Beating the competition does not take sharpening your sword for the sword fight. It takes knowing to use a different weapon. Don’t try an beat your competitor at their game. Change the rules.
Dave Young:
Welcome to the Empire Builders podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from Mom and Pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode word from our sponsor, which is … well it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients, so here’s one of those.
[Armadura Metal Roof Ad]
Dave Young:
Stephen, when I saw the show notes for today, it’s David and Goliath. We’re not talking about me, are we? We’re talking about the biblical David.
We’re talking about the biblical David versus Goliath.
Dave Young:
Because I was going to say, I haven’t built any empires, dude. This is the one.
Stephen Semple:
This is the one. And I want you to imagine this. After David defeats Goliath, he decides to go into management consulting and sets up David and Associates to advise small businesses on how to defeat the big competitor.
Dave Young:
Yeah.
Stephen Semple:
And so, what advice would David give? That’s what we’re going to talk about today. So I just want you to think about this. David was the youngest of eight kids and his brothers went off to prepare for war and he stayed at home to take care of the flock.
Stephen Semple:
And one day David was taking food to his brother and he saw this huge man step on to the field, who had this big thick helmet, and massive armor, and huge weapons. And that man was Goliath. And Goliath put down a challenge. He said, “Give me a man and let us fight each other.”
Dave Young:
Yeah.
Stephen Semple:
And this kind of pissed David off, and so David told the king, “I’ll fight him.” And the king looked at scrawny, little David, and at the end of the day, the king was like, “Well, what the heck? What have I got to lose?” Right?
Stephen Semple:
So David said, “Sure, go ahead and fight Goliath.” Now, I want you to imagine at this point, the recommendations that he got.
Dave Young:
Oh, sure. Yeah.
Stephen Semple:
“You need to train better with a sword,” right? “Lift heavy weights, get stronger, wear a big heavy armor.”
Dave Young:
Thicker armor. You need big armor.
Stephen Semple:
And he’s this little guy going, “I can’t lift this shield. No matter how strong I get, I’m not going to be as strong as Goliath. I’m not going to wear this heavy armor.” And think about it, this is not much different than what typical consultants will tell a business to do.
Dave Young:
Oh yeah.
Stephen Semple:
Buddy your competitors. Best practices. Look around your industry. Right? In other words, beat Goliath, playing Goliath’s game, right? Here’s what David knew. He’d never be as strong as Goliath, no matter what he did, he’d never be as good with a sword, no matter what he did. And he couldn’t lift the shield.
Dave Young:
Yeah.
Stephen Semple:
The armor was just restrictive. He was not going to win playing Goliath’s game, fighting Goliath’s fight. He was going to have to defeat Goliath fighting his way, using a sling.
Dave Young:
Which is what he would use to protect the sheep.
Stephen Semple:
Right. And he had been spending his whole life doing. So he goes down the river, picks five perfect stones, flings one, hits Goliath right in the head. Goliath falls to the ground. Walks over to Goliath, who is knocked unconscious by it, pulls out Goliath’s sword, hacks off Goliath’s head, done. Victory is mine. Right?
Dave Young:
Yeah.
Stephen Semple:
So naturally, he becomes very famous and all sorts of people want him to sort of, “Hey, I want you to help me defeat Goliath,” and that led to David and Associates being the number one consulting firm of the Red Sea at the time.
Dave Young:
Okay, yeah.
Stephen Semple:
So that’s basically our story, but I got thinking about this from the standpoint of what lessons would David teach entrepreneurs?
Dave Young:
Okay.
Stephen Semple:
I think that’s what this whole podcast is about is you can’t defeat Goliath playing Goliath’s game.
Dave Young:
Right.
Stephen Semple:
Going around and looking at best practices in your industry, and looking at your industry and saying, “I’m going to do what they’re doing,” is like saying to David, “Get better at a sword.”
Dave Young:
You know, one of the mistakes people listening to this podcast, I hope they don’t make, but one that they’re at risk of making, is to look at these businesses that we’re profiling as they exist in the after state. Right? They’re already an empire, and don’t lose sight of the fact that what we’re focusing on is what did they do different to become an empire? Who was their Goliath? And did they use a sling, or did they play the game of their competitors? And most of them, man, they wrote their own story. They did not play the game of their giant.
