A number of years back, I ventured into the area of personal portrait work. I wanted to apply the storytelling approach I took with commercial assignments to the world of family portraits. My venture was not the raging success I wanted, partly because most folks couldn’t picture themselves doing something that wasn’t just like what their friends were doing.
To dig into the story of a family, I would ask a number of questions to give me insights into how we could capture a portrait that was distinctive to them. Although the answers that were most revealing led to better portraits, many people could not come up with anything distinctive about themselves or what their purpose was.
In one particularly alarming case, a mother came back to me several days after our meeting. She was angry that, “There are no activities that bind our family together because we’re four people living in separate worlds all wanting to go our separate ways!” Initially, her wrath was directed towards me for asking the questions that revealed an unsettling truth. But a couple of weeks later she called, grateful to have finally addressed an issue that was leading to a divorce.
What is even more unsettling is the number of business owners that I talk with who don’t know their distinctive purpose or reason for being either. Rather than dig into the uncomfortable process of discovering their story, they simply ignore the process and go about their business using the standard operating procedures that everyone else in their field is using. Yielding to peer pressure to be like, and look like, everyone else.
Most people are looking for a new set of tools, or life-hacks, that are going to give them an edge. But any improvements that are based on technology or a formula are also available to their competition.
The only distinctive that sets you apart is your unique story. Your history, world-view, and vision. Telling that story to the world allows your potential clients, employees, and partners to connect with you in a way that they never can with anyone else.
It’s your distinctive story that moves you from being a commodity in your market to being a competition of one.
Charles