December 24, 2024 • 33 mins
Kyle Goodknight introduces Roy Osing, who shares his journey and philosophy on differentiation, which played a crucial role in building a billion-dollar company. Roy provides strategic advice for startups, emphasizing differentiation, targeting, and focus, and discusses the importance of strategic planning for business success. The conversation delves into overcoming common entrepreneurial challenges, favoring practical strategies over academic theories, and coping with entrepreneurial anxiety. Roy shares insights on setting effective goals and the concept of uniqueness in one's field. The episode wraps up with information on connecting with Roy and exploring his resources, followed by a call to action.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
If you don't know what your differentiationstrategy is, how can you do anything?
I mean, for god's sakes, what are you doingevery day if you don't know how you're gonna be
different?
Hello everybody, and welcome back to theIgnition Path Podcast.
I'm your host, Kyle Goodnight.
Before we get to our guest today, I just wannamake sure that if you're listening to this
(00:23):
podcast and you hear something that resonateswith you, please share this with someone that
you know.
We here on Ignition Path Podcast, we talk aboutthe the path that entrepreneurs take or have
taken in their life to get to where they are,talk about what they do, what they're bringing
to the world now, and how they're changingthings.
And don't forget to like, subscribe, and share,and we'll get to our guest.
Right now, I have mister Roy Ossing on with me.
(00:46):
Roy, how are you doing, sir?
Exceedingly well, Kyle.
Thanks for having me on.
No problem.
It was my pleasure.
No.
I I have a pre call with all of my guests, andI'll tell you what.
I mean, one of Roy's was one of my verymemorable pre calls.
We I think we talked for almost an hour and ahalf.
Yeah.
Yes.
We
did.
It was I was almost like, darn it.
I should've hit record on that one.
Like, this was so authentic.
(01:06):
So That's right.
Oh, well, we'll see if we can replicate it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And if not, I'm sure you and I are the type ofpeople that we can make a whole new fun
situation.
So so go ahead and tell everybody, you know,who you are, what you do, what you you know, a
little bit about your background or that yourpath through the entrepreneurship, and, we'll
go from there.
Sure.
I think, you know, just to kinda cap and gownit, I was fortunate enough back in the day to,
(01:28):
to be asked to, to create an organizationaround the opportunities that the Internet in a
telecom world were presenting.
And, I was basically said, basically told to goahead and maximize the potential, that we could
get out of that opportunity.
And so we basically took an early start datestarted a stage data company, and we built it
(01:53):
into a $1,000,000,000 a year in annual revenueover time.
And so that journey was an amazing, journey forme personally, but it was also an amazing
journey for the the team of people that we hadthat were dedicated to customers, dedicated to
growth, etcetera.
So I've been working the whole notion ofgrowth, business growth, entrepreneurism, what
(02:17):
it takes to do that, etcetera.
We actually were challenged because we were ina relatively large telco at a time when it was
still a monopoly, and we had to change theculture.
We had to change the focus.
We had to change virtually everything towardsthis highly competitive, opportunistic world
that we were going into.
(02:39):
And so we learned a lot.
We made a lot of mistakes.
And, and yeah, we landed on this thing, and Iget goosebumps just thinking of what we were
able to achieve because we didn't start outthinking we're gonna get a 1,000,000,000 We
knew the opportunity was huge, but we didn'tknow how huge.
And so, what I do now is talk about what it isthat we did to actually achieve that that
(03:00):
really remarkable feat.
And I'm finding that interestingly enough,because this was a few years ago that we did
this, like I left my quote real job, in 'two.
People think there's
What was that real job?
While I was at the president of this companythat that we built.
We got to that level, and then I I Gotcha.
Yeah.
Okay.
So corporate corporate CEO
(03:21):
It it was in a in a corporate.
It was kinda like one of these incubated,opportunities sitting within a corporate
environment, a telco environment, which made itexceedingly hard, and so walked away.
But what I'm discovering is the things thatwe're gonna talk about today, people think are
brand new, which kinda tells me the the extentto which, you know, the sort of things that we
(03:42):
did are actually, competing with traditionalacademia, right, and that sort of thing that
that quite frankly is in in the face ofbusiness people these days.
And I have I have some issues with that becauseI think we're misleading people to a degree.
So I'm a disruptor.
I'm a contrarian.
My theme is be different or be dead.
Because if you're not different that.
(04:03):
So in a way that makes sense for people, you'regonna have a rough existence.
And we actually put all that stuff to use as wemarch to a billion.
So that's that's who Roy is.
That's awesome.
Well, be different or be dead is definitelysomething that when you look up Roy's name,
somewhat like myself, you can find him prettyeasily on Google, but we'll give all the
information about Roy at by the end of the showand in all the show notes, of course.
(04:25):
But one of the main things is that you Ibelieve you wrote a book.
You're an author.
You're a coach.
You're a you're a speaker.
So be bit different or be dead was an actualbook that you wrote.
Correct?
Yeah.
I've actually written a a series under thatthat title, be different or be dead.
So I've written 7 books.
The first one I wrote in 2,009, and I wrotesome ebooks around the content.
(04:45):
And then my latest one a year and a half agowas called Be Different or Be Dead, the
audacious, unheard of ways I took a startup toa1000000000 in sales.
And so the whole notion of differentiation issomething that has been part of me since I
think I was born, quite frankly, and continuesto be the essence of my work because I work
with a lot of small businesses and mediumbusinesses, etcetera, to how actually help them
(05:10):
in their challenge to be to be different anddifferentiate themselves from from their
competition in a way that's meaningful tocustomers.
So that's that's it, and we have all sorts offun doing it.
Yeah.
You know, and you mentioned something therewhen it came to, when it came to having people
that are starting their path, and and a lot ofpeople that listen to this podcast are maybe
(05:32):
newer to the world of their own business, theirown entrepreneurship.
What are some advice that you can give that youcan you know, the startup thing is what sparked
that thought process in my in my head.
All of us people that are I'm a I'm essentiallya startup podcaster.
I mean, I've been podcasting for 5 years, buthelping other people.
My own podcast was a startup in about April.
So, you know, I'm not a full year into my soI'm essentially a startup podcast producer, you
(05:56):
know, coach slash, host.
So when it comes to giving advice about all ofus that are in that startup phase, what is you
what do you consider the startup phase?
And give some advice that you learned throughthat startup phase that that you could, could
be some some nuggets that you could and andsome takeaways that you can give to people on
this episode.
Great great question.
(06:16):
Like, I I think there's 3 things that thatreally strike me in terms of of answering that,
and and in in this order of priority.
And the first piece, we already sort of alludedto it.
The first piece would be differentiate what itis you're doing, and the product and service
that you've got.
I find there's too many startup CEOs who havegot this amazing, they think is amazing idea,
(06:38):
and they've got all this testosterone and otherhormones driving them to do this.
And when I ask them the question, how is youridea any different than the other ideas out
there?
They stumble.
And I would always say to them, look at youneed to do your work.
If you're not different, you're going to be oneof the statistics of new businesses that die in
(07:00):
the 1st 36 months.
Okay?
So if you cannot clearly articulate and andpaint a picture of how you're unique relative
to your competition, you're done.
So that that's a huge piece.
Don't think about anything else.
I don't want you to think about financing.
I don't want you to think about stop becauseall you're gonna do is burn money.
So that would be the first thing.
(07:21):
Let's assume that you've done that.
The second piece is is equally as important,and it's really all about what I would call
target selection.
