Mark Sylvester: John Davies has a method, an approach he systematically developed over a career spanning three decades. He's proven it to be invaluable for dozens of industries and thousands of projects facing public acceptance. Up until now, the method has only been available to his select client list. John is unpacking his insight and wealth of knowledge to overcome opposition and earn public support for the first time right here. Throughout these episodes, we'll take a deep dive, step by step with John, into his strategies to overcome opposition and create support.

Mark Sylvester: Nothing is free in this world but good ideas are priceless. This show could be just the thing you've been looking for. I'm Mark Sylvester, now let's get started and talk with John. Well, welcome back, John. Welcome back to the show. We're going to dig into it now. The Davies method, we know there are four specific pieces to that, but the first one is called 'Acknowledge' and I want you to kind of unpack that for us. Why is it first?

John Davies: Well, first let me correct something. The Davies method is made up of creating a value based message and then a strategy for carrying it out, so what we're talking about now are the four steps of creating a value based message. We start with acknowledge and so the idea here is it's starting with truth and truth being hey, we're going to dig a hole in the ground, we're going to build some homes, we're going to make a change.

John Davies: We're going to do something interesting, so if we're doing a brown field, like we're going to have a lot more traffic. Here's a brown field, there's nothing going on there, we're going to have some more traffic. There will be traffic. We're going to build all these homes. We're going to build 2,000 homes here and ... Or if we're on a green field, we're going to have something going on here and we need to acknowledge right up front that there's an impact.

John Davies: Think about it, I mean duh, of course people know there's going to be an impact and so when you say that they're like oh, okay, I'm willing to listen to you. Think about talking to someone about pros and cons, right? When you write that memo, here are the pros and cons. That's how we do it, right?

Mark Sylvester: Sure.

John Davies: Well, it's totally the wrong way to do it. You want to do the cons before you do the pros.

Mark Sylvester: So that's ... You want to acknowledge the cons as I want to go there ...

John Davies: Exactly. So here I want you ... If you're listening to this and you're saying hey, we got to hire Davies and then the ... Your memo is a consideration of hiring this public affairs firm. The three reasons why we shouldn't hire them are one ...

Mark Sylvester: No one writes that memo.

John Davies: Two, three. The second is the three reasons why I think we should hire them, but I see pros and cons things written for people all the time. I hear people walk into a room, here's a pro, here's a con why we should do this or not do this. The deal is when you say the cons first, you build credibility.

Mark Sylvester: Why?

John Davies: Well because you're saying this is what's wrong with me. Hey, by the way, my name is Mark Sylvester and listen, I'm a really, really slow cook but my food is really tasty. If you're coming to my house for dinner, it's going to take some time.

Mark Sylvester: Then so I'm acknowledging.

John Davies: You're acknowledging that if you're coming, it's going to take some time, so don't come thinking you're going to get a cheeseburger at McDonalds.

Mark Sylvester: Why is it that companies or developers are so reticent to acknowledge the con?

John Davies: Oh my gosh, they're just afraid to say that anything's wrong. I mean, how many people do you know are willing to tell you what they do badly?

Mark Sylvester: So this is a universal truth.

John Davies: Yeah, of course. Of course. The problem is in our society we all have to do everything well. What I love about the millennials, they don't think that. Millennials actually sort of get this. Yeah, that's not something I'm really good at, I'm really good at this. In life we each have a unique ability and when we can discover our unique ability and we do that, we succeed. When we do things that we're only good at or we're capable at or we do things that we're incapable at, we fail, so why not admit that you're incapable at something. That's not my strength. Don't hire me to do ... Don't hire John Davies to do the accounting at your company. That would be a major error.

Mark Sylvester: What would you say is the first step towards getting comfortable with acknowledging? Let's say they've never done that so we're talking about a [inaudible 00:05:28].

John Davies: Right. Totally. So we actually go through a formula of doing that, so we're looking at a statement that you want to make and that is what is it are the worst things anyone could think about that could happen because of this project.

Mark Sylvester: As a team ... [crosstalk 00:05:48]

John Davies: As a team.

Mark Sylvester: We would sit around and say what's absolute, and I think you called them the dangers.

John Davies: Yeah, well no, that's not even dangerous, it's just acknowledged. What's the worst thing that could happen? Dangers are more external, this is internal. What are the worst things that could happen?

Mark Sylvester: Give me an example of a recent real estate firm you worked with.

John Davies: Well, what is the worst thing that could happen in the project is we're going to add 10,000 traffic trips to this freeway every day, average daily trips.

Mark Sylvester: Okay.

John Davies: Well, that's a serious ...

Mark Sylvester: That's just a fact.

John Davies: That's just a fact but we got to deal with it.

Mark Sylvester: Right.

John Davies: That's a really good point, Mark. You're acknowledging a fact. You're not acknowledging a thought, you're acknowledging a fact. You're looking at the fact and saying we got to acknowledge this because everyone's going to figure it out. We're going to build ...

Mark Sylvester: Right.

