Treat Customers As Peers

Sam Parr and Shaan Puri discuss how treating customers like intelligent peers while maintaining a casual, authentic tone has been a successful strategy across various industries. They explore examples from their own experiences and other successful businesses that have adopted this approach.

Key Points:

• Core Communication Philosophy:

  • Treat customers like "smart adults" without being condescending
  • Maintain a casual, friendly tone while remaining professional
  • Speak to customers as equals rather than talking down or trying to impress

• Successful Implementation Examples:

  • The Hustle's pitch: "Your smart, no-bullshit friend telling you what you need to know"
  • Milk Road adopted similar approach for crypto news
  • CB Insights (enterprise software) uses casual language despite $100k/year pricing
  • Wait But Why blog's success with "write for equals" philosophy
  • Philosophize This podcast making complex topics approachable

• Tim Urban's "Write for Equals" Principle:

  • Avoid temptation to create watered-down content for masses
  • Don't try to impress with unnecessarily complex language
  • Writing authentically attracts like-minded people
  • Easier to maintain authenticity than guess what others might like

• Business Applications Beyond Content:

  • Treat customers like humans rather than following rigid rules
  • Act like a "mom and pop" business even at scale
  • Maintain personal touch in professional settings
  • Focus on authentic relationships over formal business interactions

• Challenges:

  • Difficult to teach this approach to employees
  • Hard to maintain as organizations grow
  • Requires consistent effort to avoid falling into corporate speak
  • Balance between professional service and casual communication