It's all about choosing, the people and thecustomer groups that you wanna serve.
And this is a huge piece because it itbasically is work that says, who are the people
(07:42):
out there, right, that have the natural demandpotential to actually buy your solutions and
and and feed your growth imperatives.
Okay?
You're not in the mass market game.
You need to be in the target game.
So find those few customer groups that have thelatent potential to drive your revenue stream
(08:04):
and find out what they crave.
I'm gonna repeat that.
Find out what they crave, not what they need.
Okay.
The problem is if you wanna compete as aespecially as an entrepreneur, in the need
space, you're in for a hard ride because theneed space fundamentally has already been
satisfied.
And so you're gonna find a whole bunch ofcompetition, and and prices will be sensitive.
(08:28):
And so you'll end up having to compete on pricewith a whole bunch of what I call red ocean com
competitors.
So what you wanna do is you wanna you wanna gointo what I call the craving space.
The craving space is like what people desire,what they covet, what they lust for.
Right?
What they emotionally need.
(08:48):
And, of course, what you find is that very fewplayers in that space because it's kinda like a
novel idea.
Right?
The other thing is we all buy on emotion, andso we're not very price sensitive.
And so if you wanna play in the craving space,you're going to find fewer if no competition.
And secondly, the the market will not be asprice sensitive as as it otherwise would be if
(09:12):
you decide to go in the need space.
So the second piece is be really, reallyspecific.
Do the work on your targets and what theycrave.
There's a lot of easy ways to figure that out.
K?
I mean, I used to do focus groups.
I used to do casual meetings with people andhave a conversation, and all of a sudden you
learn who they are and what they do in theirlife.
(09:33):
This isn't about how they consume pain
points.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's not about how they consume Internet.
It's about what's their life about.
So start looking at the person holistically,and it's quite amazing what what you can
discover.
The 3rd piece I would say is focus, focus,focus, focus, focus.
There are too many start up CEOs.
(09:53):
Businesses?
Yeah.
Well, I could give you 6, but we don't havethat much time.
I mean, it's it's a major problem.
Okay?
In other words, entrepreneurs love to first ofall, because because their idea tends to be
technology driven, most of them that I've met.
Alright?
They
chase nowadays with everything.
Yeah.
Of course.
And and that's a natural thing.
And that's one of the reasons I say, no.
No.
No.
You wanna differentiate yourself.
One of the reasons I say no.
(10:15):
No.
No.
You wanna differentiate yourself first on thebasis of of cravings, which has got nothing to
do with technology.
Alright?
And so you need to focus on that and don'tchange things.
I call it yummy.
You wanna stay away from yummy.
You know?
Yummy is something that that people love tochase because it feels good.
I mean, I I once did some work for a a astartup, and and they had this wireless
(10:37):
technology.
And the the guy was so infatuated with theplethora of applications of this technology, he
went broke.
He went broke because he didn't stick to the tohis plan.
He didn't mind the high potential segments.
He didn't say to it.
And then as a result, he went broke.
And so resist the temptation to chase yummy.
So differentiate, target, cravings, and focus.
(11:02):
Focus.
And then yummy, is that per does that, standfor anything?
No.
It's just my way of saying it feels good.
It tastes good.
It satisfies you.
Okay.
So it's kinda like
the same I gotcha.
So I could actually probably kinda turn thatinto a philosophy that I've been taught and one
of my mentors, who says we need to pull awayfrom a transactional thought process and move
(11:25):
into a relationship process.
Engagement.
Yeah.
I mean, it's about engaging with people.
It's not about Yeah.
And by the way, if you trust that that model,you will discover that transactions follow
engagement, not the other way around.
If you force to engage, you piss people off.
So transactions don't generally happen eventhough you just start out trying to transact,
(11:45):
and for sure, the the relationship doesn'tgrow.
Yeah.
And that's that's 100% the reason why Ipodcast.
I've switched my thought process.
I I often talk about flipping podcasts on itshead.
I podcast to build relationships.
I'm building a relationship with you.
I've we our our opening call, our strategy callwas was amazing.
I cannot wait to have you as a collaborator,you know, because you have a real you have some
(12:10):
things that are already in process that so manypeople that I meet are striving for that I
could point to and and collaborate them withyou and you with me and and you with them.
So, you know, that's that's why we podcast.
I I can tell you story after story about someamazing things, including monetizing my podcast
in the 1st 30 days that happened not fromdownloads and listeners, but from interaction
(12:32):
with my guest.
And I don't do many model I don't think I'vedone one monologue podcast.
Maybe my introduction on my very first podcastto introduce what the podcast is about,
everything else has been, an interview stylebecause that's where I get my power from.
I get my energy from meeting people.
I'm an extra extrovert, and I get that energyfrom meeting people and soaking up their
(12:53):
knowledge.
I learned so much on podcast.
I've learned stuff from you already, and thenwe've only spoke twice, you know, and it's like
it's like, you know and and it's just I lovedoing it.
So one thing I did wanna slide back on what yousaid, and it kind of it kinda sprinkles into
both of my podcast and just the entrepreneurialworld and how people can fail at
entrepreneurship in that startup phase, is yousaid something that really kinda made the hair
(13:17):
in my my tingle hairs tingle in the back of myneck, and it was it's a hard ride.
I have story after story about times that Ihave done entrepreneurial things, trying to
start up different types of businesses fromMLMs all the way to my my first responder
mental health course that I created.
That was a real blow to the gut when no onewanted to come to my podcast or not podcast,
(13:39):
but my webinars to learn what my system is.
So I had to I had to really realize that thatwas a lot of hard work.
So, with that being said, the hard work partdoes come with many different things,
procrastination, anxiety.
It comes as an entrepreneur.
It comes with people pleasing, and that isactually someone who I wanna speak of right
now, and we'll do a sponsor plug right now, andthen we'll come back and we'll speak more about
(14:03):
it.
But, wanna hear from my sponsor, it talks onthis, and then we can dive in a little bit of
that that section right after this.
So word from our sponsor and we'll be rightback.
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So what am I talking about?
The funky 5.
What's the funky 5 you ask?
It's those oh so familiar struggles.
(14:25):
Procrastination, people pleasing,perfectionism, low self confidence, and the one
I call the big a, anxiety.
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I had 3 of these funky 5 weighing me down.
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(14:48):
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(15:09):
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(16:18):
Okay.
Now we're back and, you know, give a call ifanything that was said in that sponsor plug
there, if it resonated with you, if you arefeeling the anxieties, the people pleasing, the
procrastination of entrepreneurship, don'thesitate to give Daniel a call.
Daniel Packard is someone who helped me have awhole new look on life, not only in my first
responder world, with all the stuff that we seethere and how I can focus now and use the tools
(16:42):
that he taught me, but also I utilize hissystem within my entrepreneurship.
So let's get back to that a little bit.
We just talked about how anxiety andprocrastination and people pleasing and, self
sabotage can destroy you with that with thatwith that, with my sponsor.
Talk a little bit about that, what you talk topeople if they're if you can see that they're
(17:02):
having some some struggles when it comes to oneof those areas.
Yeah.
So I'm not a tactical guy.
Right?
Gotcha.
I I'm a strategic guy, and so I don't I don'tdeal at the tactical level unless I clearly
understand what people are trying to achieve.
What does their journey look like?
And I've had to create we talked about this.
I had to create my own strategic game planningprocess, okay, which literally we do in in 48
(17:27):
hours.
It sets out a just about right strategy for abusiness and then spends most of its time, you
know, detailing out how you're gonna executeit.
