Mastering the Art of Positioning: The Key to Building a Great Personal Brand with Patty Dominguez – ep 130

Mostafa Hosseini  00:03

Hello and welcome. In this episode you will discover why positioning is important in building and personal brand, the difference between positioning and branding, how to create a category of one and how to set yourself set yourself apart in a super crowded market. My guest today is Patty Dominguez. Welcome patty.

Patty Dominguez  00:25

Hi, Mustapha. So good to be here. Thank you so much for having me on your show. I really appreciate the opportunity to share. Absolutely

Mostafa Hosseini  00:31

great to have you and I look forward to this. Our topic today is mastering the art of positioning the key to building a great personal brand. How’d you do today? So far, Patti?

Patty Dominguez  00:41

So far, so good. It’s well, it’s Wednesday. And I always like to look at the items to look at the counter. I’m like, What day is it? But I know we’re in a group every Wednesday morning. So I know it’s Wednesday because I get to catch up with you every week. So

Mostafa Hosseini  00:54

that’s awesome. Absolutely. And we’re about are you I’m

Patty Dominguez  00:59

in Chicago, or just outside of Chicago technically.

Mostafa Hosseini  01:02

View and and what’s it like out there right now?

Patty Dominguez  01:06

The the sun is creeping in and it’s almost like it wants to be spring but it’s still undecided. Oh,

Mostafa Hosseini  01:14

yeah. Okay. It’s strong. And well, we’ve got a strong and well, some winter up here. It’s like minus 25. This morning, and it’s right up here in Calgary, Alberta. Yeah, so yeah, we have a long winter up here. It doesn’t say sometimes. Sometimes it gives us a break. It will feel like alright, it’s over. It’s getting warm. And then it just comes right back and was like, no, no, no, no, get your hopes up. You’re in Calgary.

Patty Dominguez  01:45

Exactly.

Mostafa Hosseini  01:46

Let me do the proper introduction for you. And then we’re going to dive into a very interesting conversation, a topic that is very near and dear to my heart. Patti Dominguez, founder of physician to profit is a best selling author, advisor and can contributing marketing expert. Her work has been featured on smart business investors business daily, New York Daily News and American Express, open forum to name a few.

Prior to 2013, she worked in Fortune 50, and management consulting as head of global agency strategy. She now helps service based entrepreneurs claim their category of one status based on their unique abilities that he welcome again.

Patty Dominguez  02:32

Thank you, Mustapha, really happy to be here.

Mostafa Hosseini  02:34

Absolutely. So Patti, what is your story?

Patty Dominguez  02:40

So my story is that my parents were or blue collar worker, they were blue collar workers. And their biggest dream for me was to go to school, to get a good job, so that I didn’t have to be a blue collar worker. And so literally, my dad would say, if you get a nice job, and it has an office, and you get a cell phone in a car, you’ve made it. That was that was thinking, you know, that was a soft process. So as the oldest of two and I really wanted to be a good child.

So I did all of the above, you know, I did exactly what was expected of me. And then I started down this journey of corporate America and very grateful for the experience. And I learned a whole lot mil met a ton of really smart people and just climbed the ladder, I made some changes in between two different companies. And overall really positive experience, of course, some lows, some lows. For me, personally, it was a little bit trying at times,

because I always felt like I was out of sorts, like, I’m not quite there yet. I’m not that level of happy yet. So maybe if I get to the next level, then I’ll be happy. Right? I didn’t really understand what I was wanting. But I knew that, that I was on this journey of figuring it out. Well, in 2008, when the market crashed, I was, you know, the pink slip came, and then I was at a consulting firm at the time. And I walked out of there thinking to myself, Oh, my God, I’m no different than the French fry guy at McDonald’s.

Because my job’s not an asset that taught me something really, really important. Because in my mind, I’m like, I thought I did everything right. You know, I thought I went to school, and then I got my masters. And then I was, and I tried to do the best that I could. And yet it didn’t matter. And so I was exposed to a lot of books at that time in 2009, when the market was really bad on the employee on the employment side, I just got really into into education, a personal growth education, really understanding what why what had happened that happened, you know, and so, so long story short, I made the decision.

 I’m like, I really want to be an entrepreneur, I want to do my own thing, but I don’t know where to go. I don’t know where to look for. At the time, business coaching was not very popular or prevalent. And so I went back to another happened in the back of my mind, I always had this idea like, I really feel like I want to become an entrepreneur. So I’m the type of person I get in an ON AN IDEA. And then I’m like, Okay, I’m gonna figure it out. I don’t know how I don’t know where, but I’m going to figure it out.

And so I put in my time, and then it wasn’t until January of 2013, I worked one day, my corporate job, so I couldn’t get my big fat bonus. And then I ventured into entrepreneurship. And that was really exciting, and scary and frightening and all of the above, because the one thing that I really realized is entrepreneurship is a totally different game. Totally different game, it’s nothing like what it is to be an employee.

Because at the end of the day, if I was in a space where I didn’t want to be productive, or I was having an off week, or what have you, I’d still get my paycheck every two weeks. And in the entrepreneur spaces, you know, it’s just a very different ballgame like you, you, you know, create money and you get to experience things. But at the end of the day, you’re 100% responsible for your outcomes. And then I had to distinguish trading time for money, as opposed to creating leveraged income and passive income, and just all these different things that I didn’t really understand.

And it’s so interesting to me. And then the other side of it was really investing in personal growth, you know, really being an advocate for understanding that my results, were going to meet my level of what I thought about myself, right, right, from an identity standpoint. So all these things over the past 10 years, I celebrated 10 years, as an entrepreneur in January, I can honestly say that I come from a place of knowing of what it’s like to go through the lows, and then to have the highs and everything in between and what it really means and it’s just been the greatest ride.

And so how I got into this whole positioning thing, is because when I first quit my job, or when I first went into entrepreneurship, I thought it was just going to be around social media, which would I was going to offer and I knew somehow it was off. I was like, this isn’t really hitting the mark. And then I’m like, do I get into business growth and like still not hitting the mark. And it wasn’t until I was doing a consulting gig, where I was still doing some corporate consulting back then pretty consistently. And it was for a company in Australia.

