I’ve worked too hard building this business, raising babies, navigating launches, growth, setbacks, and comebacks to play it safe now. I’ve rebuilt my body, my business, and my brand more than once, and that kind of resilience? It deserves to be seen, not softened.

In this episode of The Hayley Osborne Show, I’m talking about if you’ve ever watered down your message, second-guessed your content, or played it safe to fit in, this episode is your wake-up call.

You didn’t pour your heart, time, and energy into building your business just to sound like everyone else. You came here to create a real impact. And that doesn’t happen when you’re hiding behind generic messaging.

I didn’t come this far to be generic…and neither did you. Listen now and I’d love for you to DM me your feedback about the episode.

SUMMARY

0:00:01 – Podcast Intro 

0:02:30 – Personal Anecdote 

0:04:15 – Episode Theme: “I Didn’t Come This Far to Be Generic” 

0:06:45 – Personal Business Reflection 

0:09:56 – The Cost of Being Generic 

0:12:30 – Shifting from Generic to Magnetic 

0:14:45 – Signs You’re Playing Small 

0:16:30 – Un-Genericizing Your Marketing 

0:18:00 – Permission to Stand Out 

0:19:22 – Podcast Closing 

Hayley Osborne

Hayley Osborne

Well, this is a vibe. Welcome to the next episode of The Hayley Osborne show. I say this is a vibe because if I’m in your ears right now. I have my neon sign on, and I have a very um sequiny Black jumper. I actually forgot I had this jumper. Don’t you love it when that happens, when you find something that you haven’t worn for ages, and you put it on because I’m no longer breastfeeding in the daylight so I can kind of wear whatever I want. Now it is the morning and the evening. Now that my baby is nearing one soon, in a few weeks, and yeah, we’re kind of at the end of our journey, not yet, but he doesn’t need a daytime feed anymore. Anyway, we digress. But this is a vibe, and the neon, oh, my god, the neon.

So it’s on, it’s in the background. It looks so cool. I just love my neon backdrop. And you know what happens? I forget to turn it on because I am always coming into the office to get stuff done, and I don’t put it on. I forget about it, but it’s so cool anyway. So fittingly, the title of this podcast episode is, I didn’t come this far to be generic, so it needed the neon and it needed the sequin jumper, right? Because I didn’t, I didn’t come this far to be generic.

This is episode 164 thanks for tuning in, and neither did you okay, but this episode, you didn’t come here to be generic, is what I meant. Like we are not in business to be generic, and this episode is really a call to arms for every single business owner who feels like they’ve been playing small, who feels like they’ve been blending in, who feels like they’ve been second guessing their brilliance. It’s about remembering why you started claiming your difference and being so bloody unapologetic all the way about how you’re showing up.

Don’t dilute your message. Okay, playing by someone else’s rules on how you market your own business, or hiding behind safe marketing. If you’ve been doing that, then this episode is for you. And I think I had a chat with a friend recently who is moving in a different sort of direction in what they’re doing in their business, and not second guessing their brilliance, but wants to talk about something else, and feels like they need to learn more and study more, when I know for a fact that they know a lot about this subject, and it’s like you know so much About your zone of genius when you’re running a business, and also parallels that run as a part of that because, you know, if you’re like me, I love learning, education is one of my highest values.

And, you know, I think we don’t credit ourselves enough how much we actually know as business owners anyway, so if you feel like you’ve been playing small, this is your wake-up call. Okay, I think that it’s really important to remember like, I think you know, just sit with yourself for a minute and think about how you’re showing up, and think about how fiery you actually want to be okay in things that you might say.

Now, I’m not saying be mean or be anything outside of your personality, but you know, I think if you want to build a magnetic brand, if you want to grow your visibility, and if you want to connect with more of your dream clients. So you think about that one client that you absolutely love. If you could have 50 more of that one client, how amazing would that be, and how good would that make you feel? And why. Is that one client attracted to you? So today’s episode is a little fiery, yes, but for though it’s, it’s for those of you that know deep down that you’re not here to play small. You’re watering down your brilliance.

You’re blending in with noise online, boring. Okay, I think that I know that I’m not here to play small. I have really big dreams for this business, and it’s already big for where I am at in my life right now, with three very small humans. And I know I didn’t come this far to be generic, and I’m not for everyone, but that’s amazing, because I don’t want to be and I’m betting that you don’t either. And so let me take you behind the scenes for a moment. So not too long ago, I was sitting on a piece of content that I’d created and something that I really believed in. It was bold.