What I find is is most people wallow in thetactics.
They love to chase technology.
They wanna feed they wanna adapt AI.
They wanna do social media and all that kind ofstuff with other context, with other framework.
(17:51):
And I keep saying to them, look at one of thereasons that you're anxious is you don't know
what the hell you're doing.
Okay?
So let's get that straight.
Let's get your head on straight.
Take a step back.
Create context.
Strategic context, which will drive youractivities.
And it reminds me of a of a of a client and nowa close friend that came to me about a year ago
(18:14):
and said, Roy, you gotta help me.
He says, I don't know what I'm doing.
I just don't know what I'm doing.
And so we talked and I said, well, I know whyyou don't know what you're doing and that's
because you don't know what you're doing.
Now what I mean by that
You don't know what you don't know.
Yeah.
What I what I mean by that is Yeah.
You don't have a framework.
Look.
We all need structure.
(18:35):
Yeah.
We all need structure.
This isn't a free flowing thing.
It is after you've done the work figuring outwho you wanna be when you grow up.
Okay?
So I would say to people on on this call, goback, get the work done.
You need framework.
You need context.
There's a lot of tools that that I had tocreate.
(18:57):
Like when I did this, it wasn't because it wasdriven by anxiety.
It was driven because I was handed the growthmachine and I had to make sure that we could
grow this puppy.
Otherwise, I wasn't doing my job.
Well, the only way I could do that was to havea meaningful framework of strategy that was
built to execute.
And once I was able to do that, everybody knewtheir job.
(19:20):
Now they may have been anxious around that, butyou couldn't tell me that you're anxious
because you didn't know what you were doing.
You knew exactly what you're doing and so thatleads to other issues and so forth.
But I find that the work, the work you have todo your work, and most people don't wanna do
their work.
I'm sorry.
Right.
They just don't.
It's too easy to grapple and wallow in tactics.
(19:40):
Well and part of that is the the with thetechnologies that you speak of, you know, to
DTW is what I call it, do the work.
It's been I've actually had a sticky note on myI don't have anymore.
I just moved to a new studio.
But that was DTW was something that I have Ihave planted my teeth in.
Like, you've got to do the work.
(20:01):
You know, I'm a paramedic.
If I go on a difficulty breathing and I deliverthem to the hospital and they're no better off
than when I first saw them, I didn't do thework.
I've gotta do the work.
Right?
I've gotta put my protocol in in in place andhelp this person.
So it's no different in your own business.
You've gotta do the work.
And another one that I use that's kinda catchy,and I know that it's it's it's not my own.
(20:22):
I don't know where I heard it from.
I'm sure I heard it from somebody in the world,but it's the plan your work and work your plan.
But you've got your framework that you speak ofis just that.
You've your the framework is talking about planyour work, and then you work your plan.
Yeah.
And and it not to be mistaken by, working hardin in in doing the things that you're doing.
(20:43):
I'm not talking about that.
That's efficiency, and that's intensity.
Right?
What I'm talking about is taking a step out ofthat world and then and framing your journey,
then do that.
Okay?
It's like one leads to another.
Like, for example, it's no different.
I mean, if you don't know what yourdifferentiation strategy is, how can you do
anything?
(21:04):
I mean, for god's sakes, what are you doingevery day if you don't know how you're gonna be
different?
Right?
You will end up I guarantee you will end updoing, okay, things that are cons consistent
with the narrative of the day.
Okay?
You'll end up chasing stuff like we talkedabout earlier, as opposed to pursuing the
things that make sense for you and and yourpersonal objectives.
(21:27):
And that's the work I'm talking about.
I'm often asked why don't people sort ofgravitate to that easily, and I can tell you
why.
Because the education system, right, doesn'tteach it.
The education system, you know, puts all thisstuff on our head that says, okay.
I got an MBA.
So when I'm gonna start this business, I'mentitled to 7 figures.
(21:49):
Okay.
So I just gotta screw around and I'll figure itout.
Well, no.
No.
No.
No.
No.
That's not what happens.
That's not the way the real world happens.
Right?
And so people come to the entrepreneurialtable, okay, with a menu of things that they
have been taught will make them successful.
Well, I got news for you, dude.
It may they may have taught you to how to thinkand solve problems, and that's important, but
(22:12):
they will never guarantee you success becausethere is another layer of practicality and
stuff that you learn in the coal coal on thecoal face with customers and competitors that
they can't teach you.
Why can't they teach you that?
Because they never never run a $1,000,000,000 ayear business.
That's why they're professors in academia, andI'm not denigrating them.
(22:34):
They have their role, but it is not providingguidance to an entrepreneur who's who's having
this conversation because they will promulgatetheories, concepts, ideologies,
formularization, none of which, okay, areparticularly helpful when you have to execute
in a world that's messy, chaotic,unpredictable.
(22:55):
I mean, it just doesn't work because the realworld you'd have it isn't all things remaining
equal.
You know, we don't hold a number of variablesconstant and solve for y for God's sake, and
yet that's what happens.
And so when people come and they start gettinganxious, I think one of the reasons that
they're anxious is nothing they've been taughtis working, dude.
(23:18):
And the reason for that, it's not workingbecause it's not applicable.
And so they need to start listening to guyslike us who have been there, done that, and we
need to do a better job.
Quite frankly, one of my biggest failings isI'm not happy with the amount of adoption I'm
seeing out there to breaking away, to beingcontrarian, to being disruptive, to being the
(23:40):
only one, you know, to using the audacious kindof things that that work for us because they're
so simple.
And people don't think the simple things canactually work because they've been taught that
complexity is key.
Exactly.
Right?
Well yeah.
Exactly.
So real quick when it comes to how people findyou, because I think it's a great place for you
to start talking about what you do for peopleand how they find you and and what you have
(24:04):
available, because, you know, I'm alreadymotivated.
And I know the first time that we spoke, youhave some systems in place that are very
interesting and and I'm gonna be a part of, andand I can't wait to be a part of that.
I did wanna have another conversation with youat another time
Mhmm.
About some specifics about that.
But, but, you know, when it comes to how theyfind you and what you have that they can dive
(24:24):
in to find out where, you know, what other typeof services you provide and and the groups and
the and the the the, networking that you have,that's already built, which I've I've been
there.
I've been to the site.
I've been and I looked at all the people thatare in part of of of one of the things that
Roy, talks about and uses as one of his tools.
(24:45):
And, so speak on that a little bit.
Okay.
So I mean, my home is be different or bedead.com, and I've I've had this website for a
number of years.
This stuff is not new for me.
It's stuff that, I've been working with for 40years, quite frankly, and work with a lot of
clients to to to to help them.
But you can visit me at, be different or bedead.com.
(25:07):
I've tried to put as many resources on mywebsite as possible.
And so, like, I I write blogs every week.
Every Monday, there's a new blog.
Come and subscribe to my blog.
If if the content is appealing, you'll getyou'll get content every every week.
And I've been doing this since 09, Kyle.
So there's a lot of content out there on thingslike chasing Yummy, you know, strategic game
(25:31):
planning, hiring for goosebumps, killing dumbrules, cutting the crap, increasing the
viscosity of the machine, all these kind ofnotions that other people don't talk about.
And so you can find that.
Plus, I've got a quiz on my website, right,which is kinda fun.
If you wanna find out where you are on on thekinda, like, scale of be different or be dead
(25:51):
in categories like leadership, strategicplanning, customer service, careers.
I write a lot about careers because I use thesame content, be different or be dead, in terms
of career development.
