Finola Howard (00:02.796)
I want to start with something that I think a lot of you are carrying quietly and blaming yourselves for. You are good at what you do, genuinely good, and yet you're not being remembered the way you should be remembered. You're not being chosen the way your work deserves. And if you're honest, you can feel it in more places than one. You feel it when the marketing goes out and just doesn't land. But you feel it on the sales call too, or at the networking session that you went to.
And when you quite can't quite make sure they see you, and not the other three people they're talking to, you feel it in who you keep attracting, often not quite the right people. You feel it in what you find yourself selling and to whom, and in the discount you end up offering the second you sense hesitation. So here's the hard truth underneath all of that: being good at what you do and being positioned for what you do.
Are two completely different things. When the positioning isn't there, even brilliant work gets forgotten. Because a poorly positioned business is rarely a memorable one. And that has nothing to do with how good you are, and everything to do with a piece of work that almost nobody ever finishes. So it's not you. It's just the situation. So let me take that right off you. Most people
sitting in that feeling decide it means something about them that it's that they're bad at marketing or that they can't sell or they can't write and maybe they just need a better tactic or a better funnel or maybe to get better AI. But I've sat with people at this point for so many years it's got nothing to do with you or AI or any of the tools you're using. What's missing is what's sitting underneath it. Underneath the marketing, the sales, the offers, the pricing, all of it and it has a name.
The name is positioning. Now you've probably heard me speak about this before, but I find myself wanting to really dedicate this episode as part of a bigger picture for you today. It's not a new idea. It's one of the oldest ideas in marketing and in business. I did a whole episode on it a few years ago. It was in actually in episode 49, so do have a look at it and it'll take you through 10 steps to better positioning.
Finola Howard (02:30.348)
So I genuinely love you to go back and listen to it, but we will recap some of that here. Let me give you the heart of it right now because you have to actually understand it. Positioning is that defining characteristic of your brand that shows you why you're different. But I'll say it a little bit more carefully than that, because the careful version is the whole thing. It's not just your difference, it's the difference that matters to your customer.
Because sometimes what we think is important is not the thing that matters to our customer. It's the distinct place you hold in their mind. Not necess not your mind, their mind, your customer's mind. So that when they're choosing who to work with or buy from, you are the obvious one. Not one more option competing on sameness. We're looking for the difference that matters, remember.
So sit with the part people always miss. Positioning is not what you say about yourself, it's the space you own in someone else's mind. I'll say it again. It's the space you own in someone else's mind, your target customer's mind. Okay? And here's what a lack of it really is. If your positioning isn't settled, what you actually have is a lack of clarity.
Or certainty about the direction you're taking your business. That's what lies underneath. Not a writing problem, not a content problem, a direction problem. Okay. So let's dig into it a little bit more because positioning is actually a series of choices, and the line isn't always straight, but it does produce a straight line. Bear with me.
So here's what I want to break the biggest myth about this, because most people think positioning is one sentence. A clever line or phrase about your difference that you write once and put in your bio. It is not a sentence. If only it were. It's not a sentence, it's a series of choices. Okay. Choices that you make and that you have been making or avoiding making them, whether you realize it or not. Choosing the right customer.
Finola Howard (04:52.588)
That's a positioning choice. And that's actually a choice. Most people think they wait to receive their customer, but you actually choose who fits you best. You choose your customer. That's a positioning choice. Choosing a signature offer that actually meets their real pain, that's a positioning choice. How you price is not necessarily about what your accountant tells you, it's a positioning choice. It's a strategic choice because it positions you.
In a certain place in the mind of your customer. Okay. What you choose to surround that signature offer with, like what are the other offers that you surround them with? We've spoken about this in ecosystems before, that whole offer ecosystem. What sits above that signature offer, what's below it and around it, that's a positioning choice. Because that's mapping the customer journey. Okay. Understanding the gap in the marketplace that you're stepping into.
Also, positioning choice. Every one of these is positioning, and there's probably a few more in there as well, but core that is positioning. And here's the thing: nobody tells you. There is no straight line idea from idea to market. It's not simple, if I do one and two, then three becomes obvious. It's a real point of reflection and research and key understanding about what your customer needs and where you want to take your business. Okay. So
Think about it from who you want to help to how you actually want to help them. And there is no automatic, obvious path. That line has to be drawn deliberately through every one of those choices. Okay? The drawing of the line is the work. And when it's never been done, you will feel it as drift, as starting from scratch, as never quite landing.
So, what I need you to grasp is just how far down this goes, okay, because it's further than people think. Your positioning dictates your business model also. It dictates your customer, it dictates your pricing, dictates your offers, it dictates the gap you serve in the marketplace, and most of all, most of all, it dictates your trajectory in business, where this whole business is actually going, how fast it goes, how steep it goes.
Finola Howard (07:17.856)
It impacts everything. And that's why it's a foundational piece in your business and not a nice to have. And here's the line I've been saying for years, and I want you to really let this land. A poorly positioned business will never reach its full potential, no matter how well it's marketed. You cannot out-tactic weak positioning. You can post more, can run ads, you can build a funnel, and you can bolt on AI.
