1 in 45,000…

A colleague of mine was giving a 3-minute, presentation about his company and his services recently.  He said he is one of 45,000 registered realtors in Colorado.  He went on to acknowledge: 

If you don’t have a friend who is already in the real estate business you must not have many friends. 

                   Justin Phillips 

After his presentation, we got to chatting. His business is not only in a competitive field (Aren’t all small businesses?) but its also hard to differentiate himself from 45,000 others.  As the title of Jack Trout’s book suggests: 

Differentiate or Die ©

Competition and differentiation are challenges any business, large or small, don’t you think?  It can be hard to look in the mirror and see those specific things that make you and your company different from the myriad of others in your industry.  You may not have 45,000 direct competitors, but I bet you have competition nonetheless. 

After all, there are thousands (millions maybe) of product companies; even more service providers.  Only a few of the most creative; perhaps the most clever: have figured out what their differentiation is in the eye of their customers. 

Charles Revlon, the founder of Revlon and an extraordinarily successful entrepreneur, once said about his company: “In the factory Revlon manufactures cosmetics, but in the store Revlon sells hope.” 

Charles Revlon 

We talked through my colleague’s main points of differentiation; those attributes he likes to emphasize with prospective, new clients.  One really stood out to me but not in the way he said it.  One of his credentials is he’s a former, licensed architect.  Well OK, but if you’re like me, that credentialing statement probably stimulated this thought in your mind: 

So what? 

We dwelled on this architect thing for a while.  I wouldn’t let him move on; employing one of my favorite sales coaching approaches I bet my former sales teams remember well (maybe not fondly, but well): 

Let’s go slow here. 

Or, as one architect put it: 

God is in the details. 

                   Mies van der Rohel 

Architectural training (and a license) is what my colleague “has”.  Even better, his area of concentration was in space planning.  But leaving this credential like that probably causes his prospective clients to think: 

So what? 

What do his clients “get”?  How can he better align his differentiation with what prospective clients need?  It reminds me of Patrick Renvoise who said: 

If you're selling drills, your prospects really couldn't care less about the drills.  What they actually want are the holes. 

Our discussion about real estate was coincidentally near and dear to me because my wife and I are in the process of shopping for a new house.  One of the biggest mistakes people make when buying a new house, or buying new furniture for their current house, is discovering after-the-fact that it doesn’t fit!  “It didn’t look that big in the showroom”, is a commonly heard phrase, true?  (And I’m speaking from experience here HaHa!) 

To be clear, we aren’t hiring Justin to be our realtor… we have a lot of friends and one of them is in the business.  But if we were in need of a realtor, we’d lean towards Justin.  Not because of his real estate license (1 of 45,000 in Colorado) but because of his architect license and more specifically his space planning experience. 

That differentiation can help his clients bridge the gap between the furniture showroom and their new house.                       

                                                            GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

How’s your day been?

It was seven years ago tomorrow.  I was in an earthquake in Mexico City; a 7.1.  How do you work that into casual conversation? 

September 19, 2017 at 1:15 pm local time, a powerful earthquake shook the bejeezus out of my training class; our lunch break; my colleagues; and me!  Thankfully, no one in our group was hurt. 

Unfortunately, there were many in Mexico City and surrounding states that did get hurt; over 200 people killed; hundreds perhaps thousands injured.  According to The Guardian ©: 

It was the second major earthquake to hit Mexico in two weeks and came on the anniversary of the 1985 quake that devastated Mexico City, killing 5,000 people and destroying 10,000 homes. 

In fact, because of that 32^nd anniversary; commemorating the devastation; we actually had an emergency evacuation drill at 11am in 2017; about 2 hours before the real thing hit again! 

During the episode, I was conscious of the fact I was experiencing an earthquake – on the 19^th floor of a hotel no less.  What started out feeling like a freight train passing by causing the table to vibrate, quickly erupted into what seemed like a prolonged period of ferocious shaking.  It knocked me off my feet. 

Those much braver than I were calling out; directing us towards the archway leading into the room.  Firmly they instructed us to move away from the windows; calmly, they reassured us that we will be alright.  Ultimately, we filed out onto the streets joining tens of thousands of others.

I remember looking out the window and seeing the glass buildings across the plaza actually swaying.  It was surreal.  It reminded me of the scene in movie The Matrix where a helicopter crash caused the façade of a glass office tower to ripple. 

