What's Your Hidden Competitive Advantage?

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1:33There's no safe like SimpliSafe. From Entrepreneur Media, this is Problem Solvers, a show in which entrepreneurs do what entrepreneurs do best, solve unexpected problems in their business. We were completely wrong. And I'm just like, it's not selling. It was like we have to start from scratch.

1:59I want to tell you a story about some incredible customer service I experienced, but that doesn't really do it justice. Why don't I say this is a story about the greatest competitive advantage a restaurant could ever have. But you know what? Actually, that's even still too small. This is a story about the greatest competitive advantage that you have. without even realizing it. All right, enough hype. Let's just tell you the story. At the end of April, I went on a family vacation with my wife and our two little boys. They are ages five and eight. And if you know anything about traveling with kids, then you know a family vacation is not exactly a vacation.

2:42Vacation means relaxing, and there is nothing relaxing about traveling with kids. It's more a family trip, family excursion. Look, we had a lot of fun. We saw amazing things. It was darling. Wonderful memories were made. But also, we dealt with a lot of complaining and fighting and crying. Anyway, you get it. All right. About two-thirds of the way through the trip, we are on a long drive in an area of Costa Rica called Arenal. And the kids are restless and hungry and nobody can agree on anything and it's getting very annoying. So we pull over at this restaurant, a little cafe called Café Con Amor, or Coffee with Love.

3:23It's in this little village called Nuevo Arenal, or New Arenal. And it's called Nuevo Arenal because there was originally just Arenal, which was a little village. But in 1978, the Costa Rican government wanted to create a lake there called Lake Arenal. So they migrated everyone up the hill to their new home, Nuevo Arenal. These days, Nuevo Arenal has a beautiful view of the lake. It better, as it swallowed its predecessor. And it's built on what's become a main road for tourists who are coming and going. There's a German bakery for some reason that's been there for decades. You'll find it on all tourist sites.

3:59A lot of American retirees are in the area. And anyway, that is where we found this cafe that we went to, Cafe Con Amor. It looked cute. We needed a break. Again, like I said, Kids were going crazy. So we pulled over. There it was. Anyway, you can picture the place. Imagine a cute coffee shop. And like most things in Costa Rica, there's no perceptible front wall to the building. It's just open to the air. So you have this big deck in the front that overlooks the lake with tables for people to eat at. And then just behind the deck, there's a small counter where a barista would make coffee and serve you desserts from a very sizable counter full of cakes and cookies.

4:34And there's a kitchen somewhere in the back making food. We sit down, we order. The waiter who has taken our order then goes to the counter, starts making our coffees. And then our five-year-old, whose name is Colin, walks over to where the waiter is, where the counter is, where the coffee is being made, and starts watching. Now, this is something that Colin does a lot because Colin is super interested in food and kitchens. He's the kind of kid that makes a big concoction at home, taking out all of our salt and sugar and milk and yogurt and whatever he can grab and dumping it into a bowl. It's a big mess.

5:08So at restaurants, he really wants to see what's going on. And usually at restaurants, he has to watch from afar. Maybe he's in the way. People, they just can't cater to him. Maybe we have to say, Colin, come sit back down. And then he's antsy and he's annoyed and he's annoying. And now we're annoyed and nobody has a good time. And again, if you have little kids and you understand, going out to eat is rarely relaxing. But here, let me play you a little audio from what happened. This is my son, you're going to hear, and the waiter, also the barista, whose name is Gilberto. And picture it. Colin is now behind the counter with Gilberto, and he is showing Colin everything.

5:57And it went on like this, not just for a few minutes, but for the entire meal. We had a wonderful, relaxing meal with great food and a great view, and the entire family was calm because Colin was basically shadowing Gilberto and learning everything about how this cafe operated. I loved this cafe. We immediately gave it a glowing rating on TripAdvisor. I tipped very nicely. I decided to make a whole podcast episode about it, and Café Con Amour became a highlight of our family trip, all because this man working at this cafe was so incredibly nice to my five-year-old. I talked to Gilberto a little afterwards.

6:35He said he used to work at high-end restaurants, but then his friend opened up this cafe and he came to work here. This guy understands customer service. That is clear. But it made me think, this is about more than just customer service. This is about creating a special experience. This is about doing the small personal thing, the thing that matters to people, the thing that makes moments special to them, the thing that's most memorable to them, and how sometimes, no matter what business you're in, your greatest competitive advantage isn't what you think it is. It is not your product. It is not your service.