But if the position underneath isn't settled, none of that can compound. You don't get those synergistic benefits of that through line really resonating across everything you do because it's not standing on solid ground. And that ground keeps shifting if you don't have that through line. Now, does a lack of positioning show up in your messaging? Absolutely.
Hundred percent it does. In fact, messaging that won't come right is usually positioning showing up. When the words won't land, it's almost never a words problem. It's that the positioning underneath the words was never set. You never chose it. But here's the order that matters. You don't fix that at the messaging layer. You build the foundation first, that positioning first, then you move on to messaging.
Messaging is actually quite late in the process where everybody thinks when they're looking at their marketing that they must come to messaging first. It's actually really late in the process, which is exactly why I did a 10-steps episode. So let me walk you through them really quickly because the order is the lesson. Okay. In this order is how you approach your positioning. Okay. We started step one with purpose, mission, vision. Why you're here.
What you're going to do and what success looks like, made very tangible with numbers. Okay. I did a whole episode on that. episode 47. Do go back and have a listen. Step number two. So purpose, mission, vision actually gets your perspective in the marketplace. What you are here to do, what you're here to accomplish. That's step one. So it's about all about you in step one. Step two, it's all about the customer and who you choose.
Finola Howard (09:39.797)
And I'm again I choose that word very deliberately because you do choose them. It's not only them choosing you, because not everyone fits, not everyone fits the model that will take you where you want to take your business. So it is an active choice of which is the right customer that fits the business model you are building. Okay. Step three, build an offering they actually want, not the one you want to create.
But what they actually want. This is why it's step three. Now, usually when everyone starts in business, they start with the product, they start with the idea, but we must always come back to the customer before the product, okay? Because when you identify the customer, you find yourself asking that question of does this actually meet their pain? Does it solve their pain? And even better, do you know what their pain points are?
Have you built with their pain in mind versus building what you think their pain is? So good customer profiling is the most important marking task you will ever do. Deep customer profiling is what good customer profiling is. So step four which trends matter? Which trends in the industry, in your industry, matter? Because you have got to be where you're going.
There's no point in you staying still. You've got to watch what's happening in the marketplace. Not to get overly preoccupied with it, but to understand changes in the marketplace that that require you to move. So you've got to be where you're going. Okay? That's what keeps you relevant.
Step five, find the gap between you and your competitors. We want to know what your difference is. Remember, we started this conversation about difference. So when you figured out what you're here for, purpose, mission, vision, who your customers are, the offers that you build, then we need to look at what is what is everyone else doing so we can figure out the gap that you can own. So what's unique to you? Not cheaper.
Finola Howard (11:58.669)
Never cheaper. You will never win that argument or that battle. Unique to you is the phrase that's most important. Okay, step six. Is the market you've targeted, really important, big enough to be profitable and small enough to own? You might have heard that phrase, there's riches in the niches, riches in the niches. So it's in the niche you've targeted, is it big enough for you to make the money you want to make in your business?
Okay. And is it small enough that you can own it? That you can be the dominant force in that niche. Okay. Now we've just gone through six steps, and I want you to notice something. Six steps in, and we have not said one word about your messaging. Six steps of pure foundation, pure positioning. Okay? Let's go again. Step seven.
How your brand expresses your positioning, can they see it at a glance? When they look at you, do they know exactly who you're for, what you're for, what you're doing, all of that. Can they see it at a glance, instinctively? Step eight, and now we're getting here to messaging, okay? Honing your voice, honing your messaging, and know it before you enter the marketplace so you can be consistent.
So honing that tone of voice, honing that message before you open your mouth in the marketplace. That's step eight. Step nine, I like to call this one your truth told. And this is being where your customers are, showing them why and how you're different, and making the message drive them to action. It's you stepping up and telling your truth to the marketplace. That is your first action in marketing.
Is to vocalize, to speak about, to write about, to share, to tell your story, to tell why you're here, what you're trying to accomplish. Step nine. Step 10, and this is what this podcast was named after is your truth shared. Which, yes, this is where the market embraces that message you've been telling them, that you've been brave enough to tell them, because bravery.
Finola Howard (14:20.39)
is important in here because sometimes if we step into our unique uniqueness, we get a little nervous. So you're being brave enough to tell your story, to tell that truth about what you're here to accomplish. And then step ten is that your truth shared with the marketplace embraces that message and actually goes on to share it on your behalf. They're sharing it with others because you've captured their attention, captured their hearts and minds, and they want more.
That's your 10 steps. And messaging doesn't arrive till number eight. And that's not an accident. That's the whole argument of this episode laid out in order. Okay. A little breath for a moment, okay? Because I want to slow down right here, okay? Because this is where the real cost shows up, and it's bigger than most people ever name. Okay. When there's no settled position underneath the business, every part of it.
goes off and does its own thing. Your content is saying one thing, your offers are implying another, and your pricing is telling a third story. Your sales conversations are improvising a fourth. Everybody is working really hard, but nothing is connected. Silos. And this isn't some tidy little content problem. Silos are one of the biggest, most expensive problems in business of any size, full stop.
