A Whole Heap Of Goodness In Less Than 5 Minutes

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"The Exit Plan" is a weekly newsletter designed to help you build, grow, scale, and get out of the weeds. This isn't just about selling your business (although you might do); it's about being intentional with your growth. You didn't start a business to have a job.

It’s smart to study the best — but even smarter to see where they fall short. Here’s how to build your edge by doubling down where they’re weakest.

Hey Reader,

Don’t just copy the best in your field. Exploit their weaknesses.

Yes — analyse what they’re doing right. Study the leaders. Reverse-engineer their systems. Benchmark their brilliance.

But here’s the twist:

Don’t stop at what they excel at. Look at where they don’t. Because that’s where your opportunity lives.

Reverse benchmarking isn’t about comparing yourself to the worst. It’s about looking at the best — and asking one powerful question:

“What aren’t they doing that their customers still need?”

Every market leader has blind spots.

• They’re too big to stay nimble.
• Too focused on one lane to see the full picture.
• Too saturated with success to notice what their audience is quietly craving.

That’s where you build, that’s where you differentiate and that’s how you go from “one of many” to “the one that gets it.”

Example? Let’s talk The Board.

I looked at the best mastermind programs on the market.
What did they have?
✅ Big-name hosts
✅ Buzzing communities
✅ Great content

But what were they missing?
❌ Strategic depth (not just cheerleading)
❌ Real breadth
❌ Business models built around the founder, not the other way round

So that’s what I built into The Board. No fluff. No guru worship. Just smart business owners scaling smarter — and building companies that can start to run without them.

3 ACTION STEPS: Spot What They’re Missing

🔍 1. Benchmark the top 3 in your space
​Make a list of what they do exceptionally well. Then — flip the lens.
Where do they underdeliver?
What do they miss?

🎯 2. Build your brand around the gap
​If they’re the fastest, you become the most thorough.
If they’re loud, you become trusted.
If they’re shiny, you become substance.
​You don’t need to beat them at their game. You just need to play where they’re not.

🚀 3. Own the outlier
​Take the thing you do differently — the thing the top names can’t or won’t touch — and make it your edge.
Shout about it. Build systems around it. Let it become your USP.

In a crowded market, you don’t win by doing what everyone else does — you win by doubling down on what you can do best.

Then do it …

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