Kinda makes sense.
Right?
Absolutely.
Come visit me there.
And, you know, there's there's sometestimonials in there that that you might find
interesting as well.
But I also have a, I also have an email.
(26:14):
That's roy.osing@gmail.com.
And I'm really happy to have a conversationwith anybody.
Okay, specifically.
And I do get it's so gratifying.
I have to tell you, I do have people sending mean email with their draft only statement, which
is my way of expressing competitive advantage.
We are the only ones who, not we are the best,we are better.
We're number 1.
(26:35):
That's Claptrap.
You'll read a lot about Claptrap on my websiteas well.
So I created the only statement.
I have people sending them to me and say, Hey,Roy, here's my draft only statement.
What do you think?
And so we have an opportunity to engage.
So use the website, engage with me.
I'd love to help out.
And and look at at the end of the day, all Ireally wanna do here, Kyle, is change the
(26:56):
conversation.
Change the conversation out there away from,you know, all the stuff driven by academia, to
be to be perfectly frank, and move that tostuff being driven by practicality.
Like, I have an MBA, but it's not the MBA youthink.
It's a master's in business achievement.
It's not a master's in business administration.
(27:18):
So I want more achievers.
Right?
That's what this world is about, performance.
It's not about cognition.
It's about translating cognition into stuffthat lights fires in people and gets stuff
done.
And can you imagine?
Like the like the ignition path right there inthe fire.
Exactly.
That's why we're having
this conversation.
(27:38):
Maybe.
No.
I keep thinking.
I love it when people say when they referencethe the the subject of my podcast while in the
conversation when I have my other podcast,which, shameless plug, I'll talk about that
too.
It's called Elevate, and it's for firstresponders and their family members and even
health care professionals that that, may bestruggling with mental health.
There's a lot of resources on there, and we wetalk about a lot of things from, you know, PTSD
(28:03):
to different alternative versions of mentalhealth therapy and mental health, you know,
help.
But, you know, often often in a conversation,someone will say the word, you know, we just
wanna elevate our first responders, and I'mlike, yes.
And I didn't even prompt them.
Boom.
You wanna go boom?
Yeah.
So one thing well, your episode is gonna air.
(28:25):
I believe it's I think it's I think it's nextweek.
I think it's Christmas Eve is when your episodeairs.
I think I may I may have one in front of you.
It's either it's Christmas Eve.
It's within the next 2 weeks.
Either way, it's before the 1st of the year.
Awesome.
At the end of the year, we always have this inthe in in the entrepreneurial world.
I mean, I was on a webinar yes just yesterdaythat talked about goal setting for 2025.
(28:48):
So a lot of people are in that mode of windingdown 1 year and restarting their new year.
What is some some just real quick advice thatyou'd give someone that, that that you can talk
about?
You know, maybe 1 or 2 things that you can doin that in this interim period between the you
know, beef before the holidays, just after theholidays, and then moving into the new year
(29:10):
that that can really help their entrepreneurialpath.
It's I'm I'm smiling because it's funny.
I just finished writing a blog post about the2025 resolution.
It's really simple.
Okay.
What what what you need to think through as anentrepreneur is you need to think through how
you can be the only one that does what you do.
And so you if you have nothing else to do in2025, do that.
(29:35):
Work on that because that's the essence ofdifferentiation.
It's the essence of being different or beingdead.
It's the essence of growth.
It's the essence of customer, what I will say,dazzlement.
Okay?
It's it's all about how you can positionyourself as the only one that does what you do
(29:56):
around something other people care about.
Okay?
And the point I wanna make, Kyle, this is notabout you.
It's about you being unique in terms of servingothers.
So it's exactly the antithesis of narcissism.
You know, I've had too many people say, well,hey, Roy.
Look at the color of my hair.
I'm different.
I go, woah.
That's not exactly what I'm talking about.
I don't care about the color of your hair.
(30:17):
I don't care about your pronouns.
I don't care about your sexual preference.
What I care about is what you are doing uniquethat serves other people.
And so as you think about 2025, everybody outthere, I want you to think through what we've
talked about today and have it manifest itselfin you doing some work around creating what
(30:37):
you're unique at in a way that serves others,what you're the only at.
Forget about better, forget about best, forgetabout leading, forget about number oneing that
has all been promulgated by academics of ourworld.
Do what Roy's asking you to do.
Try and be the only one that does what you dobecause that is the ultimate expression of
(30:59):
differentiation.
That's what I'd like you to do next year, andthink about it until you hit January 1st.
Do the work.
Let's have a conversation.
That's
awesome.
DWRD.
Do what Roy does.
Well, Roy, thank you so much for coming on theIgnition Path podcast.
You know, I think that this has been a verygood episode with a lot of great, information.
(31:23):
You've you've you've given so much value to thelisteners that tune in.
I can't wait for this one to go live because ifsomeone if someone really sinks their teeth
into this episode, they're really gonna get alot of value and get a lot of get a lot of
points that that were were so graciously sharedwith by you.
So, thanks so much for coming on.
Don't forget to, you know, find Roy on, bedifferent or be dead website.
(31:45):
I'll also put I don't know.
I'm not sure when your blog goes live.
If it's live be it'll probably be live beforethis airs.
I'll put a link to the direct log.
It's a or or a blog because that'll take itdirectly to it.
So I'm I'll put make sure my listeners can findthat blog easily because that's some great
information for this time frame that we're alldealing with.
And, you know, I was in like I said, I was in aworkshop yesterday for goals, and it was really
(32:07):
good.
I've I know I've I've worked on how to setgoals in my past, and it was it was a great
refresher.
And it was just like, oh, wow.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's that's I I need to remember to do that.
You you lose focus sometimes once you'reworking your goals to how to reestablish your
goals.
Absolutely right.
But don't forget to like, subscribe, and share.
If you're listening to this and you know of anentrepreneur that needs to hear this, don't
(32:30):
hesitate to share it.
We're all about growth.
If you have any comments, please, please,please, if you're watching this on YouTube,
leave some comments.
You know, when I I've I view the commentsection on a on a weekly basis on all my
episodes.
I go through and I see who's left comments, andI respond to every single comment.
If it's something that's specifically asked ofRoy, I can always push that to him or let him
(32:50):
know, hey.
There's a comment that that you could respondto.
So comment, comment, comment that helps us growthe YouTube channel, which grows which helps
grow the message, and, of course, Apple,Spotify, and all the all the major podcasting
areas to to find this content if you're notwatching us.
So thanks again, Roy, for coming on.
I really appreciate your time this morning.
And, you guy you have a if I don't I'llprobably speak to you before the holidays
(33:11):
because I'll let you know when this stuff goeslive.
But, nonetheless, have a great holiday.
I know that you're a little bit further norththan me, so you'll actually probably have snow.
We don't.
But We don't yet, but I suspect it may
show up.
You will.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So alright.
Thanks so much, Roy.
Take
care.
You're welcome, Kyle.
Cheers.
Thank you for listening to Ignition Path,fueling the entrepreneurial fire.
If you don't know what your differentiationstrategy is, how can you do anything?
I mean, for god's sakes, what are you doingevery day if you don't know how you're gonna be
different?
Hello everybody, and welcome back to theIgnition Path Podcast.
I'm your host, Kyle Goodnight.
Before we get to our guest today, I just wannamake sure that if you're listening to this
(00:23):
podcast and you hear something that resonateswith you, please share this with someone that
you know.
