Project Distinct Podcast

If your competition gains an advantage, the first response is to imitate it.  However, that dilutes any distinction you have in the marketplace - and fails to inspire customers or employees.  Today, Scott McKain examines the first of the three “Destroyers of Differentiation."

A story without a heroic and powerful ending will fail to engage the audience -- they will neither remember nor recommend you! Today's PROJECT DISTINCT (from the road in Phoenix) examines why your ending is important -- and how to enhance every story that you tell!

Today’s PROJECT DISTINCT continues our examination of how we can tell OUR stories in a dynamic and distinctive manner. Act Two of the compelling business story is known by many names: “raising the stakes,” “confrontation,” or “rising action” - Scott calls it “our search for resolution.”  No matter how it’s known, having an Act Two that makes  your story more compelling is critical to making it persuasive. 

We’ve all heard that “whoever tells the best story…wins!”  Yet few of us have really examined how we can tell OUR stories in a more compelling and distinctive manner.  Today’s PROJECT DISTINCT focuses upon what Scott McKain believes is the most missing element in business storytelling: an Act One that creates tension…and that moves YOUR audience to become emotionally engaged with what happens next.

As Las Vegas casinos begin to charge for valet parking - and set minimums on how much you play the slots before you can have a free drink - they’re eliminating services that (rightly or wrongly) customers have come to EXPECT.  You cannot grow customer loyalty by eliminating or charging for elements of the experience that you’ve traditionally provided as part of the essence of doing business.  On today’s new PROJECT DISTINCT, Scott McKain reveals the single most overlooked aspect of your business’s bottom line!

On today’s episode, Scott discusses the pitfalls of retirement and the choice to be, or not to be distinctive.

Recent studies have revealed the world’s toughest jobs, and on today’s PROJECT DISTINCT, Scott McKain will present that list.  He’ll also offer up an additional one as his choice for “world’s toughest job” in this globally competitive, instant gratification environment.  Could it be YOUR job that’s the toughest?

According to a vice president of the world-renown research firm, Gartner, there are five disciplines that every leader needs to employ to create the future that you and your organization desires.  On today’s PROJECT DISTINCT, Scott McKain reveals those choices - and how centuries of research on leadership provides insights that are still relevant in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace.

Often, we rely on our instincts -- our "gut feel" -- to tell us if someone is the right fit on our team.  Research, however, suggests that might be the cause of having employees who are disengaged and undermotivated.  On today's PROJECT DISTINCT, Scott McKain explores why that is the case -- and what you should do to improve your ability to hire the "right" person for your next opening.

From a one-person business to an organizational behemoth, every company has a “culture.”  A recent story about Amazon leads Scott McKain to provide his insights on how a distinctive culture internally creates distinctive experiences for customers externally.