While I have talked about being unique and not following the crowd before, this post talks about if you really are unique enough. I was watching a video on the importance of being charismatic this morning by the worlds most average guy. Now I’m not saying his content wasn’t spot on because it was actually extremely good but anyone could have been saying it. Now I don’t have a problem with being average, it can actually really help sometimes, but I thought anyone could be saying this.

I don’t really agree with the saying that you have to be unique, I prefer be yourself as the competition is yourself, that said you do need to do things to stand out from the average crowd when you can;

  • Written

I very rarely read up on a subject before I write about it, very rarely. This can be a bad thing because it can mean your facts are not always accurate, but it does give me the advantage that I don’t get influenced by other peoples words, don’t get me wrong I get my inspiration from reading comments and other sites etc, but that inspiration comes from one or two words, not by reading a post and trying to re-write it.

If you have a feeling your content is a bit average or a bit stale then there are a few ways of spicing it up, I always like to break the post up into bullet points, I find it’s easier to get the point across, the other thing I like is to add an interesting image or story, something that stimulates an image in the reader which breaks up the potential choir of reading a post no matter what the subject matter.

  • Audio

I have listened to some podcasts (mainly because I will be releasing mine soon) recently and the amount of monotone voices out there is ridiculous. If that’s how you speak though how do you get round it? Well you could break up the podcast with snippets from other people or other sounds bites. Another way to do it is have a recognisable jingle or sound that locks people onto you so that you become memorable for the sound and not a monotone voice.

Equally low deep voices can sometimes get annoying after a while and especially in a car become difficult to hear, so try and create some pattern in the way you talk, equally if you are high pitched then try and experiment with slowing your voice down etc. Ultimately if your happy with your voice then go for it, just be aware that some won’t like it, some will.

  • Video

As my video below demonstrates I’m a big fan on un-prepared content and no fluff editing, raw InfoPreneur. I’m also big enough to admit that I could be missing a trick here by not having an uber professional intro and graphics etc, but I think that ties into the whole image I have here, it’s all about the content not the packaging.

That said soem markets require highly polished, graphic rich edits. I get that so if you are in that type of scene then make sure you edit it properly and make sure the sound is spot on, which is something I have realised and now use a mic gun. You know yourself some videos and instantly boring or annoying, some people will find my videos annoying, but do everything you can to try and make sure your video presence is everything it needs to be.

  • You

You can only be you, you can’t go out there and be the new Jordan Cooper or Allyn ”Master of my own domain” Hane. What you can do is get out there and be you, I’m fairly sure there is no one exactly like me in my market place. That means my only competition is me, if you go out there and pretend to be wacky or the tough guy you will come unstuck in a big way.

Seen all these home video shows where you can instantly tell which video is a set up just to win $250 by getting aired on the show? That’s exactly how people will judge a site or person if they pretend to be someone they clearly aren’t. Please don’t try and be like your idols or the top flight in your market, do it your own way.

Ensaio Femininos
Creative Commons License photo credit: Nathalie_Gingold

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Filed under: Starting Out • Useful

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