Sean Everett defines strategy as how you win regardless of what competitors do, contrasting direct feature-focused approaches with indirect, ecosystem-building ones. He uses Nvidia's AI pivot and Apple vs. Samsung to show how authentic brand vibe and category creation beat copying. True strategy requires narrative and thinking perpendicular, not feature checklists.
Chapters
Hey, welcome back. This is the first episode in the second pillar of our conversation we're having. If the first pillar was about building belief, the second pillar is about building strategy. So today's conversation is going to be all about strategy. We're going to define strategy. Because this word is so misunderstood, it's incorrectly used, and it's very hard for people to get in the right mindset. So we're going to put on our scientist glasses today, wouldn't you know it, and we're going to get into it. But before we do, just a reminder, take a look at this, these natural surroundings. It is sunrise. Sunrise. Here on the east coast of South Carolina in the United States. And so we thought we'd do one as the sun rises, get away from night mode, move into day mode. And, uh, I think that sort of sets the foundation of, of good strategies. So first off, I'm going to tell you the definition that we've coined for strategy, and it's a phrase that we developed, and it took us decades to figure this out. So if you hear it somewhere else, it's highly likely that they got it from us because this was hard fought and won. So our definition of strategy is how you win regardless of what competitors do. I'm going to say that again. We're going to, we're going to walk through this because this can be complex but easy once you understand the perspective. So strategy is how you win regardless of what competitors do. So there's 2 perspectives you can take on this. The first one is direct. The other one is indirect. The direct perspective is classic business, classic competitive strategy. This is the stuff that you'd learn in business school. This is the stuff, if you type it into an AI tool, you're probably going to get back, which is like, Differentiation, maybe into some defensibility, which we won't touch on now, but, um, differentiation. So against a competitor, right? So I'm a consumer, I'm gonna go buy something. I can buy water from Company A, I can buy water from Company B, or I can get it out of the tap. So the definition of strategy is how do you win no matter what these other competitors do? Right. So, so if I want to buy water from Walmart versus water from Target versus like Smartwater or something, maybe I want Evian, maybe I want something else. How then do I get in the consumer's mind such that when they have a craving or a feeling for water, or maybe I'm bumping them and nudging them into that feeling, Why is it that they choose mine over someone else's? This is a very zero-sum game, which is like, I can only choose one thing. I can only drink one sip of water at a time, right? So, um, that is, that is the idea of the direct, and we'll get into that deeper in here in a second. Indirect. So that's like very direct against my competitors, right? Indirect is more interesting. This is where you see a lot of the, um, a lot of the companies, the founders that get on the covers of magazines and are well-known brands, they create a new category, something that never existed before. Like Nvidia is a classic example of this. They had GPUs before it was sexy. They've been doing this since the '90s. And they finally found their sweet spot in AI and took off like a rocket ship. And this is— and you can hear the CEO and the founder talk about this, but they don't believe in competition. They believe in ecosystems and developing an ecosystem around a product, around a service, around a brand is really about something like nature here, right? So it's not so much that like it's my bird versus that bird trying to get that one worm. It's how do we foster this natural environment such that everything thrives? And so the pie gets bigger instead of us fighting over this small little pie. So in the business world, sometimes you'll, you'll see people classically get really weird if you want to approach a competitor, a direct competitor, and do a partnership or a joint go-to-market. Or like, let's work together on something. So be like Apple versus Google and like a search engine, for instance. And we won't get into all those details, hairy stories. But they get weirded out because they're in the direct mindset rather than the indirect mindset. They're saying this is a zero-sum game. If I give you something, then you're going to take that from me and I will never get my customer back. So it's a very fearful mindset. Right. And so the opposite is like, no, actually, let's take a different perspective of this because my core values are strong and we make a great product and we have a great brand and we stand on it and we're here for a long time period, long duration, that I'm not afraid of what you're going to do in the market. What I'm more interested in is creating something new together at the space between us. Like, it's not so much that I'm doing a thing or you're doing a thing. It's like, what is this unique thing that only we could do together? And then if you had multiple people around the roundtable, right, Knights of the Round Table, men or women, or theys, and, and, and so then it's like, okay, now I start to see a different perspective. So when we say this phrase, strategy is how you win regardless of what competitors do. You have a choice. And there's a decision in that. And the decision is how you approach the market, how you approach your company, how you approach