Yesterday, was a special day to me, we got together with 4 members of the "Engineers Can Talk" community, 3 took the stage to share their talk. We listened, asked questions, then had a dinner where we socialized, shared stories and got to know each other better. It felt so good to give the stage to other Entrepreneurial Engineers, they led the program making it feel "alive" !

In short

• Insight 1 : Talking about the root-cause vs Talking about the Symptoms
• Insight 2 : Talking is like a radar sounding the area to detect a "heat signature"
• A dream come true : snapshot from our first community talks

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Exactly at this time last year, I had never talked yet publicly about what I do (want to do), it was only in my head and private conversations.

Things changed on January 31st 2024 when I hosted my first event "Positioning Hacked", about 30 people showed up entrepreneur friends, people from our co-working space community. Just vocalizing what I had to share, created a vortex that allowed new insights to emerge.

Insight 1 : Talking about the root-cause vs Talking about the Symptoms

Many entrepreneurs, especially engineer-type, had no clue about what "positioning" is unless an investor, or a coach or a creative agency told them "you should work on your positioning". Those were really hot and receptive, and became immediately my clients after the talk. ✅

As engineers we are good at getting to the root-cause. But when we communicate, the prospect, is most likely unaware of the cause. When we talk about a symptom they get it. Which doctor (if they were advertising) would we pay most attention to ? the one who says

• "Heal pneumonia ! join my practice to help you treat it" or
• "Hey, you've been coughing for more than 24h, we should talk!"

You get the point. In our communication are we leading with root-causes (what we've identified) or symptoms (what they experience) ?

Insight 2 : Talking is like a radar sounding the area to detect a "heat signature"

As a radar, to know if an object exist you need to send a signal, then read the echo.

Talking is like a radar signal, through the feedback we get a signal if there is a hotspot or not.

And mine was, in a response to my first talk "...But Othmane, we are engineers ... we can't talk !" boom !(zebra)
That sparkled ⚡ and lit all the fuel ⛽ I've built all those year, to become the fire that is still burning today 🔥 "Engineers Can Talk".

The question is : do we talk to our customers ? do we talk to people ahead of us (client, aspirational, boss) ? do we talk to our peers (others in similar situations, partners, competitors) ? do we talk to people behind us in their journey (youger-selves, juniors) ? When we talk in 3D top⬆ peers➡, and down⬇ we will learn so much about what's right there hidden in plain sight👀. So obvious we wouldn't be able to articulate it better than someone mirroring it to us.

Dream come true

I have big dreams, but I will talk only about those that happened. Like our first community talks with members taking the stage, here is what I learned from the experience

• We need more in-person meetups, monthly is good. (members already planning one in Ulm/Germany this quarter)
• We need more human connections, especially as technology is more present than ever (remote/zoom/AI...)
• We all have something to say, something unique to share, that would only be obvious once vocalized.
• We help no one if we stay in our head, talking about what matters, sharing is the first form of value creation
• About year ago, it was a dream, seeing taking shape into reality was a deeply touching experience
• Something crystalized in my mind, I am fired up for the next decade 🔥 (Inchallah!)

Till next week !