Competition - Who Are Your REAL Competitors, Copycats, & Where Comparison Is Killing Your Business

Let's talk about the real role competitors play in your business journey. In this episode, we break down two common (yet flawed) mindsets, how to spot your REAL competitors, and the difference between awareness and fixation (hint: one kills momentum.) We'll share how to stand out no matter how crowded your market may feel, stay confident when people copy you, and play offence instead of defense. If you're tired of feeling behind or second-guessing your place in the market, this episode will help you focus on what really matters: doing your thing, better than anyone else.

Highlights

00:00 The twin skincare experiment and celebrating friends 40th.

08:15 Why we need competition in business.

10:00 Two harmful mindsets when it comes to your competition.

15:45 How to use competition to your advantage.

20:15 Misconceptions we had about competition when we were early in business.

23:00 How to identify who your real competition is.

29:00 Balancing being content in business while striving for more.

31:00 Why we love competition not just as business owners but also as customers.

37:45 How you stand out as the best in your industry.

40:00 The journey from "broke and comparing" to defining your own lane.

43:45 What we wish we heard 15 years ago when we started our business.

Resources + Links

Apply for Luxury Clothier Collective Mastermind HERE

More resources for custom clothiers HERE

Watch on Youtube

Follow

Appointment Only in IG: @appointmentonlypod

Resources + Links
Apply for Luxury Clothier Collective Mastermind  HERE
More resources for custom clothiers HERE
Watch on Youtube

