The Art of Standing Out: Barry LaBov on Differentiation and Success

Freddy D: 00:02:02

Hey Superfan superstar Freddie D.

Here in this episode 96 we're joined by Barry Labov, a two time Ernest and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, celebrated author and the founder of Labov Marketing Communications and Training.

Barry is a powerhouse brand strategist who helps companies uncover and amplify what makes them truly unique, empowering both their teams and their customers. His Amazon best selling book the Power of Win Hearts, Minds and Market Share captures his compelling approach to brand and leadership.

Barry is also the co host of Difference Talks, a podcast where he and the Labov team dive deep into conversations with top selling authors, CEOs and performers from the worlds of sports and music.

With clients like Harley Davidson, Copperworks and audie, and nearly 100 podcast appearances under his belt, Barry brings a wealth of energy, experience and insights into every conversation.

Freddy D: 00:03:09

Welcome Barry to the Business Superfans podcast.

Barry LaBov: 00:03:12

Frederick, thank you very much. I'm excited. You and I share a lot of things in common. I think we're going to have a lot of fun.

Freddy D: 00:03:17

We had a great pre recording conversation, so I'm excited about it. Let's jump right into it Barry, and what's the best backstory? I know that you played a little bit of a musician.

And how do you go from musician to creating the agency that you have today?

Barry LaBov: 00:03:32

It was all an accident. I didn't mean to do it for Edric, but what happened was I as a young kid, teenager, started to write songs playing a band with my brother.

Then some really old guys that were like 18, 19 or 20 joined in.

I didn't realize this at the moment, but I was running a small business, I was doing a lot of creative things and I had to inspire everybody in the band to show up on time, perform their best, entertain the audience, get raving fans that wanted us to come back. As I did all of that, I started to realize that what I love most is creativity. Not so much just music, but creativity. That launched my company.

Today, 40 plus years later, I have a company. We're doing work nationally and internationally. I still run the company like it's a rock band. I look for the talent in people.

I look to inspire them to perform. I try to get my clients to realize how much we're bringing to the table. So it's been a natural extension. Although kind of a bizarre journey.

Freddy D: 00:04:41

It's an interesting story. What are some of the songs that you had wrote and put out?

Barry LaBov: 00:04:47

I had songs published by Barry Manilone, Natalie Cole and Billy Joel. I had a song on MTV and VH1 called on a Night like this. All in all, if you add it all up, my song sold well under 1 million copies.

So I didn't make any money on it. To this day, I get royalty checks every few months for five bucks, eight bucks, and maybe that buys you a cup of coffee.

Freddy D: 00:05:15

So tell us a little bit more about Labov Agency and what is it that you guys do?

Barry LaBov: 00:05:20

We focus on one thing and one thing only, and that's differentiation. We identify the uniqueness that a brand has, whether it's a small company, large company, nonprofit, for profit.

We discover it and help the client, name it and promote it. And most important, and Freddie D. Loves this, I guarantee it.

We celebrate it first with the most important audience, the employees, the people behind it. Suppliers could be dealers, whatever. They have to feel that they're doing something exciting, significant and meaningful.

And once that happens, they are your army and they're going out in the world and they want to go wage battle for you. That's what I do.

Freddy D: 00:06:07

So let's go back into right there where we talked about team, because the team is everything and it all begins with the culture of the company.

Barry LaBov: 00:06:14

Right?

Freddy D: 00:06:15

So what is it that you do and share for our listeners so that they can learn from this is the importance of really bringing on the right people and making sure that the team collaborates as a team and acts as a team versus differentiating that one, this department, and I'm that department, and it becomes a non collaborative situation.

Barry LaBov: 00:06:40

I think what's most important is choose the words that describe what you're all about.

So if you have a mission statement, a vision statement, whatever, if it's the same generic stuff that everybody says we're here for, value, integrity, service selection, all that kind of stuff, nobody cares. So determine those few words that are unique to you. So one of the few words for my company is jam. Like a jam session.

We talk to people right off the bat. When we interview them, we go, look, we are so collaborative, it's almost to a fault. I mean, we're crazy collaborative. We work together all the time.

We bounce things off each other every day. And a lot of times people will go, oh, that's great. And I'll go, let me give you an example.

We seldom say, hey, you go talk to the client and you own that client and you're the only person that represents us to the client. We don't do that once in a while. You may talk to the client one on one, but we have.

Could be a writer, could be a video person, could be a social media person, could Be somebody else with you talking to the client and bouncing ideas. And we do it all the time. Now, this may sound interesting to the audience because it sounds like, well, everybody wants that. No, they don't.