And I remember being on a call, and there was all these people on the Zoom call. And they were all talking about this new product introduction. And what was so fascinating to me, we there were so many conversations around positioning of this product. Well, the end product was this chocolate chip cookie. And then I was like, Oh my God, there’s so much work being done around this chocolate chip cookie. And in the small business entrepreneurs space, nobody’s really talking about positioning as much as he should be.

Right. And so that was my big epiphany. I’m like, this is where I’m going to plant my flag, and really talk about the importance of positioning. And I know it’s not very sexy, and people don’t talk about it. But it’s super essential. And it’s something that it’s the foundational makeup of creating a personal brand really starts there. And a lot of people have it confused with what they should be doing. And So therein lies the big opportunity for me to start a business that really was a reflection of how I can really help transform actively and where I love to talk about it I talk about all the time. So yeah, that’s where I landed. So so

Mostafa Hosseini  08:21

it’s all good. I love your story. So I know you already talked on it. But let’s just elaborate a little more. What do you do these days? And who do you serve?

Patty Dominguez  08:28

Yeah, so I basically help entrepreneurs, typically service based entrepreneurs. And it could be solopreneurs, or when they have small teams, I’ve also helped smaller companies privately owned, where they’re really struggling to stand out. Right. So anybody that’s struggling to stand out, is really feeling the pressure of giving into the price war game, where they feel compelled to base their outcome or their offers based on pricing.

And saying, Okay, well, I’m just going to price this way, because this is what the market will bear. And they’re really feeling the squeeze of everything going on, especially in this economic environment where it’s pretty volatile, you know? And so how do you create a personal brand? And why is it that you’re struggling? So when, when I focus on on the positioning side, it really, really helps. It’s like the light goes on to say, This is why I’ve been struggling for so long. So that’s literally who I help to, so that they get clarity on that.

Mostafa Hosseini  09:24

Love it. Love it. So how do people become aware of the fact that they’re struggling with that because I because I’m thinking like some people are just gay think that’s part of the part of their day to day and they don’t probably know that that’s an issue and they’re struggling with that. So what what do I need to see or become aware of to understand and identify that I’m struggling with positioning?

Patty Dominguez  09:50

Well, I think that one of the easiest things that I have found this was probably going back pre COVID, when there was more opportunities for networking or If you’re going into conferences now and you’re like, hey, what do you do? You know, you’re, you’re introducing yourself and you’re meeting new people. And then they’ll tell me, I’m a health coach, or I’m a wealth coach, or I’m a Brain coach, or whatever it is that they’re saying, or I’m a chiropractor, or I’m a lawyer, or what have you. And so what happens is, if they just say it in that way, you’ve literally just commoditize what you do.

And so the reason is, because you’re not really standing out, or when somebody says, or I’m a health coach through the whatever, a blabbity, blah, Institute, I’m feeling good again, that’s again, commoditizing yourself, you’re not you’re not specializing you’re not standing out, you’re not finding the whitespace is what I call it is when you’re in a sea of competition. And let’s face it in almost any category that you can think of, unless you have something very advanced, proprietary, and even in the AI space, as you’re seeing people are, there’s just this influx of all these different tools, it’s getting super crowded really fast, because everyone’s super talking about it.

It always goes back to what’s the positioning, what’s the whitespace? How are you specializing? How are you standing out so that you’re memorable in the mind of your prospect, right, your ideal prospect nonetheless. So the way to know if you’re struggling with that is if you’re answering that question, with a generalized title, you’re commoditizing yourself, if you’ve ever said, Oh, I just have to price this, because this is what the market is showing me that I should price that, right?

If you’re a personal trainer, and your pricing $80 an hour, because that’s what everybody else is doing. And maybe you’re gonna go a little cheaper, because you don’t have as much experience, you’ve just commoditized yourself. So there’s just so many things, or these are even on a visual branding standpoint, where you see these templatized websites, and it’s no Dishon templatized thing, but over time, they kind of all started to seem the same.

 And they they’re so void of any real personality, or what do you stand for? What do you about like, can’t really tell? So those are just like three examples off the cuff that I can think of how people are really missing the boat? Absolutely.

Mostafa Hosseini  12:06

So it seems like if the D sign that you’re looking for is the fact that you cannot differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack, oh, I’m just another coach. I’m just a plumber. I’m just a chiropractor. And then people cannot communicate and understand what is unique about you. And and I guess we’re going to talk more about that. So Patti, what is your definition of definition of positioning, what actually is positioning?

Patty Dominguez  12:38

So really, very easy to establish. I think there’s in my, in my opinion, confusion between branding and positioning, where somebody will say, Oh, Petey, you deposition. Can you help me with my logo? I’m like, No, I don’t I don’t do that. I’m not a graphic designer.

And really, the easiest way to think about it, is that I always use this as an example because I feel like it nails it every single time. So imagine for yourself, Mustapha that you want to build a dream house, right? That house of your dreams where money is no object where you can literally create anything that you want. Where would you start out in having that dream house built?

Mostafa Hosseini  13:17

Location?

Patty Dominguez  13:18

Yes. And you’d probably need an architect to draft up the blueprints. Right? That’s right. Right. So the architect was the blueprints is that foundational strategy, if you will, of what it is that you want to create when you’re saying that you want a dream house, so it’s no different. So when you are crafting or positioning, you really want to focus on that strategy and the strategic blueprint, right, who you serve, what it is that you have, what’s your message, all these other things that go along with it.

And then so that’s building the foundation of your house. Branding is the visual interpretation. That’s all the fun stuff, right? People always go to branding immediately, or though they don’t have their positioning done. But then they say, Hey, I did my logo. And I paid somebody for my website, and all these other things, but they have no positioning in place whatsoever. So unfortunately, that’s literally putting the cart before the horse because the visual comes after.

It’s like that’s all the fun stuff, like the paint color and the curtains and what kind of furniture you’re going to have in your dream home. Right? So it has to go in that way in order for it to be streamlined and harmonized and all the things and I think a lot of people really miss that. Entirely.