the team, how you approach the brand, how you build the product, how you build the service, how you attract capital, investors, partners, even team members, right? Resources. So this classic model is a bit more obsolete. And so you see a lot of strategy consulting firms, they will do competitive analysis, competitive differentiation, analysis, and it's like ticky-tack feature things. You pull up a spreadsheet, you look at 1,000 different features and every single company that competes in the space, and you like tick off like, oh, they got this, but they don't have this and this and this and this. And like, in some ways, yes, like consumers or a buyer, especially an enterprise, will go through that checklist and be like, look, these are real requirements that we have. And like, if you don't have 1 or 17 or 32, Like, we just can't do this because it's like a hard requirement for us. But for the most part, it's like something different. It's like usually there's the table stakes stuff, which is, you know, the water is clean, I can transport it with me in a bottle, and I'm not gonna get sick. And it's not like $1,000 for a bottle of water. I mean, maybe somebody can get away with that. I could probably figure out a product. $1,000 for a glass of water. I don't know how many people would pay for it, but there's some out there that would. Um, so, so with this water example, right, um, I guess the real question is like, how do you approach this? Like, what kind of water are you creating? And so that's why you see a lot of these like collaborations happening, at least in retail and like the luxury space and shoes is where it kind of took off. You see some joint marketing happening with AWS at these trade shows and conferences. They'll have like partner booths inside the AWS booth, which is really just like, hey, we've got this like extra marketing fund and let's go spend some money together and we'll use it to joint go-to-market. But it's not really anything new or novel or different, really. And so back to this conversation about new capabilities. That's where I think the real value add is. If you're creating a new market, how you win regardless of what competitors do, you're creating a new ecosystem from scratch such that the values, the system, the mechanics, the design, the companies, the brands, the people within it operate differently. And that is an attractive force given that, that your customer base, your partner base has the same mindset because it's really meant to fix like structural problems in the existing system. Bucky Fuller had this great quote, and, and he said, like, if you're upset with the existing system, don't get mad about it, just build a better system that makes the prior system obsolete. And so you look at these books by, like, Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, where, um, essentially the premise of this was, like, all the people in this new mindset just left the existing society Went off and built a new society. And I think we're actually starting to see some of that today. We feel that pull. Some of the people that we talk to in private one-on-one conversations where you sort of let the mask down and the public persona off, and it's a space for like a safe place for real talk because it's all confidential, right? Like we don't go around sharing anything. Like anything you and I talk about stays between you and I. So, um, we just feel it. It's like, it's like everyone's just kind of sick of the veneer and the bullshit and like just pushing stuff down my throat and like the marketing and the over-polished, overproduced. And, and so it's really like, just give me the real authentic stuff, like whether it like feels good or not, like at least it's the truth, right? And it— and like I can make a decision on that. So. Back to strategy, like if you get a deck from a strategy firm and it's just a bunch of charts and graphs with like data and like a headline, and there's no through line or story on this, or there's no like main point, like and it goes back to values or a feeling. Like look, everyone we talk to is just frustrated. It's frustration. And so I could go through and do the ticky tack feature list, and I could show you how this market's growing, and look at the bar charts, and it's going up, and it's. A CAGR of 15% a year, and that doesn't get to it. And, and if you do this like analysis paralysis mode, you're not going to get to the answer, right? Because then you're just, you're just playing this like ticky-tack cat and mouse game where it's like, oh, I make this new thing and then the competitor copies it and I do this thing and then the competitor copies it and I do this thing. And it's like a never-ending series of stuff. It's like Uber versus Lyft. You saw this back in the day and like the AOL versus MSN Messenger, like way back in the day. Um, in the '90s. So yeah, I think the better approach with all of this and strategy, how you win regardless of what competitors do, is like you don't care about your competitors because you're on a different wave, you're on a different vibe, you're just doing things differently, naturally, what feels right, right? Like you got your blinders on. Like, sure, like I could take inspiration, like, oh, that's kind of neat, that's nifty, and like I see the direction they're going, but Even you see this in Hollywood. A script will come out or like some movie, right? And like, you'll almost have the exact same premise of an idea. You'll have similar looking actor and actresses. You've seen this in rom-coms in like the early 2000s. There was one with Ashton Kutcher, and there was one with Justin Timberlake. They released the same time, similar