7:11The food and the drinks at Café Condemort, excellent, but not nearly as memorable. Not nearly as memorable as something else that happened, something more human, something that many others overlook. And you should be asking yourself, what is that thing, that incredible, overlooked, competitive advantage for you? I am going to help you answer that question today. And it's coming up after the break. Entrepreneurs, we all love a problem solver. So did you know that Hertz Rental Car has a free membership program to help small and mid-sized businesses save whenever they hit the road? It's called Hertz Business Rewards.

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9:18All right, we're back. So today I am sharing with you this insight that I gained from not just that time with Hilberto at Cafe Con Amour, but also with just working with so many other people who stand out in really interesting ways. It gave me this insight into what it means, what it takes to really develop a competitive advantage and how we just don't always think about it in the way we should. All right, I'm going to start from this. Let's just assume if you've listened this far, it is because you are trying to stand out in some way, and it is hard. You have the right stuff. I'm sure you're talented, you're smart, you're good at what you do, you make good things, but the right people aren't noticing.

10:07And who is that? Maybe it's a boss or a customer, someone you like. So here is a terrible truth that you must take seriously. You are a high-quality person, but you cannot compete on quality alone. Today, I'm going to show you how to get noticed another way. And although I have already told you the story of Hilberto and Cafe Condemore, I'm going to tell you one other story about the guy who really inspired this insight to begin with, because he was willing to do what none of his other competitors would. Okay. A few years ago, I got locked out of my office. This was back when an entrepreneur had an office and it was in Midtown and I would show up to work every day and walk into the entrepreneur office and then go to my own.

10:51I had a private office with a desk and a couch. It was the lap of luxury. Anyway, I tried to get into this room and I couldn't. Door was locked. Door had never been locked before. I didn't have a key to this room because it had never been locked before. I just didn't know how to get in. I tried to break in. It turns out I'm a very bad burglar. so I couldn't. I needed a locksmith. First time I've ever called one. I didn't have a locksmith to call. So I went on to Yelp. I found a bunch of locksmiths. I asked them for quotes, and four replied very quickly. The first one just wrote this. It was like dashed off.

11:23It said, price estimate,$29. I give you best price. The second one said,$125 to open the door. Again, that was like it. That's the whole email. The third just said, yes, we can help you. Again, not really much information. The fourth came from a guy named Jay Sofer, owner of Lockbusters, which I don't believe exists anymore, but at least not in New York. Anyway, he wrote me this. He wrote me, Hi, Jason. Thank you for the detail. Would it be possible to send me a quick image of the handle, the door handle that is, to make certain that I give you an accurate quote? Here is my direct email address.

12:00And so I did that. And then Jay and I went back and forth a couple of times. where he asked for photos to identify exactly what the problem was. And then after that, he finally gave me an estimate. He said it was going to be$300, a full$271 more than the I give you best price guy. And you know who I hired? I hired Jay. Why? Because he felt most trustworthy. And as I would come to learn, that wasn't by accident. Trust is Jay's entire business model. And even bigger, trust is his competitive advantage. So I'm going to tell you more about Jay in a moment, but first, let's return to what I said at the beginning of all this.

12:42I said, you are a high-quality person, but you cannot compete on quality alone. That is an idea that was inspired by Matt O'Toole, the former president and CEO of Reebok, who I had met a few years prior. He had told me companies can't compete on quality alone. And you know why? Because in our world of top-notch manufacturing, quality is easily achieved. Imagine that you launch a new pair of scissors, he told me. You can't advertise it as the sharpest pair of scissors because it's ridiculous. Every pair of scissors is the sharpest scissors. It's easy to manufacture sharp scissors. That is why you need to compete on something else.

13:17For brands, it's often a combination of story, branding, design, price. But this amplifies to people, too. No matter what you're good at, many other people are good at it, too. I fancy myself a good writer, but am I the best writer, the best podcaster? No. I'm one of many. So it's worth asking, what else sets you apart? If you're stumped, you should start experimenting. Go out of your way to help others. Share your ideas in unique ways. Then look for the moments when someone says, oh, wow, because that is when you've done something that others won't. You will be just shocked by what impresses people.

13:57For example, about a year ago, a company emailed me with a request. They were considering me for a keynote role at their upcoming event. I do a lot of keynoting at company conferences and industry events. But first, they wanted to talk with me and see if I'm the right fit. No problem, I said. We spoke the next day for 30 minutes. And at the end, you know what they told me? They said, most speakers don't take calls like this. They just send it to their agent or assistant. So we're really grateful that you took the time to understand us. And then they hired me. And I learned a valuable lesson right there.

14:31My competition is less hands-on than I am. Accessibility can be a competitive advantage. I was texting about this recently with my friend Michael Easter. He's the best-selling author of a book called The Scarcity Brain. And he and I often swap ideas about the business of speaking. We both do it. And I'm just going to read you a little bit from a text exchange that we had. Who's in the blue bubble? Oh, it's me. So in the blue bubble, I write, I think just being easy and friendly is a competitive advantage. Seems like a lot of speakers aren't. And then Michael replied, I've heard the same thing from some clients.

