Ep 39 Transcript: Why Following the Crowd Might Be Holding You Back

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and thank you so much for joining me today. Imagine this, I'm at this big event. It's kind of that kind where it feels like half the city is in attendance. And so the event ends and everyone just starts filing out, moving in like one big slow wave toward the escalator. And it's super crowded and super backed up and people are bumping into each other. Everyone's getting kind of frustrated, but you know, they're just making their way, taking their time.

And as I'm standing there, I look over and I notice something a little bit odd. There's another escalator that's going in the same direction. We all need to go up. There's a second escalator going up and there's not a single person on it. It's completely empty. Everyone is so focused on following the person in front of them that they've been completely missed the fact that there's this whole other escalator there. And there's probably people who are getting closer to it and seeing that there's this other escalator.

And then thinking, well, there must be a reason why no one else is going there, right? So what do I do? I step out of line, I head to this other escalator. And sure enough, people start following me afterwards. I mean, I'm out of the door in no time. And this was a massive lineup that could have been taken basically half the time to get out there. So the line was, you know, pretty long lineup. That's just, like I said, kind of going with the flow. And so this moment really stuck with me. And I kept thinking like,

It's such a perfect example of how we often operate in life and in business. You know, we kind of put your heads down, you follow the crowd, you end up waiting in line. And worse than that, you can end up actually missing out on these opportunities. So today I want to dive into, know, why this happens, the risks of always kind of sticking with the pack and how to train yourself to look up and to take a different path and to recognize the opportunities that are out there. So there is a bit of science behind this whole following the crowd thing. There's actually

In our psychology, in our psyche, as humans, are actually wired to follow the crowd, especially in uncertain situations. So psychologists call this social proof. It's sort of our brain's way of saying if everyone else is doing it, it must be the right thing to do. And so they actually did this study that showed this is called Solomon Asch's Conformity Experiment. In the study, the participants were shown a series of lines and asked to identify the one that matched the length of a target line.

Pretty simple, right? Here's the twist though. In some rounds, they threw in some actors to give the wrong answer on purpose. And you won't believe this, or maybe you will. Many participants conformed to that incorrect choice. So there was a group of them saying, you well, this is clearly the right line. And so other people just gave in and agreed with it, even when they knew that this was wrong. So what's the lesson here? The lesson is that often we will prioritize

fitting in over making our own decisions, even if it means ignoring what's obviously right. This is sort of that herd mentality in nature as well. So following the crowd in nature is often a survival strategy. So you might think of, you know, fish swimming in schools or sheep moving in flocks. It protects them from predators and helps them to find food. But here's the problem. We as humans, we're not sheep. We're definitely not fish.

And in our world, blindly following the crowd doesn't always keep us safe. It can actually hold us back. A very great modern example of this is traffic. Studies have actually shown that people will pile into a line that's moving slowly just because everyone else is there. Meanwhile, there might be an adjacent lane that's wide open, but no one uses it because they assume that everyone else must know something that they don't. And this might be sounding kind of familiar to you. You might be that person that just bypasses that lineup of cars.

in that open lane because I mean, it's open, but maybe you're the person who says, well, you know what, if there's this lineup of cars here, I should probably get into that lane instead. So what do you miss when you're following the crowd? You're miss opportunities for starters. Let's go back to that escalator story. The people in the line weren't just wasting time. They were missing an obvious alternative because they just weren't paying attention. And the same thing happens in life and in business all the time. When you follow what everyone else is doing, you're gonna risk missing out on paths that could actually get you further.

faster. So think of entrepreneurs who were early adopters of platforms like TikTok or Clubhouse. Think of entrepreneurs who have been early at adopting using video in their marketing techniques or even getting a website or getting a social media page of any sort. Maybe they were early adopters of utilizing AI in a positive way, of course. These are people who have gained, I don't want to say they've gained the system, but

They've gained exposure, they've gained opportunities, all while others are kind of stuck on these other platforms. You know, when new things come out, it can be scary. When Facebook first came out, it was scary. When Instagram first came out, it was scary. But look at what it's done for people on TikTok and how incredibly people have blown up on that. We just talked about this in last week's episode.