 Follow
Appointment Only in IG: @appointmentonlypod

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's not always a me and my business versus them and their business. The reality of competition is that it's a necessity. It's a necessity in so many different ways, especially in whatever industry you're in. You need there to be competition so that whatever you do is justified. This is Appointment Only, the podcast for entrepreneurs building profitable high-end businesses. If you want control, profit, and freedom from the endless hustle, this is for you. We're Kenny and Danny, twin brothers from day one and business partners for 15 years. We're sharing insights from our own experiences running a high-end small business, the highs, the lows, and what we've learned along the way that will help you build businesses you enjoy running that aren't running you. We're here to help you continue creating businesses that support the life you actually want to live. Your appointment starts now. Welcome back, regulars. It's appointment only, and your appointment starts now. I do think I like regulars. I like I like that. I like calling our listeners the regulars. It's sure easier than appointmenters. We gave that a try. Podsters, that's not gonna work. Regulars is the move. And at this point, I'm sold on it. I am too. And you know, not that we're opposed to any new ideas, but we're we're not currently crowdsourcing new ideas. We're not currently taking recommendations. So, but if you have a recommendation, pass it on. But I think it's gonna be regulars from here on out. Just because I like it. It makes sense, it's easy to say, and we all are on the same page there. So thank you to all of you regulars who are tuning in week after week and for all the feedback we're getting. For those of you who are considering yourselves regulars, when I'm saying regular and you're saying that's me. That's me. That's me. Go ahead and if you haven't already, write us a great review. Tell us what you love about the podcast and write us five stars. We'd really appreciate that. It would help the algorithm. It would help people who could use this podcast find us. The more positive rate ratings and reviews we have out there, the easier it is for the algorithm to push us to the right people who are looking for something like this. So I'm gonna throw this out there. Let's hear it. I don't think that you can. I don't think that you can positively review us. Oh, nice reverse psychology. You know, I don't think you're capable of it. I I don't think so, guys. I don't think that review is gonna be nice enough. Are you really sure? Are you really sure you can? So let's we'll see if that works. Mission accomplished. I think that'll be good. We I appreciate those of you who have reviewed, by the way. Um, but I know that most of you haven't. So not to name names or point fingers, but our experience I'm looking at you. Our experience in business is that for every one out of one out of 10 or one out of 15 people that we ask for a positive review actually writes it. For some reason, this week, a couple of times, birthdays have come up. And it's not because it's my birthday, it's just it's come up in conversation. We were talking with a friend of ours. It's because you got stoked and you were like, It's my birthday. It's my half birthday month. Come on, it's your birthday. It is my half birthday month, not to brag. Uh, but it's we were talking with a friend of ours this morning, and I I forgot his birthday, which was the end of last month. So I said, Oh, happy birthday. I can't remember if you're 36 or 37. And he was like, Yeah, honestly, I can't either. And isn't that the case? That was me too. I I all of last year, because I'm we're 37 now, all of last, or maybe the second half of last year, I thought I was 37. So when I was doing the math this year on our birthday, I realized that I gained a year. I actually didn't get older this year. I actually got younger this year. Yeah, Benjamin Button style. Yeah, pretty amazing. We gained that year back. It is good. It's good to be aging in reverse. And uh we're also actually in the process, Danny and I, of a real life skincare trial, like a life's lifetime trial, because one of us has a skincare routine that he follows. Just say it's you. Well, I'm gonna let them make the decision if they can tell on the uh on YouTube in the in the HD, the 4K. Can you tell which of us? Okay, guilty, caught in 4K of not having a skincare routine. Yeah. So that's that's the trial because you know you've seen, I don't know, maybe you haven't seen them. I've seen these like side by sides of one of these twins is on meth and the other one isn't. Well, that's we're doing that too. And also that one. So if you can tell. I think the meth counteracts the skincare routine in that it helps with the skincare. In that it doesn't, it it it it counteracts it where you've got the skincare routine going, but your meth usage No amount of no amount of retinol is gonna offset meth. That's right, is what you're saying. That's right. Well, that is true. Uh, but all that to say, I have a skincare routine. Danny, you've tried, you've dabbled. I've I've had products before. Yeah. But you got to use the products. See, it's not just about listening to appointment only, it's about doing the things that are going to change your business. You gotta, you gotta actually do the action, you gotta make the changes. You've got to make the changes for yourself. So it's not about buying a retinol, it's about using it more than once. Okay. So let that be a lesson to you. But we'll see. Fast forward 10, 15 years, we'll see who's looking young and who's looking like a grandpa king over here. But we were talking about birthdays with this friend of ours, and uh we've we figure out he turned 37. We also got a text from a friend this week who wants to get together, and it's for a his 40th birthday. You're you're also making it sound like we have so many friends. Oh, just this this friend. I heard from two people over here. We've got this friend over here. I heard from two people this week, and that's two more than I ever hear from. Our circle is small and it's tight, and it's very, very common for weeks to go by without getting getting a single friend text. But this week we got two. Uh, and admittedly, it was they were listening to the podcast and wanted to say thanks, which I appreciate. But um, the other friend of ours