Same Market, Same Conditions, Different Results.

Become Noticed!

I was having a cup of coffee with a friend from out of town.  He was one of those people who gets real excited very easily.  I have a lot of energy, he has a lot of reaction.  He loves conspiracy stories.  Everything is a by-product of some kind of a conspiracy.    One conspiracy viewpoint leads to another one.  He also uses some fast and rough language while he visits with anyone.  In addition to using colorful vocabulary, he is also kind of loud when he speaks.  People in the coffee shop knew he was there.  In fact, everyone in the coffee shop knew what his philosophies were.  I noticed they all noticed him.  He did not notice any of them.

He is a big man in body frame, too.  He stands about six foot seven.  His shoulders are wide and his build looks a lot like a well organized professional basketball player.  He looks to be in fairly good shape.  He smiles a lot so his words and ideas have some friendly parts to his delivery of thought.  He has the ability to 'work' the stage, so to speak.  He tells a fair joke here and there.  I like having a cup of coffee with him once in awhile.  It is usually quite an experience.

We will call his name, Ken.  Ken is one of those guys who gets easily excited about how sour our politics in this country have become.  It is his favorite subject.  He seems to know everything about politics, past and present.  He uses facts and figures as if he has read a library on them.  He makes it very clear that nobody should dispute his theories.  He will not be easily convinced against his will.  He said it, that's a fact and you better accept it.  If you throw a challenge on the table about one of his theories, batten yourself down...the debate begins.  Ken is one of those who is loaded for bear.  He is very ready to take anyone on that does not agree or confirm with him on his thoughts and beliefs.  His response gun is fully loaded and ready to fire off in a loud blaze of glory.  Ken makes that very clear when he chats with you.  It is always kind of fun watching the facial reactions of the others sitting around the coffee shop.  It is very clear most of the people coming into the coffee shop to place an order for their drinks make an effort to work their walk to avoid the area Ken occupies.  They do not want to become part of his shrapnel.

Ken is a perfect example of how someone can work their life into a tizzy and never notice how it became such a tizzy.  It will always be the fault of someone else in his mind.  I use situations like chatting with Ken as an example of how some business owners will operate a similar business in a similar market area with similar marketing conditions and receive completely different results.  Everyone that headed to that coffee shop had a clear idea why they were headed to that coffee shop.  That particular coffee shop is a popular place to hang out.  It seems to be very busy at that shop almost every time I go there.  They do make very good coffee.  They have very good seating spaces and their selection of choices is very good.  Their business model design is very trendy in a good way.  They are not a chain operation but operate much like a good chain might behave.  It is a popular spot.  Ken was obviously attracting a lot of attention.  He did not seem to care about it very much.  It was clear to Ken that any challenges those people had about his views was their own problem.

Are You A Standout In The Crowd?

Business owners have a tendency to run side by side on most business philosophies.  Most business models behave much like they are cut from the same business cloth.  Very few business models are as loud as Ken was in that coffee shop.  You can travel from town to town and never notice most of the small business models stacked side by side with one another.  Very few will stand out to catch your attention.

I noticed this kind of behavior many years ago when my wife and I lived in a small old fashioned neighborhood.  We had a home that was a Victorian

Our house became to the old folks in our neighborhood much like Ken was in the coffee shop that day.  Our house was the structure in our neighborhood that when people drove by, they noticed it.  Ken was the one everyone noticed in the coffee shop.  Very few people paid much attention to me sitting there.  Most would not be able to pick me out in a police line up.  Ken, on the hand, would be immediately recognized in a police line up.  The place where our old home was located was called the 'Kendrick Addition.'  Whenever I told someone where our house was when I was talking to strangers about our home, the moment I mentioned the 'Kendrick Addition' they would ask if the yellow house was ours.  They could spot our house in a police line up.  The houses next door would not be able to be recognized in that same line up.

Same market, same conditions, different results.

Ken may not be the kind of person everyone wanted to have a cup of coffee with when they headed to this trendy little shop.  My old Victorian home may not be the kind of home everyone would select to become the home they prefer to live in for the rest of their life.  Both of these examples are perfect examples of how people notice things that work hard on becoming noticed.  Ken, by the way, operates an extremely successful construction company.  Right now in this horrible construction marketplace he has several crews working on several different projects.  He described one project is a culvert replacement  project with one of the neighboring counties as a part of a road reconstruction grant.  He described another large fencing project he is doing for some windmill companies.  He is also transferring some of his road equipment to a federal forest area to build a fire road into an area the federal government is changing to protect.  He just finished a backyard deck for a friend of his mothers church and is starting a new home addition on another lady who lives next door.  He met with me because he was in town gathering materials for a bathroom remodel he will be doing fro someone he met at a class reunion.  Ken employs several people.  He is adding a couple of part time employees to help him do the forest road project.

Ken is very loud about how the construction people are complaining about having no work.  He said he has never been this busy before.  He said it has been almost two years since he has built a new home, but all of the other work out there is more than he can handle.  I know where Ken lives.  I have seen his home.  It is a very nice place and is worth a lot of money.  He brags out loud about how he owns his place instead of the bank owning it.  When Ken was done talking, he got up and left.  He climbed into his 1972 ford pick up that was rusted on all sides as he drove away with a full load of building materials in the back bed of the pick-up truck.  I know Ken by the truck he drives.  I can see that truck coming from blocks away and I know it is Ken.  He will gladly tell you that every construction business owner who buys a new Dodge for every new job is the owner who is out of work, today.  Ken paid for the college education of everyone of his children.  They had to make certain grades for him to help them out, however.  One of his sons did not make it in college.  Ken shut off his college funds and hired him to help build the construction business.  Ken is loud and clear about how he feels about this process.

Same market, same conditions, different results.  Ken does not believe his business should slow down.  Ken also does not believe anyone else should allow their business to slow down.  When I asked Ken what he considered to be his secret he said, "Heck, I don't make this marketplace.  It stinks what they have done to it.  I just need to make my adjustments and get out there and hustle a little bit harder.  They have frickin' ruined it.  That ain't gonna' stop me from making something happen out there.  Some people have money and all of them want to deal.  I just need to go find them and do good work for them.  Most are shocked when I pull up in that old beater!"  Same market, same conditions, different results.

My wife and I found a different home we wanted to consider moving into.  We knew the market was not a good one to enter.  The move would work in our favor if we could sell our old Victorian house.  We mentioned it to one person that we would consider the idea of selling it.  The word got out and within one week we received a phone call from a young man who was moving to town to become part of the water master program in our city.  We sold the house within 40 days and never placed it on the market.  It never had a 'for sale' sign in the front yard.  Same market, same conditions, different results.

How is you mind doing?  What do you believe?  How are you working to make sure you are noticed?  I like Ken's attitude.  He does not necessarily care what you think about him.  In that coffee shop, it was very evident he does not care about what anyone thinks about him.  Ken is Ken.  Take it or leave it.  However, if anyone standing nearby would have mentioned anything about construction work I can assure you Ken would have been all over it.  Ken is very clear on what he has to do to make it happen.  He is not confused about that subject.  Ken takes excellent care of his business model.  I dare anyone to get in his way and find out how much it means to him.  Ken would win that challenge.  Hands down.

Same market, same conditions, different results.  Be driven to win...at all costs.  Above all, become noticed by everyone and make sure you do not worry about what others may think.  You might discover how the old folks in the neighborhood might actually help you change the way things were.

Until next time...