Mostafa Hosseini  14:32

Fantastic. And then how do you differentiate between positioning and branding? And I know you already touched on it a little bit as well. Yeah,

Patty Dominguez  14:39

it just really the the positioning side of things just to keep it really simple. How I help my clients is like really the who, who it is that you’re serving the message of how you’re going to stand out. And then your offers right. You also want to come up with what is the big idea? What is the thing that differentiates you you said that word earlier on?

Yeah. differentiation is really the name of the game. So it doesn’t matter how crowded your market is, even if you think you’re in a super flooded market, there’s still room for you to differentiate. So all of these elements go into play. And again, the branding side of it comes with, like, the visual components.

Mostafa Hosseini  15:19

Absolutely. Why do you think? Why do you think people are afraid of differentiation? Because then they’re under are trying to trying to, like, do everything that everyone is doing, like copying the prices? And, you know, sometimes people are like, exactly copying the packages and the verbiage what yeah, what’s the Why do you think they do that? Yeah,

Patty Dominguez  15:41

that’s a really, really good question. Because I think people are doing it because they maybe there’s some examples of success. And as Tony Robbins says, success leaves clues, where they’ll say, Okay, well, that’s a successful example, let me just follow that. The problem with that the problem with being a copycat brand, is that you’re only ever going to be the best second rate version of that brand.

Right? So it’s just so it’s lacking of any real personality. The other side of it is that a lot of times people feel compelled to stay safe. Right? So that’s where it goes into, really the mindset of the entrepreneur and saying, Do you dare boldly enough to create contrast in how you’re showing up? Right? Because contrast is, can be polarizing can be risky. And sometimes people don’t want to do that, or they somehow feel that? Well, if I focus only on this audience, am I ostracizing other people that do want to work with me?

So there’s just a lot of confusion on on deploying this strategy, or just saying, Hey, can I differentiate? Can I create contrast? And they’ll always look for the reasons why not. But the reasons why is that when you have that contrast, when you have the differentiation is one of the biggest components of standing out. So yes, it can be risky, but it is really fruitful when done right. In my opinion.

Mostafa Hosseini  17:08

Absolutely. I think sometimes people just don’t know any better. And they don’t want to put any time and, and thoughts and thinking into it. And there, let me find someone and copy and

Patty Dominguez  17:22

replace, to start. Write it because it’s easy, right? Like, it’s just easier to do it that way.

Mostafa Hosseini  17:28

Yeah, instead of sitting down and strategizing and thinking about it and testing and doesn’t that there’s, let me just go copy the next the guy next door, and hopefully, he’s got it figured out. You know? Interesting. So how do you go about setting yourself a bot apart and differentiating in a super crowded market?

Patty Dominguez  17:57

Well, I think that a really good place to start is just to really figure out what is it that you do really, really well. So in other words, some people call your zone of genius, that thing that you’re so competent, and it just comes super naturally to you. And so really taking inventory of where do your natural talents lie, right? And then it’s also saying, let’s take the perfect example of a weight loss coach, right? There’s so many people that are in the health space. And so all of this is also assuming that you’re in a category that can be profitable, right?

So if you’re gonna find a niche, you want to find a niche that’s profitable. And so let me give you an example. Just as a little bit of a segue. There’s people who, for example, I’ll never forget, I was at a networking event, and there was a woman that I was talking to said, and I said, What do you do, and she’s like, Oh, I am a finance coach, for college students. And I’m like, That is probably the worst market you could go after, because college students are so broke, you know, college students are thinking about investing in their financial future.

So that’s really a hard one. And that’s probably the most extreme case that I can find right off the cuff because it’s like, first Okay, so let’s assume that you’re in a niche that is profitable, right? Typically, its health as you may have heard very popular health wealth of, you know, you’re in the money making space. I think that there’s a whole other another one where it’s hobbies, right, passion projects, things that people are super passionate about, such as their pets, or maybe crafting or golf, or there’s like certain there are certain if you’re of a political affiliation, those like prepper market is another one. So those are all super successful categories.

And so within that, finding the niche that is profitable, so that would be the first one and then the second one is okay, so let’s see, use the example of a health coach. So just seeing your health coach is not enough. What if you specialized so that the person that you’re speaking to clearly understands how you can help them So a health coach just saying a health coach, I can help everybody. So that’s another clue that somebody is not differentiating is when I say, Okay, tell me about what you do. And they’re like, I help everybody. Like, no, you don’t, you can’t help everybody.

You’re helping nobody, basically. So what if you said, Okay, I’m a health coach who specializes in helping women postpartum, right to lose those that 15 pounds of, of weight, right, that’s a very specific problem and a very specific segment, in a very specific profile of person. So that is way different than if you’re a health coach helping, you know, women over 50 going through either pre menopause or menopause, right? Just, it’s a different stage in life, the problems, the fears, frustrations, the hopes, dreams desires are so different between those two, even though they’re both female. So that just goes to show you this is a prime opportunity.

You know, if you’re watching this and wondering, how do I do that? Just ask yourself, can I specialize? Can I drill down into who I help and how I help them with specificity in mind, where you’re delivering a very specific outcome to a specific audience. And that helps you tremendously. So, you know, that’s one way. Love

Mostafa Hosseini  21:19

it, specific audience and specifically what you do, there’s a question in chat. And the question is, is there a link between differentiation and niches? Or niches?

Patty Dominguez  21:32

Yeah, for sure. Because what what you’re talking about is a niche is where you’re going to plant your flag. So for example, who is the audience? Right? Who is the audience of people that you want to serve? What is that category? And then? So that’s a niche? And then differentiation? Is you being a solution provider, to that group of people? How are you differentiating? How are you standing, apart from those that are doing what you do, AKA your competitors.

Mostafa Hosseini  22:06

I love it. And I honestly, I’ve seen that to be the easiest, fastest surefire, surefire way to start differentiation and, and setting a category of one where everybody and a world we’re making some people are trying to serve everybody in any anybody who whoever has a pulse I could serve, or I’ll try this notion of like, I only serve, for example, let’s say chiropractors, who are having this specific problem.

