How to rise above the mundane by being different rather than better, with David Brier, President and Creative Director of DBD International

It's a dilemma for a lot of entrepreneurs and companies to stand out in the huge sea of businesses today. But this episode's guest, David Brier, President and Creative Director of DBD International, will share all about how you could rise above that mundane in a sea of sameness by being different, not by being better.

David also shares a lot of examples and real-life experiences to explain how you get off the commodity slide, and what areas of your business you can change or improve to do just that. He also shares what he thinks is the main reason why businesses don't engage with being different, and, at the same time, some practical tips you could use to be different.

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Transcript

Jim James: 0:00

Hello, and welcome to this episode of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur with David Brier, who is a native New Yorker, and he says that he's the "Slayer of the Mundane." He is the international bestseller of a book called the "Brand Intervention." David, welcome to the show.

David Brier: 0:18

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Jim.

Jim James: 0:20

Well, it's my pleasure. I've heard a lot about you. Now, let's just talk, if we can, about brand intervention and how that the UnNoticed Entrepreneur.

David Brier: 0:28

Well, in short, we live in a world where there's no shortage of people, or companies, or services, or products, saying, " We are great.""We are the best.""We have everything you've been looking for." Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So we have a lot of background noise that all sounds a lot very similar. So, I mean, that's kinda like the, what I call like, "The sea of sameness." Not saneness as in being sane, but actually sameness as in being similar, similar, similar, it's like, how the heck do I tell the difference between this company, and this company, and this company, and this company, because there's an enormous amount of similarity to the point where everything seems kind of redundant, which leaves companies and individuals having to compete on price. Because since you, my prospect can't tell the difference between all of these incredible things in front of you. Well, I guess I'll do it by lowering price, which is a terrible business model. But that's the over overarching problem.

Jim James: 1:28

You're absolutely right. When companies go down the commodity slide, don't they? Where there's no competition except for price. So, David, how do you help people, entrepreneurs, to get off the commodity slide then get into differentiation.

David Brier: 1:42

Well, one thing that has to be understood right out of the gate is that "different is better than better," right?

Jim James: 1:52

Just repeat that, David, in case people didn't hear.

David Brier: 1:55

Absolutely,"different is better than better." Everybody's got, "Hey, we're the best." And then, you got a very enthusiastic salesperson or customer rep over here saying, "Hey, we're the best at it." And then you got to know where do they go?"Oh, they've got 12 features. Well, we have 15.""Oh, they've got 10 people. We've got 20." And I mean, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's nothing. But different will always trump. It's how you, and I notice... why is it we notice that product or that service that does something that no one else quite had. Because they looked at the benchmark of expectation, and I love that. I love that as a concept that that "Benchmark of expectation." You know, every potential customer. They've been trained based on what the market has thrown at them to have a certain level of expectation. Above this line is acceptable, below this line is not even a contender. So the question is how north of that line, that benchmark of expectation, do you go? And do you push it to the point where someone goes, "How come no one else thought of that before?" And when you can get into that space, how come no one else thought of it before? Oh, now you are controlling the dialogue. Now you're actually navigating that conversation.

Jim James: 3:12

So David, intellectually, I can completely get that, but having worked for many companies over 25 years, doing PR, many of them, have in effect, a commodity product. Let's talk about telco, for example, and grids and collectivity. Let's say the base product does read that, that lowest benchmark. How can they be different? What places in the business do you look for them to be different, to differentiate?

