Have you ever found yourself doing something…simply because everyone else was doing it?
Maybe you bought those specific sneakers because they were all over your Instagram feed, or perhaps you stood in a long line for a brunch spot just because the line looked impressive.
We’ve all been there. It’s part of being human.
But when this instinct bleeds into your business strategy, you run into trouble. You end up blending in rather than standing out. You become just another face in the crowd, another noise in the static.
This post was inspired by a fascinating conversation on the Lab Coat Agents podcast featuring Adam Ortman, the CEO and founder of Kinetic 319. Adam has a master's degree in consumer psychology and over 25 years of experience working with brands like Nike and American Express. During the chat, he laid out some wisdom about why businesses get stuck in the copycat trap and how psychology can help you break free.
Let’s talk about how you can stop following the herd and start leading your own pack.
The "Monkey-See, Monkey-Do" Trap
Adam Ortman calls it "herd theory." It’s that undeniable urge to look at what your competitors are doing and immediately copy it because you assume it must be working.
Think about the wave at a sporting event. One section stands up and throws their arms in the air, so the next section feels compelled to do the same. Is it actually a good idea? Does it help the game? Nobody stops to ask. You just do it because the person next to you did it.
In business, this looks like real estate agents flooding social media with identical photos of themselves standing next to a sold sign. Or maybe it’s every coffee shop in town suddenly adopting the same minimalist aesthetic with the same exposed brick and the same succulents on the tables.
The problem with this approach is dilution. When everyone rushes to the same marketing tactic, the impact of that tactic plummets.
Adam put it perfectly during the podcast: "If you’re saying the same message to everybody, you’re probably not saying a message to anybody."
Jeff, host of the podcast, made a great analogy. Pretend you’re standing in front of two public pools. One is packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people. The water is murky, and there’s no room to swim. The other pool has one person in it. The water is crystal clear. Logically, you’d choose the empty pool. But psychologically, we often choose the crowded one because we assume something must be wrong with the empty one.
Your job as a marketer is to flip that script. You need to show people that the empty pool isn’t scary. It’s actually the VIP section.
The Psychology of Connection
To break away from the herd, you need to understand what makes your customers tick, and this goes deeper than just demographics. Knowing that your target audience is a 35-year-old female living in the suburbs is a start, but it doesn’t tell you why she buys what she buys.
You need to dig into psychographics. What keeps her up at night? What are her fears? What are her motivations?
Adam emphasizes that marketing is really about connection meeting conversion. You can’t just throw a product in someone’s face and expect them to buy. You have to connect with them on a human level first.
86% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support. This massive number fundamentally proves that people are craving real connections, rather than just polished sales pitches.
Say you are selling homes. Instead of just posting the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, think about the life someone will live in that house. Maybe they’re terrified of buying a money pit. Or maybe they’re dreaming of a backyard where their kids can finally run around safely.
When you tap into those emotions, you stop selling a structure and start selling a solution to their fears or a path to their dreams. And that’s how you create a connection that actually converts, no matter the industry or the product.
Telling Your Story Differently
If you look around and see all your competitors zigging, it might be time for you to zag. This doesn’t mean being different just for the sake of being weird. It means telling your story in a way that highlights your unique value.
Adam used the pool analogy to explain this brilliantly. If you’re the one in the empty pool, your marketing shouldn't be defensive. You shouldn't be saying, "Please come swim here, I promise it's safe!"
Instead, you leverage the motivations of your audience. You say, "Look at all those people squished together over there. Why would you want that? Over here, you have room to breathe. You have space to relax. This is the smart choice for people who value their peace."
You have to identify the problem you are solving and shine a light on it.
Take the example of Liquid Death mountain water. Water is perhaps the most commoditized product on the planet. At the time, everyone was marketing it with blue labels, pristine mountains, and health claims. Then, Liquid Death came in with a heavy metal aesthetic, put water in tallboy cans that look like beer, and used the slogan "Murder Your Thirst."
They didn't change the product. It’s still just water. But they told the story completely differently from everyone else in their aisle. And because of that, they stood out immediately.
You have that same opportunity. Look at what is standard in your industry and ask yourself how you can flip it on its head. If every other consultant is wearing a suit and using corporate jargon, maybe you wear a t-shirt and speak in plain English. If every other bakery is posting perfect, glossy photos of cakes, maybe you post the messy behind-the-scenes videos of flour exploding everywhere.
Why Personality Beats Production Value
One of the biggest hurdles people face is the fear that their content isn't "professional" enough. You might think you need a camera crew, perfect lighting, and a script to make an impact.
That’s actually the opposite of the truth.
During the podcast, Jeff pointed out something crucial: AI will never have a personality. It can mimic us. It can sound like us. It can write a decent email. But it will never be us. It can’t share a genuine laugh or tell a story about a mistake it made yesterday.