That’s like, very quick, very different, and it will probably stay and stick to people’s mind as well. Like, every time I see a chiropractor, I could think of that person that serves him and fixes a very specific problem for them, compared to I do everything I help you with. I’ll be growing.

Patty Dominguez  23:00

Yeah, yeah, that’s a really good point. I mean, I, for example, you when one of my dear clients was in that space, where just even if you think about like, you’re a chiropractor for triathletes, I mean, think about the very specific problems that a triathlete is having, right is way different than it’s somebody who is just the everyday Joe, who says, I have a pain in my back or what have you. And then the other side of it is that when you specialize the benefit of specializing is that you can also command higher prices, presumably because you’ve specialized Exactly.

So there’s a lot of magic in that in an the benefits of specializing are so many, there are just so many. And this is a great example of we talked about the fact that if you’re pricing because this is what the market will bear, you’re doing it wrong. You’re not differentiating. But when you specialize, when you differentiate, you can literally command a higher price point. And that in and of itself, is a way to position yourself as top of the market is a great opportunity to do that. higher

Mostafa Hosseini  24:02

price, I think would set you also apart as well. And what do you say? Are there like a whole bunch of different things that we could use to differentiate? Or are there just a limited number of things?

Patty Dominguez  24:14

I mean, I assume it’s any Oh God, there’s so many different things you know, so, for example, let’s say you can differentiate with your proof points, right. So proof points for example, I consider this the substantiation of your claims. Okay, your proof points. Your proof points could be your testimonials. Your proof points can be case studies, third party resources, anything like that. Imagine that you have testimonials from Oprah. I don’t know Tony Robbins, whoever like super top top known personalities and celebrities.

Well now you’ve just positioned yourself as the go to for the stars scenario. And that’s like a totally different thing. So playing have your proof points, or, for example podcasts that you’ve been on, or the fact that you’re a top a, what do you call it? You’ve written a book and you’re a best seller. That’s a premium position. Right? Yeah. Right. So things like that also, experientially. So for example, if you have, I was just on a summit.

And it was really different than that. The way that it was run was really interactive. And that was very appreciated by the people who were in the audience. And they said, I’ve never been in a summit like this, right? Because it’s so interactive. And I really, I deployed what it is that I’m saying, that’s another way. So your differentiation can be by some kind of an experience that you’re creating. It could be by the experience of the environment, right?

So for example, one time I went into an Uber, I mean, an Uber is pretty commoditize. But the guy had these, like, he had a disco ball in his car, and he had like little strobe lights. And then in the back, he had a little cooler, and he had I mean, he made it an experience, right. So the experience is a way to differentiate. And again, think about how commoditized an Uber driver is, but his rating. And I think this was like in Phoenix, Arizona area, I believe. And it was just such an exemplary experience. It was like he’s I pull out your phone right now let me get a five star rating. Like he led the entire experience, soup to nuts, and he made it so positive.

So being a leader, right, in his case, he led the conversation, if you’re a thought leader, so So for you, Mustapha, in your category, you can become the thought leader that brings entrepreneurs and new thinking to the market. That’s positioning, right. So all of these elements and touch points are just another way. The whole proximity is power is a really good one as well, let’s say one of the easiest ways to leapfrog your credibility and your positioning is by being associated with somebody who has, you know, huge amount of awareness, right, a premium brand.

So like, you know, if Gary Vaynerchuk popped into this podcast interview, and we’re associated with him, right, that would elevate our brand. So it’s that proximity is power thing that a lot of people play up. That’s why you see people taking pictures with these these personas, these celebrities, because it’s that proximity as power angle. So so many different ways that you can do that. The title, you can give yourself a title.

So there’s so many people who do that, and it can be misconstrued as being braggy. But this is the other thing, it’s like, you can call yourself an expert. So if you go to if you go to positioning expert.com, you’re gonna go to my website. So that’s just an easy way. For instead of you thinking how do you spell that woman’s name that was on the staff as a podcast was at ACU easy or Gu is down, like, just go to position expert.com? You know what I mean?

So little things like that different touch points that you can have, as part of the experience of how you’re going to be showing up and interacting with your personal brand is very much a way to create that contrast or to differentiate.

Mostafa Hosseini  28:22

Absolutely. And then, so we talked about so seems like you could you could differentiate across the board on basically everything that you do.

Patty Dominguez  28:38

Yeah, pretty much, pretty much. Yeah, I mean, another Yeah. No, I was just gonna say myself another thing that some people do really well, I’ve done it also is you can position against a common enemy, right. I know you’ve heard that before. Right. Mustafa? Like yeah, for example, people who are doing it unethically or for example, I’ve written emails about the about about bro marketers, you know what I mean? And it’s like a way to cast stones at the enemy.

They’re not really your enemies but you’re trying to create contrast, or for example, these click bait types of ads or click bait types of posts that get people to click but then you go on there and it just kind of empty, right it’s a lot a bunch of hot air. So even on it’s really interesting. On my YouTube channel, I had posted a video how to differentiate I think is the title of it, how to stand out uniquely, and this guy commented like he’s like thank you for posting something that’s actually useful, and that it’s not a bunch of clickbait because people are getting tired of that stuff.

So at the root of that is just showing up authentically, like knowing your stuff and then showing up to serve and being authentic, that sometimes in and of itself creates contrast. I thought That was really interesting. And I posted back on my Hey, thanks for that comment, like you really made me smile. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Because it’s like, wow, just showing up authentically, and not being so. So HYPEE is a way to differentiate now, apparently, which is crazy.

Mostafa Hosseini  30:19

And I think I read or heard this somewhere that when you differentiate it across the board, on different things that you do, at some point, you become so different compared to your competition that they have no chance of copying or catching up with you. So that gets so uniquely you that they can’t even start to copy you even if they do, they’re probably going to fail miserably. Yeah,

Patty Dominguez  30:43

yeah. I mean, I look at one of the best examples, if you look at, you know, marketing, genius Godfather, Dan Kennedy, his LTV lifetime value of his clients is super long. Because he’s very bold. He’s very brash, he’s super opinionated. He’s just like, personal branding is nonsense and right, he has his perspectives on things.

