How do you deal with your hidden fears with respect to competition?

In our last iAM Woman in Business Circle meeting, we were discussing ways to learn from our competition and one brave woman voiced her fear, "When I look at competing websites, I feel intimidated at everything else that everyone is doing and I am not." As it turns out, we all have had the same fear at some time or the other. The thought of not being as good as others, or not technologically savvy like others, or that others are bigger, better and have existed for longer, are all thoughts that everyone has had at some point in their lives.

Some of the things discussed in this regard:

1) To know you are not alone in having these thoughts - even those big, better business people have these thoughts, makes us realize that we are all human and we are not alone in our fears. Once we recognize our fears, what can we do about them?

2) Connect with your purpose - you are unique and there is no one like you. If you are following your highest purpose and doing your best, life will support you - that is a natural law of life.

3) Instead of shying away from competition, learn what they are doing that you can adopt and ensure that you have a unique positioning, in terms of your service or expertise (I will discuss this next in another post on personal branding).

4) Explore further, what is it in you that you are really fearing here? Strong emotions are a signal that there is more to what we are experiencing that what we see at the surface. Read my Blog posting on hidden beliefs:
Ways to identify hidden beliefs

5) Tapping into hidden beliefs through creating distance from yourself - becoming the observer of yourself. You can can do mindful meditation - silent, non judgmental observation of what you are feeling and that in itself will surface issues and dissolve the issues because you are now the observer and not caught in the drama.

6) If you have trouble with mindful observation, try visualization. Sit comfortably with eyes closed softly, your palms open on your thighs. Breathe deeply as you settle in. Go into your happy place, and snuggle in your favorite blanket, with every breath in you are becoming more comfortable and every exhale you are releasing any stress. When you feel ready, you turn on your inner movie channel and watch your favorite movie that is starring you. Notice what you as the main star of the movie are doing, how do you go about the day, notice how the star is feeling....notice any challenges that she is faces....from that place of quiet distance, what advice would you give to her...take a few deep breaths, end the movie in whatever way feels complete to you and open your eyes when you feel ready.

I have found this visualization quite helpful in creating a distance and watching myself go through stuff that I cannot see when I am caught in it. Many people who tried this exercise have also confirmed that this really works in bringing awareness to blocks they were not able to identify earlier and other insights about issues hidden at a conscious level.

A Mindful Environmental Scan: Examining your external environment and internal response to change

The situational scan is the second step in the mindful marketing process. It refers to an examination of the environment, internal and external to the business. The purpose is to stay in touch with the changes in your business environment – changing technologies, consumer culture, competitors, economy, and regulatory forces. Even though I describe this as the second step, this is a natural outcome of being mindful. Part of being mindful is being aware of what is happening inside and outside of us. The purpose of this posting is to provide some resources for doing an environmental scan if you do not have a big budget to access syndicated research and to provide an exercise using the inside-out approach to get in touch with your internal and external environment as a starting point.

As we get busier and more comfortable with systems that work for us we are less inclined to study the changes around us. We know that the only permanent thing is change. You can either resist and evade it or embrace it as your teacher. Changes compel us to find new ways of thinking and as such are responsible for innovations and improvements. In this context, I would also like you to think about competition. It is so important to be aware of what other people in your business are offering. Competition can be seen as a very healthy force that is constantly challenging you to improve and grow. If you are open, and curious, and want to grow, learning about and from your environment is a natural outcome of who you are. So, look around you, notice, Google, read, talk to people, try new experiences, explore new subjects, research, and continue to grow – because if you are not growing forward, you are going backward.

Some websites, videos, and resources related to environmental scan and understanding trends

Patricia Aburdene, in her book, Megatrends 2010, describes conscious capitalism as the new trend.

MarketingCharts.com hosts an extensive amount of research information and is an excellent resource to search for different areas that can affect your business.

eMarketer.com also hosts interesting research and articles related to marketing and many resources are available for free.

Gallup is a reputable source for data and data-driven reports on economic, political, social, and behavioral issues.

Dr Patrick Dixon was ranked as one of the top 20 most influential thinkers alive today, in the Thinkers 50 global executive survey published in 2005. Number One was Michael Porter, followed by Bill Gates. His website has tons of videos on different topics.

The Trend Bank on Faith Popcorn’s (yes that is her real name) is an interesting resource to understand upcoming trends within the social/cultural realm. Warning: The site is a little confusing to navigate

At iAM Business Consulting's website, you can find new research articles and watch videos exploring tools and strategies that can enable you to run your business in mindful and profitable ways. For example, Patrick Dixon’s video describes how he stays up to date as a futurist and the TED video reveals how social media can be used successfully to promote businesses with a purpose.

Environmental Scan Exercise: The Inside-out Approach

This exercise briefly describes steps to get you started with the environmental scan process and notice how you feel at each stage. Typically, environmental scan includes social, technological, competitive, economic, and regulatory changes, but for purposes of this exercise we will focus on competition and technology.

Internal Scan	Environmental Scan
Step 1 Before you begin your environmental scan, close your eyes or keep your gaze soft and take three long and deep breaths. Observe how you feel about this exercise – notice your thoughts, judgments, feelings, and sensations in your body. Do not judge, justify, or try to change your thoughts – Simply observe. Once you feel complete, open your eyes, and make a note of your experience.	Step 1 After the internal scan, start the environmental scan. Search on Google or your choice of search engine for people in your area doing a similar business. For example, I am a marketing consultant, so I typed “marketing consultants Amherst MA” Note in the first three pages or so, who are the top companies in your area of business and make a note of the directories and online magazines in which they have a presence. Most of these online resources are free, so make a list of the free online resources advertising your competition and make sure that you also advertise in them. For example, my search of marketing consultants in Amherst MA resulted in directories like Google Maps, MerchantCircle.com, Yellow pages, Fastcompany.com etc
Step 2 After making a list of online directories and magazines that you can participate in, again close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to observe how you feel now. Did the exercise make you feel impatient, frustrated, excited? Simply observe and when ready open your eyes and note any feelings or thoughts you experienced with your eyes closed.	Step 2 Next, you will look at two to three competitors’ websites to learn from them. Visit the websites of your competitors and make a list of what you liked and what you did not like about their website and what they do. Here are some things to pay attention to: 1) The website layout and presentation 2) Their mission statement 3) Their products and services and how are those different from your offerings 4) What are they doing to engage their customers 5) What are they doing to build community around their brand 6) How are they using social media – are they on Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, etc? 7) Note the language they use to connect with their audience. In particular see how they are marketing their services and workshops. 8) Their pricing structure
Step 3 Again, take a few minutes to breathe and bring awareness to how you feel about your competition. How did reading about your competitors make you feel – anxious, fearful, excited, threatened? After witnessing your thoughts, feelings, and emotions, open your eyes and note down your experience.	Step 3 What did you learn from your competition and new technologies being employed? What are the popular new products and services in your area of work? What are the popular new technologies being used? How are you going to implement what you learnt into your business?

How do you feel now about the changes happening around you? We may choose not to make changes in what works for us, but it is important to be aware of trends in the future. Secondly, we all know that our inner world comprising our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions shape our external world. Your inner feelings towards your competition and changing technologies are a clue to how you perceive and respond to other aspects of your world. If you felt resistance towards the new technologies, think about other changes that you resist. I realized my inner resistance during my intervals exercise class – observing my resistance to exert myself physically has allowed me to transcend my limitations and become much stronger, not only physically but also mentally. What do you resist in your life? Next time take action despite the resistance. Observe with no judgment and let the magic happen!