How To Be Courageous Amongst Your Competitors, Clients, And Community
Sep 15, 2025
Courage is crucial for the entrepreneurial adventure, but does it always look the same?
As an entrepreneur, you deal with different groups of people: competitors, clients, and your community.
Depending on which group you’re focusing on, you need to build a different type of courage. And you need to have the courage to implement different goals, attitudes, and boundaries.
Here are 4 questions that will help you put courage into practice with your competitors, clients, and community.
Courage With Competitors: What Are They Thinking?
“The boys are back in town.” A Knight’s Tale
This line is from another walk-on song later in the movie, A Knight’s Tale, where William walks through his competition with all the confidence in the world.
It’s a good picture of how you should feel when you walk into a room full of your competitors in business.
When you're doing business and your competition sees you walk in or they see you at a conference, wouldn’t you like them to think: Oh my goodness. Here they come! Here he is! Here she is!
That’s how it should be.
“It takes courage to go in amongst the competition with your head held high and your confidence intact. (But with no pride involved.)” Kim White
Courage challenge #24: What do you want your competition to think (and say) when they see you walk in?
Courage With Competitors: What Are You NOT Going To Do?
"It's committing the oldest sins in the newest ways.” A Knight’s Tale
This quote from our movie (and Shakespeare originally) is a good description of what it’s like to watch your competitors doing business with no integrity.
Being deceitful or dishonest is not a new thing. It’s been around since the beginning of time. And if you think about someone dishonest, they're committing the same old sin in modern ways.
A good example is how you market your product or service. You might see your competitors twist the truth or make unrealistic promises to make their product look better than it is.
It’s not necessarily true of all competition. You're not the only one in the whole world who can do whatever it is you're doing in the right way.
But there are often times when your competition will do things without integrity. And that’s an opportunity for you to choose whether you will run your business the same way or differently.
“I want to be the fun, cool one that everyone relates to, and that's honest. Not the one that's puffing my chest, and not talking about real stuff.” Jill Olish
Courage challenge #25: What are you recognizing in the competition that you don't like? What’s one way you don’t want to be like them?
Courage With Clients: What Is Your Messaging About?
" Not the target, but the arrow.” A Knight’s Tale
As a business owner, you have to market. But what are you marketing?
Are you marketing the solution (the arrow)? Or are you marketing in a way that puts a bullseye on the back of everyone around you?
“I have a huge problem when a marketer tells me they're targeting me. I don't want to be targeted. I don't want to be the one running through the woods with a big old red bullseye on my back and somebody's chasing me down because I fit some demographic. If you don't get to know me and know that you're the solution for me, please do not target me. Do not put a bullseye on my back.” Kim White
Courage challenge #26: Is your messaging about your product or finding clients? Have the courage to see if your marketing is actually ‘marketing speak’ or if you are sharing information about how you can be the solution to someone’s problem.
“We can change how we do marketing when we figure out that we're answering problems, not trying to find clients. We're just trying to put solutions out there and let them find those solutions, which bring them back to us.” Jill Olish
Courage In Your Community: Are Your Relationships Authentic?
“He changed his stars after all.” A Knight’s Tale
While you’re on your entrepreneurial adventure, there will be a lot of people who won't believe that you can change your stars, and reach your goals.
But when you become successful everyone wants some of what you've got.
“People come out of the woodwork when we do something milestone-y or when we have achieved something.” Jill Olish
Imagine winning the lottery. How many family members and friends would show up at your doorstep? You might have needed them to help you last week, but they were nowhere to be found. But now that you have a couple of million dollars, they will be wherever you are.
“Money doesn't change someone. Money only exposes what was already there.” Kim White
Courage challenge #27: Have the courage to examine the relationships you have around you before you’re successful.
Are your relationships authentic? Do you have the people you need around you? Do they value you before you change your stars?
“Courage is not for the faint of heart.” Kim White
Answering these questions won't be quick. They aren’t simple yes-no answers. You need to spend time with them.
But when you do, it will make a big difference to how you deal with your competitors, clients and community.
“You never know, it may help you build a business too.” Jill Olish
If you missed the conversation about this between Kim and Jill on their podcast Buckets and Boom Gates, you can catch it here.
Our Groundwork Brigade is a home for entrepreneurs who want to build a business that they own and that doesn't own them. It’s a community of courageous entrepreneurs finding freedom in the entrepreneurial adventure by practicing putting the right things in the right order.
It’s a safe space to learn how to build a relational business using irresistible marketing strategies, tailored to your individual needs, in a group setting, with lots of accountability and support.
To connect and find out more about Kim or how to create a sexy business for a sexy life, you can reach her and the My Sexy Business Team at www.mysexybusiness.com.
And to connect with Jill Olish go straight to her website www.mamaoutspoken.com and you’ll find her there!