turning 40 this week. And it's funny because I actually remember being at his 16th. Well, we were at a lot of his birthdays, but I remember specifically the 16th birthday party because in the small town that we grew up in, you took your driver's test on your 16th birthday. You could not wait to get your license. And your 16th birthday, you got pulled out of school early. Your parents brought you to the license bureau. You did that that driving test. And in our small town, it was about half and half. Half the time people would pass, half the time they would fail. Let's just say the birthday parties took a little bit of a different vibe. If they failed. And everyone was waiting at Josh's house, waiting for him to come in. We see him pull in, we're looking out. Is he smiling? Is he does it look like he's been crying? Because it's, I mean, when you're a big deal. It's a big deal. In a small town, if you don't get your driver's license on your 16th, you have no independence. Yeah, you're consider yourself imprisoned because you have no freedom anymore. I mean, it's you are in but you're imprisoned in Wilmer. And it's yeah, it's your outlet to the it's your outlet to Spicer and St. Cloud. That's right. It's your road to St. Cloud if you live in Wilmer. So you need that, you need that driver's license. But it's I remember being at that birthday party specifically, and I Josh did pass. I think is I think I I don't think he did. But we'll have to ask him when we get together with him. One other thing that I'll say about birthdays, and then we can actually talk about what we're here to talk about. I don't remember what I was doing, but I was signing up for something online. It was probably a trial subscription so that I could watch the rest of a season of a show. Isn't that the worst? Yeah, the rest of the season available here. So you have to do like a week-long subscription and then put a calendar reminder in your phone to cancel that subscription. But the only way you can cancel a subscription is by going to their desktop version. Right. You can't do it through the app. That's right. Or you type it into your browser on your actual phone, flip your phone sideways and try to navigate it that way. Yeah, it's absolutely crazy. But I was signing up for something and it was having me fill in my birthday, not just the day and the month, but also the year. And uh I was scrolling through and I was like, oh, 88, there we go. I looked and it was set on 1888. Like, let's just think about that for one second. They can probably pull all of the 1800s off of those scrolls. I think we're safe. You can eliminate any 1800s. So you really think it's possible that someone who is 137 years old is signing up for MGM Plus on Amazon. I don't think so. I wonder how far back those go. 1600s? I think it was that I don't know. I was, I was pretty surprised I was in the 1800s. I'm not sure how that happened. We could start at the 1900s, I think. I bet at this point, even if somebody was reaching out to you wanting to work with you that was born in the 1800s, you probably wouldn't want to work with them anyway. They might be a little old. They might be, and their carriage may be late. It might not be worth it. I they might not fully understand what it is that you do. I'm just throwing that out. No offense to anyone listening to Appointment Only who is born in the 1800s. I know there are there are some of you out there who are tuning in on a regular basis, and you were born in the 1800s, and we're not trying to be rude. We're not. No, absolutely. What I will say about those of you maybe who aren't necessarily the target demo of the pod, I've heard from a number of you who are listening who are not small business owners, are not necessarily entrepreneurs, but are just in the business world, and you're finding that you are liking the podcast. So if that's you, we are so glad that you're here. We're glad you're a regular. We're happy to, we're happy to have this place for all of us to talk shop. Now, today, what we're talking about is something that it doesn't matter where you fall on the entrepreneurship spectrum, small business ownership, what industry you're in, if you're an employee of a company. This is something that we all deal with. I mean, even if you were born in the 1800s, you probably deal with this. We're talking about competitors today. And if you were born in the 1800s, you were probably like, oh, that blacksmith over there. Competition. Competitors. And we're not talking about the Olympics. We're talking about your business competitors. Although we could, we could riff and talk about, you know, some some Olympic sports, but I would have very little to add. I would be talking about the good old days. I would be talking about has anybody heard of Michael Phelps? Tara Lepinsky? Tara Lepinski. That was like probably that was probably my first crush. Everyone had a crush on Tara Lepinsky. I had a crush on uh Monica Lewinsky. You're not the only one. No, I said Monica Lewinsky, but I meant the other skater who hit the other one. Tanya. Yeah, Tanya. I meant Tanya Harding. But I think the Lepinski, I was thinking like I was just for some reason, they're Eastern European last names. So that makes sense. Oh boy. But there's nothing that sounds like Tanya Harding. But I also did not have a crush on Tanya Harding. I did have a crush on Tara Lipinski, did not have a crush on Monica Lewinsky, but the uh the Lipinski crew is what we're known as. The Tara, the Tara, no, I I can't do it either. