were super nice people and took each couple individually to their rooms. As my husband and I stood on the balcony of our suite and looked over the ocean, he asked whether or not I still had doubts, and how could I? It was perfect. And the fact that it was a more secluded, less-known island only added to the experience. We continue to return to this island, year after year, and have fallen in love with its uniqueness.
Now, I wanted to bring this story up because I think a lot of business owners have this mindset about success in their business. They tell me “I want to be the most popular in our area” or “I want to have a ton of followers and likes on social media”. The problem with thinking like this is you are putting all of your focus on yourself instead of the customer. When our main concern is the external glamour of fortune and fame, we lose that deeper meaning for our business.
What makes your business the place to go? What makes it stand out among the rest because you aren’t doing it like everybody else is? How do you treat your customers? These factors should be your main focus while goal-setting. Popularity is a fad, and fads constantly change. I’ve seen many businesses fail that were only focused on the fame of it instead of carving their own path and watching the people come to them. When we put our focus on being exceptional is when we can hone in our skills to create what our ideal customer really wants, and realize that it may not be for everybody. The people that it is for will return again and again for your individuality in a marketplace saturated with imitation.
The vanity of being the “most popular” or have the “most followers” can derail us from our original purpose of our business. We fixate on a number instead of the customer in front of us and giving them the experience they desire. What gets them through the door? What makes them want to come back? Don’t lose your authenticity over a distraction that won’t help your business in the long run anyway. Be exceptional, makes exceptional things, and build that deeper connection with your customer and watch the success come to you instead of fighting for it.
I have included a link to my audio download and vision worksheet. This will assist you in digging into what your vision is and how to go about working towards it to really grow your business. Get started on it now, I know you are going to do amazing things in this world and I want to help you get there.
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LINKS:
To download a transcription of this episode click here.
Episode 53 – Clear Expectations
Episode 52 – Let People Be Who They Are
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