The Power of Differentiation with Barry LaBov

In this episode of The Inspire Podcast, Bart speaks with Barry LaBov—CEO, founder, author, and former rock musician and producer—about his new book The Power of Differentiation. Barry explains why differentiation is critical for brands, businesses, and leaders, and how clarity around what makes you unique is essential in today’s crowded marketplace

He shares stories from his early days in the music industry and his unexpected transition into marketing, highlighting how great bands, great companies, and great leaders all know what makes them distinctively unique, and they double down on it. Barry also walks through his approach to finding and naming your differentiators, and why leaders must launch and celebrate them by engaging the people who bring them to life.

Whether you want your business to stand out or you’re looking to elevate your own leadership brand, Barry’s insights offer practical guidance for differentiating in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

Show Notes

00:22 Show intro
00:56 Introducing Barry
02:05 What is differentiation?
02:53 It's so important today to have authenticity
03:15 Harley Davidson's differentiation
03:58 Elon Musk
04:42 Bart talks about differentiating brands
04:59 Music and unique artists
06:07 Barry's early days in a band and as a producer
06:58 Wrote songs for famous performers
07:19 Band members were all doing something unique
07:47 From music to marketing
09:49 Someone asked him to take on a marketing role – and he declined! 
10:18 We trust YOU 
10:49 Writing a book
11:09 Why write the book on differentiation?
11:48 How the COVID great resignation changed his thinking
12:11 Hearts, minds and market share
12:46 How can people discover their unique proposition?
13:20 Talk to humans about the brand
14:21 Observing the biz to see what is unique
14:53 Example of a unique process in a business
15:50 Jam session with the client
16:07 Taking the differentiators and executing in marketing and business
16:21 The Launch
16:26 Launch to the most important people first 
16:58 You're often too close to your own work to see the differentiators
17:47 How to do this personally
19:08 These are things I do well — but it's not for everyone! 
20:14 Celebrating your differentiators
24:03 Morale slipping — leaders need to reframe
25:26 How to maintain enthusiasm for your core strengths
25:57 Don't wait for the holiday party — tell them every day 
26:28 Don't talk about profit unless you are sharing it
27:03 Cheerleading vs authentic celebration
28:41 Music acts that are unique today
30:53 Where can people get more
31:28 Thank-yous and outro

Show Transcript

Barry Labov: It's so important today, more than ever, to have something with some authenticity in that instead of something that's just the same old, same old, homogenized products. So that's what's important. And, and by the way, Bart, it has to do with people as well as products. It's all the same thing.

Bart Egnal: Welcome to the Inspire Podcast, where we examine what it takes to intentionally inspire.

I'm your host, Bart Egnal president and CEO of the Humphrey Group, and if you've ever asked yourself, how can you develop an authentic leadership presence, or how can you tell stories that have people hanging off every word? Well then this podcast is for you, and it's not just for executives. This is a podcast for anyone who wants to influence and inspire others in their work, but also in their life.

My guest on today's episode of the Inspire Podcast is Barry Labov and Barry, uh, we're gonna do justice to your, your, the two reasons you're here. One is you're the CEO and the founder of Above Marketing Communications and Training, and you're also an author about. The book is the Power of Differentiation, and it's really these, these two things that have brought us together, but.

I am neglecting the most important thing, which is you are a rock band producer as well. So really we have to take all three of those things. We're gonna fuse them into a conversation. Welcome to the Inspire podcast, Bart.

Barry Labov: Thank you. Yeah, I always tell people my music sold well. Under 1 million copies, but I'm happy to talk about it.

Bart Egnal: That's great. And I know it, it is something that even though maybe it was the third billing it, it's gonna take center stage to bring in some metaphors, love it, of what we're talking about today. So I love it. And Barry, when we, when we were playing for this pod, and we talked about your book, we talked about differentiation and.

The reason I wanted to have you on is, you know, I know your goal is to inspire people and to really help people understand what differentiation means. And I think for leaders, you know, the leaders I work with in the corporate world, in the public sector, whether they're running a, a giant bank or they're, you know, a consultancy or they're, they're offering a service to the public, differentiation is fundamental.

So. Quickly tell us like what is differentiation? Why does it matter? And then we'll then we'll wind back the clock.