And he also says, if you go anywhere else, you’re throwing away your money. Like, he causes that type of awareness or move like he’s leaving, right? He’s leaving his his people, his community, his tribe, whatever you want to call it. He’s leading. And I think part of the thing also is, you know, something I learned from a mentor of mine, Jim Ford, and he’s always saying is, like, always be leading. Right? Where are you leading in that conversation?

Because as Dan Kennedy says, like, people are just starving to be let, so you as the persona behind your brand, and in the in the niche that you’re in, go ahead and lead this goes back to a really brilliant blog post that’s called 1000. True fans, I believe, the author’s Kevin Kelly, and he talks about the fact that most people think that you have to have like, a million people who buy from you. He’s like, it’s absolutely not true.

And then obviously, I’m paraphrasing, but he says, like, what if I told you, you only need 1000? True fans, right, 1000, true, true, fails to have a really successful business. And so when I, when I brought that up to my clients, it really allows them to see that, oh, I don’t have to boil the ocean, right, because they have a tendency to compare themselves to these big, big brands. And that’s great and all, but it doesn’t have to mean that that that you have to be that size, right kind of takes the pressure off, as well as this, like Mount Everest that you’re never going to reach.

And that’s absolutely not the case. You can cultivate goodwill. And, and that commitment by having the cells into your fans, and you’re serving them and you’re doing all the things to engage with them and create experiences. And I love this whole concept of, you know, surprise and delight. I love doing that for my clients and just having those elements that go above and beyond where are you going above and beyond because guess what, most business in my experience, are just meeting the deliverable and sometimes falling short of that.

And that’s a it’s really disappointing. But what if you can not only meet the deliverable, but exceed it create an experience where you’re surprising and delighting what would that look like? So just by doing that you’re an outlier, which is really crazy to me. But that’s another way to differentiate 100%.

Mostafa Hosseini  33:24

So the guy to ask last question about differentiation about the link between differentiation and niches. He’s a YouTube dad nickname is the airport chauffeur. And he just mentioned that we’re wealthy travelers, I just want to mention that I heard a story about a taxi driver or he may he may be working at the airport that he only does shuttle drives between for wealthy travelers to the airport.

And he is trusted among a network of people who introduce him to other people and wealthy travelers that keeps getting referred to other wealthy and well known people. And he and he’s got it figured out his business. And he probably charges a higher fee. And he delivers exactly what those people are expecting, because he’s been probably doing it for like 20 or 30 years. Brilliant.

Patty Dominguez  34:18

And so so at the root of that is being super consistent. Because when you’re consistent with that, right, you’re consistent on your brand promise, you’re meeting what the experience is going to be each and every single time predictably. There’s equity in that for sure that a lot of people are are probably not as patient to do. You know, this reminds me of a story that I had somebody on my podcast and she was saying how people who do it right, right. I think that was a topic and in general.

And she was saying that there was a local auto body shop, this guy who owned the Saudi body shop for 40 years, right just you know privately owned mom and pop shop type of deal. But when he went on Google and a pretty, pretty broad metropolitan area, he came up first. It was so interesting is because when you walked in there, he would take people through the experience, right he had put into place you come in, this is what you do.

So there’s that predictability that people like, and they come to rely on. And then he delivers. And then he’s like, how was your experience? It was really good, Hey, do me a favor, this would mean the world to me take out your phone type of deal. And then here’s exactly what you’re gonna do. That helps my business side a lot. And then he takes a picture.

And they posted like part of his process. So because of that he had so many Google reviews, he’s showing up top on Google, totally organic. So that’s just a great example of organic is not that you just have to have more consistency with it that most people are not willing to do. And that’s such a great example of how you can do it, too. Absolutely.

Mostafa Hosseini  35:53

So what is the difference between a personal brand and a business brand? And how are they related?

Patty Dominguez  36:05

So I think with that, I mean, a personal brand is if you’re, for example, the person behind the brand. So I’m Patti Dominguez, right. And there’s something there’s a, an idea that if you’re developing a personal brand, and the experience is tied to your personal brand, then people come to expect it, right. And so there’s this point of, there’s this point where you can’t really depart from it, because people expect you to do the thing.

And and it really depends on what you want your exit strategy to be. So let me go back to you know, when you look at Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary Vaynerchuk, owns a lot of different things. He has an agency, he has this NFT company, and he does all kinds of stuff. He has a personal brand standing on his own, that he’s developed now under the VaynerMedia. And all these Vayner companies that he has, he has other people that are that are like, doing the day to day operations.

So the personal side of it, that you can see, by the way, his brand personality, I mean, he’s brash, he swears he doesn’t care. He gives it to you straight, he doesn’t prepare slides at presentations. He’s like, Hey, I like q&a. So like, you just know what to expect. Now he is hella consistent, because that’s the one thing about hearing him that’s indisputable, he is a massively consistent, probably one of the most consistent people ever.

So that’s what he’s come to be known for. Now, his agency side, he has leveraged his last name, to build equity and notoriety with his agencies and all these other elements. And so they can stand on its own. And then if he wanted to sell it, it because there’s some kind of an exit strategy associated with it, he could because there’s equity in his name.

So it’s the way however you decide to build it, just always think ahead and say, Okay, what is it that I’m doing that I want to I want to exit this business? Can I? Can I take myself out of it? And then can it still stand alone? Do I have the process behind it, so we could still thrive, even if I’m not a part of it? I think a great example that I remember is that when famous speaker and business philosopher, Jim Rohn, passed away his company didn’t really have anybody really manning the ship.

And the equity in his brand kind of fell off the wayside. And it’s such a disservice because such a brilliant man, right? But he didn’t have any of that infrastructure is my understanding. So don’t quote me. That’s what I heard. But if you notice, there’s not a whole lot of Jim Rohn types of things and training still available, is my understanding of it, because people just associated with him, right. He was doing all the public speaking and doing all of that. So it was such a missed opportunity in that respect. Oh,

Mostafa Hosseini  38:56

I’m a huge fan of Jim Rohn. I listen to hours and hours, days and weeks and months. But that’s, you know, you’re right. You don’t see a lot of Jim Rohn stuff happening. I don’t know if he’s there because his brand relied too much or solely on him. And he didn’t have other people involved to pick up after him. Yeah,

Patty Dominguez  39:21

my understanding of it. Yeah. Yeah.

