How entrepreneurs can stand out in a crowded market

Define what makes you different using research-based frameworks created by April Dunsford, author of Obviously Awesome.

Mary ·

Before You Start

Goal: Leave with clear answers to five questions that define what makes you or your product different — and essential.

Watch: Book Summary: Obviously Awesome (free summary of April Dunford's positioning method) — Members are encouraged to read beforehand, but a quick recap at the meeting works too.

Meeting Agenda · Approx. 60 mins

  • Member Updates · 10 mins
  • Icebreaker · 10 mins
  • Key Takeaways · 5 mins
  • Activities · 20 mins
  • One Action · 10 mins
  • Wrap-Up · 5 mins

👋 Member Updates · 10 mins

Go around your Circle and share personal updates. Keep them brief and focused on significant changes or important decisions since the last time you met. It's OK not to have one every month. If you have a One Action update from last time, share that too.

🧊 Icebreaker · 10 mins

Invite everyone in the group to share. Keep answers to one or two minutes per person.

If a potential client decided not to hire you, what would they actually do instead — hire a competitor, do it themselves, or do nothing at all?

🔑 Key Takeaways · 5 mins

  • "Differentiation" in a crowded market is often imitation. Harvard Business School research calls this heterogeneous homogeneity: everyone looks different on the surface but competes on the same few metrics.
  • True differentiation comes from lopsidedness, not well-roundedness. Being genuinely excellent — or deliberately unusual — on one dimension, even at the cost of being weaker on others, creates a distinct identity that can lead to revenue.
  • You can position yourself well by answering a set of questions. April Dunford's framework asks: Who are the real competitive alternatives? What do you have that they don't? What value does this difference unlock? Who cares most about that value?
  • "Competitive alternatives" aren't always who you think. Dunford's method starts by asking what someone would do instead of hiring you, including "do it themselves" or "do nothing," not just naming other businesses or freelancers in your niche.

🏋️ Activity 1 · 10 mins

🏋️ Activity 1 · 10 mins

Find Your Unusual Strength, Then Lean In

  1. Note down some specific praise you've actually gotten from clients or collaborators. Was any of the praise about strengths that are unusual in your niche, that competitors don't have?
  2. List 2–3 strengths you have that most others in your niche don't have, or don't do as well.
  3. Pick one of the strengths you've identified, and brainstorm what it would look like to make it more central to how you present yourself — in your portfolio, pitch, website, or profile — instead of treating it as a footnote. Make notes on what this would look like in practice.
  4. Go around the group and share one or two strengths that could make you stand our in your niche.
  5. Share with others how you plan to make those strengths stand out in your branding materials. This way, people can learn from one another's ideas.

🏋️ Activity 2 · 10 mins

Fill Out Your Positioning Canvas

Brainstorm short answers to Dunford's five questions:

  1. Competitive alternatives: What would your clients realistically do instead of hiring you? (Which competitors would they hire? Would they bring the work in-house, or not do it at all?)
  2. Unique attributes: What strengths do you have that those alternatives don't?
  3. Value: What value do your unique strengths unlock for specific clients? Can you quantify that value?
  4. Target customer: Which of your potential clients cares most about that specific value?
  5. What you compare yourself to: Not your strengths (you've already named those), but the specific category or comparison that tells a client what to expect before they look at anything else. For example: a wedding photographer who calls herself an "editorial storyteller for love stories" gets compared to high-end magazine work, not the fifty other "wedding photographers." Red Bull didn't call itself "a soda" (compared against Coke on taste and price) — it created "energy drink" as its own category. Warby Parker didn't call itself "an eyeglasses company" — it positioned itself as "try-on-at-home," borrowing Netflix's playbook instead of competing with LensCrafters.

Now apply your answers: Pick one place your positioning currently shows up — your website homepage, LinkedIn headline or About section, or a pitch you send to new clients — and make notes on how you'd edit it, using your answers above.

Discuss as a group:

  1. Share one of your five answers with the group - the one you feel best about.
  2. What changes do you plan to make to your website, LinkedIn, or other materials? Share some examples with the group to learn from one another.

🎯 One Action · 10 mins

Commit to one concrete action — big or small — you'll take before next meeting. Go around the Circle and share (1 minute or less per member). Vocalizing it helps hold each other accountable.

Rewrite your website's homepage, LinkedIn About section, or a pitch using what you learned in today's Activities. Come back ready to share what changed.

📅 Wrap-Up · 5 mins

Before you break, plan your next meeting and close on an energetic note. Go around your Circle one by one and finish the sentence:

Now I am feeling… (choose one word).

  • Set the day, time, and location
  • Choose the next topic or resource
  • Confirm who's leading the discussion
  • Decide how you'll stay in touch in between