Barry Labov: Well, Bart, differentiation is a tough word. It's six syllables, 15 letters. A lot of people can't pronounce it. So you go, what in the world is this thing? You know what it is? It's identifying what makes you, or your brand, product, whatever, what it is, what makes it unique, not necessarily superior.

Hmm. But the personality, the, the, the difference, the distinctiveness, it's so important today more than ever to have something with some authenticity. And that instead of something that's just the same old, same old, homogenized products. So that's what's important. And, and by the way, Bart, it has to do with people as well as products.

Hmm. It's all the

Bart Egnal: same thing. Can you give me an example of people listening in the world who say like, what's maybe one product and one person that mm-hmm. Really embodies this kind of differentiation?

Barry Labov: Uh, there, I could go on and on. Let's just say Harley Davidson. Hmm. Great brand. Don't, their bikes sounds so unique.

That thunder, right. Okay. That's unique. Now does that make it superior? No, but boy. Is it unique? Is it distinctive? The fact that Harley will invite you into their family and you can be part of their hog or their Harley owner group experience? I didn't know that. I like that hug. That, that, yeah. That's what it stands for, right?

So that's one thing. Now, uh, let's, uh, talk about somebody in the news, let's say Elon Musk. Mm-hmm. Alright. He. Distinctive. Yes, he is. He's unique and he is as polarizing as you get. Right? And some people hate him and some people think he's brilliant. Some people will never buy his product. Some people will, but a.

Definitely unique thinker who appears to have no fear,

Bart Egnal: right.

Barry Labov: And is willing to blaze trails. That's what makes him unique. So if you were going to invest in something that he was doing, you need to have an appetite that, hey, he's not gonna be the funnest guy to hang out with and he may wanna do something incredibly scary.

Right? Right.

Bart Egnal: But might achieve something. And I think, you know, this actually, oh yeah, we didn't talk about this in the prep, but I think a la uh, we talked about, you know. Differentiation as a business differentiation product. But I think anyone listening, it's also really critical in this world of, you know, AI slop, right?

That, yeah. How you differentiate your brand as a leader is also critical. Yeah. Right. Like you think about, I, I mean, music to me is again, an example where artists really are increasingly differentiating who they are. They're standing as a unique person and that draws not everyone, but, but the people who matter.

Barry Labov: Well, if you look at the recording artists, uh, if you think of some of these really old guys mm-hmm. That still can book a stadium. Right. A guy like Bruce Springsteen, okay. He has a certain character, a uniqueness. He's not a perfect singer, he's not a perfect guitar player. Mm-hmm. But he has a certain character that he has stayed true to.

So guess what? People will go pay tickets, right. To go get to see him now. The teams or the bands that give up on that, and they're trying to sound like everybody or anybody just to make a hit. They may have a tiny little concert hall that people will go to. Mm-hmm. But they're

Bart Egnal: not that big of a deal, so, so yes.

Are anyone listening? How you differentiate yourself as a leader is as important as the product you have. So, okay, so let's take a step back because obviously you're, you have deep roots in the music business. You didn't start out writing, you know, a book on differentiation. Take us back to your early days in a rock band and as a producer.

Barry Labov: I started in a rock band when I was 12, 13 years old with my brother. We were a two man band. Mm-hmm. I was on drums singing and playing keyboards. Whoa. Yes. I did all of those at once and my brother played guitar. And Did we sound great? No, we did not sound great. Uh, we were out there though, and um, we got out there and we played and I started to fall in love with the idea of creating songs.

Because I wasn't a great singer or a great drummer, but I loved to write songs. Great. And so what happened was I started to build on that and I started to work with really old guys that were maybe 20 or 21 years old. And, uh, all of a sudden I, I had a song that was, uh, on a billboard recommended Char, and I wrote a few songs with my wife that.

Barry Menlow and Natalie Cole and Billy Joel bought Wow. And I started to understand that, hey, you know, creativity can be fun. Mm-hmm. And what I did, Bart, that was really important was in my band, and I didn't realize this Bart when I was doing it, but in my band, I looked for differentiation. So I made sure whoever was in my band was doing the thing that he or she did really well.

Okay. Really cool. So I didn't ask the guitarist to try to. You know, play bass guitar. I asked the guitarist, who was a great soloist right, to come up with the coolest solo, and that's what I did. I focused on their strengths and that's how I, you know, my band did pretty well.