The worst one of all, the one I want you to really see, is the split between sales and marketing. Think about it. In a big company, especially if you're working for another company and you're listening to this, you will actually really understand this. In a big company, sales and marketing are usually two separate departments and they rarely speak to each other, which is incredible to me. Different people, different targets, different ways of measuring those targets, sometimes even different floors, and they barely talk to each other.
And yet their job, their actual job, is the same single job. Connect the right customer to the right solution and carry them from never heard of you all the way to yes, yes, yes. The synergy between them should be the most obvious thing in the world. Instead, it's actually the great divide. And in a small business, it shows up differently. But it is the same wound. Sales is the corner you're most afraid of in the small business area.
Finola Howard (16:46.722)
The bit you avoid. The handoff between getting someone's attention and actually asking for the sale that never quite happens cleanly. And underneath every one of those silos, the big company divide and the small business fear is the exact same missing thing: a shared position. Something that tells sales and marketing and content and pricing what this business is, who it's for, and why.
Positioning is the thing that connects them. It's the through line that makes them one motion instead of four. Settle it and sales and marketly. Settle it and sales and marketing finally pull in the same direction. Your content and your offers and your price finally agree with each other. The silos stop being silos. That is what integration actually means, not more tools.
One position underneath everything, connecting all of it. Your business integrate it.
But don't do it all at once. Okay? So you don't settle your positioning once and file it away like a little certificate on the wall. You come back to it. And at every key stage of your growth, you check in. Is my positioning still aligned? Does it all fit together really neatly? Is it aligned? Does it make sense? Does all of this make sense working together? Is it still true? Is it still pointing?
Where I'm actually going now. Because the position that fits your business at one size doesn't automatically fit at the next. As you grow, your customer sharpens, your offers evolve, the gap you serve shifts. Positioning is a living foundation. You revisit it, you realign it, and every time you do, the whole business gets clearer again.
Finola Howard (18:53.454)
So here's the honest part, and it's the part that's just changed. Positioning is hard. It sounds hard, I'm sure, over the course of this episode. It is hard. It asks for depth of understanding of yourself and especially of your customer, that most people never reach on their own. Not for a lack of intelligence or insight, because it actually takes more objectivity and more time than any of us have alone.
And because knowing your customer that well, that well used to be almost impossible to do in any great depth by yourself. And that is the thing that AI can now do with you. Not write your posts. That is the least interesting thing it can do. And it's what nearly everyone is using it for. The real power is that it can take you deeper into who your customer actually is and into what is undeniably yours than you have ever been able to go on your own.
It doesn't invent your difference. It draws out what's already in you and it holds it still long enough for you to finally see it and name it. The foundational positioning work that almost nobody ever finished is, for the first time, genuinely buildable. And the whole world is missing it because they're too busy asking the machine for captions. So here's what I've been saying for years: everybody starts at the doing, the content, the pillars, the posting.
That was never the start. That's a consequence. The positioning comes first and everything else falls out of it. And I believe right down to my bones that if someone has walked the path ahead of you, there has to be a map. You should not have to invent your way to this alone. So I built it. I built the one that does this positioning work in the right order, built straight into your AI, so it holds every time you show up.
Who you are, who your customer really is, and what you offer, the three things your whole business runs on. That map lives inside a program called AI Integrated. And it's there whenever you're ready for it. But the place to actually see this come together, to watch your positioning turn into a whole year of your business that sells, is a free session I'm running. Stay with me for 30 more seconds because I'm going to tell you exactly how to join.
Finola Howard (21:22.914)
Because here's what I most want you to walk away knowing. When your positioning is finally settled, the whole life of your business gets a whole hell of a lot easier. You will never face a blank page again because everything you make starts from the same deep understanding. Consistency stops being willpower and becomes something the structure just does for you. Sales and marketing stop being two camps and become one motion.
And it all sounds like you because it all comes from one place and it compounds. The longer it runs, the more it does, and the less it needs you in the room holding all the pieces together. That's the trade, and it's the best one I know. A season of getting your positioning right in exchange for a business that finally feels light and finally works as one thing. Your business integrated. So if you take one thing from this, you are never bad at marketing.
Or bad at sales, or bad at any of it. You just never finished your positioning. And now for the first time you actually can because the deepest part of it is exactly what AI is for. So before you ask AI to write one more thing, ask it instead to take you one level deeper into your difference. The difference that matters to your customers. Go somewhere you've never been able to go on your own. That's the work. Architecture before implementation. Foundation.
before action every time. And here's exactly what to do now. I'm running a free live session where I'll show you how this positioning becomes a whole year of your business that sells without you ever losing your voice to a system. And when you sign up, I'm giving you a selling calendar that integrates directly with your content calendar. So from the very first day you are eliminating the silos between selling and creating instead of living with them.
That's where we start. Go and save your seat. The link is in the show notes. Come to that first. And when you're ready to build the whole foundation into your own AI, the map is AI integrated. And it's always open, waiting for you. Go and build the thing everyone else. Go and build the thing everything else stands on. And I'll see you very soon.
