Dan Martell - How To Deal With Business Competition As a Startup

00:00:00.200 Hi there, Dan Martell here, serial entrepreneur, investor

00:00:02.900 and creator of SaaS Academy, meaning in this video I want

00:00:05.600 to share with you how to build the right mindset to deal

00:00:09.600 with competition.

00:00:10.740 If it's throwing you off your game, I'm going to walk you

00:00:12.440 through how to get clear and actually look forward to having

00:00:16.620 people compete against you in your market.

00:00:18.420 It might sound crazy but wait for it and at the end I'm going

00:00:21.020 to share with you a framework called Future Living.

00:00:24.100 It's from my Idea2Exit seminar so I'd love to share with you

00:00:27.560 how to get that video training for yourself

00:00:29.980 because I really think it'll help you

00:00:31.620 with the way you think about scaling your company.

00:00:47.680 So one of the most intense competitive spaces

00:00:51.140 I ever got into was building my company Clarity.fm.

00:00:54.440 You know when I started this,

00:00:55.780 I had this nirvana view of the world

00:00:57.980 and we're gonna take it over

00:00:59.240 and nobody's ever thought of it just quite like this.

00:01:01.880 So I started building the prototype and scaling it up

00:01:04.160 and it was amazing and then all of a sudden

00:01:06.260 I started having people say,

00:01:07.620 oh, it sounds just like this company

00:01:09.700 and I'm like, oh, that's interesting.

00:01:11.160 I look at, yeah, but we're different.

00:01:12.700 Then people would be like, oh,

00:01:13.860 it sounds just like this company

00:01:15.500 and they'd send me an email and I'd look at it and go,

00:01:17.600 oh yeah, well kind of but a little different.

00:01:20.580 Literally this happened for six months

00:01:23.500 and I kept an Evernote file

00:01:25.080 of all these different companies doing stuff

00:01:27.680 because I thought it might be interesting

00:01:29.180 to reference later but I kept focusing

00:01:30.960 and focusing and focusing.

00:01:31.860 I'm gonna walk you through how I dealt with this

00:01:33.280 because the big blow that almost took me out of the game,

00:01:37.460 really messed with my mind was when

00:01:39.060 Google announced help outs and all of a sudden now,

00:01:41.420 my investors emailed me, all my friends were emailing me,

00:01:44.740 people were tagging me in the comments below

00:01:46.840 on the TechCrunch article where they announced it.

00:01:48.840 Google launches help outs to connect service providers

00:01:51.840 with consumers, blah, blah, blah and I'm just like,

00:01:54.140 oh my gosh, now I've got like a multi-billion dollar company

00:01:57.980 competing in this space.

00:01:59.620 But for me, I kept saying the same thing.

00:02:01.720 And it's those beliefs that allowed me to deal with the

00:02:05.420 competition to, I mean, look, Google ended up shutting down

00:02:09.560 Helpouts because they, you know, had to, they were doing way

00:02:12.500 too many things and we were focused,

00:02:13.720 actually met with their team.

00:02:15.720 So whatever the reason there, but I just kept going and going

00:02:18.800 and going after two and a half years.

00:02:20.400 I felt super lucky and blessed to have been acquired by

00:02:23.640 Startups.co and Clarity to this day continues to be the

00:02:27.020 dominant force in that space of entrepreneurs getting advice

00:02:30.740 through, essentially if LinkedIn had a call button,

00:02:32.720 that's what Clarity.fm is.

00:02:33.780 So I wanna teach you the five mindsets that I believe that

00:02:36.920 really helped me not only deal with it at the time but really

00:02:39.720 get through it so that I can continue to create from a place

00:02:43.360 of excitement and abundance.

00:02:45.100 Number one, work backwards.

00:02:47.440 What I mean by this is focus on the customer.

00:02:50.140 I don't care what the competitor's doing right now.

00:02:52.660 I always ask myself,

00:02:54.200 how do I work backwards for the customer?

00:02:56.300 I got this incredible advice from a guy named Joe Jebbia,

00:02:59.760 the co-founder of Airbnb.

00:03:01.700 And I remember when I first showed him Clarity,

00:03:03.640 Joe looked at the product and just said,

00:03:06.100 who's the patient?

00:03:07.540 If this is the tool, who's got the pain

00:03:11.240 that needs the solution, the patient?

00:03:13.880 If I'm a doctor and I'm trying to treat this patient,

00:03:16.920 what tool am I gonna go find in the market

00:03:20.260 to actually treat the pain that my patient has and I kept,

00:03:24.000 OEC's always gotta work backwards from the customer.