Bart Egnal: So you, so you started off in music, then you became a producer, and then Yeah.

How did you go from music to marketing?

Barry Labov: Well, it was an accident. I didn't mean to do it. What happened was I was producing jingles. Oh, those, I, yeah. Irritating the ev Everyone must love you at Christmas

Bart Egnal: time,

Barry Labov: right? So we were, we write these, these irritating jingles for businesses and, um, I thought they were kind of cool, but they, you know, they, they can be irritating.

And, um, one day. Uh, this started me in the business. One day I got up and I told my wife, I said, you know, I think our, my boss is ripping off the musicians. 'cause they called me the night before and said he was. And I said, I'm gonna talk to him. And, you know. Uh, you know, if he is, I can't work for him. Mm-hmm.

And she said, well, do you think he'll admit that? And I said, no. I think if he's lying, he won't tell me that. So I walked out Bart and my landlord was passing me by and he loved us. We paid on time every month. We were these two young kids, he loved us. I said, Hey Bob, how you doing? Didn't say a word to me and walk by.

And I thought, oh, that's weird. He won't even look at me. I go into the office. And I say to the boss, are you ripping off the musicians? And he goes, yes I am. I'm not paying them. Whoa. He told you we're, we're having, we're having monetary problems. And uh, it's each man for himself. So I said, okay, I gotta leave.

I'm gonna quit. And he said, you can't quit. You will never amount to anything without me. And I said, well, at least I won't be ripping people off. Yeah. I go home. I walk into the house, my wife is crying. I figure somebody from the recording studio must have called her. I said, how are you doing? She goes, oh, what a terrible day.

I said, uh, well, tell me about it. And she said The landlord walked in. He's getting a divorce. He's evicting us in two weeks. 'cause his ex-wife gets our apartment. Oh my, we'll have no home in two weeks. Oh my gosh. What a dad. And she said, how was your day, honey? And I said, well, I lost my job. So that started me into that business.

And one client after about six months, called me up and said, I want you to take on our marketing department. Hmm. And he asked me and I said, as a great entrepreneur, I said. Nah, I don't think so. But here are, here are some other agencies that could do it for you. And he went, uh, okay. He kept calling me and then one day after a year of this, he called me and said, I want you to take on my marketing department.

I'll sell it to you, and I'll give you the marketing department business from my company for three years so your company can do all my work for three years. And I said, I keep giving you the names of other people. Why do you come back to me? Mm-hmm. And he said, because we trust you. And I went, oh. I said, okay, I'll do it.

And he said, really? I said, yes. That's when I began to be a marketing person. I didn't know what I was doing. I walked into it and I learned.

Bart Egnal: That's how I did it. And so here we are. How many years later? 40. So you still have the agency?

Barry Labov: Yes, I

Bart Egnal: still have the agency. And so, you know, it takes a particularly kind of insanity to decide to write a book.

Having done it myself, you know, I did one book, I wrote this book and I thought, this is a great idea. You know, I got my contract with Wiley and then I'm like, oh shit, I gotta write the book. Um,

Barry Labov: yeah. And so I wrote it. And I swore I'd never write another one, so. Mm-hmm. What prompted you to write this book about the power of differentiation?

Barry Labov: Here's what I hope is interesting for all of our listeners on this. I originally started to write this book 'cause I thought, Hey, every company, every brand, every person has something unique. They need to discover it instead of constantly changing it. Don't discover what makes you unique. Okay. Number one, then name it, be able to explain it, and then.

You'll sell more, you'll be able to make more money. Right. I thought that's a good book. I started to write it with all these examples of wonderful clients I've had over the decades, and then something happened. Hmm. COVID. Hmm. And when COVID happened, I saw an article in the, in the Wall Street Journal that 100 million Americans quit their job in a one year period during COVID and Bart.

It changed my book. Hmm. All of a sudden it became very obvious that yes, you need to differentiate to sell more product, but you have to differentiate so that your people wanna come back to work tomorrow. Right? So the subtitle is Win Hearts, minds and Market Share. It's all about hearts, minds, and market share.