Mostafa Hosseini  39:26

So I think at some point, succession planning as something different salutely Absolutely. I think not just personal brands. I’ve seen. I’ve seen businesses I’ve seen non for profits, charities, personal brands, all sorts of businesses and people that interact with people that do not have a succession plan. And or I’ve seen cases, let’s say in a charity that I’ve been involved with, that if a certain person gets sick or something happens to them, they entire organization is going to be in trouble. Yeah, so exactly

Patty Dominguez  40:03

that like the contingency side of it isn’t there isn’t just stablish it’s dangerous.

Mostafa Hosseini  40:09

Absolutely. And you know, we think that all we’re going to be okay, nothing is going to happen until it happens. Yeah. So what are the big brands doing that the personal brands? Don’t?

Patty Dominguez  40:27

I think the the one thing that a lot of people fall short, short on is, and just put it really simplistically is that I go back to that story that I told about the chocolate chip cookie. I mean, there was so many discussions like, how is this cookie going to be consumed? Is it mom who has it in the cup holder in her car? Or is it kids that are putting in the backpack? Or is it the dad that’s putting in his briefcase because he’s gonna go to the airport?

So there’s just all these things that are considered? And so at the root of that, if you really think about it is that the market research is done? extensively? Right? I mean, profound market research is happening, all kinds of tests markets, and understanding the nuances of that particular consumer. And so how do you relate that into our world, right into this entrepreneur, solopreneur, that kind of thing. It’s really understanding your prospect intimately.

And it goes beyond just the age range and the gender and all these other things. It’s really understanding the hopes, fears, dreams, desires, their challenges, what frustrates them, what else have they tried? What is it that they come to understand about particular solutions that are in the market. So this is so critical to do that, most people don’t ever take the time to do it. Why? Because it takes work, it takes work.

And there’s a lot of unknowns with that as well. And so part of this rigorous processes, the magic is, once you have the market research done, for the most part, it becomes a springboard to for all the other things that you create.

And so now, when you have the message to market match, what happens is that people are seeing it, and then the person on the receiving end, the biggest compliment that you can get is when somebody says, Oh my God, it’s like, you’re in my head, you’re speaking to me with this, this ad that you ran, or the story that you told, or the blog post that you wrote, or the podcast episode, all of these things, that’s how you differentiate because you understand your prospect, intimately, you know, 360, all perspective psychographically, Democrat, geographically, behaviorally, all of it, all of it, all of it.

And so there’s a lot of of, of excellence and rigor that comes out of it that pays you back. pretty significantly when you do it, right.

Mostafa Hosseini  42:59

Yeah, that’s probably another example of different place where you can differentiate and that is to get to know your customer, so much, so well, so deep, that no one else could even compare themselves to, or it might mean they could act like it or they could claim.

But when push comes to shove, they probably don’t know as much about the customer and their needs. And you could walk to the customer and visa and say things like, look, I probably know you better than you know yourself.

Patty Dominguez  43:26

You’re right, you’re right, though it’s so true. And that’s right, because you bring the wealth of knowledge of working with different clients in that space, who have similar problems, but problems maybe that they’re not even thinking about, or solutions that they’re not even aware of what they aren’t. So this is like from a positioning standpoint, something that I call the CheckMate move, right?

What is it that you can present as part of your solution that other people haven’t even thought about as a viable reason why they haven’t gotten the gains in their own business that they want? Right? Just for example, like, Oh, you must be taught? I don’t know, there’s just so much of that, that you can be doing that. On the consumer side, you know, your big question was around, what are the big brands doing that the entrepreneurs are not?

For example, let me give you the easiest and fastest example is like Tylenol, right? So Tylenol, you know, it’s just a mainstream consumer package. Good. And then they put like a special coating, that that allows the pain reliever to impact you quicker. So there’s a pain, I don’t know, they call it something where the release of it is that much quicker, right? So that’s an example of why wait with that horrible throbbing headache for 25 minutes before the tunnel kicks in when you can have it in three. Right? So that speed of a result is the CheckMate move.

And so these are just different things that you can do. So think about what is it that you’re doing and is it around speed? How’s it different? What’s the experience that’s different? How do you enhance it? I mean, there’s So many different elements that you can hone in on, that you can present to a prospect that they’re not even aware of, which is really an opportunity.

Mostafa Hosseini  45:08

So one of the one of the things we’ve done in the past is just to sit down and list every benefit and everything that say your product or service that does for the customer. And like you said, you could even focus on that and build your brand around it. Even though the the no name no brand, sudden monofin would do the same as Tylenol. But because we’re building a brand around it, those guys could turn around and say, Look, we know the same, but it doesn’t work. It’s not going to do. Those guys have built a brand brand around it. And they focused on it. And they they’ve done a whole bunch of things to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. And now people walk in and pay they happily pay premium fees. Access to that feature, which which is a beautiful thing. How do you? How much time how much?

Okay, here’s an a question. Another question, how much time do you actually need to build a business or a personal brand? How long does it typically take? How much? How much time would you give it? To? Because here’s why I asked that question. Here’s, I ran an agency forever, and digital agency and people will come up and say, Yeah, let’s spend so much a month on advertising. And then like a month or two later, they show up. They’re like, how was my brand doing?

Patty Dominguez  46:34

I laughing because I’m let you know, you and I know both why we’re laughing? Yeah, exactly

Mostafa Hosseini  46:39

what’s happening. And so I’m like, How much time do you typically give it until you say, Look, this is typically how much time you need to build a brand. Yeah.

Patty Dominguez  46:49

Okay. I don’t think I could feasibly answer that question. Because I don’t think it’s as much as it’s a time consideration as much as a consistency consideration. So for example, you can have some, so if I say to you, oh, it takes a year. But if somebody’s showing up and doing a live every other month, for 20 minutes, how many touch points? Is that, feasibly?