We here on Ignition Path Podcast, we talk aboutthe the path that entrepreneurs take or have
taken in their life to get to where they are,talk about what they do, what they're bringing
to the world now, and how they're changingthings.
And don't forget to like, subscribe, and share,and we'll get to our guest.
Right now, I have mister Roy Ossing on with me.
(00:46):
Roy, how are you doing, sir?
Exceedingly well, Kyle.
Thanks for having me on.
No problem.
It was my pleasure.
No.
I I have a pre call with all of my guests, andI'll tell you what.
I mean, one of Roy's was one of my verymemorable pre calls.
We I think we talked for almost an hour and ahalf.
Yeah.
Yes.
We
did.
It was I was almost like, darn it.
I should've hit record on that one.
Like, this was so authentic.
(01:06):
So That's right.
Oh, well, we'll see if we can replicate it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And if not, I'm sure you and I are the type ofpeople that we can make a whole new fun
situation.
So so go ahead and tell everybody, you know,who you are, what you do, what you you know, a
little bit about your background or that yourpath through the entrepreneurship, and, we'll
go from there.
Sure.
I think, you know, just to kinda cap and gownit, I was fortunate enough back in the day to,
(01:28):
to be asked to, to create an organizationaround the opportunities that the Internet in a
telecom world were presenting.
And, I was basically said, basically told to goahead and maximize the potential, that we could
get out of that opportunity.
And so we basically took an early start datestarted a stage data company, and we built it
(01:53):
into a $1,000,000,000 a year in annual revenueover time.
And so that journey was an amazing, journey forme personally, but it was also an amazing
journey for the the team of people that we hadthat were dedicated to customers, dedicated to
growth, etcetera.
So I've been working the whole notion ofgrowth, business growth, entrepreneurism, what
(02:17):
it takes to do that, etcetera.
We actually were challenged because we were ina relatively large telco at a time when it was
still a monopoly, and we had to change theculture.
We had to change the focus.
We had to change virtually everything towardsthis highly competitive, opportunistic world
that we were going into.
(02:39):
And so we learned a lot.
We made a lot of mistakes.
And, and yeah, we landed on this thing, and Iget goosebumps just thinking of what we were
able to achieve because we didn't start outthinking we're gonna get a 1,000,000,000 We
knew the opportunity was huge, but we didn'tknow how huge.
And so, what I do now is talk about what it isthat we did to actually achieve that that
(03:00):
really remarkable feat.
And I'm finding that interestingly enough,because this was a few years ago that we did
this, like I left my quote real job, in 'two.
People think there's
What was that real job?
While I was at the president of this companythat that we built.
We got to that level, and then I I Gotcha.
Yeah.
Okay.
So corporate corporate CEO
(03:21):
It it was in a in a corporate.
It was kinda like one of these incubated,opportunities sitting within a corporate
environment, a telco environment, which made itexceedingly hard, and so walked away.
But what I'm discovering is the things thatwe're gonna talk about today, people think are
brand new, which kinda tells me the the extentto which, you know, the sort of things that we
(03:42):
did are actually, competing with traditionalacademia, right, and that sort of thing that
that quite frankly is in in the face ofbusiness people these days.
And I have I have some issues with that becauseI think we're misleading people to a degree.
So I'm a disruptor.
I'm a contrarian.
My theme is be different or be dead.
Because if you're not different that.
(04:03):
So in a way that makes sense for people, you'regonna have a rough existence.
And we actually put all that stuff to use as wemarch to a billion.
So that's that's who Roy is.
That's awesome.
Well, be different or be dead is definitelysomething that when you look up Roy's name,
somewhat like myself, you can find him prettyeasily on Google, but we'll give all the
information about Roy at by the end of the showand in all the show notes, of course.
(04:25):
But one of the main things is that you Ibelieve you wrote a book.
You're an author.
You're a coach.
You're a you're a speaker.
So be bit different or be dead was an actualbook that you wrote.
Correct?
Yeah.
I've actually written a a series under thatthat title, be different or be dead.
So I've written 7 books.
The first one I wrote in 2,009, and I wrotesome ebooks around the content.
(04:45):
And then my latest one a year and a half agowas called Be Different or Be Dead, the
audacious, unheard of ways I took a startup toa1000000000 in sales.
And so the whole notion of differentiation issomething that has been part of me since I
think I was born, quite frankly, and continuesto be the essence of my work because I work
with a lot of small businesses and mediumbusinesses, etcetera, to how actually help them
(05:10):
in their challenge to be to be different anddifferentiate themselves from from their
competition in a way that's meaningful tocustomers.
So that's that's it, and we have all sorts offun doing it.
Yeah.
You know, and you mentioned something therewhen it came to, when it came to having people
that are starting their path, and and a lot ofpeople that listen to this podcast are maybe
(05:32):
newer to the world of their own business, theirown entrepreneurship.
What are some advice that you can give that youcan you know, the startup thing is what sparked
that thought process in my in my head.
All of us people that are I'm a I'm essentiallya startup podcaster.
I mean, I've been podcasting for 5 years, buthelping other people.
My own podcast was a startup in about April.
So, you know, I'm not a full year into my soI'm essentially a startup podcast producer, you
(05:56):
know, coach slash, host.
So when it comes to giving advice about all ofus that are in that startup phase, what is you
what do you consider the startup phase?
And give some advice that you learned throughthat startup phase that that you could, could
be some some nuggets that you could and andsome takeaways that you can give to people on
this episode.
Great great question.
(06:16):
Like, I I think there's 3 things that thatreally strike me in terms of of answering that,
and and in in this order of priority.
And the first piece, we already sort of alludedto it.
The first piece would be differentiate what itis you're doing, and the product and service
that you've got.
I find there's too many startup CEOs who havegot this amazing, they think is amazing idea,
(06:38):
and they've got all this testosterone and otherhormones driving them to do this.
And when I ask them the question, how is youridea any different than the other ideas out
there?
They stumble.
And I would always say to them, look at youneed to do your work.
If you're not different, you're going to be oneof the statistics of new businesses that die in
(07:00):
the 1st 36 months.
Okay?
So if you cannot clearly articulate and andpaint a picture of how you're unique relative
to your competition, you're done.
So that that's a huge piece.
Don't think about anything else.
I don't want you to think about financing.
I don't want you to think about stop becauseall you're gonna do is burn money.
So that would be the first thing.
(07:21):
Let's assume that you've done that.
The second piece is is equally as important,and it's really all about what I would call
target selection.
It's all about choosing, the people and thecustomer groups that you wanna serve.
And this is a huge piece because it itbasically is work that says, who are the people
(07:42):
out there, right, that have the natural demandpotential to actually buy your solutions and
and and feed your growth imperatives.
Okay?
You're not in the mass market game.
You need to be in the target game.
So find those few customer groups that have thelatent potential to drive your revenue stream
(08:04):
and find out what they crave.
I'm gonna repeat that.
Find out what they crave, not what they need.
Okay.
The problem is if you wanna compete as aespecially as an entrepreneur, in the need
space, you're in for a hard ride because theneed space fundamentally has already been
satisfied.
And so you're gonna find a whole bunch ofcompetition, and and prices will be sensitive.
(08:28):
And so you'll end up having to compete on pricewith a whole bunch of what I call red ocean com
competitors.
So what you wanna do is you wanna you wanna gointo what I call the craving space.
The craving space is like what people desire,what they covet, what they lust for.
Right?
What they emotionally need.
(08:48):
And, of course, what you find is that very fewplayers in that space because it's kinda like a
novel idea.