It was a little bit different, completely capturing my thoughts on how marketing is shifting, especially in the space I want to move into. But you know what I did? I second guessed myself. I did not post it because I was not ready. And I still haven’t shared too much about that yet, but I will, and I am, and it is in the planning at the moment, and it is in the activation at the moment for the future, so it is coming very soon. But, you know, it hit me like a ton of bricks, and that’s why I thought to myself, you know, I didn’t come here to be generic. I didn’t come in to start a business to please everyone, and I’m leaning into what lights me up now, and yeah, hit me like a ton of bricks. This isn’t where I started. This isn’t how I want to show up.

I don’t want to be bland, I don’t want to appeal to everybody, and that’s not who I am. And I think what’s the point of working so hard and building your business and showing up every day and investing in your upskilling and your growth and all the things. If the end result sounds like everyone else, I’m sorry, but that just is not my vibe at all. And we’re not here to be like wallpaper. We’re not here to all sound the same. And I am seeing a lot of that same content at the moment with the use of AI and everything. So just remember, use it for good. It is a great research tool. And you can build amazing, amazing bots to help you, to be you to like, streamline your business and to make it go like rocket fuel Okay, to be 10 times the one person that you are, okay? You are here to create impact.

I am here to create impact. And that only happens when we stop being generic. Okay? So there is a cost of blending in. And here’s the thing, visibility without being yourself, it’s background noise, and people scroll past it, and people don’t open emails, and people don’t stop to read anything, even if it’s, you know, if it’s generic, people will scroll past it. And you know, you can post every single day. You can have very pretty branding. You can have the most polished captions, but if there’s no soul in your message, everyone that you know is your ideal client will scroll past and go somewhere else. So the real cost of playing it safe is you end up attracting no one, and you end up pretty tired because you can see and it shows over time, if you are trying to be somebody that you’re not okay, and you feel like you’re doing all the things and you’re still not making any traction, and Trust is everything, and the worst thing you can be is forgettable.

Okay? You know what annoys me the most, as well, is when businesses haven’t been online for a while, okay? And they come back online and they say things like, Oh, I’m sorry, I haven’t. I haven’t shown up for a while, or I haven’t posted in a while, or whatever. Nobody notices that you haven’t posted in a while, so don’t call it out. Just move through it and start being consistent like no one knows or I’ve been off my stories for a while.

No one gives a shit. Everyone’s just doing their own thing and in their own world. And the only way that people are going to know that you are around is if you are showing up in your stories when you’re not showing up in your stories, no one gives a shit. They’re watching everyone else’s stories. All right, so people buy your story. Okay? They buy your energy. Me, and they buy it the way that you make them feel. There is no wear and there is no room for generic.

So how do you shift that? How do you go from generic to magnetic? I feel like I’ve got something, an eyelash in my eye, and it’s really bothering me. Oh, my goodness. I’m not even wearing any makeup. I do have lipstick on, but I’m not wearing her anyway. I think I’m just gonna have to power through this and check it out later. I’m not sure why. It’s just decided to bother me now. But anyway, how do you shift from generic to magnetic? You’ve got to own your edge, but for you to own your edge, you’ve got to sit down and have a really good time.

Think about what that looks like. Okay, so it’s really fine to do competitor analysis, and I think it’s important, but don’t fall into the trap of filtering your magic through someone else’s framework, or how they show up, or their theme like their color scheme. Don’t do that. Okay, start showing up with your own thoughts, your lived experience, your unique take on what you do. A few years ago, my assistant at the time sent me a couple of screenshots, and she said, do you help this person? And they said, No. And she said, oh golly, because it’s like they almost copied this caption from this caption of yours, and they sound a lot like you.

And I was like, oh my goodness, yes, I had not realized but when she pointed it out, I did a little digging. I know this person, I realized, but I didn’t realize it when she shared it and I could not believe what I was reading. Okay, so start showing up with your own thoughts, okay, because eventually, if you’re not, it’s going to catch you out. Okay, I didn’t say anything to this person, and I’ve just sort of dismissed it, and I never thought anything of it, because I thought it can only last for so long. Okay, I am my own unique person, and I have my own unique take on what I do, and, God forbid, like, you know now that I have three small children, or the things like, I’m different, okay, so I’m changing. So whatever happened to that poor account and that poor person would have had to have changed eventually, because I’ve changed, and so you can’t keep up with following someone else.

Eventually you have to be yourself and it’s not just about the fonts and the colors, it’s about your story and your tone of voice, and that can only be faked for so long. It’s your voice, it’s your values, and they’re the things that make people feel something because people buy from stories. So when you give someone a reason to emotionally connect with you, that my friends, is when the magic happens and you are not here to be generic. Okay, how do you know if you’re playing small? So if you’re going, um, you’re speaking to me, Hayley, I think I am.