Six in a year? Yeah. And then there’s somebody else who’s doing it two times a day for 365 days. See what I’m saying? So I think it’s touch points. I think it’s fancy of the touch points. I think that’s a, a relevant way to look at it, as opposed to it being a time element, in my opinion. Yeah,

Mostafa Hosseini  47:37

I think if I may, I think adding to that repetition thing. And once you differentiate and and pick a niche that helps you build your brand, a lot faster, compared to the people that say I serve everybody. Right? Of course, of course. Absolutely. If you go out there and say I hope chiropractors with their bookkeeping in the state of California, and you make two videos a day about that. You’re gonna get there a lot faster compared to the guy that says I do bookkeeping, and I’m really good at it. Right.

Patty Dominguez  48:12

It’s also it’s also being seen as a as a solution provider, because there’s some guy I wish I wish I could remember I think it’s like, fill the plumber and fill the plumber has a YouTube channel has millions of people who go to fill the plumber. Why because fill the plumber can help you with the leaky faucet and all these at home situations that people have with their plumbing.

That’s such a great example. He is not talking about commercial plumbing, or you know, all kinds of plumbing he is honing in on this is what you need to know for your home. So that’s a great example of the Everyday Guy. And if you look at it like Phil the plumber or something similar to that it’s Pete the plumber, I don’t even remember. But he’s he has grown this crazy following on YouTube because he is looked at as the trusted source and plumbing and oh, by the way, he’s super consistent with posting his video. So there you go. Right.

Mostafa Hosseini  49:09

I’ve seen I’ve seen plumbers, landscaping companies, detail shops, a whole bunch of different construction people that are shooting videos and posting it consistently about their entire process with millions of views. So probably more make more money out of the ads on YouTube than they do on that like there’s a guy landscaping guy who does free lawn care.

That gets like a turnover or makeover. I don’t know what he calls it but it’s a it’s a pardon my French like a shitshow of it of yard. He goes in and just does a makeover. It’s like wow, look, look at the befores and afters. I watch those I’m like, that’s amazing. And he does it for free. He just works on people’s doors and say do you want to free lawn makeover and they’re like I’m like, No, I’m not altered, or entire day.

And then he has a brand. He probably has people going to him. Oh, it’s it’s very interesting,

Patty Dominguez  50:11

if you look at it in that respect, so very similar to this guy that you’re talking about with the landscaper, or the plumber guy that I’m talking about. There’s also another guy on YouTube. His name is Vic blends, viic blends and right around the COVID timing or so there was a situation where he’s a barber, all barber shops are closed.

He’s like, Oh, my God, what am I gonna do? You know, I don’t know what to do started this YouTube channel. And basically, he hangs out in different locations and park and like him at the park. And he has like the the barber, cape and then a chair and his thing to cut hair. And he’s like, Hey, can I bless you with a free haircut? And then he videotapes that and he literally asked people about their life. But then he’s really inspiring. Right? He inspires people.

And that’s its storytelling. People know what, what is happening, people come to understand his brand. He’s known for that one thing, and he has millions and millions of followers, not only on YouTube, but Tik Tok, and all these other channels. And it just goes to show you why it’s because he’s super consistent with his message. And people have what they are what they come to expect.

Yeah, it’s just it really requires that level of consistency and predictability in a way to know what you stand for. So that it’s so clear to people that they come to know what the experience is going to be like. I think there’s a lot to be said there for that.

Mostafa Hosseini  51:41

I was watching, I think we might have me and you I’ve talked about this before I watched Mr. Beast, the big YouTuber saying Yeah. Some somebody asked him on how to monetize like his YouTube channel and the rest of it. He said, first make 100 videos, and then work and think about monetizing it, to show consistency to show that you are going to show up to show that yes, you will be there every day, every week, like that twice a day, or once a day or once a week deal that yes, I’m going to be here, and then the rest of stuff will probably come through.

Well, we are coming to the top of the hour. And Patty does. Like I said this is this topic is so near and dear to me. I’ve spent a lot of time on it. We could easily talk about there three hours about it.

Patty Dominguez  52:27

Getting I know, I know. Well, while you’re talking to you, I love this topic. Are you kidding me?

Mostafa Hosseini  52:34

So, important question. And then we’re gonna I’m gonna dive into some personal questions. Before we wrap up. How do you find a niche? How do you go about it?

Patty Dominguez  52:43

So again, starting with the different categories, health, wealth, relationships, and passion projects. So those are the four. So within each of those drill down, right, so say health, could be weight loss, personal trainer, again, just know, start there, start with the top four, and then drill down within those.

And then that’s how you find and honestly take a look competitively to see, are there other offers out there that people are already giving you the proof wins, that this is a market that you can play in that is profitable? So I actually, I don’t know, can I transition into the gift, Mustafa

Mostafa Hosseini  53:27

100%? And I’m working.

Patty Dominguez  53:31

Okay, cool. So yeah, if you go to, if you go to positioning quiz.com, positioning quiz.com. There, it’s a series of questions that goes into that, right, understanding all of these elements of your positioning. But it also goes into the internal position. This is what I mean about I help service based entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. Because it’s not just about the external positioning side of it, but also the internal positioning side of it by saying, like, can you say your next year?

How do you feel about that all of the mindset stuff, also that comes into play that is super, super important. So if you go there, take the quiz. There’ll be a report specific to you. And it also, it can also include it’ll also include on the back end, a whole series of gifts I love gifting, right I love surprising and delighting and so you’ll get a lot of different gifts on how to work through this whole topic of how to position your brand and profit. So yeah, so just go to positioning quiz.com

Mostafa Hosseini  54:31

So gang to get to get to the positioning quiz to know where you’re standing with your positioning and your brand and your niche and the rest of the stuff. Go to position quiz.com And the link is actually is in the comments of the show in the description of the show. You can click on it and go visit and do the quiz and she is going to send you some surprise gifts as well. And honestly picking a niche and Picking who you serve what you do for them, and you cannot spend enough time on these to get this figured out. Here’s a fact that I know and I’ve been in the marketing world probably for 15 years or so once you get this piece figured out, yeah, everything else becomes a lot easier, like, easier. Like when you pick your niche, you know who you serve, finding them becomes a lot easier.

versus trying to think about this, trying to find everybody. Like when Patty said when he tried to find and serve everybody, you ended up serving nobody, versus a very specific niche or group of people who know and like and are looking for your service. And they would be get very happy when you show up. You could probably tell I get very excited about this.