Bart Egnal: And that's what the book's all about. I love it. And uh, you know, I think it's something, it's a book that. I hadn't thought, I haven't seen anyone write a book on this topic, so it's kind of unique. Mm-hmm. As you said, you know, differentiation is a, a, a word that's hard to say and, and, uh, is underused. So let's talk about what you actually tell in the book, because I know you're, you're kind of core thesis is.

To do this kind of differentiation, whether you're a business or a person, you have to begin with discovery. So talk a bit about what that is, and for people listening, how they can go about this process of that discovery.

Barry Labov: Yeah. Well, my company differentiates itself because it has its own proprietary process.

It's five steps. One step nobody in the world does to my knowledge. And I always say this, if somebody's out there and you're doing it, please call me. Let's talk about it. I love, I love to hear about this. The first step is we do an assessment of the brand and, and Bart to distill it down. It means we're talking to human beings.

Okay? We're asking employees, we're asking customers, we're asking the leaders. We're also comparing the competition. Where does this company stand out? What should they never, ever. Ever change. So we're learning this. So like if you, if we were,

Bart Egnal: if you were asking the Humphrey group, if you're doing this work for us.

Yes, we would. You know, I would answer and you tell me if this is kind of what you're getting. I'd say, look, what makes us and our clients tell us is unique is this combination of the methodologies that we teach, but also the caliber of our people and mm-hmm. Deliver and bringing these experiences to life.

Is that what you're, what you're getting at in terms of differentiation? Right?

Barry Labov: And that that could be exactly what the differentiation would be. If your clients are saying, look, I love that these guys have this unique approach that nobody else has. Mm-hmm. Plus they have these advanced people. Nobody's got those two.

You go, okay. Mm-hmm. So then I would name that something instead of us just being us. Okay. So the second step is the one that. Nobody does. And that is we go into the plant, we go into the factory, the technology center, and we're looking for what they're doing that could be unique, uh, a unique differentiator, something.

And we're asking questions. We're scouring the place, trying to find things. And most of the time, Bart, it's really funny because it'll be something right in front of them and I'll go, Hey, does anybody else do this? And they'll go, uh. Uh, I don't know. I, uh, like can you gimme an example of where you had one of those?

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's happened many times. Uh, I'll use something that sounds unexciting. Let's say there's a certain kind of a weld being done, okay. In this factory setting, and we'll go, that's kind of unique. It's, it's a unique shaped weld. Why do you do it? They go, well, we've done it for 35 years. It's what we've always done.

Okay. Why? Well, it reduces leaks and this da da, da, da. Well. Does anyone else do it? And they'll go, no, I don't think so. And I go, why? Well, it's so much extra work. It costs extra time. I go, do you promote this? And they go. No, we go, that might be a unique differentiator. You might have a certain kind of weld that prevents leaks and other things.

So, you know, depending on the product, that's huge. Right. All right. So the third step, after we learn from the first step, which is the assessment of people and competitive. Mm-hmm. Information. And then we get in and we learn about the product or. Features. Mm-hmm. We then do a jam session with the client speaking of music.

Okay. And we say, here's what we found. This is what we think, and with the client, we come up with, okay, here are the differentiators. Then we get to the fourth step, and that is the execution. The idea is that let's do a website, let's do a campaign, a social media program. We get to that point. We start to create.

Including naming these differentiators. And then we get to the fifth stage, which is the launch by, here's another fun thing. Hmm. We launch to the most important people first.

Bart Egnal: Hmm. Like the clients or the employees.

Barry Labov: The, the employees? Yes, the employees could be the, the, uh, clients. It could be the dealers if they have dealers, but the most important people, the people who build it, design it, clean up after it, sell it so that they're an.

Army ready to go out there. Mm. Then we tell the world. So that's how we do it. Right.

Bart Egnal: I love it. Yeah. You know, and when I, when I listened to it, you know, a couple, couple kind of reflections I have, you know, first is I love your story about this kind of unique weld and the people saying, oh, you know, we, we don't know.

This is special, I think for both businesses. For individuals and teams. You, you, you're so close to this work that you do in this industry, that you're in this career, this business, you don't stop and really reflect on what makes you differentiated. Right? And the second thing is that I, I like the way you said, you name it, you identify, you, you give it almost a brand.