But how do I know if I really am? So a few questions you can ask yourself is, am I holding back because I’m scared to offend people? Right? We’ve all been there, okay, as long as you’re not being rude or discriminatory or anything like that, your thoughts are your thoughts, okay? Am I holding back because I might get something wrong? Okay, do some research. It’s okay. Am I consistently looking sideways at what everyone else is doing instead of trusting what I know, and is my messaging starting to sound like a template instead of like me? Okay? If you’re using AI for your captions, are you a template?

Is that what your voice is turning into? If the answer is yes, then that’s okay, that’s good. That is you raising awareness in and around your business. Now let’s do something about it. Okay, so how do we ungentle your marketing? Okay, so you know what I mean when I say that. How do we strip out the genericness of how you are showing up? Here’s where you have to start. Audit your content. Where are you holding back in your messaging? Where are you playing it too safe? Then I want you to rewrite one thing this week. Okay, be it either you’re about page on your website, your Instagram bio, the name, your Instagram name, the next caption that you write and make it sound like you do not like chat, GPT, not like five tips to blah, blah, blah, or my top five tips. To block. Just make it sound like you, then just say the thing.

Your dream clients actually need to hear you say the thing, even if it’s a tiny little bit uncomfortable, because people don’t buy generic. I don’t buy anything generic. You don’t buy generic. I buy the truth, and so, do you? I buy clarity, I buy confidence, and I will buy from you when you have those things, if it is the thing that I need, and you are showing up as clear, confident and yourself and the truth that is a surefire way to get the sale out of me, and I am sure that it is the same on reverse for all of your customers, and the way that you even purchase things as a customer. So put yourself first. It’s very hard when you’re in the driver’s seat.

You are so close to the thing, you can’t see it anymore. But put yourself in the shoes of your client if you can, otherwise, that’s where things like a social media strategy would come in handy, or a marketing strategy from me. Okay, that’s what I do. It helps you to sound confident, helps you to show up with clarity. Help you to be yourself and be truthful. Not generic. Generic is not winning anymore. Okay, permission to stand out. I’m giving you permission to stand up. This is your reminder. This is another dot point that I have permission to stand out, so we’re not being generic. Okay, like I said in my title, I didn’t come this far to be generic, okay, and through all of the personal growth, the building, the lessons, the highs and the lows, um, I didn’t come this far to sound like a template, and neither did you, all of your personal growth, your building of yourself and your business, all the lessons that you’ve learned, all of the highs and the lows, because every single person in business goes through it to sound like a temp, a template. It’s so uncool.

You have a message that really, really matters. You might need to spice it up. You might need to tweak it. You’ve got a story that people need to hear that does not come from a bot, that does not come from Ai, that can help you, but you’ve got to be the master to input the knowledge. Okay, and you are the master and the most important marketing asset that your business has. You cannot outsource your marketing. If you are not clear on all of these things for someone else to do, you cannot outsource your social media, for someone else to do it, if you have not sat with a good strategy already yourself, okay?

Because they will never be able to do it like you. You need to know what you want. So for me, I do manage a handful of social media management clients. I don’t advertise that. So if you’re thinking, oh my god, Hayley, I would love you to manage my social media. I have a few spots, but I don’t do much of that. I only work with certain clients, and I look after a lot of their other things through the line in terms of marketing as well I may go to but you know, where was I going with that? Where was I going? That’s where I was going with social media management comes secondary, because the social media strategy has to come first with anything that I touch when it comes to management.

So if you do not have clarity on how you are standing out, then that’s what you need to sit with first. You will never be able to outsource it and stand out at the same time. So you are, you are your most powerful marketing asset that your business has ever seen. So stop muting yourself. Sit with it for a little bit, and stop second guessing your voice, because there are people out there that are waiting to buy from you. They don’t know it yet, because you’re probably not being yourself. Okay, be real. Be bold. Be authentic. Okay? You didn’t come this far to be generic. If this, and I didn’t come this far to slow my words right at the end, because I wanted to deliver this perfectly. This is a vibe. This neon and, you know, the sequins and the pink lippy and everything is a vibe.

So if this episode has lit a fire in you. I would love you to share it with somebody that you think would benefit from hearing this, and someone that might need the reminder. And if you are ready to take the next step in your marketing, so that it is unmissable and so that you are not generic, I have a couple of free downloads. One is the 10 essentials that you need to create your marketing plan, and its free download on my website. If you want to grab it, the link will be in the show notes as well you can download it. And thank you so much for tuning in.

I’ll see you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show. And I love you guys. Bye. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to this episode. If you have hit subscribe, so you don’t miss any new episodes released every Tuesday, and while you’re there, leave me a review. I would absolutely love to read it.

Also, don’t forget to tag me @hayleykosborne over on Instagram and share this post with your audience so they can get learning too. Sharing is caring. If you want more, head over to hayleyosborne.com/category/podcast/ for today’s show notes and links. Catch you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show.