where we had Lorna Costa on and she was talking about her immense following on TikTok and how she gets all of her clients from social media because of that. This is because of her not being afraid to take that platform and adopt it as one of her own. So the other thing that ends up happening if we're following the crowd is that we don't get creative, we don't get innovative. You're not thinking outside of the box. When you're always following, you stop.

you stop having that ability to think creatively. If you are a data processor, for example, where you're just basically doing data entry all day long, at no point are you looking to see whether or not the information that you are entering computes in any way. You're not trying to manipulate the numbers. You're not trying to calculate anything. And when you get so used to doing that, you might find that that spills into other aspects of your life where, OK, well, if I'm used to following the crowd, I'm just kind of doing what I'm told.

and you're not using that side of your brain that's asking you to use some common sense, use some logic to troubleshoot some things and utilize those problem solving skills. And so those can die out as well as that creativity. Do you remember Kodak? So these guys were pioneers in photography, but when digital cameras started to emerge, they absolutely ignored that trend because they were too focused on what had always worked for them. And by the time that they realized their mistake, it was too late.

Another great example that I've spoken about previously is Blockbuster. Blockbuster absolutely dominated the movie scene, the at-home movie scene. And when things started going digital and streaming came out, they were given opportunities. Netflix actually approached Blockbuster about partnering up. And Blockbuster said, no, imagine where they would be today. So the lesson here is that innovation will often require you to step away from the crowd and take some risks.

When you think about doing something, you might get some pushback. Someone else might say to you, well, no one else is doing that. Why would you think to do that? Why would you even try to do that? No one else is doing that. And that's kind of the point, isn't it? We kind of want to do the things that no one else is doing. Another downside when you follow the crowd is that you end up competing with everyone else in the same space. And I've talked about this before. You talk about your unique selling position or your USP.

wow factor, that thing that makes you super awesome for, and the reason why people want to work with you. I once had a coffee with a local real estate agent. And I got to say, there's a lot of real estate agents in my area. I think in most cities, this is true. And I was asking him about his brand and why his clients hire him, what makes him different. And when I asked him what makes him different, he said, what are you talking about? I said, nothing. I'm a real estate agent. We're a dime a dozen.

And I thought that was really interesting because it showed that he wasn't even trying to be different. He was basically going to just go about his day, do the same thing that anyone else was doing. And that's, and just assuming that he's just going to grow a business that way. And yeah, don't get me wrong. At the end of the day, all real estate agents sell and buy houses with their clients, but there's more to it than that. There's more that they can be doing. There's more they can be doing to set themselves apart. So.

When you're competing with everyone else in the same space, that market gets overcrowded and your chances of standing out decrease. So think about some oversaturated trends in business, like every coffee shop suddenly offering pumpkin spice, right? While the crowd is fighting over the same customers, a smaller niche could be thriving with a unique offering. So instead of everyone offering pumpkin spice, maybe someone's coming up with whatever the next big thing is going to be in coffee shops. So how do you break free from the crowd? How do you...

step out of that line and take the empty escalator, take that empty road or that empty lane on the road. Well, you want to start by just looking around you. Think critically. It's simple, but it's powerful. Just pause, look up, assess the situation. Stop staring at your feet. Stop looking at the person in front of you. Look around you. Just like spotting that empty escalator, take a moment to see what others might be missing.

Now, if everyone in your industry is chasing the same trend, ask yourself, is this right for me or am I just following it because everybody else is? If it doesn't feel right for you just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean you have to. I will tell you that in the home staging industry, I've spent 15 years in that industry. So I definitely know a thing or two in there. And I got to tell you, I was a little bit of a disruptor when I first started in there. There were things that I was doing that it was able no one was no one else is doing that. And

I love when I hear people say, that's just not how we do things. And don't get me wrong, there are good reasons for overall, like the home staging principles in terms of furniture placement, in terms of lighting, but decor trends change. So why wouldn't home staging principles change? Things that we used to be able to get away with in staging 10, 15, 20 years ago don't fly anymore. Things have definitely evolved.

You know, so there are things and I mean no disrespect if there are areas of the world that are still doing some of these things because they might track in certain areas. Every area, every market is going to be different, of course. But things like when I first started staging, we were putting, you know, those fold up breakfast and bed type trays on the beds with like a little vase with a flower in it. You're not seeing those things anymore. Right. But that was something that we were doing at that time. It was something that a lot of the hotels were doing when they were promoting their services. And so it was something that we were kind of mimicking as well.