Right?
The other thing is we all buy on emotion, andso we're not very price sensitive.
And so if you wanna play in the craving space,you're going to find fewer if no competition.
And secondly, the the market will not be asprice sensitive as as it otherwise would be if
(09:12):
you decide to go in the need space.
So the second piece is be really, reallyspecific.
Do the work on your targets and what theycrave.
There's a lot of easy ways to figure that out.
K?
I mean, I used to do focus groups.
I used to do casual meetings with people andhave a conversation, and all of a sudden you
learn who they are and what they do in theirlife.
(09:33):
This isn't about how they consume pain
points.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's not about how they consume Internet.
It's about what's their life about.
So start looking at the person holistically,and it's quite amazing what what you can
discover.
The 3rd piece I would say is focus, focus,focus, focus, focus.
There are too many start up CEOs.
(09:53):
Businesses?
Yeah.
Well, I could give you 6, but we don't havethat much time.
I mean, it's it's a major problem.
Okay?
In other words, entrepreneurs love to first ofall, because because their idea tends to be
technology driven, most of them that I've met.
Alright?
They
chase nowadays with everything.
Yeah.
Of course.
And and that's a natural thing.
And that's one of the reasons I say, no.
No.
No.
You wanna differentiate yourself.
One of the reasons I say no.
(10:15):
No.
No.
You wanna differentiate yourself first on thebasis of of cravings, which has got nothing to
do with technology.
Alright?
And so you need to focus on that and don'tchange things.
I call it yummy.
You wanna stay away from yummy.
You know?
Yummy is something that that people love tochase because it feels good.
I mean, I I once did some work for a a astartup, and and they had this wireless
(10:37):
technology.
And the the guy was so infatuated with theplethora of applications of this technology, he
went broke.
He went broke because he didn't stick to the tohis plan.
He didn't mind the high potential segments.
He didn't say to it.
And then as a result, he went broke.
And so resist the temptation to chase yummy.
So differentiate, target, cravings, and focus.
(11:02):
Focus.
And then yummy, is that per does that, standfor anything?
No.
It's just my way of saying it feels good.
It tastes good.
It satisfies you.
Okay.
So it's kinda like
the same I gotcha.
So I could actually probably kinda turn thatinto a philosophy that I've been taught and one
of my mentors, who says we need to pull awayfrom a transactional thought process and move
(11:25):
into a relationship process.
Engagement.
Yeah.
I mean, it's about engaging with people.
It's not about Yeah.
And by the way, if you trust that that model,you will discover that transactions follow
engagement, not the other way around.
If you force to engage, you piss people off.
So transactions don't generally happen eventhough you just start out trying to transact,
(11:45):
and for sure, the the relationship doesn'tgrow.
Yeah.
And that's that's 100% the reason why Ipodcast.
I've switched my thought process.
I I often talk about flipping podcasts on itshead.
I podcast to build relationships.
I'm building a relationship with you.
I've we our our opening call, our strategy callwas was amazing.
I cannot wait to have you as a collaborator,you know, because you have a real you have some
(12:10):
things that are already in process that so manypeople that I meet are striving for that I
could point to and and collaborate them withyou and you with me and and you with them.
So, you know, that's that's why we podcast.
I I can tell you story after story about someamazing things, including monetizing my podcast
in the 1st 30 days that happened not fromdownloads and listeners, but from interaction
(12:32):
with my guest.
And I don't do many model I don't think I'vedone one monologue podcast.
Maybe my introduction on my very first podcastto introduce what the podcast is about,
everything else has been, an interview stylebecause that's where I get my power from.
I get my energy from meeting people.
I'm an extra extrovert, and I get that energyfrom meeting people and soaking up their
(12:53):
knowledge.
I learned so much on podcast.
I've learned stuff from you already, and thenwe've only spoke twice, you know, and it's like
it's like, you know and and it's just I lovedoing it.
So one thing I did wanna slide back on what yousaid, and it kind of it kinda sprinkles into
both of my podcast and just the entrepreneurialworld and how people can fail at
entrepreneurship in that startup phase, is yousaid something that really kinda made the hair
(13:17):
in my my tingle hairs tingle in the back of myneck, and it was it's a hard ride.
I have story after story about times that Ihave done entrepreneurial things, trying to
start up different types of businesses fromMLMs all the way to my my first responder
mental health course that I created.
That was a real blow to the gut when no onewanted to come to my podcast or not podcast,
(13:39):
but my webinars to learn what my system is.
So I had to I had to really realize that thatwas a lot of hard work.
So, with that being said, the hard work partdoes come with many different things,
procrastination, anxiety.
It comes as an entrepreneur.
It comes with people pleasing, and that isactually someone who I wanna speak of right
now, and we'll do a sponsor plug right now, andthen we'll come back and we'll speak more about
(14:03):
it.
But, wanna hear from my sponsor, it talks onthis, and then we can dive in a little bit of
that that section right after this.
So word from our sponsor and we'll be rightback.
Let me ask you a question.
Would your life be better if whatever you'restruggling with you could finally break free
of?
So what am I talking about?
The funky 5.
What's the funky 5 you ask?
It's those oh so familiar struggles.
(14:25):
Procrastination, people pleasing,perfectionism, low self confidence, and the one
I call the big a, anxiety.
For years I struggled to manage my own version,I call them my funky 3.
I had 3 of these funky 5 weighing me down.
I've tried just about everything to deal withthem.
Then a guest on my podcast, Daniel Packard,shared with me a profound thought that I had
(14:48):
never thought of.
So Daniel, a UC Berkeley engineer, spent 8years working with this team and over 3,000
people to create an approach that doesn't justhelp you manage these issues, it actually frees
you from them by getting right to the root ofwhat's holding you back.
So after meeting with Daniel, I decided to giveit a shot, and within 6 short weeks, gone.
(15:09):
Truly gone.
I was so amazed.
The number one thing I was dealing with wasprocrastination, but miraculously a deeper
rooted struggle with people pleasing, somethingI'd been unknowingly battling for a lifetime,
lifted entirely.
And the anxiety that came with them both, goneas well.
Are you tired of battling any of your funkyfives?
(15:31):
People pleasing, procrastination,perfectionism, low self confidence and the
biggest happy killer of them all, the a wordanxiety.
Imagine how much better life would be if youweren't just managing these things, but free of
them quickly, and yes, permanently.
If you're ready for a real solution, head todanielpacker.com and get his free 90 minute
(15:53):
training.
Daniel himself will walk you through what makeshis approach so different and teach you a
technique you can use immediately to startfeeling the difference.
So if any of the funky 5, or maybe your ownversion of the funky 5 are holding you back,
don't wait.
Visit danielpacker.com.
You can truly get results and start living thelife you want.
(16:18):
Okay.
Now we're back and, you know, give a call ifanything that was said in that sponsor plug
there, if it resonated with you, if you arefeeling the anxieties, the people pleasing, the
procrastination of entrepreneurship, don'thesitate to give Daniel a call.
Daniel Packard is someone who helped me have awhole new look on life, not only in my first
responder world, with all the stuff that we seethere and how I can focus now and use the tools
(16:42):
that he taught me, but also I utilize hissystem within my entrepreneurship.
So let's get back to that a little bit.
We just talked about how anxiety andprocrastination and people pleasing and, self
sabotage can destroy you with that with thatwith that, with my sponsor.
Talk a little bit about that, what you talk topeople if they're if you can see that they're
(17:02):
having some some struggles when it comes to oneof those areas.