David Brier: 3:36

Sometimes it's big. Sometimes it's small. Let's take, for example... like I actually, there's a telephone company that I actually branded. And one of the things that we found was, you know, and it was enough years ago where everybody was pretty much offering the same sounding package of internet service and it's that the dah, dah, dah. And I looked at the dialogues that everyone was having. And I was like, "What are we going to do?" We're going to just say, "Well, with us, you get a few more crumbs of something." And so I had to look at how we positioned it. And I looked at the assets. I talked more about the outcomes than the technologies. That was one thing that was a point of distinction. There was like, I need to know what to properly talk about. So it wasn't like, "Hey, you get so many gigabytes out to people." What does that even mean? You know, it's like, how many shows can I watch? You know how fast can I upload or download? Et cetera. But what we did that also then framed it well was instead of doing the, "Here's your monthly subscription rate" I said,"And you can get all of this for, I think it was like 79 cents a day," right? I mean, so that at least framed it differently and it's like a little fraction of a cup of coffee that you get the world, right? And so it was just, at least framing it in that way differently. But one other little side note, you take a company like DoubleTree. That's a very commodity hospitality, you know, hotel chain, nothing special about DoubleTree. But they do one thing that no other company does in the space. They make sure when you check in you get a warm chocolate chip cookie. Last I checked, they give out 82,000 chocolate chip cookies a day. Let's see, what's the cost? I don't know. Let's say it's, 4 cents a cookie or something. Let's say that's what it is. And all they do is they have to put it in the microwave, right? And give it to The person, "mmmm," they smell the chocolate chip cookie, they feel the warmth. Do you know that they get more free PR just from people taking pictures of that? So in other words, you need to know these little tipping points, these little triggers, because what's the level of expectation? Level of expectation is, okay, you're going to a hotel, the person's going to say "Hello." Hopefully, they're going to treat you somewhat decently. And if you do have maybe more than one package, you know, one piece of luggage, maybe they'll let you offer to help you bring it up upstairs or whatever, you know? So I mean, the what's that benchmark? Well, they decide just to do this one little thing. At a glance, it sounds trivial, but it brings back fond memories. A warm chocolate chip cookie. I mean, but again, it's kinda like knowing your audience, knowing your space, that's going to distinguish them. And that was, for them, enough for people to actually, dig going there.

Jim James: 6:25

Yeah. David, reminds me of Singapore Airlines, which is obviously an international carrier based out of Singapore. Every time we get on a plane to give you a hot towel, you know, and that's amazing. But we don't get it on tied, you don't get the relation there. So David, if you've got something like the cookies for the hospitality business, why don't more companies do something which on the surface seems so simple, not that expensive? Why don't companies do this? What do you see in your expertise in consultancy, as the reason why people don't engage with

David Brier: 7:01

Well, they confused efficiency with profits and margins which is the short-term thinking, the short-term gain, looking at each transaction rather than the long-term cumulative effects. I mean, how efficient is it for a company to actually have a live person answer a phone? Why is it that we talk about when companies answer the phone, I tell you, I say, "Hey Jim," I couldn't believe it. I had a problem with, you know, whether it was for something for my car or something for my credit card. I mean, I hate the majority of my credit card companies because they put me through a 12-minute menu tree, automated. And they're looking,"Well, this is efficient." You think it's efficient? I think it's stupid business. It's pathetically stupid because humanity is always good quality. Humanity, recognition, interaction, will, absolutely bring back more and higher return and more loyalty for the dearth of the lifetime of that customer than the little short efficiencies that ode and eat away at our experiences as consumers and people who are patrons of that particular sorts of business.

Jim James: 8:12

So David, would you say then that you think entrepreneurs actually could have a, you know, have an unfair advantage against big companies because the entrepreneurs still care? Whereas in the big companies, the shareholders or the CFO is who's making decisions. Do you think that's essentially then liberating for the smaller entrepreneur?

David Brier: 8:32

Oh, I think it's absolutely liberating. I think it's a muscle that needs to be flexed more often. I mean, years ago after I'd gotten one of my earlier, once my cell phone, the old flip ones turned into where, you could see who was calling and their name and this or the other, I did this as a prank once. And the response was so amazing that I pretty much routinely do it. Anybody that calls me I'll now answer, like, if you called me, I'll say, "Hi, Jim's dedicated hotline. How may I help you?" Right? And you will, laugh as does everybody. I mean, I do this with clients, and I do it good heartedly, and I just do it as a matter of, almost as a little mockery of the demeanor that we are commonly see or experience when calling bigger companies. But it's like, you know, so someone will call and I'll say,"Hi, Roberta's dedicated hotline. How may I help you?" And I'll Roberta laughs her ass off, and she loves that. And what did it take me to do that? It took me, let's see two and a half seconds. It took me caring. More important than the time. It took me actually caring and realizing, if I don't disrupt the norm, if I just enter the phone, "Hi, it's David." Or if I say, "Hi, Roberta." What is that? I have now basically put myself in the box of ordinary. I would rather be in the pedestal of extraordinary rather than in the box of ordinary.

