better than them, losing to them anyway

Christian Ray Flores here, a little jet lagged but happy to be sleeping in my own bed after 3 weeks travel.

better than them, losing to them anyway

I had a music video production company.

It failed.

Not because we weren’t good. We were good. It failed because I had no idea what I was doing on the business side. That’s a hard thing to sit with when you’ve poured everything into something.

Heavy hearted, I picked myself up and started over. Took everything I knew about media and launched a new company — Third Drive Media. Almost no portfolio. No reputation in this new space. I took whatever job walked through the door.

Then one day a scientist from NASA Earth Sciences reached out. Needed a logo for one of their international projects. I was just grateful someone found me. We did the work, got paid a few hundred dollars, said thank you — and they kept calling.

Four or five projects over the years. Each one they came back to us.

The last logo we did for them paid 12 times what that first one did.

Let that land for a second.

Same team. Same hands. My people weren’t more talented or more creative on that last logo. We didn’t have better equipment or a deeper process. Nothing about our capability had changed that dramatically.

But to them — we were known. We were trusted. We were the team that had shown up and delivered, again and again. And the market pays a completely different price for that than it does for equally skilled and invisible.

Years later, Third Drive has worked with some remarkable businesses and nonprofits — helping them tell their stories well enough to raise millions in investments and donations. None of that came from being the loudest. It came from being known and trusted by the right people.

You already know this feeling.

Someone gets the opportunity. The client. The speaking slot. The introduction that changes everything. And you look at their resume, their work, their track record — and you know. You know you’re the better option.

It’s not a good feeling.

The person beating you isn’t better. They just made one decision you haven’t made yet — that becoming known is as much the job as doing the job. I’m going to show you why that single decision resets the entire game, and give you the exact framework to make it yours.

This one is for my paid subscribers. If you haven’t become one, now is a good time.