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough. It doesn't lend itself well to a it doesn't roll off the nickname. It doesn't roll off the tongue. But anyway, we're not, believe it or not, we're not talking about the Olympics. We're talking about competitors in business. Competitors in business. And it doesn't matter what industry you're in, it doesn't matter what job you have within your organization. You have competitors, and there is time spent factoring that in and talking about strategy surrounding your competition, talking about crushing the competition or working alongside the competition. And you've got it. You've got competition, whether you like it or not. There are a couple of overall mindsets as it relates to competition that I think are super unhelpful. And I just want to talk about those right away. And then we can get into a little bit more specifics. But I think one mindset that a lot of people adopt as it relates to their competitors is they pretend that they don't care or they pretend they don't know who they are. Like, oh, who's that? That has happened to us not recently, but it happened, it used to happen a lot. Where do you remember when we were at the we were at a trade show and we ran into, we were with our mentor Kingford, and we ran into someone else uh who was doing what we do in our city, and every it's there's only they were only like six of us, and everybody knew who everyone was. And Kingford was introducing us to this guy, and he was like, and you are? Yeah, who are you? And who when what what's the name of your company? Just playing dumb. And I'm not gonna even give him the benefit of the doubt because he was very much playing dumb. He absolutely knew who we were. And I just thought, wow, that is so insulting, and that is so rude, and also really stupid because I think it's a really bad idea to underestimate your competitors because that's what happens. If you pretend they don't exist, if you pretend you don't know who they are, oh I've never heard of them. Who's that? You know who does that is Mariah Carey. She always acts like she's never heard of anyone else. She's been in interviews and people are like, What do you think of Lady Gaga? And she's like, Who? Serious? Yeah. She does that. I've never heard of it. It's crazy. It's crazy when people act like that. So when it happened to us, and that wasn't the only time that happened, by the way, but that's just the example that comes to mind. It is insulting and it's rude, but it's also really stupid for them because you don't want to be caught in a situation where you're so busy pretending other people don't exist that you give them market positioning. Well, and it says something negative about you if you're pretending like you're unaware of other people. It kind of kind of gives off like this aloof mentality. Yeah, it makes it seem like you have no idea what's going on, which is not good. So that's one, I think, unhealthy mindset as it relates towards competition. The other is the polar opposite, which is just a complete fixation on who your competitors are. Everything you do is in response to things that your competition is doing. And that has also shown itself over the years. We've watched people doing what we do in our market. And it's funny because we will put something out on our website and it doesn't take long before we start to notice. Oh, they're they're either saying that exact same thing on their website or they're saying the complete opposite of what we're saying on ours, on theirs, just basically trying to be the antithesis of everything we do. It's very reactionary. And most people probably don't notice, but you know, it well, when you write the text, you notice when you write the text, you do notice. Yes. But I think both of those fixations, a fixation with pretending that you don't know what's going on or who anyone else is, or a hyperfixation on who everyone else is and what they're doing, neither of those is good. I do believe that there's a way to be a good competitor, both in the sense that you are a good competitor, respectful, level-headed, kind, full of integrity, but also a good competitor in that you're tough and you're tough competition. And I think the idea of competition is it's not always a me and my business versus them and their business. The reality of competition is that it's a necessity. It's a necessity in so many different ways, especially in whatever industry you're in. You need there to be competition so that whatever you do is justified. Think about it in terms of a really nice hotel. If there was only one hotel in town, they wouldn't be able to charge more for offering a better experience to a guest. There would be one cost that the hotel in town gets to charge. Now, when you think about it in terms of hotels, for example, you have all the different star ratings. You one, two, three, four, five star hotel. What would be a one-star hotel? I don't know. Super eight. I don't think that's one. I'm gonna look that up. Maybe like a hostel. What is a one-star hotel? Yeah, maybe a hostel. Hotel. But of one star would be breaking into someone's basement and spending the night on their couch. But you need you need comps to justify whatever it is that you're doing, even in terms of homes, right? When you're gonna sell your home, put it on the market, you look at the comps. Otherwise, who's to tell you that what you're wanting to charge or get for your house is even worth it? So, this idea of competition is something that exists and it's something that's needed. For us, we've mentioned many times before, our goal is to be a more expensive higher-end business that caters to that clientele. We need the low end in our industry to justify what we do in our job. If we were the only people selling what we sell in our market and our prices were where they were at, it wouldn't make any sense to people. Right. That would be that would not work. You need a variety of different people. People need to have a variety of different experiences and they need to have options. Otherwise, what you're selling doesn't make any sense. It's like a steakhouse. If the only place you could ever go buy a steak was at the expensive steakhouse, uh, let me let's think of a steakhouse that most listeners probably have been to or are at least aware of, like a capital grill, maybe. Sure. Like a chain or a Morton's, something like that, where it's it's a high-end steakhouse. And uh let's let's say a flame mignon is 80 bucks. If that was the only option in your town, that wouldn't really make any sense. So you do need Sizzler and you need Applebee's and you need Grizzly, you need all the different levels of all the different chains in order for that Morton's or Capital Grill steak to make any sense. And like I said, our our goal in business as we've been running ours is that we want to be seen as the high-end, the most expensive, also providing the most value. But you also hear this idea in terms of competition as well, don't be the most expensive house on the block. That makes sense, right? You don't want to be the most expensive house on the block. Well, guess what? Every single block has one. You need someone's gotta be you need the most expensive house on the block to also justify what the lower priced homes are going for. You probably have the most expensive house on your