And I’m passionate about this. So it’s very important. do reach out, go to position quiz.com. And get this and do reach out to Patti and get some help with this. And I’m sure you will not regret that. No, Patty can ask you some personal questions. Before we wrap up? Yes. All right. Let me actually ask one question before we get that give us a 32nd Simple marketing strategy that people can use and implement that will give them quick results.

Patty Dominguez  56:23

30 seconds, a lot of people focus on new leads, like any new leads, any leads any leads, I think your biggest money making opportunity is to reach out within people that have bought from you already. I mean, the fact that they bought from you once, people almost always are sitting on money. They’re leaving money on the table, there’s gold in them hills. And so I would deploy some kind of a reengagement campaign, with the people that are bought from you. When was the last time you took over your best buyers and said, How’s it going? What are you working on? etc, just to catch up to them reengage your customers? Love it.

Mostafa Hosseini  57:00

I would second that, because I actually run a business that does exactly that.

Patty Dominguez  57:06

What a perfect segue to your solution.

Mostafa Hosseini  57:10

That’s like literally what we do all day long. There you go activating existing or past customers.

Patty Dominguez  57:15

Well, and here’s the deal. Like if you don’t want to do it hire Mustapha. There you go.

Mostafa Hosseini  57:21

We could pick up the phone for you. And we’re not afraid of it. All right. So what paddy what’s a new thing that you’ve tried recently?

Patty Dominguez  57:30

Probably all these AI apps and just really discerning what is working on it. Now. I think there’s just a lot of hype around it. And I’m waiting to see what settles down and can be deployable. I always like to put things into practice in my own business, and then bring it back to my clients. See what works. Fantastic.

Mostafa Hosseini  57:51

Fantastic. Give me two of your favorite books, please.

Patty Dominguez  57:54

Oh, I love outliers. I was a Malcolm Gladwell junkie, and anything by Seth Godin. Anything, I’ve read all his books, I follow his stuff. He’s just really brilliant in the simplicity in which he introduces concepts. So I love it. You

Mostafa Hosseini  58:12

have like a favorite with Seth Godin.

Patty Dominguez  58:16

Probably I love I love the book, small is the new big, where he talks about small businesses really having the upper hand against the big old conglomerates that so many layers and bureaucracy, they don’t make. Trade or they don’t move quick, quick, right? Because they’re not nimble enough to do so. As small business owners, we can deploy so much of what we’ve heard today even quickly.

Mostafa Hosseini  58:41

Love it, love it. Love it. Patti, what’s one advice that made a big impact on your business or life?

Patty Dominguez  58:51

One of the things that an early mentor of mine, Kurt Molly, he’s a traffic expert. He said to me, nobody is ever consistent ever. And the people that are consistent are the ones that win.

Mostafa Hosseini  59:05

Consistent people win. Love it. What if you’re consistently wrong?

Patty Dominguez  59:15

Then I’d be I’d wind up being the wrongest of the wrong.

Mostafa Hosseini  59:19

I think eventually you would probably pick up on that and fix it. But if you’re consistent over time, you learn to I guess, learn from that. I mean, you you would if you consistently do something, and you don’t get the result and you keep doing it every day, eventually, you’re going to pick up on the clues and oh, yeah,

Patty Dominguez  59:36

absolutely. Because it’s giving you the feedback, right, assuming all right, the Thank you. The consistency is as it’s applied to something that’s giving you an ROI or an ROI, a return on investment or return on energy. Right. I have friends that deployed that very concept of consistency, and they’re millionaires because they’ve been able to do that

Mostafa Hosseini  59:56

100% And I think that consistency probably fixes the problem. If you do, because most people, let’s say they use something once and they get they see a failure or they don’t see results. And they stop right there. And then. But if that’s something you do every day all year round, eventually, even if you’re dumb, you will probably pick up on the clues. And yeah, you know, cool. Patti, if you had a Facebook or a Google ad, where everyone around the globe with access to internet could see your ad. What would your message be for the people of Earth?

Patty Dominguez  1:00:34

It’s time to zag when everybody else is zigging.

Mostafa Hosseini  1:00:38

And it’s time to zag when everyone else is again. Again, it this has been an absolutely amazing conversation. Like I said, we could probably keep going. And he kept on on this topic for hours and hours. But we’re at the top of the hour. And is there anything that you probably would have wanted to mention, but didn’t get a chance to

Patty Dominguez  1:01:08

mention? No, Mustafa, thank you for the opportunity. I think the only thing that I would say is that if you’re struggling to stand out, just understand and ask yourself better questions on why that’s happening. And I always find that, too. There’s a great book, who not how were the author, Dan Sullivan, I’m almost positive as Dan Sullivan.

He says anytime you’re in a bottleneck in your business, the big question to ask yourself is it’s probably time for a who is the time for a hoe. And so that’s where real solution experts like you and I muster who can really help people to move right to move the needle in their business. Absolutely,

Mostafa Hosseini  1:01:47

gang. Again, if you’re watching or listening, go to positioning quiz.com and get access to Patti’s quiz, and do reach out to her she has a wealth of knowledge and experience. She’s got a great heart. And I don’t think you’re going to regret that decision. So thank you for joining us. If you have any questions for Patty or I put it in the comments below.

Feel free to share the link with a person that could a business or a person that could benefit from Patti’s expertise and all the knowledge and wisdom that she shared with you guys, and or tag them in a comment and do not forget to like and subscribe to the show. And we will see you next week. Have a good one. Thank you Patty again. Thank you. Have a good one. Bye now.