Stop Looking Sideways: Why Most Service Businesses Sound the Same | Branding Momentum Podcast Episode

6 days ago
4 min read

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I don't really watch marketers anymore. I don't watch their posts, I don't watch their content, I don't see their launches.

And I think that's why my thinking feels sharper now.

In this episode of Branding Momentum, let's talk about what happens when you actually stop looking sideways into other people's stuff.

The Sideways Glance Problem

We all say we want authority. We want to be known for what we're doing. But we end up looking at other businesses.

Always checking, slways seeing:

What other people are posting
What they're saying and how they're saying it
What they're wearing, what they're not wearing
What they're sharing, what they're not sharing
Their pricing: if it's gone up, if it's gone down

We watch what's getting attention, we even peep into other people's comments. Maybe we don't comment ourselves, but we're always on the lookout for what's working for them and what's not.

This is all good and great. Everybody does this. We're all human. We all have this curiosity bug about what other people are doing, so maybe we can change it, repackage it in a different way.

But when you're doing all this work, you end up losing yourself in the process.

You end up comparing yourself. You have imposter syndrome when you see them suddenly famous, and you're like "what the hell? I've been doing the same kind of content."

Maybe that's the problem. You've been doing the same kind of content.

The Real Question

How do you ever know what you're actually thinking?

You can be analytical watching all these things. You can say "I like this, I don't like that."

But in the end: What is the essence? What do you really want to be creating? What do you really want to be saying?

How would you say it in a different way?

Sometimes we fall into the trap thinking we're saying what other people are doing differently, but we're actually saying it with different little words. We're not really searching for that real you.

You keep saying it in a washed-up way that sounds like them. So it's not really 100% you.

Ready to Stop Looking Sideways and Find Your Voice?

If you're tired of sounding like everyone else and ready to protect your thinking instead of copying theirs, I can help.

Through my private consulting work, we'll strip away the borrowed language, the watered-down positioning, and the fear-based messaging that's keeping you invisible.

We'll find what you actually think—not what you think you should think. We'll build messaging that sounds like you, not like a slightly different version of everyone else in your industry.

Because authority doesn't come from knowing everything. It comes from deciding what you believe and saying it without apology.

Learn more about private consulting

The Fear Behind All That Looking Around

ll that looking around is fear.

Fear of missing something. Fear of being behind. Fear of sounding wrong or using the right words—or the wrong words. Fear of being too strong or too soft.

There's this silent fear when you're writing your emails, creating your content, doing courses.

There's also this fear: Have I said this before? Have people already heard me say this? Maybe I'm repeating myself. Maybe I sound like a broken record.

I'll tell you—that's my problem. That's something I have within me that I do every single day and every single week when I'm creating something.

I know I don't have to conquer that because it is what it is. But I need to make sure I'm not losing touch with what I'm trying to say.

What Changed for Me

I do this every week, every two weeks when I'm recording. I'm always pushing myself to be as fresh as I can.

My problem (I don't know if you can relate) I get bored. Really easily. With what I'm doing.

So I need to keep changing. I live in my cocoon house where I record, do my clients, do my meetings, do everything. I get bored. I need to change things around. Even my furniture, my cushions.

To me, being bored means I don't want to be:

Repeating myself
Reacting to everyone
Using the same language as everybody else
Having no opinions of my own
Seeing the same things or saying them the same way
Reacting to the same things everyone's reacting to

I personally don't like extremes. Extremes for the right, extremes for the left. That you have to belong to this or follow a trend or dress in a certain way.

That has never been me. I lost that growing up, then I recovered myself (my being of being who I want to be) little by little.

When I create content, write, have meetings, or create a strategy for somebody, I make sure it's out of the box. Never heard before. Never seen.

Maybe I took an idea from another industry and applied it to this new industry.

I've always wanted to be different—whether you like it or not.

I am not cattle. We don't all go with the cattle.

We're all individuals. We're all different. I don't like to follow things. I like to create my own opinion and then decide if I like it or don't, if I want to keep doing it or not.

Stop looking sideways. Start protecting your thinking. The uniqueness that makes you stand out isn't found by watching what everyone else is doing, it's found by finally trusting what you already know.

👉 Hit follow so you don’t miss what’s next. If you’ve been consuming everything and moving nowhere, this episode of Branding Momentum will help you see why nothing’s broken and what needs to be removed instead.

I’m Veronica Di Polo, a marketing strategist based in Moraira, Spain, helping service-based business owners get leads with words that sell.

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