block. I mean, I don't want to brag, but it's possible. It's possible, especially with that shiny new roof. Yeah, I mean, uh, you know, wealth whispers. Don't tell anyone. Well, you don't tell cats out of the bag because you you I just I just acknowledge that you live on a block. Don't tell anyone that I have the most expensive house. Wealth whispers. You do though, I think, probably, right? It's it's it's among the more expensive, I would guess, just based on all the work that we've done to it. Someone's gotta someone's gotta be the most expensive. Someone's gotta do it. But all that to say, competition is healthy, it's good, and ultimately, we all need it in order to justify whatever it is that we do. If you're right in the middle of the road price point-wise, you need people up and down. Otherwise, you can't justify what you do. So stop what you're doing. Well, maybe don't stop what you're doing if you're driving. You just keep going. But just pause for a second as you're thinking. I want you to actually think about who you would identify as your competitors. Because I am going to suggest something to you. I think you actually probably have fewer real competitors than you may think you do. Back when we were just getting started in our industry, for those of you who maybe haven't caught the last handful of episodes, we sell custom suits. Uh suit S-U-I-T, not soup suits that you wear, not soups that you eat. And when we were starting our custom suit business, we had it all wrong. We thought everyone that sold a suit of any level at any price in any area to anyone was our arch nemesis. And they were taking what who should be our clients from us. And it's funny to think back on that time because it's crazy, right? That's just so silly. And what a poverty-driven mindset that is, where you think that there's only so many people out there that want what you have to sell. And if somebody's eating a steak at Sizzler, then they're stealing business away from Capitol Grill. If someone bought a can of paint at Menard's, they just stole a customer from Home Depot. That's not how it works, right? We all know that from I think a logical perspective. But when you're running a business and you take it very seriously, I do. Think the tendency most small business owners have is a very poverty-focused perspective, a lens of that person has that, and now I can't have that. Yeah, it's it's looking at the the pie chart from school as if that's your your client base and there's only this number. And if this person is getting a bigger piece, then that means your piece is getting smaller. That's essentially what oftentimes business owners have a tendency to do is look at a client base in that way. And Kenny, you were you were saying that not everybody is a competitor. Would you identify the competitors that you actually do have as the ones who are after the same client base as you? Or how would you make that distinction? Yeah, I think I would. I think I would say that that is the distinction is it's someone who's, but that's that implies that they are able to identify unapologetically who they're who they're after, which I don't think many small business owners are able to do. I think so many small business owners are fixated on the masses and are trying to be a version of everything to everyone. So I think being able to identify a strong competitor, yes, you are identifying that person selling what I also sell has as checked in of an idea on who they're after as I do on mine, and we're after the same person. That's your competitor. Sure. So with that logic, then very so many of us have very much fewer competitors than we think we do. Right. And with that logic, it would show that somebody who doesn't have a honed-in perspective of who they're after would see everybody else as their competition. Well, yes. And and why wouldn't you if you have if you actually think every single person who might buy an ice cream cone is your competitor, then yeah. But if you run a vegan bait or a v vegan ice cream shop, you probably don't have any real competitors. If you're, you know, in a you know what I mean? It's it's it's not the same thing. The more you niche, the fewer competitors you actually have because you start to create a new category for yourself. I think that's what you're getting at. And that I think was the difference in how we used to see our competitors and how we see them now. Where, like you mentioned, when we were first starting out, everybody who sold something similar to what we did was seen as, oh, this is a competitor of ours, this is a competitor of ours, this is a competitor of ours. And then as our business grew and as we started to do some intentional things with our business, identifying who it is that we're after, what it is that we're where our sweet spot is in our market, we carved out this niche of when people want this and when people want us, we are the option for them. I'm gonna we're let's stop talking so vaguely for a second and let's just share with our regulars here about what this actually looks like for our business. Most people that sell custom suits, suits to wear, not soups to eat, soups to wear, not soups to slurp. Most people who do that are from where we sit, they're focused on selling wedding suits. So that's not necessarily our focus. The other thing that's really common for people to do is to sell custom suits at such a low price point that they're trying to convince people who don't want to spend very much money on a suit that they may as well just spend a little bit extra and get something custom made. What it is is it's a strategic price point that's placed a couple hundred dollars above where a big box retailer is selling their custom product. It's a couple hundred bucks more. The idea being, well, if somebody's interested in what this big box retailer is doing on the custom side, they may be incentivized enough to work with a smaller company where they, where I'm taking them through a better process for only a couple hundred dollars more. Most of our competitors locally, who we used to think were our competitors, are reaching those people too. So once we identified these clients that we were after, we were very easily able to identify the clients that we were no longer reaching for, which then made it really crystal clear that we actually had very little competition. And the thing, the interesting thing using that fruit tree analogy is when you