I've had people go, now, wait a minute. I want to be the face of Labov. I want to be the face. And I go, I'm so glad you brought that up.

It won't work because we have people that share in the relationships. That's the way we do it with clients. We have clients who know virtually everybody in the company. We are not the company where one person.

We have had people that go, well, I'm not sure I can do that. We go, good. So I think you got to stand for something. For us, it's not just, hey, let's have a nice time. Our core values include jamming.

You come on board, you got to be ready to collaborate, listen to other people's ideas, and that means you have an idea. So somebody may have an idea to improve your idea. We look at that as great. Answering your question in general, I would be that way.

It's really important that we let people know that we are not a one size fits all. We have to be able to present what our company is about and what is the end result for the customer. Are we here just to make money off those people?

If so, you got to know that when you're coming in. We tell our employees when they're coming on board that we are the people behind great brands and great people. It's never about us.

It's not an ego thing for us. We're not the superstars. We're the ones protecting and helping and guiding. That's what I think you have to do.

You got to realize that if you can describe your culture and it's not for everybody, you have a better chance of getting the right person.

Freddy D: 00:09:38

Oh, absolutely. Agree 100%.

the computer industry in the: 1980

When our prospective customers would come in, we would all meet with them so everybody understood work. You know, on Fridays, we would go out for a happy hour as a team and just hang out and have fun.

And I'm still friends 45 years later with some of those people who've gone in different directions, but we're still friends.

And we still talk about some of those great times we had in the company and how we scaled our office because we were part of a Large organization, but totally agreed and we had camaraderie. Right.

Barry LaBov: 00:10:31

And I think what's very important, you mentioned this a little bit earlier, but I want to bounce off this too is we cannot allow silos in our companies. People know when I'm bored, we don't recognize silos. Now this is my culture. I'm not saying it's everybody's, but you can talk to anybody you want.

If you have a question, an idea, a concern, it doesn't matter because it's not one department versus another versus another. At our company, we have a very, very impressive bonus program.

Everybody, every department, everyone, regardless of their age or status, shares equally because our administrative operations person is very valuable. It's not the salesperson makes all the extra money. When we do well, we all share in it. I think it's critical.

And today more than ever, the idea of silos and us versus them just not work. It's not sustainable.

Freddy D: 00:11:31

Not in today's world. No. You've got to have a collaborative scenario.

I like what you said about sharing everything within the organization because I've run some companies and that was really the differentiator. Everybody now has ownership into the success of the company.

And then you've got everybody in the racing rowboat so that even though everybody's got a single or in the eight man rowboat, they're all rowing in synchronization and going in that direction. Because there is a vision, there is a direction, there is a belief. And if you get the win, everybody shares in the win.

Now everybody's much more glued together and has got everybody's back. And that's a real differentiating of companies that really scale rapidly.

And it's a very cost effective approach because you're not going through and keep hiring and rehiring and people leaving and retraining and losing all that money. So it's a different mindset than a lot of companies, but it's a very profitable mindset.

Barry LaBov: 00:12:35

The thing I'll also share, and this is how I convince some CEOs who go, look, you don't need to do this big celebration thing with our people. I mean, come on, they're getting paid money, let's just get going.

And I go, no, no, no, you got to understand, we have to celebrate their performance and what they do to make this work. Because you want high quality in your factory or company, whatever the situation, you want high retention.

If a person feels that what they're doing is not that special, it's no big deal. Number one, why would they Do a good job. And number two, why do they even want to stay? So it's really smart to celebrate now.

It's got to be authentic. You can't say to everybody, hey, it's a participation award. You're all here. Everybody's great.

We have to be able to talk to human beings and intelligently say, here's what we're all about. Here's why each of you are doing what you're doing. And by the way, so and so in operations did this yesterday, and that was so great. That helped us.

And all of a sudden, he or she's going, wow, I'm actually part of what's going on here. I'm not some person way in the back. I'm right there, front and center. So it's smart to do, and it is profitable. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:13:53

One of my quotes in my book is people will crawl through broken glass for appreciation and recognition.

Barry LaBov: 00:14:00

Right?

Freddy D: 00:14:00

And, you know, when I used to run global sales for a software company, years ago, when we hit a certain threshold, I invited everybody into the conference. The software developers, everybody in there. And it was an impromptu meeting. They had no idea what was going on. Even the owner had no idea.

And what I did was I had food set up and some bottles of champagne and said, guess what? We just hit this mark in sales for the quarter. And it's because of you guys, because at the end of the day, it's them that made it happen.