Jim James: 9:53

So David you've explained there an approach, which is very much sort of personalization, isn't it? One of the trends is sort of personalization at scale through things like AI and digital empathy. Do you think these things are fundamentally opposed to each other? Do you think it's impossible to offer customer service, which is personalised at scale?

David Brier: 10:14

No, put it this way. It's like many companies try it and they do it terribly, really terribly. You know, Apple is one of those few like, when I call tech support at Apple, I don't dread it. And their AI, and this is not including Siri. I hate Siri. Siri is the worst product that Apple has ever put out. It's terrible. It doesn't understand things contextually when you're trying to have transcriptions done, it's dismal. But outside of Siri, when you call up for tech support, it says, "Hi, David, it looks like you recently called us. Are you calling about that?" And it actually is intelligent. That's smart. I don't have to wait too long. And the level of personalization and the use of AI in that works in their favor. They're one of the few in my experience I have not encountered too many, most are pretty bad.

Jim James: 11:01

I have to agree with you about Siri. and also about the Apple care. So what would be some practical steps, David, that an entrepreneur listening to this show could take within their own organisation? Maybe they're drifting towards depersonalisation at scale that sounds like one of the problems that people face. What would be some practical steps that perhaps you've addressed in, you know, in your book, the "Brand Intervention" or in a "Rising Above the Noise" at your website. Just give us some practical tips.

David Brier: 11:32

Well, right hand written notes. Don't just send. I mean, like, for example, there are places where I will personalize. So for example, there are people as you can imagine, I get a lot of requests to connect on LinkedIn. Well, one thing that it seems, based on the amount of people that are always surprised, not everybody is aware that LinkedIn on your mobile device, that if you have a first-level connection, you can actually leave that person an audio message. And so it has a little microphone. So instead of me just doing the usual emoji smiley face, or thank you, or whatever like that, you know, when someone reaches out, I'll say, "Hey Annalise, thank you so much for reconnecting here. I really appreciate it. And just wanted to give you a personal, thank you. Have an amazing rest of today. Have an amazing rest of the weekend. Is there anything I can do to help you? Don't hesitate to reach out." I can't tell you the number of people now, again, that's just me taking the time to carry enough, to break through, because 98% of any of us are basically doing the bare minimum to just get it done. Quote, unquote. For those that are just listening and not seeing my air quotes, "Let's get it done.""Let me check that item off." Well, wait a second, that individual doesn't know, you're checking an item off, that individual is either having a great experience, a predictably boring experience or well, another bozo experience. And so, so I break it out. I go, "How do I make this singular moment exemplary?" And so I look at those little micro moments, and it takes in many cases, almost the same degree of effort. Now, if, for example, you have a different kind of relationship and you don't have that as a one little quick easy thing, you might hand write a note to people. And I'm blown away when someone actually takes the time to drop me in the mail an actual handwritten note that says, "Thank you." And it's just a nice little give from them to me. I mean, it's just, memorable. And if you do that and do that, and you're known for that, those are the little building blocks to really create your empire.

Jim James: 13:43

It's funny you mention that because back in the early days, when I started, what we used to do - Christmas cards. You know, hundreds of Christmas cards, if I remember rightly, and send them all one at a time. So we've perhaps lost some of that human touch in this need for scale as well. David, you mentioned the cookies, you mentioned the micro-moments. What do you think people can do to help the team feel empowered to do this? Because you're taking the action one-on-one but it's an organisation that needs to do it, isn't it? It's each individual personally contact the customer. Any experience or thoughts on how you can engage the team with taking everything personally?