Stephen Semple:
Well, and in the show notes, we’re going to have a great example, and this is a video that was done by one of our business partners, Mick Torbay, where he’s telling a story of a client of his who’s in the hardware store industry. They have a small hardware store in a small town in Northern Ontario, Canada. Well, it’s not small town, decent size town. Because one day Lowe’s comes to town. So, Lowe’s being the big giant, Lowe’s being the Goliath. And what the client initially want to do is, “Lowe’s is coming to town, Lowe’s got cheap price. We got to fight them on price.”
Stephen Semple:
It’s like, “No, that’s Lowe’s game. You have to play a different game.” And Mick walks through the recommendations he made to this client, and it worked. Lowe’s came in the town and these guys continued to grow.
Dave Young:
Yeah.
Stephen Semple:
So yeah, the lesson here is find your sling, find …
Dave Young:
Stay tuned. We’re going to wrap up this story and tell you how to apply this lesson to your business right after this.
[Empire Builders Program Ad]
Dave Young:
Let’s pick up our story where we left off, and trust me, you haven’t missed a thing.
Stephen Semple:
So, yeah. The lesson here is, find your sling, find your stone. Find the thing that you are really strong at and you that as your weapon against Goliath, don’t fight Goliath’s game.
Dave Young:
No, I think that’s great advice. And also, if David’s smart, and I think David was pretty smart, right? He knew not to fight Goliath, playing Goliath’s game. There are some people that would go into this management consulting business and go, “You know what? I used a sling to beat Goliath. So I’m now the sling expert. Right? Everybody needs a sling. We got to find perfect rocks, and everybody needs a sling because that’s how you kill Goliath.” And that’s not the lesson, either.
Stephen Semple:
You know, that’s a great point, because part of the reason why this worked for David, is David used a sling, and David was familiar with a sling. And this is a great point, because this again would be where traditional consultants would go. The way to always do this is use a sling. And that’s not necessarily the answer, either.
Stephen Semple:
Look, this is part of the reason why, and when people hire us to do this for them, one of the reasons why we insist they take a full day out of their day, they travel away from their business and come and see us, because you really need to create this different environment. And the reason why it takes a day is, it takes us time to really get to know them, find their slang, find their stone, get them in a different environment so that they’re thinking about things differently, to really figure out what is that bold idea that can be turned into the Goliath killer of the empire builder.
Dave Young:
Exactly. And that there’s no one best weapon. There’s no one best strategy. It’s finding the right strategy for the right business, to address the fight with the right competitor.
Stephen Semple:
Right?
Dave Young:
Those pieces, it’s not one size fits all by any stretch.
Stephen Semple:
Yeah. That’s a great observation.
Dave Young:
You know, it makes me think of … and I’ll pick on the dental industry, for no reason other than this is what to springs to mind, is, there’s so many dentists that manage to stumble onto a good marketing concept and then create a marketing company for other dentists that cookie cuts the whole strategy. But it probably works better than no marketing plan, but you end up looking like all your competitors when you follow that path.
Stephen Semple:
Yeah. It’s great for the first five guys who do it.
Dave Young:
Yeah.
Stephen Semple:
Because it’s a new idea, but then eventually it becomes the way the industry is. And as you said, it’s very cookie cutter, and it also works when somebody has nothing. It’s a little bit like that joke of outrunning the bear, two guys are going through the woods and a bear comes along, and one of them’s putting on his shoes, and the other guy goes, “Those running shoes aren’t going to help you outrun the bear.” And he’s like, “I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you.”
Stephen Semple:
So when you’ve got nothing and this cookie cutter strategy comes along, yes, you will have some result from it because it’s better than nothing. And it’ll make you money, and it’ll grow your business, and you’ll be a solid number three in your industry. But what you are not going to be is the empire.
Dave Young:
Yeah.
Stephen Semple:
So the question is, am I okay being a solid number three in my industry, or do I want to change the world?
Dave Young:
Yeah.
Stephen Semple:
If you want to change the world, that’s a different approach.
Dave Young: Thanks for listening to the podcast. Please share us. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a big fat juicy five star rating and review at Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to schedule your own 90 minute empire building session, you can do it at empirebuildingprogram.com.