premise. But the stories and the feeling of those stories just aren't the same. Because you have different people working, different notes, different vibes. And so regardless, even if your competitor copies the exact thing you do, they will not get it right. For example, the Stories media form, right? Like, it had— like, you can copy the mechanic, you can copy the business model, you can throw it into your app, but you didn't have the soul. And so The product becomes completely different and it takes on a life of its own. So it's let them copy you. They're going off in a different direction and a different vector anyways. So, so I guess my whole point with this thing is like, not just think different, but think perpendicular, right? So like, instead of like running parallel paths, like go off to the right. So if everyone's zigging, do your zag. That's kind of the famous. famous quote or analogy. So strategy is how you win regardless of what competitors do. But you can amend it to say strategy is how you win with competitors and with partners. But really, strategy is how you win by just being truly authentically you and yourself. So, and that comes back to defensibility of like a cornered resource and brand on either end of the spectrum, startups. to like major Fortune 100 global conglomerates. And, uh, there's a vibe and you just can't, you can't copy a vibe. You can copy like the little minute details, the features, maybe some of the benefits, even some of the look and the feel, but the vibe is really hard to copy. And so you're not gonna like take super fans from one brand. And then just copy it. And then those super fans are gonna go, nope, I'm out of here, I'm going over here because they got the exact same thing and it's 10% less. Like, I'm not, I'm not connecting with you and your brand because it's, it's 10% less. Like, yeah, with some utilities and commodities I might, but I'm still gonna buy subconsciously with my values and I'm still gonna be like, oh man, it's not the same. That's why you see like these knockoffs of Louis Vuitton that they sell on the streets for like a couple hundred bucks. It's a gateway drug to the real thing because the buyer's looking at it and they're going, this ain't the real thing. Like, I, I'm still kind of— I have this like emotional attachment. I still kind of want the real thing. So it's actually part of the purchase funnel and the onboarding funnel. So you can embrace the copycats. Like, that's great for you because They can't copy you. That's the key. Nobody can copy you because it takes a while for you to like get in your own mindset, your own vibe, your own core values, infuse like what you're feeling, put that into a product or service, put it in the market. And so the people that are copying are copying that thing. They're not copying you, which means they can't do it again. And that's the real test. The real test of skill, of quality, of a human, of talent, of an AI, of a brand, of a company, of a product, of a service, is can they do it again? And can they keep doing it over long time spans? That's why Apple is like bomb.com. You know, Samsung just, it keeps copying, but they don't have that presence. that vibration, that wavelength that gets, uh, people excited. It's like Christmas morning every time, you know, in the fall when they come out with the new software and hardware. So I don't think that's changed. Good old Steve, he threw it into the brand and, uh, it remains to this day, far after he kind of passed. Um, RIP. So yeah, I think, I think that's the thing. Let's take a quick water break. By the way, brought to you by Emergence. Hit us up at emergence.team. Yeah, we, we push our own products. We rep our own products with our own brand, and we actually do use these things. Otherwise, like, you wouldn't, you wouldn't see us rep them because they wouldn't be around us in everyday life. We wouldn't hold on to them. So that's a bit on strategy, how you win regardless of what competitors do. You can take the obsolete approach of, I'm just gonna go to war and we're just gonna win by all means necessary. Or you can take the approach of judo. Let's use our powers combined and do Voltron and, and work together and create something net new that positively benefits society and gives our customers and our consumers and the people. a new capability, a new superpower, a new feeling, and brings everyone back from the dead, right? Like, enough with the killing. So that's what we've figured out over the years. I don't know, maybe it'll change. But we've been on this train for well over a decade. People are really scared about it. But there's a lot of examples where it works. So that's it. Again, look at this misty morning. Happy sunrise. It's 2026. It's great to be alive out here. We, uh, we are magic. We are all gods in some way. We can create anything. It just takes a little bit of like creative thinking and who you are, and you just manifest it in a physical or digital space and put it out there. And you just do it enough times, you get pretty good at it, feels like the right vibe, you just get in the flow state. And then, you know, eventually one of them's gonna like hit. But always these things compound, so the probability of success keeps going up and up and up and up and up. If you know anything about the laws of compounding, uh, you know, the benefits and the returns always come at the end. So don't give up like right before it's about to tip. Because that critical mass and tipping point is, uh, closer than you think. All right, that's it. Uh, have a great day, everybody, and, uh, love you, love to the fam, and yeah, let's kick some butt out there. All right, peace. Peace.
