Expanding Your Business Through Technology with Draymond Green

Over the last year and a half, through my efforts on the television show Cleveland Hustles, as well as my writing here and videos I’ve put out on YouTube, I’ve become obsessed with helping small businesses grow.

The value of small businesses in our neighborhoods and local communities cannot be overstated, and a key theme I revisit time and again is the importance of small businesses adopting big business thinking in order to scale.

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you rely on your intuition when it comes to gauging where the world is going in terms of market shifts. Just as well, you also rely on your networking skills to try and build the strategic partnerships that can help propel your business forward.

As we learned recently, attending big tech events like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas can be helpful for both gauging the future and meeting new partners, giving you the upper hand to dominate your industry. It’s a conference I attend every single year. Events like CES inspire you because they let you see where the future is going through all the latest innovations in consumer technology.

One of the individuals who has been on the CES tour with me the last two years is NBA Champion & All-Star player Draymond Green. I caught up with him at this year’s event and asked him a few questions.

Here are some of his big tech takeaways along with my thoughts on how they can help expand your business:

Everything is technology now

When I asked Draymond what the biggest difference between this year’s and last year’s event was for him, he mentioned the need for focus. “This year, I’ve gotten engaged in the things that interest me, versus last year trying to pay attention to everything. You end up missing more than you catch,” he told me.

And that’s the key to successfully extracting real business value out of events like CES. First, you need to understand that technology is everywhere now, invading every industry. No matter what your business supports or does, it’s important to focus in on how specific technologies are disrupting your industry and how they can be applied to your business to make your product(s) more interesting to customers.

What most caught Draymond’s attention at this year’s event, for instance, was autonomous cars like those from company Faraday Future. It shows you where the world is going, and if you’re a business owner who relies on any form of automotive--whether for transportation, product distribution and delivery, or otherwise--it shows you where your industry will be heading in the not-so-distant future.

The connected home is opening doors for brands

The concept of a fully connected home is another intriguing development that’s been taken to the next level this year. As Draymond put it, “Another thing that’s really starting to surprise me is how brands are starting to cross over into everything.”

He mentioned brands like Samsung and Sony who, to many, were once known primarily for selling televisions and speakers. Fast forward to today and you can add phones, tablets, wearables, and virtual reality to their list of offerings, among other things.

Perhaps a better example of “brands crossing over into everything” would be Amazon's virtual assistant, Alexa, which was everywhere at CES again this year. In addition to the millions of Echo and Echo Dot smart speakers Amazon has sold in the last year, a number of new products were unveiled with full Alexa controls built right in, making it easier than ever for brands to create “skills” or appliances that work within the connected home.

As a trend that will only continue to grow, you need to consider the impact it will have on your business and the potential advantages of adapting to it early.

VR is going to change entertainment

Virtual reality was still present in a very big way at this year’s CES, as a future of mass adoption around the technology still holds enormous potential. When I asked Draymond what he thought about it, he said, “I think VR’s amazing and when it becomes just a pair of glasses it’s going to be next-level.”

It’s fun to think about because it’s a long-term vision that has amazing potential to impact so many industries. It’s going to completely change entertainment, for starters. Imagine being able to sit in your home, put on a pair of glasses to watch an NBA game, and all of a sudden you feel like you’re sitting at center court watching your favorite team live.

When you start to consider the realm of possibilities with VR, you start to realize that it could have a dramatic impact on your business. Look to the future and consider how you might be able to tap into this potential, whether it be creating product demos and tours as virtual content, or fun experiential things like pop-up shops that you can implement to really take your business to that next level.

It’s inspiring to walk the floor of a big tech event like CES. It puts you in a mental place where you need to be in order to see the future of your business. It shows you what you need to be cognizant of, up to speed in, and ultimately where everything is going.

“I recommend everybody come here, because it's going to show you how to expand your business and take that next step in order to reach greatness.” - Draymond Green

Watch my chat with Draymond Green about autonomous vehicles, VR, the connected home, and more here:

And as always, if you have any questions or thoughts OR you want to come to CES 2018 with me, text me: (646) 759-1837