As well as marketing through resellers. They were independent distributors, and I would recognize them as well. But that's so important.

Let's pivot a little bit and share story of how you guys worked with one of your customers and transformed them into superfan that's now promoting you to other businesses.

Barry LaBov: 00:14:51

I'll give an example. There's a company that is a copper producer. They were looked at as a commodity.

And that's one of the things I focus on in my book, which is to fight this commodity monster, because it'll eat you alive. So they came to us. They had a really boring name. Nobody would even understand what they are or who they were. We went through our process.

We went through five steps.

First thing we did with them is we talked to their employees, their leadership, their customers, their suppliers, their community, and said, okay, who are these people? What do they do? And what should they never, ever change? Because that's an important question. What should they not change?

Because a lot of times entrepreneurs will change anything. Sometimes we're doing something really great. Let's not change it. Maybe that's why people come to work here. Maybe that's why people buy from us.

Maybe that's why they are super fans. Let's not change that.

The next step we did with this company was we went into their facility to look for differentiation either in their product, their processes, their procedures, whatever. And we found a number of very interesting things they were doing and providing that were right in front of them, that they were too close to.

They didn't even see. And we said, isn't this unique? And they, well, yeah, I guess. So. What did you call this? What do you name it? Well, we don't call it anything.

Okay, well, we're going to name it and we're going to help promote it. So then we went to the next stage. We did a jam session with them. We came up with ideas. We put together a plan.

And one of the things we did was we said, you need a real name for your company. And the CEO said, I love it. We named them Copperworks. Their slogan is where copper works? And we came up with campaigns and we're ready to launch it.

But then we launched it to the most important people in the world, their employees. Now, Frederick, this was during COVID So this was a virtual launch.

Everybody in the company got a box sent to their house the day before with a note that says, do not open till tomorrow. They opened the box and found all these really wonderful things, Even a craft beer with Copperworks on there. Their new logo, new name.

We celebrated this with all their employees, and there were several people from all over the world that were on there as well. Once we did that, we also identified one of their differentiators.

Their differentiator was they had a highly sustainable copper product they were making. They were charging low money for this low dollar. They made almost no profit on it.

And we said, hold on, this is your best product because it's sustainable. They turned everything around. We named that product. Today, they are the most profitable company in their segment.

Their sales are sky high, and they are the premium product. That's an example.

But that's all from them discovering with us, we help them, but them discovering what made them unique and really, really emphasizing it.

Freddy D: 00:18:11

So you've transformed them into a super fan of what you guys do. But more importantly, you've transformed that whole business completely.

Barry LaBov: 00:18:20

We are in the transformation business. My company's not an agency that just does an ad or a website. We transform.

And that's why I think, for businesses, if you want super fans, you have to be able to talk to your prospects and let them Know, this is who we are, and if that's attractive, great. But if not, there's probably not a good fit. So we're very picky with who we take on.

We'll say, if you're not looking to transform your company and brand by differentiation, we're probably not a good fit. And it may sound funny, but I've had companies go, we don't need differentiation. Okay? We're not a good fit. So that's what we have to do.

As small businesses and large realize we're not for everybody, whether it's employees or customers. One thing I really like with you, Frederick, is that you look at the holistic picture of experience. It's not just customer experience.

It's not just employee experience. It's one experience, and that experience is translated and transferred to the customer. This is who we are. This is how we work.

That's important because your employees feel it.

Conversely, if your employees feel like, oh, my gosh, what I'm doing is great, your customers definitely feel that, and that's why they'll become superfans.

Freddy D: 00:19:43

Yeah, because I look at it as the energy comes across. You know, when you're talking and you're just doing a job because it's just a job, because that's your mindset. It's just a job that comes across.

You can't fake it. It's very different. You know, it's like playing in a rock band. I grew up with some guys that had a big band in the Detroit area. Bittersweet Alley.

That was the name of the band. But the bottom line is you can't fake it. You gotta do it. That goes across to prospective customers, to distributors, to suppliers, everything else.

So you get a situation where you've got two people asking that supplier for the same product at the same time that suppliers are gonna go, barry's been super cool, takes care of me. I get a birthday card lunch every now and then. I'm gonna take care of him first and get to the other guy second. That's the real world.

When I was selling manufacturing software, I differentiated myself because other people got stuck into talking about the technology. I started talking about the business and what the objectives were and the growth of the business.

And I would basically say, look, there's about three or four other products in this space that can all do the job. So that's not the conversation. The conversation is, where do you see your business going in two, three, four years?