Your personality is your ultimate competitive advantage. It is the one thing that cannot be automated or copied.
Adam noted that in every ad experiment his agency runs, a person in an ad always outperforms a product or a landscape image. People want to see people. We’re wired for face-to-face connection.
This is good news for you because it means you don't need a Super Bowl budget. You just need to be willing to show up.
Think about the local business owner who gets on camera and rants about how much they love their new pizza oven. Or the real estate agent who admits they got lost on the way to a showing. Those moments of humanity build trust faster than any polished commercial ever could.
You might feel awkward at first. You might hate the sound of your own voice. That’s normal. Adam shared a great tip for overcoming this: take an improv class. It sounds terrifying, but it trains your brain to think on its feet and get comfortable with being imperfect in front of people.
Remember Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx? She built a billion-dollar empire not by acting like a corporate CEO, but by being her authentic, goofy self on social media. She showed up without makeup. She shared her failures. She made people feel like they knew her.
As Adam quoted her saying, "People don’t do business with businesses. People do business with people."
Consistency vs. Quality (And Why You Need Both)
There’s an ongoing debate in marketing about quantity versus quality. Should you post ten times a day to beat the algorithm, or should you post once a week with something amazing?
The answer lies somewhere in the middle, but lean heavily on the side of engagement.
You can post 12 times a day, but if nobody cares about what you’re saying, the algorithm will bury you. Social platforms want to keep users on their apps. If your content makes people stop scrolling, comment, or share, the platform will reward you by showing your content to more people.
Adam defines quality differently than you might expect. Quality isn't about 4K resolution or fancy editing. Quality is about resonance.
If you post a shaky video of yourself in your car giving a genuinely helpful tip, and it gets 50 comments, that’s high-quality content. If you spend $5,000 on a video that gets zero comments, that’s low-quality content.
You don’t have to guess what your audience wants, either. They'll tell you. Look at your numbers. Which posts are people saving? Which emails are they replying to?
If you notice that your audience loves it when you talk about local community events but scrolls past your market update graphs, then guess what? You need to do more community content and less graph content.
Consistency is still key because it builds trust. You can’t show up once and disappear for three months.
The more you show up, the better you get. Your first video will probably be bad. Your fiftieth video will be okay. Your hundredth video will be great. That consistency leads to quality because you’re practicing your craft, and you’re doing it in public.
Practical Steps to Break the Herd Mentality
We’ve covered the theory. Now let’s talk about how you actually execute this. How do you take these ideas and apply them to your business tomorrow?
1. Audit Your Competitors
Go look at the top five competitors in your space. What do their websites look like? What are they posting on social media? What words do they use in their headlines? Write it all down. Then, make a conscious decision to do something different. If they’re all blue, you be red. If they are all serious, you be funny. Find the white space they’re ignoring.
2. Define Your Psychographics
Stop obsessing over age and income brackets. Sit down and write a profile of your ideal customer based on their internal world.
What are they afraid of losing? What gets them excited? What do they value more than money? When you write your next email or social post, write it specifically to that person, addressing those specific feelings.
3. Put Your Face Out There
If your website is full of stock photos, change them. Get some photos of yourself and your team. Start using Instagram Stories or TikTok to show the behind-the-scenes reality of your business. Introduce yourself. Share your opinion on industry news. Let people see the human behind the logo.
4. Use Tools to Stay Consistent
You don’t have to be glued to your phone 24/7. Adam recommends using scheduling tools like Buffer to plan your content in advance, or Canva to create simple, eye-catching graphics without needing a design degree. These tools remove the friction so you can focus on the message, rather than the mechanics.
5. Measure What Matters
Don’t get distracted by vanity metrics like follower count. Instead, focus on engagement. Are people talking to you? Are they sharing your stuff? Use that feedback loop to refine your strategy constantly.
And if something flops, don’t panic. Just ask why it didn’t connect and try a different angle next time.
Break Free from the Status Quo
Breaking the herd mentality is scary. It feels safer to do what everyone else is doing because if you fail, at least you failed the same way they did.
But safe doesn’t get you noticed. Safe doesn’t build a brand that people obsess over. Safe doesn't create deep loyalty.
You have the power to stand out, but you have to be willing to step away from the crowd. You have to be willing to be the one person in the empty pool, inviting others to join you in the clear water.
Listen to your customers. Understand their psychology. Tell a story that only you can tell. And no matter what you do, always put your personality front and center.
If you’re ready to stop following the herd and start building a marketing strategy that is scientifically designed to connect and convert, you don’t have to do it alone.
At Kinetic319, our team digs deep into the "why" behind your business and your customers. We build strategies that marry human connection with business results.
Ready to see what happens when connection meets conversion? Contact Kinetic319 today and let’s get moving.