Yes. What differentiates, and so I think, you know, people listening like. I, I think that's great advice to do that how you talk about how you as an agency do this for a company. Right. How would you advise, let's say you've got someone listening, they're a, they're a chief marketing officer. Mm-hmm. And they're kind of, they're feeling like they need to differentiate themself in their career.

Like, how would you apply this process for them? Like how, without an outside firm to do it? Well, if, are you talking about for them?

Barry Labov: Themselves personally? Yeah. Yes. For them personally. Well, here's, here's a way I would look at it, and I, I, I work with people on this. For instance, I, uh, I worked with a very talented programmer who said, I really wanna move up and I wanna do things.

And I go, okay, so what's, what's the deal? And he goes, well, the problem is I'm not the most advanced programmer. And I said, okay. But mm-hmm. That's not your differentiator. Hmm. You're the rare programmer who sees people as the answer. Hmm. You like to bring teams together? As opposed to just do your programming.

And he goes, well, yeah, that's who I am. I said, that's you. So the point is you have to say, look, here's where I position what I do. I'm kind of at the intersection of technology and relationships, right? I want the internal team, the external team, the clients, all the work together. And I love tackling those challenges.

Hmm. Now, my point is that's pretty good. Because it's also the truth. It's not like he's saying I'm the world's greatest program. Right? No, he's darn good, but he's the guy I want on my team. 'cause he, he's dealing with humans. So that's how I would say you, you look at what makes you unique. You know, I know I have weaknesses, right?

I know what I do well and I have a bunch of weaknesses. I have to position myself as these are the things I do well, and you know, it's not for everybody. You know, one, one thing we got realized, you know, this bart, but every brand is not supposed to be perfect for everybody.

Bart Egnal: Right. And I think, you know, you differentiate by who you're not there for as well.

Absolutely. Um, and, and what I like about your example is, you know, uh, the implicit advice is you don't have to do this. Like, if you're thinking about your own differentiation in the, in the workplace. Mm-hmm. And as you. You strive for your next career, you can ask someone who knows you very well. Oh yeah.

To almost conduct the same kind of assessment. Oh yeah. Right? The way you did for your, your programmer friend.

Barry Labov: Absolutely. Ask your friends, alright, what is it that I should never, ever change? What, what is it? Okay. And if they go, oh, Bart never change dot, and you keep hearing this, you go, huh uh, number one, that's my differentiator.

That's my differentiator. Number two, I better not change this.

Bart Egnal: Right. And then communicate and name it and communicate. So that, that leads us to, uh, what we talked about once you have this differentiation, which is really celebrating it. Right. Talk to me about how, like what is successful celebration and communication versus like, what's the wrong way to do it?

Barry Labov: Wrong way to do it is say, okay everybody, this is what we're doing. I want you to know that we have a new product, and pretty soon you're gonna see it on TV or you'll hear, hear about it, blah, blah, blah. Everybody get back to work. That's horrible. Hmm. What you do is you bring everybody in before the rest of the world sees it.

And you tell everybody, we've been listening to you, we've been working on this new product, we're ready to launch it. And guess who sees it first? You. And guess who played the most amazing role in this? You. And here's what you did. You did blah, blah, blah, which is significant. You did such and such a significant, et cetera.

And because of you, this product was created. So we want you to know all about it. We're gonna celebrate it, and then we're gonna launch it. To the world now what? So you really have

Bart Egnal: to create this community of, yeah. Like evangelist, champions, whatever word you use. Who, and you're saying. Pick the people who are instrumental in that, in the development of that product.

Barry Labov: Yeah. Pick the people that are, remember that We're all opinion leaders. So somebody turns to you and says, Hey Bart, what do you think of this? And you go, I don't know. The guy sit the top. Never talk to me about it. Okay, well that hurts. If they go, Hey Bart, what do you think of this new thing? Say, oh, it's amazing.

We did such amazing work on this. We did dot blah, blah, blah. It's incredible. That person goes, wow, this isn't. Credible, I gotta buy this thing.

Bart Egnal: So the leaders listening need to, you need to think about, you're gonna have to create those champions. You're going to have to bring them along before you launch.

And, and by launch, like, I'm assuming you mean a product, but also like a new strategy. Sure. Or a new division or, or what, any initiative really you're going to, once you have that differentiation, it sounds like you almost need this kind of advocate army. Is that fair? It is true. Um. If you have time for

Barry Labov: a brief story, we had a, yeah, of course.

