This episode was recorded at the beginning of March 2022, when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine was first beginning.

In today’s very special episode, we’re dissecting everything from internet sex to the conflict in Ukraine, to category design.

Christopher Lochhead is a legendary founder of the management discipline, Category Design. But more than that, he’s someone I admire greatly, and my honorary uncle who tells me shit when I need to hear it.

He describes himself as a dyslexic paper boy from Montreal, who got thrown out of school at 18. So, with no other options, he became an entrepreneur, then a three-time, Silicon Valley public company CMO. After he sold Mercury to HP for $4.5B (back when that was a lot!) in 2006, he hung up his glove as an “operating guy”.

He describes his work as "what might happen if the Harvard Business Review got drunk at a dive bar with some very smart, very funny badasses" 🏴‍☠️

His books, Play Bigger, and Niche Down, are must-reads for ANY leader or business owner, regardless of industry. I’m serious. You can’t afford not to read them, and also subscribe to his newsletter, Category Pirates, where you get more valuable info in bite-sized nuggets than an MBA. No joke.

Lochhead on the Decline in Real Men

“Our world tends to produce a whole lot more legendary women than legendary men.” - Lochhead

If you can rent a bridesmaid and have virtual sex, is there depth in a relationship anymore?

Lochhead and I dissect this topic from our native digital + native analog viewpoints today. Our conclusions are surprisingly similar.

And what is the role of legendary men in raising children with values – both male and female – to be people of character?

“The degree to which children have at least one male role model who are real men – not in a macho way – but 360 men with ethics, morals, who conduct themselves in an admirable way, who have thoughtful decision-making, and strong relationships in their lives, and successful in their careers – is correlated with a child’s well-being and chance of success.” – Christopher Lochhead

Lochhead on Category Design

“Category Design is about the ability to create and dominate a new market category. In business, there’s an assumption that gets made that’s undeclared, undiscussed… It’s wrong. It’s the big brand lie.” – Christopher Lochhead

What are category kings? They are the businesses that own 76% of any given market category.

Guess what happens to the other 24%? ALL the other businesses fight over it. The smallest portion of the pie.

“There are over 50,000 business strategy books on the market. The vast majority have this same contextual scaffolding: how products disrupt markets, and products take over the market. The contextual lens we all seem to have is Brand > Business Model > Product. The problem with that thinking is it’s just not fucking right.” – Christopher Lochhead

Lochhead states that disruptive products do NOT take over markets. Here’s the proof:

Did you have a Red Bull Cola anytime recently? Did you enjoy a Colgate Lasagna recently? These were both real products.

Category Design is for people who have NO interest in competing. Instead, they are creating new categories and dominating them.

The First Native Digital War

“What we’re seeing in Russia/Ukraine is the first Native Digital war. This is why Zelensky does his own direct-to-constituent news broadcasts on Instagram. Putin stands in his made-up fake studio to make himself like he’s the grand puma king shit of turd island, and he talks on TV. And he’s completely lost the propaganda war.” - Lochhead

Enough said? Companies are pulling out of Russia left and right. Lochhead is helping lead this charge in Silicon Valley to shape the outcome of the war.

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More About Lochhead:

Seriously. Go subscribe to Category Pirates.

Listen to Follow Your Different and Lochhead on Marketing

Check out Lochhead’s Books: Play Bigger and Niche Down

Linkedin

lochhead.com

About Lochhead (from Lochhead himself):

I co-Created a new management discipline called Category Design, have been an advisor to over 50 venture backed startups, am a limited partner investor in a few top-tier VC funds, I’ve helped a handful of companies go public, been part of countless M&A transactions, served on many boards, been on the cover of magazines (it’s not all that, really!), hit the top of the author, podcast, and newsletter charts (that is very fun) and been fired a whole bunch. (Comes with being a pirate!... and it isn’t that scary?)

I believe if you're lucky enough to make it to the top of a mountain, you should throw down a rope. So that's what I'm trying to do.

Today, I live in Northern California at the beach, with my wife, a legendary group of friends, 6 hens, and three rescue cats.

I’ve been lucky enough to share the microphone and stage with a wide-range legends like:

President Barack Obama, General Colin Powell, NBA Legend Bill Walton, General Stanley McChrystal, Navy Seal Chris Fussell, Billionaire Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Olympic Champion Kerri Walsh Jennings, #1 Legal Escort Alice Little, Greatest Chess Master of all time Garry Kasparov, the “Real DEA Narcos” Steve Murphy and Javier Peña, Netflix Founding CEO Marc Randolph, #1 technology analyst Ray Wang, Entrepreneur/VC David Sacks.

UFC Champion Luke Rockhold, Category Creation Guru Eddie Yoon, 1st blind person to summit Mt. Everest Erik Weihenmayer, billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Hoffman, baseball legend Darryl Strawberry, billionaire entrepreneur Tom Golisano, Former #1 adult entertainment star Mia Khalifa, Stanford Prof. Margaret Ann Neale, VC Brad Feld, Stanford Prof. Tina Seelig, NBA legend Andre Iguodala, 1-800-Got-Junk Founder Brian Scudamore, Entrepreneur/VC Mike Maples, Jr., Navy Seal Brent Gleeson, Cards Against Humanity Founder Max Temkin, Strava Co-Founder Mark Gainey, billionaire entrepreneur Tom Siebel, UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten.

I've also shared the mic with best-selling authors such as Dushka Zapata, Kim Scott (Radical Candor), Hal Erod (Miracle Morning), Ken Blanchard (One Minute Manager), Tucker Max (I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell), Sebastian Junger (Perfect Storm), Dr. Avi Loeb (Harvard’s top astronomer), Kevin Maney (Play Bigger), Amy Morin (13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do), Safi Bahcall (Loonshots), Jules Pieri, Jim Campbell (Madoff Talks), Joe Pine (Experience Economy), (Ryan Holiday (Lives of The Stoics), Courtney Carver, Abby Ellin (Duped)and countless others.

Over the years my work’s been featured in/on places like:

Harvard Business Review, CNBC, CNN, Fox Business, Associated Press, The Economist, CBS News, Fortune, Forbes, Business Insider, and countless podcasts.