And it made sense. But after a while, it just didn't make sense anymore. But aside from just the overall aesthetics of home staging, there were a lot of principles in terms of what stagers did and did not do and how they did and how their contracts worked, for example. And there is good reason, again, behind why some of these are put in place. But it doesn't mean that you can't look at those things and say, well, can I do that? Is there way that I can do it that's profitable, that's efficient, that's not going to cause a ton of headaches?

Because chances are the reason why we're not doing something is because someone tried it at some point and it just didn't work. But as things change, as the world evolves, as new opportunities develop, as new software becomes available, new technology, new tools, is there a point in re-looking at that? Maybe in seeing if there is a way that you can actually do that now. Just because you've always done something a certain way doesn't mean that's how you should always do it. So once you've assessed the situation, trust yourself.

You know, I think too often we say I can guess our instincts because they don't align with what the crowd is doing. And so right now, today, I am giving you permission to not follow the crowd, to do your own thing and to carve your own path. A great example of this is Elon Musk. Love him or hate him. He has taken countless risks from the electric cars to space exploration because he trusted his vision, even when others thought he was absolutely crazy.

Now, it's not to say that there haven't been plenty of bumps along the road and it's not to say that there haven't been a lot of challenges with those companies and the things that he set out to do. And I know that he pushes his team incredibly hard. And I'm not necessarily saying that I am his biggest fan by any means, but you've got to have a level of respect for someone who was looking at things and saying, I'm going to do that. You know, the Back To The Future movie outlined a lot of areas where like, this could actually exist in the future.

And there's a few people that actually took inspiration from that and said, you know, I'm going to set out to actually create some of these things. We still don't quite have the hover boards or some of the things that were in that movie. But the point is, though, that if we don't think outside the box, if we don't think about the next big thing, the next big thing is never created. iPhone is a great example of this as well. It completely revolutionized how we look at cell phones and what it is that we do with those smartphones.

Blackberry was dominating the market at the time and iPhone came out with a new gadget, a new way of doing things. And frankly, Blackberry didn't take them very seriously either. They thought no one was actually going to like something that didn't have a keyboard and that was all sorts of games on it. It was just such a different experience, but lo and behold, who now holds the largest share of the market, right? okay, so.

The next thing want you to do is practice observing and questioning. So when you're out there and you're observing what's going on, you know, make it a habit to question what the status quo is. Ask yourself, is there another way to do this? What's the path that no one else is taking? Am I following this trend because it's right for me or because it's popular? You know, so I want you to challenge yourself this week to notice one area, whether personal or business, where you might be following a crowd and find an alternative path to take instead.

Even if you just try it out for a day or two, but think outside the box, think about something else that might make sense to you and explore that. OK, so I want you to reflect on this, you know, instead of blindly following the crowd. Let's make sure that you're not missing out on some important opportunities. Let's ensure that you are not stifling your own creativity and those around you as well. So if you have a team, have you found that there's been times where you have advised them not to explore a certain route because

you've already tried it and it didn't work out for whatever reason. Instead, arm them with the knowledge that you have and encourage them to keep pursuing another way of doing things and see if they can come up with a solution. You don't want to stifle their creativity. Certainly you want to help them to avoid making mistakes that you've already made. If there's something that's been tried, tested, true, obviously it does make sense to an extent to do it that way, but encourage them still to continually improve. Whenever I'm training a new team member,

I will teach them our standard operating procedures and I will explain to them this is the way that we do things. And what I always ask them to do is to first learn not only how we do things, but why we do it that way. But if they come up with any way that this can be improved on, let me know. Because I'm always open to change and improvement. If they can come to me with a follow through plan as to how this is going to make things better, more efficient, I want them to challenge me. And so you want to challenge yourself, you want others to be able to challenge you to be able to break free.

From that, follow the crowd mentality. And instead, look up, trust yourself, and question the norm. All right. So next time you find yourself in a line, whether it's a literal line or a metaphorical one, I want you to pause and look around and see if there's an empty escalator waiting for you. And when you find it taken, I'd love to hear about your experience. So feel free to share it with us on social media and let us know how you've taken advantage of this lesson today. So.

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Thank you so much for tuning in this week. Until next time, everyone, keep thriving.