Just Do the Opposite
I took my family to the Iowa State basketball game yesterday. It's great to have basketball back! I didn't decide to buy tickets until the night before because, well, I just love impulsive decisions. When it was time to buy, I headed directly to the SeatGeek app. Were there still tickets left at the box office? Maybe. Were there other third-party apps with better prices? Perhaps. But I always buy from SeatGeek. They've attained my unwavering loyalty because they chose to do the opposite of what other companies do. It all comes down to one little toggle switch. "Show prices with fees."
There's nothing worse than purchasing a product or service, only to get crushed with added fees once you get to the checkout screen. Lots of industries do this, but none worse than event tickets (well, Airbnb is the new worst, but we'll save that one for another day). It's a demoralizing endeavor. With SeatGeek, on the other hand, I don't have to worry about that. What I see is what I get. And for that, they are always my #1 go-to. Some people say, "Well, their fees are still high." I don't care, frankly. What's of interest to me is how much, in total, I'm paying for my tickets. Combine that feature with a few other key features (such as dependability, large selection, transfer execution, and seat location mapping), and they become my absolute go-to.
This is a conversation I have with many of my clients. Whatever their respective industry is, I challenge them to "just do the opposite." The natural response is, "This is how it's done." That may be true, but it doesn't mean it's the best way. Doing the opposite is a scary proposition, though! It feels safer and more comfortable just doing what everyone else does. Then, if we fail, we can just chalk it up to bad luck (or some other force outside of our control). On the other hand, if we do the opposite and ultimately fail, we're likely to blame ourselves and point our finger at those specific decisions. These are the scariest of decisions, but also the most impactful.
This is one of the biggest things we got right in our Northern Vessel coffee business. So many of our successes directly result from doing it completely opposite of the normal way. That's also led to a few failures, but it's been an overwhelming success on the whole.
This is also what I attribute much of our podcasting success to. Currently, our Meaning Over Money podcast is ranked in the top 3% of podcasts worldwide (according to ListenNotes). The idea was simple. Cole and I made a list of all the things we hate about normal podcasts, then committed to doing the opposite. It was a beautifully simple plan.
Though I tout these two examples of getting it right, I've whiffed so badly in other areas of my business. If only I had listened to my own advice....