This 1m46s showreel captures Ken Schmidt’s core message about competitive distinction and the human drivers behind brand loyalty. He opens by asserting that loyalty to hardware is “counterhuman,” emphasizing that people are loyal to people, not products. Businesses that glorify the human element and center their identity on people naturally attract attention and emotional resonance, which is far more powerful than traditional selling.

Ken then draws from the Harley-Davidson example, explaining how the company has produced a uniquely recognizable sound for more than a century. The low, thundering boom instantly signals “Harley,” not simply “a motorcycle.” This distinction reflects the deeper emotional attachment customers feel toward the brand’s identity and community.

He expands the concept by noting that every business makes “noise,” defined as what people say about a company when discussing it with others. For most organizations, that noise is indistinguishable and forgettable, limited to generic descriptors like what they make or sell. This creates sameness, making companies difficult to remember and easy to replace.

Ken contrasts this with a different kind of noise, one earned when customers describe how a business makes them feel and why it stands apart. He argues that companies often focus on the wrong priorities because they were taught to concentrate on products, sales and competition.

His closing message is a call to action: stop chasing competitors and instead operate in a way that forces them to chase you. He urges leaders to take risks, break free from conformity and carve their own distinctive paths. By embracing differentiation and injecting more fun and boldness into their identity, organizations position themselves to be rewarded with stronger reputations, deeper loyalty and greater market dominance.

This 3m16s video features Ken Schmidt explaining how Harley-Davidson collapsed from near-total market dominance to a marginal player in less than a decade, and how the company rebuilt itself by shifting its focus from products to people.

Ken begins by describing his arrival at Harley in 1985. He jokes that he could spend hours detailing every mistake the company made, but he offers the core story instead. Harley had once controlled over 95 percent of the heavyweight motorcycle market in North America, a near monopoly. Within ten years, that market share had fallen below 20 percent. He explains that the brand’s collapse was self-inflicted: Harley glorified its product and centered its entire business around the motorcycle itself, mistakenly believing that was what customers valued most.

Competitors saw this vulnerability, quickly producing lookalike bikes priced 40 to 60 percent lower, and they captured Harley’s market simply by offering similar features at a lower cost. Ken emphasizes that these rivals didn’t “take” anything from Harley; Harley gave it away by mirroring the competition. By matching the same messages about quality, reliability and engineering, Harley inadvertently endorsed competing brands and made itself indistinguishable, raising an unavoidable question for customers: if both companies say the same thing, why pay more?

On his first day, Ken was assigned to “improve the company’s image,” a directive he calls naïve given how deeply product-centered Harley had become. Sitting behind a typewriter, he drafted three crucial questions that would reshape the company’s future. Those questions formed the foundation of Harley’s rebirth: understanding what makes a business attractive, what inspires advocacy and what differentiates a company in a crowded market.