So many had invested so much before the earthquake hit – and after.  Gustavo Moussalli, our Latin American Division Director and the executive sponsor for the class had made a huge commitment to his local partners; coordinating a 3-day enablement class to support their success. 

Gerardo Diez Martinez, our local Channel Manager arranged the meeting rooms and set-up; AV equipment; food and beverage; Gerardo spared no expense to insure we had everything we needed for his partners. 

My colleague Susanna Lagtapon sacrificed time away from her daughter’s 13^th birthday; traveling instead to join us for the class.  Our colleague, Tony Caporal, with cooler head and bravery, prevailed following the earthquake.  He helped us retrieve our laptops and luggage.  (Even stopping at the lobby bar to grab a free beer on his way out of the hotel.)

Our VP, Brian Enright, was our “home base”; coordinating flights out of town; hotel reservations; and anything else he could do to support us from afar. 

And especially Hector Garcia from our long-time partner NetSoft.  Hector insisted on personally driving us to the airport; would not hear of us taking a taxi or a bus.  He would navigate us through the city streets; on constant vigil for our safety.  Three hours to drive us 12 kilometers.  Three hours in the opposite direction from his own home and family – taking us in his care. 

As with all disasters, there were many heroes – named and unnamed.  But that was 2017; Mexico City; and an earthquake.  Today, it’s another crisis; another natural disaster; another conflict. 

We are all thankful for so many first responders and other heroes – named and unnamed.  May God bless them all. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Authentic…

A favorite topic of mine today.  A favorite word, too.  I hope you get a chuckle even if the machines don’t.  (I wonder, do machines chuckle?) 

According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the Merriam-Webster “Word of the Year” for 2023 was “authentic”.  The article goes on to add: 

As technology’s ability to manipulate reality improves, we’re all searching for the truth. 

Ahhh yes: truth; authenticity; technology; machines.  All of those machines out to “manipulate reality”.  Take a picture today (with your phone vs. a camera no less) and the little machine inside will manipulate that image just about any way you want.  Yes, yes, I know… still photographs, Gary?  That’s so last century.  Show me the video!  Well, last century Yawed Karim did; in front of the elephants. 

And to think; it all started with a trip to the zoo.  

Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, together with a third friend, Yawed Karim, had come up with the idea at a dinner party in early 2005.  They chose the name during a brainstorming session on Valentine’s Day. 

Over the next few months, they designed it in their garage.  After successfully testing the service in May of 2005 they received funding from a venture capital firm to cover their start-up costs. 

In December of 2005 they opened for business (Month 12).

10 months later (September of 2006, less than 24 months end-to-end) they sold for $1,650,000,000.00! 

Nicolas Carr 

What do you think?  I mean if a 19-second video of zoo animals can lead to billions of dollars, is that reality?  Do we mere mortals stand a chance of finding truth? 

I blame it on that vague and nameless group of very smart people commonly referred to as “programmers”.  Are their programming practices questionable?  I mean, are they “searching for the truth”?  If not, whose accountable if they are “manipulating reality” and bypassing the input editor with bad input? 

Peck's Programming Postulates 

·         If more than one person has programmed a malfunctioning routine, no one is at fault.

·         If the input editor has been designed to reject all bad input, an ingenious idiot will discover a method to get bad data past it. 

Unknown Sage 

How did we succumb to the machines, anyway?  When did we capitulate?  Why?  Capitulate certainly have: 

Western society… has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo:  not merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to these novelties unconditionally, just because they are offered, without respect to their human consequences. 

Lewis Mumford 

“Surrender to these novelties unconditionally…”  Welcome to the modern century. 

A lot is being said and even more is being written about the machines; aka artificial intelligence; aka “AI”.  Adding insult to injury, these writings are even being written by the machines about the machines.  (ChatGBT ring a bell?)  Not only that, but now we find ourselves talking to our machines?  You know, “Siri, tell me a joke.” It’s when the machines answer back to our texts, chats, and voices – posing as humans – then I get worried. 

I have hope, however.  Humans are (finally) starting to question the authenticity of information offered up by AI.  We’re finally realizing that videos can be (and are being) manipulated; deviating from reality; “truth” is not always being taken for granted.  Who knows?  Maybe “authentic” will even repeat as the 2024 Word of the Year. 

I have hope. 

                                                            GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.