00:03:26.600 What are their problems, their challenges?

00:03:28.700 He goes, look, competitors are gonna be out there

00:03:30.300 and they're gonna be doing stuff but the truth is,

00:03:32.300 is most of them don't know what they're working on anyway.

00:03:35.880 So always work backwards from the customer is just like

00:03:38.780 an overriding principle of dealing with competition

00:03:41.980 and just building your mindset.

00:03:43.860 Number two, learn, don't distract.

00:03:46.420 My biggest pet peeve is founders that I coach telling me

00:03:51.300 about, well, this competitor's doing X so we're gonna do the

00:03:54.300 same thing and what I continuously remind them is they

00:03:58.160 assume that their competitor actually knows what they're

00:04:00.500 doing and 90% of the time I've realized is that most

00:04:04.280 start-ups, most companies are executing strategies and they

00:04:07.640 have no clue if it's gonna work.

00:04:09.040 They're testing, they're iterating so the last thing you

00:04:12.120 wanna do is just blatantly copy somebody else's strategies

00:04:15.080 because you think they're more successful than you,

00:04:17.780 it's never the case, and they're winning with that strategy.

00:04:21.160 What I will encourage you is to learn.

00:04:23.180 If you notice that there's a certain way they do pricing,

00:04:25.620 just use that input from learning about your competitive set

00:04:29.300 so that you can bring those ideas to the team,

00:04:31.940 but by no means whatsoever should you be copying things

00:04:35.800 from somebody else you compete against

00:04:37.160 just because you think that it's working for them

00:04:39.540 because you might actually go down the same rabbit hole

00:04:42.540 and run into the same brick wall

00:04:43.940 that your competitor's gonna run into

00:04:45.040 if you just blatantly copy because they're doing it.

00:04:48.520 Number three, you do you.

00:04:52.240 The most unique thing, the most interesting thing,

00:04:55.480 the most valuable thing you can do in your startup,

00:04:59.380 in your business, is to do you, is to be 100% you.

00:05:03.800 From a brand point of view, from an energy point of view,

00:05:06.560 from a product point of view, from your opinions

00:05:09.540 and details of just what you're creating.

00:05:12.340 I think so often we look at other businesses being successful

00:05:16.840 and we think, well, we gotta do that too.

00:05:18.880 And I'm telling you, as a founder,

00:05:21.480 the most important thing that you need to maintain

00:05:24.820 is your level of excitement and passion

00:05:26.420 towards solving this problem.

00:05:27.920 And if in that journey, as you're going through it,

00:05:31.360 you start doing things that compromise your values

00:05:34.600 or the way you wanna build things,

00:05:36.840 it actually will stop you from succeeding in the long run

00:05:39.800 because you're gonna fall out of love with your company.

00:05:41.660 I've seen so many companies, founders that I work with

00:05:45.100 pivot into a different market, a different segment,

00:05:48.360 a different customer just because thought

00:05:50.500 that's what we need to do to be successful

00:05:52.400 and in doing so, they lose the passion for that industry.

00:05:56.040 They don't care about that customer

00:05:57.900 and what I always remind them is the most unique thing,

00:06:00.040 the most interesting, potent, fun thing you can do

00:06:03.920 is just lean in to being who you are

00:06:07.080 because there's only one, one of you in the world.

00:06:10.920 This isn't like hokey pokey mumble jumble stuff.

00:06:13.460 This is like legit.

00:06:14.860 If you want to build something interesting,

00:06:17.200 think about what you value and how you want to do it

00:06:19.460 and just own it and you do you.

00:06:21.740 Number four, life supports those who support life.

00:06:24.860 And I remember I first heard this from Tony Robbins

00:06:28.240 and the whole idea is if we give, if we teach,

00:06:32.780 if we share, then by doing that,

00:06:36.340 the world from an intention point of view

00:06:38.480 will give back more.

00:06:40.380 And I think bringing an approach of wanting your competitors

00:06:44.580 to fail and that competitive friction just messes up

00:06:48.920 with the whole way that the world works.

00:06:52.000 That the rain falls to the ground to feed the plant

00:06:55.000 that grows through the sunshine and it's just as beautiful

00:06:57.660 and look, this is just the way I think about life.

00:07:00.500 And again, it's a mindset aspect.

00:07:02.300 It's like by thinking this way, you can just restructure

00:07:06.100 your belief systems to look, if somebody comes out, great.

