Do you disagree vehemently with an idea, practice or person in your field? Or as my kids would put it, do you “have a beef” with them?

If there's nothing you strongly disagree with, then maybe you're not that different to everyone else in your field? 

We all like to think we're different. But sometimes we see minor shades of difference as big, whereas our clients ignore those minor shades and see us as largely the same.

That's why thinking about who or what we disagree with can help us to see where we're really different.

Personally, I think it's a better idea to disagree with an idea or a practice than with an individual. And if you do particularly disagree with an individual it's often better to talk about the practices they espouse that you disagree with rather than them personally.

And make sure you're not just disagreeing with something that every else disagrees with! 

In my field, for example, it's become a bit of a cliché to say you'll teach people how to get more clients without pushy, aggressive selling. I don't see any courses for sale or any trainers who promise to teach people “how to get clients using pushy, aggressive selling”. So what are we really fighting against here?

If you want to get noticed by starting a fight, pick one with the big, popular kid; not the little weedy one no one likes anyway.

My current “beef” is with the new trend of marketing that's complex and takes a ton of time. You'll see it under the guise of “funnels” and “product launches” and “marketing automation”.

There's nothing wrong with what's being taught per se, provided you're a full-time marketer or have a big team to support you.

But for the majority of us who have something like a day a week to spend on our marketing, it's not helpful to try to implement something so complex that we never get anywhere with it.

Especially as we can do so much with simple principles and techniques that are much easier to implement. 

So what do you have a beef with? What do you stand for and against?