Then I started working on strategy. What were the issues and the challenges they were working on? And how I can help them achieve those goals. Because this is just a tool.

Just like the copper is just copper. But you transformed their whole look on things. And that's what I would do with these guys, and I'd always get the sale.

Barry LaBov: 00:21:27

But you were transforming their business, not just selling them some software.

Freddy D: 00:21:33

Correct.

Freddy D: 00:21:35

Looked at the long game, what do we needed to do? They were my referral sources.

Barry LaBov: 00:21:40

I always talk to my clients first off the bat and I want to know if it's three years from today, what does success look like for them? I need to understand that sometimes they have nothing more than a few numbers. But most of the time they have something deeper than just numbers.

I need to hear that and then maybe I can help them. If I don't know that I'm just a vendor, I don't want to be a vendor.

Freddy D: 00:22:07

No, because it changes the dynamics when you're having that type of conversation, sometimes it opens up their eyes to saying, well, you know, really, I never thought of that. I never looked at it that way.

And when you start having that conversation with them is transformative because all of a sudden a light bulb goes off and goes, wow, you know, that's an interesting concept. And all of a sudden their brains are going in that direction. And now you've become a trusted advisor. You've changed yourself from everybody else.

You're now looking at a partner, really becoming a partner with them on their transformation of where they want to go. I remember one of the tool and die shops, it was a mold shop. They started out as 40 people and over a five year period, they tripled.

Bought both buildings on both sides, and they were my number one referral source. It was all because we looked at where they wanted to go, what the objective was and how I could help them get there.

This is just a tool that helps part of the process. Do you have another story you can share of somebody else you've worked with?

Barry LaBov: 00:23:22

One thing I can share is with our work with Harley Davidson.

The thing I learned with them is the experience is your brand, meaning the customer when they go in, whether it's a dealership, a store, or on the phone, experience that the customer receives in their mind is your brand.

Meaning if I'm a car manufacturer and somebody goes into a car dealership and looks at a car that my company designed and manufactured, but that person gets a terrible, terrible experience. That customer walks out and they say, I'll never buy that brand because they connected that dealer, that person with your products.

So one great story is Harley Davidson asked Us to work with their dealers to make sure we're embracing everybody that came in the door. Harley, phenomenal success story has, you know, older and a lot of times it's male. So they'll have an older man come in to look at motorcycles.

The group. Okay, well, dealers were very used to looking at men 50 years old and older. But what happens when the 22 year old woman or a minority?

We had to help the dealers understand, embrace everybody and not assume the 22 year old female is waiting for her father to show up. Let's assume she is a potential customer. We have to realize our experience is our brand. So in their case, it turned out very well.

They opened their hearts, minds and doors at their dealerships to people of all ages, backgrounds, completely diverse individuals, and it helped their market share dramatically.

Freddy D: 00:25:27

No, sure does.

I mean, that's the only brand that's great that you bring up Harley Davidson, because that's the only brand I know that people tattoo themselves with the Harley Davidson logo right on them. I mean, that's right. Is, you know, profound.

Barry LaBov: 00:25:40

It's profound. You look at what else will somebody tattoo their shoulder, arm or legs and maybe the navy or the marines.

But I'm telling you, that's how powerful Harley is. Harley understands what makes them different.

Their differentiation is not the standard stuff you hear cheapest, fastest, most innovative, lowest cost per blah, blah, blah. They understand that.

They offer a brotherhood and sisterhood of fellow riders who will embrace you when you join up and become an owner of one of their motorcycles. They're not out there claiming perfection. And that's so important. Differentiation should not be confused with perfection or superiority.

And Harley Davidson is such a brilliant company because they understand that. They never come out and say, hey, we're the very best in every category.

But boy, nobody touches them when it comes to their Harley owner group and their experience.

Freddy D: 00:26:43

Well said.

Because you just made me remember that when I had a Corvette back in the 70s, the thing was that you would see another Corvette, you would just wave, you know, you just the way. And that was just a code of ethics back then. Unfortunately, it's disappeared.

I really missed that because that was like we recognized and it was kind of like little community. And that's. Harley's gone way beyond that. That was just a little something that was. Was cool because you felt you were part of something.

Barry LaBov: 00:27:16

Yeah, it's part of your identity.

Freddy D: 00:27:18

And that goes back to the culture of the company too. That's where you make people part of something.

It's a whole different mindset and A whole different attitude in that environment, because now you're on a mission. It's like when I mentioned earlier, when I was in the tech world in the early 80s, we were on a mission. We were taking new technology to engineering.