Yeah.
So I'm not a tactical guy.
Right?
Gotcha.
I I'm a strategic guy, and so I don't I don'tdeal at the tactical level unless I clearly
understand what people are trying to achieve.
What does their journey look like?
And I've had to create we talked about this.
I had to create my own strategic game planningprocess, okay, which literally we do in in 48
(17:27):
hours.
It sets out a just about right strategy for abusiness and then spends most of its time, you
know, detailing out how you're gonna executeit.
What I find is is most people wallow in thetactics.
They love to chase technology.
They wanna feed they wanna adapt AI.
They wanna do social media and all that kind ofstuff with other context, with other framework.
(17:51):
And I keep saying to them, look at one of thereasons that you're anxious is you don't know
what the hell you're doing.
Okay?
So let's get that straight.
Let's get your head on straight.
Take a step back.
Create context.
Strategic context, which will drive youractivities.
And it reminds me of a of a of a client and nowa close friend that came to me about a year ago
(18:14):
and said, Roy, you gotta help me.
He says, I don't know what I'm doing.
I just don't know what I'm doing.
And so we talked and I said, well, I know whyyou don't know what you're doing and that's
because you don't know what you're doing.
Now what I mean by that
You don't know what you don't know.
Yeah.
What I what I mean by that is Yeah.
You don't have a framework.
Look.
We all need structure.
(18:35):
Yeah.
We all need structure.
This isn't a free flowing thing.
It is after you've done the work figuring outwho you wanna be when you grow up.
Okay?
So I would say to people on on this call, goback, get the work done.
You need framework.
You need context.
There's a lot of tools that that I had tocreate.
(18:57):
Like when I did this, it wasn't because it wasdriven by anxiety.
It was driven because I was handed the growthmachine and I had to make sure that we could
grow this puppy.
Otherwise, I wasn't doing my job.
Well, the only way I could do that was to havea meaningful framework of strategy that was
built to execute.
And once I was able to do that, everybody knewtheir job.
(19:20):
Now they may have been anxious around that, butyou couldn't tell me that you're anxious
because you didn't know what you were doing.
You knew exactly what you're doing and so thatleads to other issues and so forth.
But I find that the work, the work you have todo your work, and most people don't wanna do
their work.
I'm sorry.
Right.
They just don't.
It's too easy to grapple and wallow in tactics.
(19:40):
Well and part of that is the the with thetechnologies that you speak of, you know, to
DTW is what I call it, do the work.
It's been I've actually had a sticky note on myI don't have anymore.
I just moved to a new studio.
But that was DTW was something that I have Ihave planted my teeth in.
Like, you've got to do the work.
(20:01):
You know, I'm a paramedic.
If I go on a difficulty breathing and I deliverthem to the hospital and they're no better off
than when I first saw them, I didn't do thework.
I've gotta do the work.
Right?
I've gotta put my protocol in in in place andhelp this person.
So it's no different in your own business.
You've gotta do the work.
And another one that I use that's kinda catchy,and I know that it's it's it's not my own.
(20:22):
I don't know where I heard it from.
I'm sure I heard it from somebody in the world,but it's the plan your work and work your plan.
But you've got your framework that you speak ofis just that.
You've your the framework is talking about planyour work, and then you work your plan.
Yeah.
And and it not to be mistaken by, working hardin in in doing the things that you're doing.
(20:43):
I'm not talking about that.
That's efficiency, and that's intensity.
Right?
What I'm talking about is taking a step out ofthat world and then and framing your journey,
then do that.
Okay?
It's like one leads to another.
Like, for example, it's no different.
I mean, if you don't know what yourdifferentiation strategy is, how can you do
anything?
(21:04):
I mean, for god's sakes, what are you doingevery day if you don't know how you're gonna be
different?
Right?
You will end up I guarantee you will end updoing, okay, things that are cons consistent
with the narrative of the day.
Okay?
You'll end up chasing stuff like we talkedabout earlier, as opposed to pursuing the
things that make sense for you and and yourpersonal objectives.
(21:27):
And that's the work I'm talking about.
I'm often asked why don't people sort ofgravitate to that easily, and I can tell you
why.
Because the education system, right, doesn'tteach it.
The education system, you know, puts all thisstuff on our head that says, okay.
I got an MBA.
So when I'm gonna start this business, I'mentitled to 7 figures.
(21:49):
Okay.
So I just gotta screw around and I'll figure itout.
Well, no.
No.
No.
No.
No.
That's not what happens.
That's not the way the real world happens.
Right?
And so people come to the entrepreneurialtable, okay, with a menu of things that they
have been taught will make them successful.
Well, I got news for you, dude.
It may they may have taught you to how to thinkand solve problems, and that's important, but
(22:12):
they will never guarantee you success becausethere is another layer of practicality and
stuff that you learn in the coal coal on thecoal face with customers and competitors that
they can't teach you.
Why can't they teach you that?
Because they never never run a $1,000,000,000 ayear business.
That's why they're professors in academia, andI'm not denigrating them.
(22:34):
They have their role, but it is not providingguidance to an entrepreneur who's who's having
this conversation because they will promulgatetheories, concepts, ideologies,
formularization, none of which, okay, areparticularly helpful when you have to execute
in a world that's messy, chaotic,unpredictable.
(22:55):
I mean, it just doesn't work because the realworld you'd have it isn't all things remaining
equal.
You know, we don't hold a number of variablesconstant and solve for y for God's sake, and
yet that's what happens.
And so when people come and they start gettinganxious, I think one of the reasons that
they're anxious is nothing they've been taughtis working, dude.
(23:18):
And the reason for that, it's not workingbecause it's not applicable.
And so they need to start listening to guyslike us who have been there, done that, and we
need to do a better job.
Quite frankly, one of my biggest failings isI'm not happy with the amount of adoption I'm
seeing out there to breaking away, to beingcontrarian, to being disruptive, to being the
(23:40):
only one, you know, to using the audacious kindof things that that work for us because they're
so simple.
And people don't think the simple things canactually work because they've been taught that
complexity is key.
Exactly.
Right?
Well yeah.
Exactly.
So real quick when it comes to how people findyou, because I think it's a great place for you
to start talking about what you do for peopleand how they find you and and what you have
(24:04):
available, because, you know, I'm alreadymotivated.
And I know the first time that we spoke, youhave some systems in place that are very
interesting and and I'm gonna be a part of, andand I can't wait to be a part of that.
I did wanna have another conversation with youat another time
Mhmm.
About some specifics about that.
But, but, you know, when it comes to how theyfind you and what you have that they can dive
(24:24):
in to find out where, you know, what other typeof services you provide and and the groups and
the and the the the, networking that you have,that's already built, which I've I've been
there.
I've been to the site.
I've been and I looked at all the people thatare in part of of of one of the things that
Roy, talks about and uses as one of his tools.
(24:45):
And, so speak on that a little bit.
Okay.
So I mean, my home is be different or bedead.com, and I've I've had this website for a
number of years.
This stuff is not new for me.
It's stuff that, I've been working with for 40years, quite frankly, and work with a lot of
clients to to to to help them.
But you can visit me at, be different or bedead.com.
(25:07):
I've tried to put as many resources on mywebsite as possible.
And so, like, I I write blogs every week.
Every Monday, there's a new blog.
Come and subscribe to my blog.
If if the content is appealing, you'll getyou'll get content every every week.
And I've been doing this since 09, Kyle.