aim for the high-hanging fruit, you're still gonna get plenty of low-hanging fruit. There's still gonna be that drop that falls down that you can pick up if you want to. But when you're only aiming for the things that are low-hanging, that's the only thing that you're ever gonna get. So as we strategically changed our business and started going after clients, not customers, clients who we could have relationships with, clients who buy more frequently, clients who spend more. Of course, we still have plenty of opportunities to work with that wedding business if we choose to work with them. But it isn't the only thing we're capable of doing because our sights are set on something that's a little bit higher and a little bit more intentional. So as we found that focus in our business, it has become increasingly obvious to us just who our actual competitors truly are and who our competitors no longer are. Because I would also say that there was a time in our business where some of the competitors we used to have are no longer competitors of ours anymore. But when it comes to actually like comparing, the only way that comparing yourself to somebody else or comparing your business to a different business would be fair to do is if everything that that person or that business has experienced has been totally in line with your experiences and your situations. Which just stop right there, think about that for a second. That tells me that there's very little room for true comparison for any of us. Because which is true. Think about it like we were just talking about with home comps, home comparisons. It has to be a similar square footage, it has to be same or very similar bedroom to bathroom ratio, has to be a similar lot size, has to be sold within the last X number of months in order for it to count. It has to have all of these prerequisites that are very much in line, if not totally identical to what you're doing, in order for it to be seen as a true comp. Otherwise, they say, ah, there's no comps for this house. The same is true of yourself or of your business. There are very few true comps out there. But I think so often people and business owners get caught up in this comparing themselves to that person who seems really successful, which you and you already know that it's a highlight reel that you're seeing on Instagram, but you you can't help yourself but to look at somebody who's got something going on and compare yourself. You don't know what their circumstances were. You don't know what things looked like as they were growing up. You don't know if they came from more money than you, had a head start on certain things. You don't know that. This was something we used to do when we were early on in our custom suit business. We were very aware of who was out there, where they were, what they were doing. This was before they were charging, what they were charging. This was before Instagram was as prevalent as it is now. So we it there, and our industry in and of itself is one of the oldest industries in the world. I mean, it's like I mean, we were born in the 1800s, as you know. We got started in the 1800s. Uh, but I mean, you think about custom suits and suits in general. I mean, that's an old industry, just like all the other jobs in the Oregon Trail. But there's a lot of older people doing what we were doing. And we were just, when we were just coming up, we were not only were we young in the business and we were young, but as it related to the industry in general, we were the youngest people in our industry for a while. And we were comparing our business as two guys who were basically broke, who started this ourselves. That's that's the other thing about our industry is it's very familial. A lot of times, people who run businesses took it over from their dad or their grandpa, and it's run in the family for generations. We started ours and we're comparing our circumstances to people who are 30, 40 years older than us, who'd been in the business for a long, long time and had decades of experience, decades of loyal customers. And we're saying, how come our business doesn't look more like theirs already? How do they have so many clients? How come they're charging that? I, if only we could charge that. But how stupid is that to think to think that way? It was so silly. And fortunately, we didn't sit in that discontent for long. We were able to harness what we knew we actually were bringing to the table. And I'm really proud of us for early on recognizing our youth and our scrappiness and our creativity and our ability to communicate. And all of those skills that we had, we were able to use those to set ourselves apart. And then eventually above a lot of the competit competitors that we'd identified as competitors, that we, again, no longer see that way. And that's all you can do as a business owner. All you can do is lean into the things that you're great at that make you unique and play offense as opposed to looking at your competitors and playing defense all the time. The whole idea of comparing you and where you're at with somebody else and where they're at, it's just a losing battle. It's just not a fair position for you to be putting yourself in. You're much better off enjoying the place in the journey that you and your business are in and not necessarily uh being totally satisfied with that, but just recognizing that this is where I am and this is where I want to go and move accordingly rather than looking at somebody else and just being in this, in this comparison mode, because that's not going to get you anywhere. And when you can find contentment in where you're at. And I think oftentimes, especially when it when it comes to people who are driven, type A leaders, entrepreneurs, they view contentment as a negative because they're associating it with complacency. It's like a good enough. Yeah, good enough. That's fine. Yeah, whatever. And I'm good and I'm good. No, I don't want to hear your thoughts. No, no, no. Uh uh, I'm good. I don't want to hear it. Ignorance is bliss. That's complacent. But if you're able to find contentment in things about what you do, if you're grinding at your your small business or maybe it's your side hustle still, find contentment in the fact that you're building something and that you're investing in your own future. One thing that that when this job was our side hustle, I still remember every time I would take this was before we