I’m always searching for new, targeted solutions to help small businesses become unstuck. Which is why my radio show, The Small Business Radio Show has been paramount. Each week for the last ten years, I’ve invited the top guest to share tips for growing a business.

On my radio show, I talk to alot of business people. I interviewed over 250 people in 2018. Here are the 10 best things I learned:

  1. “What you can offer are things that are more magical.”

Brand yourself as a market specialist. The instinct as a small business owner is to avoid focusing yourself in a specific industry. Generalists are attractive to clients because they offer services across the board, right? Marketing expert Seth Godin, author of This is Marketing and Purple Cow, explains in episode 500 that this tack could do your small business a disservice. “You can’t out-Amazon Amazon; the most effective small business goes after smallest viable market,” he says. “What you can offer are things that are more magical, more difficult to measure: respect, care, passion. You can obsess about [those clients], care about them, and they’ll go to sleep smile on their face.”

  1. “Follow your different.” 

For stronger business results, capitalize on what makes you unique. “The stupidest pieces of advice is to follow your passion,” says Christopher Lochhead, best-selling author and startup consultant. “The right advice is ‘follow your different.” I discussed the idea of “legends”—the stuff of industry success stories—at greater length with Lochhead in episode 502, during which he brings up John’s Crazy Socks. It’s a novelty footwear company co-owned by John Lee Cronin, who has Down syndrome. While Cronin’s situation could be viewed as a challenge, his obsession with socks nevertheless drove him to found one of the best, most robust sock companies in existence, and continues to inform his ability to take calculated risks. “We’re all going to lose; failing is the definition of learning,” Lochhead says. “The question isn’t what happens when we fail at something but how we go forward . . . Legend and loser are two sides of the same coin.”

  1. “Make sure people know the value you are contributing rather than expecting them to notice it.”

Don’t be shy about communicating your successes. Sally Helgesen, a women’s leadership consultant and author of How Women Rise, laments in episode 487 that while women have a gift for forging relationships, they often are hesitant to leverage those connections in the business world. She chalks this phenomenon up to basic sexism. “Women have run into many problems with people accusing them of daring them to be ambitious,” she says. “Think of ways to take action and make sure people know the value you are contributing rather than expecting them to notice it.” She suggests a weekly email to supervisors, and emphasizes that in her experience this has never been perceived as show-boating or brown-nosing. “Quite the opposite,” she says.

  1. “We don’t want someone with just great talent and skills, we want the complete package.”

Collaboration supersedes individual talent. Jackie Freiberg’s book, The Chemistry of Winning, follows the career of legendary San Francisco Giants coach Bruce Bochy, who has won championships by drafting team players who offer more than home runs. In baseball and in business, she says in episode 482, issues arise when you’re “not working on fundamentals. You might win a game with that player, but you’re not going to win a championship and not make the club a dynasty,” she adds. When she looks to hire, “We don’t want someone with just great talent and skills, we want the complete package—great talent, great skills, always wanting to play at the top of their game,” she says. “It’s about ‘us,’ it’s not about ‘me.’”

  1. “Tact and kindness should never be confused with compromise.”

Workplace disagreements are opportunities to enact real change. Sure, it’s possible to work independently at first, but eventually your business will grow, adding new employees and clients to your roster. Disagreements are bound to come up when more factors enter the equation. Bob Burg, author of The Go Giver Influencer, emphasizes these opportunities are for learning, not contention. “Stop looking at people who disagree with you as having negative intent,” he says in episode 490. “Take the trait you disagree with and help a person see—usually not by telling but by asking—where the trait you don’t like is going to lead to results they wouldn’t like.” They will likely do the same for you, and this openness will enable your business to grow while maintaining a version of your initial, singular vision. “Tact and kindness should never be confused with compromise,” he says.

  1. “Think about what you’re doing every day and what is a repeatable process.”

Crystallize and share your business process. I’ve often said that people plus process equals profit. This means that implementing a standard procedure that can easily be communicated lays the foundation for success. This is often difficult when you’ve worked at a startup alone, where the process lives only in your head. In episode 467, Susan Fennema, owner of Go Beyond the Chaos, suggests taking an inventory of what your daily and weekly schedule looks like, then write it all down. “Think about what you’re doing every day and what is a repeatable process,” she says. “What do you do constantly? When you hire a person, do you have to figure out how to onboard them? What do you want to take off your plate and have someone else do? Have you given all the steps?” She suggests going through your process with employees and asking them to repeat it back to you. Their interpretation can shed light on areas you may have inadvertently neglected and need to adjust. “It’s important to note that process is meant to evolve,” Fennema says.

  1. “Don’t let others’ social media highlight reel distract you from your goals.”

Step back from social media. It can be disparaging to see a competitor in your Facebook feed bragging about their accomplishments. Jessica Abo, author of Unfiltered: How to Be as Happy as you Look on Social Media, encourages you to leverage that jealousy into motivation. “Do a self-audit,” Abo says in episode 505. “If I’m upset about seeing someone else’s success, what can I do in my own life to achieve this for myself? Whether that means starting the side hustle you’ve been meaning to start forever.” Or, she adds, identifying issues in the workplace that may be holding you back, such as a toxic colleague or forms of discrimination. As far as your social feeds themselves, avoid unnecessary clutter by posting only meaningful and salient material, not more fluff contributing social media white noise.

  1. “Privacy in the workplace is now paramount.”

RIP open offices. I’ve never understood open offices—which remove cubicle walls in place of lofty and cavernous spaces with lines of desks. Ostensibly the goal is to save money, though I’ve heard the claim that these setups encourage collaboration because there are fewer physical barriers to communication. Bill Himmelstein, of Tenant Advisory Group, argues in episode 483 that the trend is moving away from open space offices and back into traditional offices. “People are starting to realize that at the end of the day, what promotes a successful company is a culture with a strong and productive work ethic,” he says. Additionally, places like Google and WeWork have been lauded for their relaxed atmosphere, offering ping pong tables and bean bag chairs to theoretically jump start creativity. However, “When I go into an office and I see a game room, no one is ever in there!” Himmelstein says. So much for cutting costs.

  1. “Don’t avoid conversations about money.”

Money talk. The goal of every small business is to turn a profit, but before that happens it’s important to know exactly how that money will be handled. In episode 510, Kathy Longo of Flourish Wealth Management encourages small business owners to ask their spouses, partners or significant others the right questions about money before issues arise. “Start with understanding each other’s money history,” Longo says. “What’s your earliest money memory? How did your family handle money growing up? What does financial freedom look like for you in the future?” “The question is: How do you separate the emotions around money to have a real conversation?” she says.

  1. “Activate customers to act as your best advocates.”

You need more reviews. Why do we trust peer reviews more than professionals? I check out Rotten Tomatoes when a new movie comes out, or go to Yelp when I’m looking for the best Italian restaurant in a new neighborhood. “It’s human nature to look at what your fellow person is buying and what they believe,” says Neel Grover, who runs the review site indi.com. “Often [peer reviews] are more trustworthy, even if you don’t know the person, because the brand obviously has a strong bias.” His site provides incentives for people to leave reviews of products and services by cutting them a chunk of the profit that comes from click-through sales. In episode 473, he adds that his site attracts passionate people simply by its nature.“If they are [leaving a review] they either feel strongly in favor or strongly against the product,” he says.

Download more episodes at The Small Business Radio Show every week and subscribe on iTunes. 

Thanks to Steve Heisler for contributing to this post.