00:07:08.500 They should be successful.

00:07:09.600 I hope the entrepreneur succeeds.

00:07:10.840 I don't want to wish pain on anybody but I'm going to work

00:07:13.240 backwards for my customer and I'm totally going to crush it

00:07:15.440 and we are going to be successful.

00:07:16.900 It's not a zero sum game.

00:07:18.300 Other people can win and you can win as well.

00:07:21.120 So I just think that that mindset and that approach to life

00:07:23.980 will really support you.

00:07:25.280 And number five is you attract what you put out in the world.

00:07:29.520 If you think about this concept, if you're an angry person,

00:07:32.620 you're frustrated at your competitor.

00:07:33.920 I can't believe they, I had a friend of mine recently get

00:07:37.360 super pissed off because this other company

00:07:39.560 copied all their stuff.

00:07:40.700 And look, at the end of the day, I'm not for plagiarism.

00:07:43.460 I'm not for people attacking your business

00:07:46.760 or copying things that are intellectual property.

00:07:50.600 But what I will say is the energy that he brought

00:07:54.140 to that situation, this anger, this frustration,

00:07:57.320 this we've gotta take out,

00:07:58.820 it doesn't bring a level of abundance.

00:08:01.480 It's dirty, it feels icky.

00:08:03.760 If you're hiring people, you're gonna attract people

00:08:06.080 that share those same values.

00:08:07.440 What I think instead is, look,

00:08:10.160 competitors are gonna show up

00:08:11.860 and the only thing I can do,

00:08:13.380 because I can't control that,

00:08:14.460 I can only control the way I think about that,

00:08:16.620 the beliefs I have around it

00:08:17.720 and the mindset I approach to my team.

00:08:19.660 When my team asks me like,

00:08:20.560 hey, what are we gonna do about these guys?

00:08:22.260 And I can say to them,

00:08:23.300 we're gonna go back to the customer,

00:08:24.640 we're gonna focus on the people that love us

00:08:26.040 and we're gonna build the best product in the world.

00:08:27.800 Because those are the things that we can control.

00:08:30.140 Look, I don't want entrepreneurs to fail.

00:08:32.040 I don't care if they compete against me.

00:08:33.580 they can go out there and create the best version of

00:08:36.320 whatever they think is gonna exist.

00:08:37.660 I'm gonna do me, I'm gonna focus on the goodness and I'm

00:08:40.360 gonna believe in abundance because that's just a better

00:08:43.080 way to show up.

00:08:44.200 So five things you can do to improve your mindset when

00:08:46.920 dealing with competition.

00:08:47.920 Number one, work backwards from the customer.

00:08:50.360 Two, learn, don't distract yourself.

00:08:53.840 Three, you do you, be unique, it's what you are.

00:08:58.580 Four, life supports those who support life.

00:09:01.800 And five, you attract what you put out into the world.

00:09:05.480 So as I mentioned at the beginning of this video,

00:09:06.940 I wanna share a training that I put together

00:09:09.540 for my Idea2Exit members.

00:09:12.180 It was at a seminar, it's called Future Living.

00:09:14.380 And it's really how I think about speaking,

00:09:17.980 managing, showing up in the world

00:09:21.060 in a way that's almost like you're living

00:09:23.380 the present moment today.

00:09:26.220 I think it'll change the way that you approach hiring,

00:09:30.600 the way you approach sales in your business,

00:09:33.060 how you think about product roadmap,

00:09:35.000 and just how you literally show up and communicate

00:09:38.440 with anybody that interacts with you.

00:09:41.040 Once you understand this, you'll see this pattern

00:09:44.680 in many of the people that influence and inspire you

00:09:47.660 to play a bigger game because it's kind of how

00:09:50.520 great leaders communicate as it is.

00:09:52.460 So if you click the link below,

00:09:53.920 you can get access to that training as a gift from me.

00:09:56.760 And if you like this video, I wanna encourage you

00:09:58.360 hit the like button, share it with a friend that you care

00:10:01.500 about that you think it really could serve and leave a comment

00:10:04.860 and let me know what mindset or what belief did you used to

00:10:08.360 have or that you have now about dealing with competition.

00:10:11.440 I'd love to hear from you.

00:10:12.680 As per usual, I want to challenge you to live a bigger

00:10:14.540 life and a bigger business and I'll see you next Monday.

Dan Martell - September 24, 2018

How To Deal With Business Competition As a Startup

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