So there's a lot of content out there on thingslike chasing Yummy, you know, strategic game
(25:31):
planning, hiring for goosebumps, killing dumbrules, cutting the crap, increasing the
viscosity of the machine, all these kind ofnotions that other people don't talk about.
And so you can find that.
Plus, I've got a quiz on my website, right,which is kinda fun.
If you wanna find out where you are on on thekinda, like, scale of be different or be dead
(25:51):
in categories like leadership, strategicplanning, customer service, careers.
I write a lot about careers because I use thesame content, be different or be dead, in terms
of career development.
Kinda makes sense.
Right?
Absolutely.
Come visit me there.
And, you know, there's there's sometestimonials in there that that you might find
interesting as well.
But I also have a, I also have an email.
(26:14):
That's roy.osing@gmail.com.
And I'm really happy to have a conversationwith anybody.
Okay, specifically.
And I do get it's so gratifying.
I have to tell you, I do have people sending mean email with their draft only statement, which
is my way of expressing competitive advantage.
We are the only ones who, not we are the best,we are better.
We're number 1.
(26:35):
That's Claptrap.
You'll read a lot about Claptrap on my websiteas well.
So I created the only statement.
I have people sending them to me and say, Hey,Roy, here's my draft only statement.
What do you think?
And so we have an opportunity to engage.
So use the website, engage with me.
I'd love to help out.
And and look at at the end of the day, all Ireally wanna do here, Kyle, is change the
(26:56):
conversation.
Change the conversation out there away from,you know, all the stuff driven by academia, to
be to be perfectly frank, and move that tostuff being driven by practicality.
Like, I have an MBA, but it's not the MBA youthink.
It's a master's in business achievement.
It's not a master's in business administration.
(27:18):
So I want more achievers.
Right?
That's what this world is about, performance.
It's not about cognition.
It's about translating cognition into stuffthat lights fires in people and gets stuff
done.
And can you imagine?
Like the like the ignition path right there inthe fire.
Exactly.
That's why we're having
this conversation.
(27:38):
Maybe.
No.
I keep thinking.
I love it when people say when they referencethe the the subject of my podcast while in the
conversation when I have my other podcast,which, shameless plug, I'll talk about that
too.
It's called Elevate, and it's for firstresponders and their family members and even
health care professionals that that, may bestruggling with mental health.
There's a lot of resources on there, and we wetalk about a lot of things from, you know, PTSD
(28:03):
to different alternative versions of mentalhealth therapy and mental health, you know,
help.
But, you know, often often in a conversation,someone will say the word, you know, we just
wanna elevate our first responders, and I'mlike, yes.
And I didn't even prompt them.
Boom.
You wanna go boom?
Yeah.
So one thing well, your episode is gonna air.
(28:25):
I believe it's I think it's I think it's nextweek.
I think it's Christmas Eve is when your episodeairs.
I think I may I may have one in front of you.
It's either it's Christmas Eve.
It's within the next 2 weeks.
Either way, it's before the 1st of the year.
Awesome.
At the end of the year, we always have this inthe in in the entrepreneurial world.
I mean, I was on a webinar yes just yesterdaythat talked about goal setting for 2025.
(28:48):
So a lot of people are in that mode of windingdown 1 year and restarting their new year.
What is some some just real quick advice thatyou'd give someone that, that that you can talk
about?
You know, maybe 1 or 2 things that you can doin that in this interim period between the you
know, beef before the holidays, just after theholidays, and then moving into the new year
(29:10):
that that can really help their entrepreneurialpath.
It's I'm I'm smiling because it's funny.
I just finished writing a blog post about the2025 resolution.
It's really simple.
Okay.
What what what you need to think through as anentrepreneur is you need to think through how
you can be the only one that does what you do.
And so you if you have nothing else to do in2025, do that.
(29:35):
Work on that because that's the essence ofdifferentiation.
It's the essence of being different or beingdead.
It's the essence of growth.
It's the essence of customer, what I will say,dazzlement.
Okay?
It's it's all about how you can positionyourself as the only one that does what you do
(29:56):
around something other people care about.
Okay?
And the point I wanna make, Kyle, this is notabout you.
It's about you being unique in terms of servingothers.
So it's exactly the antithesis of narcissism.
You know, I've had too many people say, well,hey, Roy.
Look at the color of my hair.
I'm different.
I go, woah.
That's not exactly what I'm talking about.
I don't care about the color of your hair.
(30:17):
I don't care about your pronouns.
I don't care about your sexual preference.
What I care about is what you are doing uniquethat serves other people.
And so as you think about 2025, everybody outthere, I want you to think through what we've
talked about today and have it manifest itselfin you doing some work around creating what
(30:37):
you're unique at in a way that serves others,what you're the only at.
Forget about better, forget about best, forgetabout leading, forget about number oneing that
has all been promulgated by academics of ourworld.
Do what Roy's asking you to do.
Try and be the only one that does what you dobecause that is the ultimate expression of
(30:59):
differentiation.
That's what I'd like you to do next year, andthink about it until you hit January 1st.
Do the work.
Let's have a conversation.
That's
awesome.
DWRD.
Do what Roy does.
Well, Roy, thank you so much for coming on theIgnition Path podcast.
You know, I think that this has been a verygood episode with a lot of great, information.
(31:23):
You've you've you've given so much value to thelisteners that tune in.
I can't wait for this one to go live because ifsomeone if someone really sinks their teeth
into this episode, they're really gonna get alot of value and get a lot of get a lot of
points that that were were so graciously sharedwith by you.
So, thanks so much for coming on.
Don't forget to, you know, find Roy on, bedifferent or be dead website.
(31:45):
I'll also put I don't know.
I'm not sure when your blog goes live.
If it's live be it'll probably be live beforethis airs.
I'll put a link to the direct log.
It's a or or a blog because that'll take itdirectly to it.
So I'm I'll put make sure my listeners can findthat blog easily because that's some great
information for this time frame that we're alldealing with.
And, you know, I was in like I said, I was in aworkshop yesterday for goals, and it was really
(32:07):
good.
I've I know I've I've worked on how to setgoals in my past, and it was it was a great
refresher.
And it was just like, oh, wow.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's that's I I need to remember to do that.
You you lose focus sometimes once you'reworking your goals to how to reestablish your
goals.
Absolutely right.
But don't forget to like, subscribe, and share.
If you're listening to this and you know of anentrepreneur that needs to hear this, don't
(32:30):
hesitate to share it.
We're all about growth.
If you have any comments, please, please,please, if you're watching this on YouTube,
leave some comments.
You know, when I I've I view the commentsection on a on a weekly basis on all my
episodes.
I go through and I see who's left comments, andI respond to every single comment.
If it's something that's specifically asked ofRoy, I can always push that to him or let him
(32:50):
know, hey.
There's a comment that that you could respondto.
So comment, comment, comment that helps us growthe YouTube channel, which grows which helps
grow the message, and, of course, Apple,Spotify, and all the all the major podcasting
areas to to find this content if you're notwatching us.
So thanks again, Roy, for coming on.
I really appreciate your time this morning.
And, you guy you have a if I don't I'llprobably speak to you before the holidays
(33:11):
because I'll let you know when this stuff goeslive.
But, nonetheless, have a great holiday.
I know that you're a little bit further norththan me, so you'll actually probably have snow.
We don't.
But We don't yet, but I suspect it may
show up.
You will.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So alright.
Thanks so much, Roy.
Take
care.
You're welcome, Kyle.
Cheers.
Thank you for listening to Ignition Path,fueling the entrepreneurial fire.
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