Heejin and I were recently invited to a Bay Area meeting of the Forbes Business Council, and we quickly wondered why we were invited to a Bay Area meeting of the Forbes Business Council. 😊
The reason was that we were the only people there who were not tech company founders worth $100 million (or more).
Having little in common with other attendees, our conversations quickly turned to favorite books. One of the most successful people in the room (a founder of a shared office space firm for tech startups) insisted that we all read two books: The Accidental Super Power and Play Bigger.
Both books were excellent, but Play Bigger was especially intriguing.
The book’s premise is all about becoming a “Category King” and how companies can do that by changing the way customers think about spending their money.
Examples include: Starbucks (spending $4 for fancy coffee instead of 50 cents for regular coffee), Apple (cell phones, music players, tablets), Salesforce (cloud-based application instead of software), and Uber (no más taxis). These companies all dominate their categories and are worth billions b/c they completely re-defined their industries. Elvis Presley is another example, as he completely redefined music and literally dominated his genre.
The major tenet of the book is that you cannot just be better if you want to explode with growth; you need to be markedly different.
Henry Ford took this lesson to heart 100 years ago by redefining transportation. If Ford just wanted to be better per his customers’ requests, he’d have come up with a faster horse. He instead focused on “different,” and came up with affordable cars, and the rest of course is history.
So, if you really want to grow your business – be different; be very different.
WHY BEING DIFFERENT MATTERS
Lastly (I have to throw in the JVM tie-in here 😊) – I personally LOVED the book’s message b/c JVM is truly different from all other lenders b/c we have NO LOAN OFFICERS.
B/c we have no loan officers, we can offer far lower rates and far better service. It is sometimes confusing to agents who first work with us, but once they do – they too learn to love different.
This all came to mind today when we received the below email from one of our agent partners (something that we receive almost daily b/c our “difference” works, I might add 😊).
Unsolicited email that came to the JVM Team on 12/13/18:
“You always provide the best service to my clients and I appreciate you all. Every loan you’ve provided, from my end and the clients’, appears to roll out flawlessly. I know what’s involved and it isn’t easy behind the scenes. Yesterday at the signing, Jennifer at FirstAmerican Title made a point to tell Mark and Catharine how good it was to work with you- how terrific you all are.
You make me look better at what I do. When you’re involved I have confidence, every time, that the transaction will go well. Thank you!”
Jay Voorhees
Founder/Broker | JVM Lending
(855) 855-4491 | DRE# 01524255, NMLS# 335646