had three kids that were making total messes all the time. So I take the garbage out a lot more now. But this was when I would take the garbage out about once a week. And I remember Once a week. Yeah, I know it was crazy. We had a long alleyway. It was like we would we would put it off to the side and I would take like one garbage trip a week. But I remember every time I was at the garbage can, I would think to myself, like, I'm one week closer to being full-time in this business. And that's not like a big lesson, but it was, it was that was my way of kind of finding contentment in the journey that you were finding, you weren't fixated on the fact that you weren't full-time yet. Right. You were finding contentment and joy in that another week had gone by, you're that much closer. And yeah, I think that's a great and just acknowledging that like I'm on the right path. Like I still my plan is still going full-time. And I'm I'm one week closer and I've made progress in that goal too. Coming out of 2020 was really the first time I remember feeling contentment financially. But up until that point, I remember feeling elements of contentment when we would travel for our job, being so thankful that we could do it, so thankful for the business we built, for the fact that it was, you know, we were a long ways off from feeling really strong financially, but at least we were at a point where we were paying ourselves, we were full-time, it was no longer a side hustle. All of these little things are big things. They're not little things. They're things that most people will never get to do, will never get to accomplish. And as you're growing and building, you need to find the joy and the contentment in that. Because if you're so fixated on what someone else is doing on Instagram or what some competitor is doing down the road, you're gonna miss out on feeling proud of yourself for what you've done. And also feel proud that you have competitors. If there are people in your in your industry, in your market that you actively compete with, feel proud about the fact that you have carved out a place in your market. Yeah, they know your name. Someone asks them about you, they know all about you. Other people are finding you in addition to them. That's not nothing. And whenever we see text that we wrote on other custom clothier's websites, it's like, hey, listen, we're playing offense. We wrote it. They're playing defense, they're ripping it and either creating the antithesis of it and putting it on theirs, or they're putting it word for word on their website. Like, that's a great position to be in. I'm very, I'm very content in this place because I have a place in this market. And ultimately, competition is a good thing. Competition is a great thing. You need it. When when we first got a five-star hotel here in in Minneapolis, I went a couple times to the restaurant and it's like, I think we need another one. I think we need another one. Yes. Just to keep this one on its toes. Yeah. I think uh the the four seasons could use a little bit of uh maybe that uh Ritz-Carlton push. Yeah, let's bring, let's bring the Ritz here. Let's let's get the let's get the uh let's light the fire, uh the Waldorf Astoria fire. Let's get the peninsula, St. Regis, uh Langham. Let's get them over here. But it's it's it's a good thing. Competition is a good thing. You need it to justify what you do, and in what you do, find the contentment in that because there is so much freedom in being content while yet striving for more. I mean, obviously, we are nowhere near where we want to be end goal-wise, but I don't really know what the end goal is either. That's allowed to change. What you want is allowed to change. And there was a time in our business where it's like, man, we just want a place at the table. Yeah, we just want to be among the top. We want to be a little bit more. Well, first was I just want to be full time. Yeah. That was the first one. It was like these bite-sized chunks. As business owners, you you do, and I'm saying you because I mean me, we all end up moving the goalposts, and you you get to the end zone, and then you move it again. And then you move it again. And I think what happens is we don't stop long enough for that touchdown celebration. And we don't, we don't think about what we just accomplished. We're so busy because life goes on. The world keeps turning, the the needs keep popping up. You're needed elsewhere. You don't have a lot of time to sit and feel accomplished all the time. Well, and what are you gonna do? Go out to dinner and spend your hard-earned money from the business? Right. I mean, you gotta you gotta keep it realistic. But I contendment is one of those things that's elusive, but it doesn't have to be, and it should not be reserved for only the biggest goals and accomplishments you've ever had, because you don't have a boss giving you a raise, you don't have a performance review coming in and patting you on the back, you're not gonna get a shout out as employee of the month in the company newsletter. All you have is yourself. And if you don't celebrate you, nobody will. And that's lonely. And if you allow yourself to live in this constant if then, if this happens, then I'll be happy, or if this happens, then I'll do this, then you're you're never gonna find the enjoyment and the fulfillment that comes with being a business owner. Maybe that, and maybe not that you never will, but it's so it feels so far away where there are so many things, I'm sure, that you've accomplished that are worth celebrating. And as it relates to your competitors, just do your thing. Just do your thing, be aware of them. I'm sure you already are, but don't fixate on what they're doing. Be respectful of them. Be respectful of them. Here's another thing. Don't badmouth them. If if people ask you about your competitors, don't badmouth them. That doesn't say anything positive about you. All it does is it is it puts a bad taste in the person who asks mouth. Even if they're trying to get you to spill the tea, we have this happen with us all the time. People come to us from somebody else and they're like, oh, what do you think of this place? It's like, yeah, they're they're fine. But you're here for a reason, right? All right, let's get started. The other reason it doesn't make any sense to fixate on your competitors, and this is neither here nor there, but you also don't know what their goal is.

