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Forget About Your Peers

I got a new post email from one of my, well “virtual mentors” as he puts it, Michael Hyatt. In the post, he takes a firm no-profanity policy, and explains why using profanity is a bad idea for your brand as a writer or speaker. He even says “If you can’t be interesting without profanity, then let’s face it; you’re not that interesting.” At that point my thought shifted to Gary Vaynerchuk, another online hero of mine. I guess you could say I have eclectic tastes.

I thought, man, Michael sure is taking a polarizing stance on this. What if he ticks off some of the giant tech speakers and writers that are his peers? How will they react. Then it hit me (and I started writing this post):

He doesn’t care about his peers. Not really. He cares about his readers.

You know why he can take such a bold stance? His predominantly Christian audience. They will love it. They will agree and share it and say it’s a good reminder and on and on.

And then I had another realization. Gary Vee gets it. He’s not going to look at that and see Michael calling him uninteresting. He’s going to look at it and see Michale writing a great post for his peeps.

That was a great reminder for me this morning.

We can get caught up in what our peers and competitors think, about what an influencer will think, which just gets us off track fast. 

Focus on the person you’re trying to help.

Focus on what best solves their problem. Focus on what that specific person will think, feel, ask, need, and write for them.

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