How to set yourself apart when everyone is doing the same thing.

Photo by David Rotimi on Unsplash

Everyone is writing about content creation.

Everyone is writing about lead generation, email funnels and best practices in the creator economy.

Information is highly abundant, and a lot of what exists on the internet are collages of things that have already been made.

Some might argue that we simply take different pieces from different sources and configure something of our own. Stealing like an artist, right?

In some ways, maybe.

In other ways, I disagree.

People have been using the same bank of words for centuries, yet, every second, people are finding new ways to string them together. You still tune in to that talk, podcast, or interview, because you want to hear how someone specific decides to string those words together.

Here’s my point:

The topics we talk about within niches are often communal.

However, each and every one of us holds a monopoly over an extremely scarce resource: ourselves.

Sure, you’re reading this article and it may feel very blog-esque, but I guarantee that you won’t find another article identical to this one on the internet.

This means that this article has the potential to make someone feel a twinge of an emotion in the back of their mind, or perhaps as specific anecdote I choose to include will bring up a memory from your childhood, resulting in residual inspiration.

This is the power that our individualism holds.

Only we do things in our specific way.

Cards Against Humanity

When I was in college, my roommates and I loved to play all of the Cards Against Humanity series. We’d play The Voting Game, Black Card Revoked, you name it.

Once you play these games upwards of 15 times per deck, you reach a point where you’ve been through all the cards, and you can finish the sentences off of them before your friend finishes reading. There are no new surprises, and one would think that the cards hold less value as the years go on.

That is, until you pay the game with new people.

It can be an entirely new group, or just 1–2 new folks who come over one evening. And bam. Suddenly it feels like a whole new game.

My point here is that value comes from the uniqueness of individual thought and perspective. We’re happy to hear someone’s personal take on an age-old question. We don’t care that we’ve heard the prompt a million times, because we intrinsically know that every person brings a perspective that’s different than anyone else’s in the world.

The Secret Weapon

Because of the truth I’ve just outlined, it’s important to approach content creation in a way that employs your secret weapon.

Sure, industry and SEO research is great practice for reaching certain performance goals. However, instead of only valuing what you make based on how it stacks up against another virtually identical article, value it based on how well you feel you’ve authentically communicated your idea.

It’s easy to feel swayed to fit a mold when you see someone else who has a high-ranking style or cadence, but, respect that they likely reached their rank from finding their voice and leaning into their secret weapon.

Reprioritize what you think is “valuable.”

Practice expressing in a way that’s open and authentic to you, regardless of what that looks like.

If it feels a bit weird or out of the ordinary, you might’ve struck gold.

There’s more to explore.

I make content to help people identify the mental blockages that prevent them from doing great work.

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