David Brier: 14:27

It's educating them on their role. I'll give this as an example, and everyone's always had this experience. If you or I went to two basically similar hotels... let's just figure that, for all intents and purposes, what they have to offer is pretty much comparable. If I went to one, and there was nobody outside to welcome me, and inside they'll kind of let myself through the front doors and I went up and the person at the front was like, "Hi, can I help you?" You know, not particularly friendly, not particularly not-friendly, they're talking. Okay, we'll give them a little one check mark, and they're talking. This is not the nicest particular donut. And then they do this, they do that and then that's all fine. I get up to the room, they never ask me, "By the way, how long have you been traveling?""Are you hungry?" Or you know, "Do you need anything in the room?" You know, and it's just sort of like all, they're just doing what they got to do with checking off their items. You know, you don't want to have that check off mentality. And then you go to the same similar operation - someone's at the front, they welcome me. Hello?""Hello? You have a reservation. Oh, you do?""Yeah. David Brier.""Oh, hello, Mr. Brier. Well, let me help you. Let me escort you." And then, they actually help me, and they bring me to the person at the front desk. The person at the front desk is friendly and they're actually helpful. And then they ask me, "By the way, do you need anything? Are you hungry? Do you need anything brought up to the room?""Do you like pillows?" A king-sized bed, dude? What do you like? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."And is this height fine for you? Because we like to put you on a little higher floor because we know that it's actually little less street noise. And that's showing a little care, interest, care, interest, concern. Thinking to the future, right? These are all future things they've asked about, not just going through the motions. Which one am I going to feel is the better one. Now, again, they're offering in terms of their physical amenities were the same. Which one am I going to feel is a better experience? And that is what one has to instill in their team. Are you creating that kind of thing where you are recognizing your role in building those micro moments of excellence? A way exceeding expectation or are you eroding away at it? And so it's not, everybody's going to rise to that occasion. People have to realize,"Look, you're part of it." You can either be part of greatness or you could be the erosion eating away at the foundations of what we're trying to build here.

Jim James: 16:34

That's a really getting everyone to take part, making everyone else feel special. It sounds like a, an overall message there, David, for the entrepreneurs that want to differentiate themselves from the mass market companies.

David Brier: 16:45

That's right. And it's like, you know, there's one place in town. I refuse to shop there anymore because their customer service was so bad. To find someone, sometimes you'd have to walk five minutes to actually find someone. So I basically, after the last time that I had shopped there, I said,"You know, the reason that I don't shop there is because if I happen to die in one of the isles, they probably wouldn't find me for a week."

Jim James: 17:06

Well, David. Oh, on that note, on that very nice note. You've got your book, which is a "Brand Intervention." And in there you've got 10 strategies so people can find that. How else can they find out about you, David?

David Brier: 17:20

Well, the best and most sure-fire ways, is obviously going to my site, risingabovethenoise.com. If they go to Rising and it's R I S I N G if they go to risingabovethenoise.com, they can get the"Lucky Brand," which is a free e-book. There's also tons of articles, before and after examples and such. I mean, I like to be very practical and very real, and show the journey that I've helped other companies go through because my job is to basically take individuals and to take companies and to usher them into the next chapter of domination in their space. And that's thankfully, I mean, my book, that's responsible for well over 8 billion dollars in sales for companies around the world. The strategies that I've outlined there, because I've been doing this for 42 years, basically that's the, hindsight. I'd love to say this was all planned out brilliantly because I was such a brilliant child prodigy genius in the beginning of my career.

Jim James: 18:20

Your mastermind.

David Brier: 18:21

Yeah, but it was no, as, I mean, it's kind of, I learned as I went. You know, I mean, yes, I had talent and yes, I had drive and hustle, but, I learned. Like many entrepreneurs, I learned. I didn't go to school for business training. I didn't get an MBA, you know, because I come from the creative side, but I've been fortunate to have interactions with good business people, good entrepreneurs, good leaders, and be able to marry ingenuity, innovation, disruption, creativity with the practical experiential side that customers love and appreciate.

Jim James: 18:54

David Brier, thank you for joining me on The UnNoticed Entrepreneur show and sharing this with me today to learn how to rise above the mundane. Thank you so much for joining us on The UnNoticed Entrepreneur show today.

David Brier: 19:04

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Jim, for having me. I really appreciate it.

Jim James: 19:07

It's been my pleasure. You've been listening to David Brier, that's Brier with an E by the way. B R I E R. But I will put that in the show notes. Thank you for listening to me, Jim James on The UnNoticed Entrepreneur show.