We had a client who called me up and he said, I have this horrible no good car that nobody's buying. I need to talk to you 'cause we're replacing it with a brand new model. I come up, okay. And he says, uh, you ready to get to work on this Morale's terrible. I said, before you do it, I have a question. Do you know the name of the product that is the number one seller in your segment and has been for the last 10 years?

He said, I don't have an idea. I said, it's that no good ugly car that you guys have been making. It's the number one seller. And he stopped everything, Bart. And he said, okay. What? Yeah. He said, I didn't realize it. He said, we have been beating ourselves up over this product 'cause it's had some problems. He throws, and this, this answers your question of a minute and a half ago.

He throws this big event together immediately has all employees in there and he said, number one, I apologize. We have not been showing respect to what we've been doing. Yes, we're gonna have a brand new product coming out that will replace our old one. Mm-hmm. But our old one's been number one, and because of all of you here, we have been able to invest and create.

Absolutely superior product. Wow. You've made all the difference. People all of a sudden stood up on their own standing ovation, and you know what? They were crying because this was the first time they realized what they were doing was significant. They actually had meaning in what they did.

Bart Egnal: Hmm. And so was, was the, had they just been too close to the challenges of this car?

Is that like, is that what led them to have this kind of misperception?

Barry Labov: Yeah, they were so close. They got so used to being at the top in the early days that it was no longer ery. And then as time went on, yeah, they were eroding in sales, but they're still number one. And there were more problems creeping in and the product was looking bad.

And you know, people were making comments about it internally and the morale just slipped. But if you slip around, slip like that, leaders, your people feel terrible. And all of a sudden the people thought, you know, why do I care about this place? So we have to realize that if we don't have our people united, and it's not easy to do, but if they, if we don't have them united, we lose them.

Bart Egnal: And it also sounds like in that instance, to your point, the differentiation was working in the marketplace. Yes. That, that people were going, I wonder, you know, uh, you mentioned when we were, when we were prepping, you said, you know. Make progress, not perfection. Yeah. When it comes to, you know, celebrating differentiation and, and you know, let's bring this into music.

You know, this, this was a year I went to more concerts than ever. Mm-hmm. I probably saw six or seven amazing concerts and some of those you talk about the differentiation and, and yet the consistency, like two, two punk rock bands from when I was a little kid, I went to see Blink 180 2. Sure. I went to see the Offspring.

Oh yeah. And you know. Very different, you know, approaches the OS figure, I would characterize as we're old and we don't care and we're still doing the same stuff, and the blink guys is a little bit more like we're still 20 and you know, it's, it felt the same. But how do you, like what the question I wanted to put to you as someone in the music business, when we thinks about.

These things around celebrating when time goes on is I asked myself how do they do it and when it's still the same thing year after year, after year after year, which for me, I only see, you know, every three years, but for them is like 30 shows. Can you talk about advice? Insights and an advice for leaders in that, in maintaining that quality and differentiation over time?

Barry Labov: you're talking about how do you maintain that passion and how do you keep people excited about what you're doing and Right. Because your car

Bart Egnal: example, like they're still crushing it, but people were down. Right. And yet, yeah. So that's, that is a great way of phrasing it.

Barry Labov: The thing I tell leaders is don't wait till the annual holiday party or the picnic during the summer to say, Hey, everybody, you're doing a good job.

Do it every day, but do it sincerely. Be authentic. Tell somebody, Hey, by the way, I know that you got some warranty claims yesterday and they came in, it was crazy. But it's so good. You're really taking care of our customers 'cause we really need it. Our customers love the way we treat them. Let people know in real time, don't save it up.

And the other thing I'm gonna say is, please don't talk about. Profit unless you're sharing it. Don't talk about stock price unless everybody's sharing in the stock price. Because otherwise you're just saying, Hey, we're the fat cats are getting rich off you people. So let people know what they're doing and why it's significant and why you care about it.

Bart Egnal: Makes a lot of sense. And I like that frequency. You know, I think it, it's so, it's so key. Uh, the last thing I'll ask you around this. Concept of celebrating differentiation and eng, and I love the way you're talking about engaging kind of your group of the people who actually help you differentiate to, to celebrate.

