If you have been struggling to position yourself in a market where everyone seems to offer the same thing, you are not alone.
For most founders, creators, and consultants, the real challenge is not lack of skill or experience. It’s that their work sounds indistinguishable from everyone else’s.
Same promises, same language, same perceived outcomes.
When differentiation is unclear, positioning becomes frustrating. You tweak your messaging, refine your offer, rewrite your bio, yet nothing really changes.
Prospects still hesitate and you still feel like you are explaining yourself more than you should. This usually leads entrepreneurs to ask a popular question:
“How do I stand out?”
But to answer that, you should first ask:
“Who am I not for?”
Most positioning advice starts with defining your ideal client. Industry, revenue, role, pain points. That is absolutely necessary, but it is incomplete.
When you only define who your offer is for, you leave too much room for interpretation.
Clarity doesn’t come from trying to appeal to everyone. It comes from being explicit about who is excluded.
There is a simple positioning exercise you can do in under an hour that brings this into focus and removes much of the ambiguity for both you and your prospects:
Take a blank page and divide it into two columns.
On the left, write “This is for.”
On the right, write “This is not for.”
Most people have no trouble filling in the first column.
The second is where the real work begins.
The common mistake is playing it too safe. Lines like “people who are not serious” or “anyone looking for shortcuts” do not create differentiation.
What you are looking for instead are real disqualifiers.
The kind that affect outcomes and working relationships. Expectations you refuse to meet, ways of working that clash with how you operate, constraints that make results unlikely, and mindsets that inevitably lead to friction.
When you do not define who your offer is not for, the market tests those boundaries for you. You spend time on the wrong conversations. You take on clients who technically qualify but never feel aligned.
You end up overcompensating to make the relationship work.
That cost adds up quickly. Not just financially, but mentally.
There is also a second effect that most people miss. Being clear about who your offer is not for doesn’t just repel the wrong people, it attracts the right ones more strongly.
When someone reads your criteria and recognises themselves in it, the decision becomes easier. They feel confident that the offer was designed for them.
That confidence shortens the sales cycle and improves the working relationship before it even begins. Both you and your client will feel more aligned.
In my own offers, I make this explicit. I include a clear section outlining who the program is for and who it is not for. Here’s an example from one of my offers:
This saves you months of unnecessary conversations and compromises.
Beyond marketing, this exercise forces an internal decision:
Who do you do your best work with?
Once those lines are drawn, positioning stops being abstract. It becomes operational.
You know who to say yes to, you know who to turn away.
Your messaging becomes sharper without trying to be clever.
If you are feeling stuck in a crowded market, start here.
Get brutally clear on who should not choose you.
Until next time, keep creating!
Omara
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