In this episode of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick argues that the most defensible competitive advantage is "outcaring" rivals—showing deeper, more consistent, and authentic care for customers, employees, and communities. He outlines six concrete practices to achieve this: (1) be shockingly responsive, (2) personalize every interaction, (3) anticipate needs before they’re voiced, (4) celebrate and recognize often, (5) overdeliver on promises, and (6) be there when it’s hard. Gubernick reinforces each point with real‑world examples such as Ritz‑Carlton’s empowered employee spending, Southwest’s personal notes from Herb Kelleher, Chick‑fil‑A’s community outreach, Zappos’ marathon customer‑service calls, and small‑business gestures like delivering moving boxes or remembering birthdays. He emphasizes that outcaring requires attention and presence, not extra budget, and challenges listeners to add 10 % more care in the coming week. The episode’s purpose is to inspire entrepreneurs to embed caring into their strategy as a scalable, hard‑to‑copy differentiator.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Most businesses obsess over outspending and outsmarting and outmaneuvering the competition. But I think there's one edge that's even harder to copy. It's certainly harder to scale, and I think it could be more powerful than any ad campaign or any sort of creative or clever strategy. It's this: simply outcaring the competition. That's it. Outcaring the competition. When you outcare, you you win not just customers, you win loyalty and trust, and I think you win these evangelists or advocates who stick with you when others fade. So today I wanna talk about what it means to out-care. I wanna give you 6 ways that I think you can do it in your business, and then I'll give you some real-world examples of companies and leaders who have turned care into their competitive advantage. So what does it really mean to out-care? I think, I think you all probably have a good idea as to where I'm going with this, but let's get real clear here, okay? Out-caring the competition is pretty simple, but I think it's pretty rare in practice. It's about showing your clients and your employees and even your community that you care more deeply. That you care more consistently and more authentically than anyone else. Now, caring isn't fluffy. I think it's actually strategic if done right. I think in a world where most companies tend to treat people like numbers or just simply transactions, true care becomes pretty disruptive. I mean, call it what it is. In a world like we're seeing right now that is moving so quickly in terms of technology and specifically AI, we are becoming more distant from our people, from our clients, our prospects, our employees. It's when care, true care, can truly show up and become disruptive in a competitive advantage. Now, this is not about the slogans on the wall. I think it's about showing day in and day out that people matter. More than transactions. So I think there's 6 ways that we can begin to out-care the competition. My guess is you're doing some of these and can ramp it up, and, and I would also assume, you know, a couple of these you haven't thought about in a little while, and I want to challenge you to go do so. Number 1, be shockingly responsive. Be shockingly responsive. Care shows up in speed. So returning calls and emails and texts faster than anyone else, it actually communicates urgency and value. In other words, that sort of responsiveness says you matter. So be shockingly responsive. Think of the last time you were interacting with a company and, and you had an inquiry or whatever it may have been, and you immediately got a response. How did it make you feel? It probably made you feel pretty good. So number 1, be shockingly responsive. Number 2, personalize every interaction. Now, I, I don't think this is all that complicated. Use names, remember details, follow up on life events. Remember, people don't forget when you treat them like individuals instead of accounts. And to me, I think all this takes is a few more seconds of reviewing the detail, the notes that you've already taken, and use names and touch on those details. And if there's some event or life event that you made note of, bring it up, ask about it. Number 3, anticipate needs before they're spoken. I think the best service solves problems before they even become problems. So anticipation, in my opinion, shows you're paying attention. You're not just reacting. So, anticipate needs before you even hear about them. Number 4, celebrate and recognize often. Now, this is tricky for a lot of our No Days Off Nation. Why? Because you're all charging hard, you're entrepreneurs, maybe you don't respond to celebration and recognition like so many others in this world happen to. You are the outlier, by the way. You are the weird one. Most people like to celebrate. Most people like recognition. So, catch people doing something right, be it your clients or your team or your partners, and call them out on it. A small win recognized quickly beats a big win that's ignored. Number 5, overdeliver on promises. Overdeliver on promises. Now, always do what you said you'd do and then do a little bit more. Outcaring often lives in kind of those what I'll call +1 moments. Those +1 moments where you exceed expectations. So, think through something you're working on right now, a promise that you've made, and then ask yourself, how would I overdeliver on this if I could? Remember, do what you said you'd do, but just do a little bit more. And then number 6, be there when it's hard. I think anyone can care when things are pretty easy. I think true outcaring happens when someone is struggling, when a client's upset, or when an employee is going through some sort of personal, personal challenge, or when a partner of yours misses a target. Standing with them in those moments is unforgettable. It's outcaring. There are a lot of really good, I think, real-world examples of outcaring. I think one that, that's really kind of known for its outcaring practices is the Ritz-Carlton hotels. Every employee at Ritz-Carlton is empowered to spend money to solve a guest's problem with no manager approval required. They're empowered to spend money. I think it's— I may be wrong on this, but I think it's up to $2,000 or something like that to solve a guest problem with no manager approval required. That's not policy. That's actually outcaring in action. So I think about the Ritz-Carlton hotels. We recently talked about Southwest Airlines and Herb Kelleher, who was writing thousands of notes to employees. That to me is outcaring the competition. His personal touches, they created this legendary culture. How about, you know, I recently saw something, I think it was on Instagram, around Chick-fil-A. And it was about Chick-fil-A, how they don't just serve food, but they send notes to families and support their communities and treat employees like extensions of the brand. And there was a story being told about, you know, somebody that was struggling in the community, and Chick-fil-A kind of swooped in and took care of them. And I think it's things like that, outcaring, it's why they lead fast food in loyalty right now. Zappos is another great one. They're known for 10-hour customer service calls. It's not very efficient, but it's deeply caring. They built an empire on service that was so authentic, it became their actual brand. I know in the small business world, there are plenty of teams and businesses, many of you guys, you know, listening to this podcast, that you outcare by showing up to a client's house with moving boxes or dropping off dinner, you know, after a closing. Or remembering birthdays years later. Those aren't really scalable systems, but they're exactly what I'm talking about here. There are choices that care more than your competitors do. So I'd ask you today, as you're thinking through, you know, how to out-care the competition, and obviously I gave you 6 opportunities, but there's— I'm sure there's more. I would ask you, where can you add 10%? Let's just say 10% more care this week. Maybe it's as simple as responding faster. Maybe it's calling a client out of the blue to thank them. Maybe it's recognizing someone on your team for a small win. Out-caring, just to be clear, it doesn't require a budget. It just requires attention. It requires presence. The truth is, in most all businesses, your competitors can match your prices. They could probably copy your ads. They could even steal your people. But they cannot out-care you unless you let them. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings an opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