unknown 40:22

Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

So but you know what your goal is, I know what mine is. So I can't really compare because we don't know why they're doing those things. All we can do is see from the outside what they're doing, and we can make assumptions of what their goals are or aren't, but we have no real idea. It makes much more sense to just focus on what you're doing, how you're doing it, how you're speaking to your target customer, so that you can be playing more offense than defense. And I mean, that that's a really great, great point about you don't know what they want. You you don't know why they're doing the things that they're doing. So why would you be fixated on them? Because some some people, their goal is to be busy. Their goal is to have a full day every day. And that's not my goal. So if I'm looking down the road at some other person doing what I do, and they're way busier than me because their prices are so much lower. Well, great, they're getting what they want. I'm getting what I want. We're good. Win-win. We're not doing the same thing at all. A lot of us actually have a lot fewer competitors than we thought we did because the smaller your niche, the tighter it is, the more focused it is, the more honed in who you're after and how unapologetic you are to get that, the less competition you actually have. And as it relates to competition in general, I think as business owners, it is so easy to see it as a bad thing. It is so easy to be frustrated by the fact that you have it be and just to be so annoyed that like you know there are people around who are saying negative things about you. That that bugs me even today, as I'm saying this, I know that there are other custom clothiers in our market who, when our name comes up, they say, Oh, those guys are you know bullshit artists, or those guys are are whatever they're saying. Fill in the blank, fill in the blank, blank negative, negative thing. You you fill in the gaps. A lot of negative things, I'm sure, are being said, but it could be so easy to focus on that. But ultimately, there is enough for everybody. We're not working off of this preset pie chart. And if somebody else has a client, that means it's a client I no longer get to work with. Our pie chart looks different because it's like this is the pie chart of my target demographic. And so it's not that everybody gets slices of a pie that are that's predetermined. And if I'm getting full, then somebody else is starving. It doesn't work that way. This is business, and vice versa. There are so many clients out there that are working with the other people in town that are actively choosing not to work with us because our language doesn't speak to them. Our competitors' language does, and they want to work with them. That's what makes the world go round. All right, regulars, thanks a lot. What I can tell you like, thanks for what? There, yeah. What I can tell you about competition is we've got a lot of it here on uh on Apple on podcasts. No, we don't care about competition. We don't that we're telling this to ourselves. This was the let this is for us, this is the the the podcast we needed to hear. It kind of was for us, though, because if we would have heard this podcast 15 years ago, it would have been awesome. We would have spent a lot less time focusing on stupid stuff. And we would have jump started our own contentment, which would have been really nice. And and we've said this before to to you regulars out there you don't need our permission for anything. No. But if you're looking for a little bit of confirmation to just do your thing and stop being focused on what other people are doing and them doing their thing, if you need that permission, consider this that. Consider this your time to get that pat on the back that you've been looking for, to just focus on what you can control because there's so much that you can't. But as it relates to your business, there's a lot that you can't. I don't remember how old we were. For sure it was, you know, elementary school, fifth grade, fourth grade, maybe. Rally day. You ready to go back? Rally day. Rally day. So rally day, for those of you who are unfamiliar, was basically a track and field day where you're you're too young to actually be on a track team. So the school competes against other. Is this a private school? I think it's a I think it's a private school thing. My kids, they have it's not called rally day, but but it's called, I think it's called like track and field day. Field day. Okay, yeah, yeah. So maybe this is okay. Because when we were, we went to a small Christian school in Wilmer, Minnesota, and we would compete against the other Christian schools in the state. So it was a it was a smaller thing, but apparently it is universal. So it was at our rally day. We were watching, we had a kid in the grade above us, his name was Jim. And Jim was fast. He was very fast. He was actually the ringer, and nobody saw it coming because he was very unassuming looking. But I think he even had glasses. Yeah, it was like one of those movies where it's like, well, the kid with glasses can't possibly be a good athlete. As long as they were, you know, not a full lap behind. Jim was gonna take it home. So the team is towards the end of the race. Jim gets the baton. He's in the lead, but not by a lot. He's he's in the lead by a little bit. The next team is I don't know how many yards behind him, but they're not they're not far behind him. But Jim is fast, remember? So Jim's gonna win. They get to that final. I don't know if it's like 50 yards. I it's meters, it's meters in track and field. Okay, thank you. 50 meters. And Jim is trucking along. He's looking straight ahead, but then Jim makes a big mistake and he looks behind him. He wonders how how far ahead he is and if he's gonna win the race. He knows he's ahead. He just doesn't know how far ahead. So he looks behind him. And in that time that it took Jim to look behind him to see where his competition was, that person was looking straight ahead and passed him and won. And Jim lost because Jim looked behind him because he was worried about his competition. Jim lost. And Jim, if you're listening, we're not over it. You loser. I am so pissed at you, Jim. I hate you, Jim. I hate you. You thought we'd forget? We'd never forget that you lost rally day. These steel trap memories of ours, I hate you. Isn't that a great analogy, though? It is a good analogy. There's only certain things that you're in control of. Lean into those things and be aware of the rest, but don't fixate on the rest. 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