15:09I've heard a couple of wild stories about demands and behaviors from speakers. Not being an asshole is apparently quite the superpower today. And I replied to him, I said, I actually make it part of my sales pitch now. When I talk to clients, I always tell them, I'm not fancy. I'm easy to work with. It's easy to access me. I'll go with the flow. I'll hang out and talk to people, whatever you need. Okay. That was the text exchange. Now back to me talking to you. Honestly, this is absurd, right? Being nice, easy, not an asshole. To me, these are the basics, but in reality, they are what other people overlook.

15:42And that's exactly what Jay the locksmith figured out too. When he first encountered the locksmith the industry, he looked at how others operated. And he told me, prices and communication are usually vague in an effort to overcomplicate the process. Locksmiths will say whatever it takes to get just to your door, basically. And then they jack the price once they're there. Jay did not want to compete against that. He didn't want to play that game. Then he realized he didn't have to. The idea I had was to position myself as the good guy, he told me. Trust would be his competitive advantage. This meant that he would be nicer than the competition.

16:19He would ask more questions. He would be more personable. And it worked. Jay's business boomed because people recommended him and always left great reviews. I did it too on Yelp. So what's your true advantage? Spend some time with this question. Trust is a great place to start, but maybe it's also your clear and compelling point of view, your friendliness, your generosity, your response time, your reliability, your willingness to entertain a five-year-old by just letting him tag along at work with you while his family gets to sit and enjoy a meal. And I see how it all ties together. To me, the thing that made this restaurant amazing was Gilberto and his willingness to just engage, to just go with it, to just be fun.

17:09I mean, look, I should be really clear. I don't expect restaurants to become babysitters. But I don't think that's what he was doing. I think that's why it worked. I don't think that he saw that he had to take care of the kid. Instead, what I think he saw was a kid who was interested in his work. And it was his instinct to just engage with that. Colin wanted to know about the coffee beans. And so Hilberto just put some coffee beans in his hand and lowered it to Colin's nose so that he could smell it. Colin wanted to understand how things were cleaned. So Hilberto just did it. He had to clean anyway.

17:42He might as well explain it to the kid that this wasn't someone taking care of a child. This was someone who just naturally engages, who just likes people and likes to go where they go. And that is a competitive advantage. It just is. If you think of it that way, ultimately, this is a question of where you find your joy. How do you like to connect with people? How do you like to show up for people? Jay knows the answer. He wrote me, I enjoy helping people and consider it a privilege. I'm sure if I had asked Gilberto, he would have said the same thing. When you think that way, competition doesn't feel like competition at all.

18:22It feels like an opportunity to be you. All right, a couple of quick final notes. Number one, as I was just going back and doing a little editing on this episode, I noticed that there are some bird chirping that you might hear in the background. Actually, I bet that there's a lot of bird chirping in other episodes of Problem Solvers too. I record this at my desk. My desk is on the second floor of my house and there are some birds and outside, there's some trees and birds right outside. And sometimes they get on the show. Hopefully it adds a little ambiance to it. Number two is thank you again to Gilberto for just the amazing experience at Cafe Cone Amour.

18:57And you should go there if you're ever in Costa Rica, just go to Nuevo Arenal. You should go because that area is amazing anyway. Just incredible volcano, hot springs. It's just so much in that area anyway. And then Cafe Cone Amour that you'll find in the area. And then finally, the meat of this episode was actually an essay that I had written for my newsletter, which was called One Thing Better. It's one way each week to be more successful and satisfied at work so you can build a career or company that you love. I write things like this every week. The Hilberto stuff was new, but the competitive advantage thing was something that I'd written a bit ago and just felt like it just connected so well that I wanted to read it to you today.

19:36Anyway, you can get that newsletter by going to one thing better dot email. Again, that is one thing better dot email. All right. Happy travels. And that's our episode. I would love to hear what you think and maybe even about a problem that you solved. You can find me at my website, jasonfeifer.com. J-A-S-O-N-F-E-I-F-E-R.com. Also, I have some more useful stuff for you. I write a newsletter about how to future-proof yourself and become more adaptable and optimistic. I would love for you to sign up. It is at jasonfeifer.bulletin.com. Also, check out my other podcast. It's called Build for Tomorrow.

20:18In each episode, I take on some belief that we have that holds us back from progress and show you why it is not as bad as you think. Problem Solvers is a production of Entrepreneur Media and comes out every Monday morning, so make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss an episode. Thanks to Deepa Shah for production. My name is Jason Pfeiffer. See you next week.