From going from drafting boards to being able to do 3D design on a computer, that was a whole new world. But we were on a mission that transformed the engineering. That was our goal back then in the very early beginning.

So it's important to have everybody involved in what that mission is and how that transforms the company and everybody associated with it.

Barry LaBov: 00:28:07

Well said.

Freddy D: 00:28:09

Thank you. So let's talk a little bit about the book.

Barry LaBov: 00:28:16

The book is called the Power of Differentiation. The subtitle tells it all. It's win, as in W I n win hearts, minds and market share.

It's winning the hearts and minds of your employees, supporters, suppliers of your customers. And guess what happens? You can build your market share. I originally wrote it primarily focused on branding to increase market share.

During COVID I saw a statistic that's 50 million Americans quit their jobs. During COVID 50 million walked off their job either to not go back into the workforce or to go somewhere else.

As I was writing this book on how to differentiate your product to your customer, I thought we need to differentiate our product and our brand to our employees. Because if they don't think it's unique, if they don't think it's special, they're going to walk off the job. 50 million people just did.

I guarantee most of them would have said, I don't think I'm doing anything that special. I can do that down the street for 25 cents more an hour. That's what inspired the book.

The book is filled with stories of leaders, small and large businesses who rallied their people, who celebrated their differentiation, and in some cases, they made history with their brands. Very inspiring. We cover many of those stories, as well as how to look at commodities and how to fight the commoditization that's out there today.

How to realize perfection isn't worth it. Don't be perfect. Embrace being imperfect. How to use technology.

How to use video to promote what you do, and how to view words, because words create worlds. So instead of being quality, selection, service and value, throw that out. How about coming up with a word that really means something?

I mentioned earlier, jamming. That's one of our core values. Jamming that. Nobody has jamming as a core value out there but my company. I have a client that came up with a great one.

Rigor. That's a Lot better than saying quality. Sure. My point is the book shares all of that. It's inspirational.

It's a wonderful positive focus on people who have made a difference for many people. And my goal is to influence a million people with that message.

Freddy D: 00:31:03

Well, we're on the same mission, just different verbiage a little bit.

My goal is to help people transform their whole ecosystem into an army of business super fans promoting that business and it'll skyrocket and it won't cost them a ton of money.

One of my sayings is the little things is really the big thing and a lot of people get caught up in focusing on the big thing and they forget about doing the little thing.

Barry LaBov: 00:31:32

Exactly.

Freddy D: 00:31:33

And sadly, that doesn't lead to where it should lead.

Barry LaBov: 00:31:37

You're right.

Freddy D: 00:31:39

So great conversation here. Barry, as we wrap up towards the end here. How can people find you?

Barry LaBov: 00:31:48

I'm on LinkedIn. Please reach out. I have people reaching out from all over the world.

So Barry Labov L A b as in boy ov as in Victor la b o v also my company's website, labov.com or mine. Barry labov.com feel free to go to Amazon and buy my book the Power of Differentiation and leave an honest review. I love the reviews.

I believe it's a book that people really can utilize no matter if they have a small business or large one.

Freddy D: 00:32:20

Differentiating is everything. We'll make sure that's all in the show notes for our listeners so they can get all the links and everything else as well.

Do you have anything for our listeners by chance?

Barry LaBov: 00:32:29

What I do want to say is don't feel frustrated. If you want more excitement at your company or you want more buy in, understand it's very common.

The customers I work with are searching to find more inspiration for their people and for themselves. Take a look at what you are already doing and look at it through a different lens.

There has to be one thing, maybe two or three you are doing as a company that are really unique. Hold on to them, celebrate them.

Freddy D: 00:33:07

Barry, it's been a pleasure having you on the Business Superfans podcast show. Great conversation, great insight for our listeners and we definitely look forward to having you on the show again down the road.

Barry LaBov: 00:33:17

Thank you Frederick. It has been an honor.

Freddy D: 00:33:24

Hey, superfan superstar Freddie D. Here. Before we wrap, here's your three a playbook power move to attract ideal clients, turn them into advocates and accelerate your business success.

The top insight of today's episode is if your own team doesn't believe your brand is special, no customer ever will. Differentiation must start from the inside out. So here's your business growth action step before your next campaign.

Rally your internal team around one bold, emotional brand differentiator and celebrate it like you would a product launch.

If today's conversation sparked an idea for you or you know of a fellow business leader who would benefit, share it with them and grab the full breakdown in the show notes. Let's accelerate together and start creating business superfans who champion your brand.