That is, you talked about the difference between cheerleading and sincere, authentic celebration. Can you characterize what, what, put something on one side of that line or the other?

Barry Labov: You know, cheerleading is, Hey everybody, we're a really great group of people and we're the best people I've ever worked with, and you guys are great and you're funny, and I just love being with you guys.

We're a big family. Okay? That's useless. Nobody cares. Authenticity is, Hey, everybody, and, and I'll, I'll quote from a client of mine. Hey everybody, there's a lot of rumors going on out there that we're gonna lay people off and my client said, look. I'm gonna tell you right now, I cannot promise we will not, but here's what I will promise.

I will fight every second of every day to make sure we don't. And I'm gonna do everything possible. And I also promise that if I learn that we must do it, I will tell you immediately. But I want all of you to know I have confidence we can get through this together. Now, I have a client who said that he never laid off anybody, but he was honest.

I mean, it was a tough time. Mm-hmm. But you know, everybody was thinking Uhoh, he didn't mention this or that. The last time he talked Uhoh, I bet that means he's gonna fire us. And he got right up there and told everybody. And that, that's a brave leader. That is

Bart Egnal: brave. And I really like that, um, that willingness to stand there and have that authenticity.

So y you know, let's bring this all back to music before we wrap up. You know who Sure. You know, when you look at differentiation today, you know, you're talking about some of the old, the old gang. You know who today, maybe I'll get, say a few artists. You tell me what you think about their differentiation.

Taylor Swift. Okay.

Barry Labov: Uh, boy, that's a tough one for me. Uh, originality. Mm-hmm. And the reason I say that is what makes her different isn't that she's smiley and she's cute and she can sing, but she writes her songs, okay. And so many of her competitors do not write their own songs. So originality.

Bart Egnal: I love it.

Okay, here's another one. And maybe this is a twofer. My, my 13-year-old would want me to ask you this one. Drake and Kendrick. Wow.

Barry Labov: Uh, I gotta pass on that one. I, I, I'm, I don't, I don't know enough on those two. Ed Shean, no. Uh, unoriginal. Unoriginal, yeah. He's been caught stealing songs. Yeah. There's, there's his differentiation, right?

So, um, I would say there was the fact that he is, uh, he's a soundalike. He's, he's that, he's, he's that kind of guy. He's not the original that Taylor is. And last but not least, one of my old favorites, I haven't heard in far too long. You too. Collaborative and here's why. They share in the songwriting credits on every song.

That's why they're still in there together. Every song is a collaboration

Bart Egnal: and, and that's a perfect ending because I think, you know, what you're really leaving me with is sense of, you know, one differentiation matters, whether you're a business, a band, or an individual. Two, you've really gotta get clear on that.

But then three, you as a leader. Have to take ownership of energizing and empowering, and through collaboration, the people who are going to bring that, that differentiation to life.

Barry Labov: You're a hundred percent Bart. I'll tell you, I really appreciate your insights because you get it, and I love that you've been able to go off on some brilliant tangents comparing music and, you know, other areas.

I think it, it enriches the conversation. You, I,

Bart Egnal: I've learned a lot from you. I think this is a, I'm glad you wrote this book. I'm glad we've, we've had this conversation. Um, I'm certainly taking away a new set of. Thoughts use when we work with leaders in terms of their ability to inspire. So appreciate you coming on the pod.

Barry. Where can people get your book and kind of get connected more with the work that you're doing?

Barry Labov: You can buy the book on Amazon or any major book store site, but Amazon please leave a review. Uh. You can reach me at my website, barry labov.com. You can look at some of the keynote speeches I've done.

I'm doing a lot of those now. Or visit me on LinkedIn and I'll connect with you.

Bart Egnal: Awesome. And we'll put notes or, or links to those, uh, those places in the show notes. So thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for helping talk. Differentiation and congrats on the book. Hopefully first of many. Thank you very much.

I hope you enjoyed that episode of the Inspire Podcast and the conversation that I had, uh, with our guests, and hopefully you left with some really practical, tangible tools and tips that you can use to be more consistently inspirational if you're enjoying the pod. I'll ask you a favor. Please rate and review it.

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Thanks so much for listening. Go forth and inspire.