John Davies: We're going to build a certain number of home and when we build those homes, there's going to be an impact, and when we do that, what is going to happen with it? Our deal is we look at so what are the dangers that you're looking at that are just a fact? What are the things that are really bad? Just go fast. It's traffic, it's past developers blew this really badly. We're having a water shortage. We got to deal with water. We're going to take away open space. Then let's find a couple that we can really work with. What are the ones we have to deal with?

Mark Sylvester: How much time do ... I know we do acknowledge first. How much in the overall, let's say, time budget if you will, how much time do we spend acknowledging? Where I'm going is ...

John Davies: That's a really good question.

Mark Sylvester: I don't want to over do this. I want to do this that's important and I'm open [inaudible 00:07:37].

John Davies: As little as possible.

Mark Sylvester: Do it first.

John Davies: Get it done. But doing it first says I'm not afraid of it.

Mark Sylvester: Right.

John Davies: Doing it really long and focusing on it says I'm crazy, so you want to say it and get done. You deal with it. Let me go to another industry, which is sometimes fun. One of my favorite moments is with an independent oil company on the west coast. The CEO comes to a coastal town where they'd had a spill a few years before and he's asking to do some new things. He stands up in front of a small group of very powerful people in the community and said hey, you know, I want to introduce myself and I just want to share with you my first day on the job.

John Davies: When I was named CEO, I had already had a vacation planned so we're going through it, but I'm officially the CEO. I signed the papers, I'm getting paid, but I'm on a family vacation. My beeper back in that day goes off and it says, "9-1-1. 9-1-1. Call in quick." I'm going what is that? What could that possibly be? I call in and there's been a spill, a pipeline break offshore. There goes my vacation. There goes like the worst beginning as a CEO of an oil related company.

John Davies: I came back to the office. I immediately got on a plane. I went out to the site. I was there. I just want to tell you right now, I will never relive those days. I will do everything to ensure there'll never be an accident again. He acknowledged they had a problem that everyone knew about.

Mark Sylvester: Right.

John Davies: He put it into a personal manner and he changed everyone's thought. In this, let's acknowledge. This is about building credibility by sometimes telling the obvious, right?

Mark Sylvester: When did it first occur to you that this was the right way to start because it is very counter intuitive.

John Davies: It is. It is. It's hard. It's hard for me to get people to do it. It's when you go to a public meeting and you start talking and people in the room are snickering and they're laughing or they're looking at one another and rolling their eyes, and you're going yeah, of course. I mean, we're starting off with all the good things and we're not talking about the challenge.

Mark Sylvester: They're just waiting for you to shut up so they can get to the public opinion part and then just blast you.

John Davies: They cannot wait to get to the front of the room.

Mark Sylvester: But if you ... I know we talk about inoculation messages later on, do you think that acknowledging is the kind of subtly an inoculation step?

John Davies: Yeah, it's building a relationship immediately. It's somewhat of an inoculation but it's just saying what everyone already knows.

Mark Sylvester: Well, the thing ...

John Davies: The other thing, by the way, you could ... If someone's worried about something and they think something else is a bigger deal and you acknowledge something else ... By the way, let's understand that when you acknowledge, you're immediately going to contrast it.

Mark Sylvester: Right.

John Davies: The second step is not ...

Mark Sylvester: We'll talk about that.

John Davies: Right, but the second step is not like okay, we finish acknowledge, let's go take a coffee break. Let's put like ten pages of slides in between and then we'll get to contrast. They're our partners. I mean, I could ... I thought about that we should teach this is that it's acknowledge and contrast.

Mark Sylvester: Oh, it's kind of like a one [inaudible 00:11:20].

John Davies: The reason that I didn't is I didn't want acknowledge to get lost because it's so important. Think about it, you go through and you find these are the three greatest issues that we have.

Mark Sylvester: In real estate.

John Davies: In real estate. These are the greatest issues, so the homes are going to add cars and going to require some improvements to the highway. There's going to be growth that's going to bring in new people in a place that's overwhelmed and we're going to take up some of the green space, so which one are we going to talk about. We can inoculate the others later, but which one's the one we need to talk about?

Mark Sylvester: The one that's the biggest deal.

John Davies: Yeah.

Mark Sylvester: We're going to ...

John Davies: Also, the most obvious deal. Let's not take one that no ones thought about and bring it in.

Mark Sylvester: Yeah, right.

John Davies: Hey, by the way, we're going to be blasting some hilltops off. You probably didn't think of it. We just wanted to make sure you knew that.

Mark Sylvester: It's interesting that we talk about trust because they don't know who you are. They don't know maybe who this company is. They don't know ... I mean, there's a lot of things that are unknown and by getting up there and establishing trust first, that's so important because the length of engagement that you're building this relationship with people is how long?

John Davies: Well, and I mean in real estate projects ... I mean, some smaller projects that are a few hundred units, they can run through in a year or two, but a lot of the master plan communities, they take five/six years sometimes.

Mark Sylvester: Exactly, so that's why trust is so important.

John Davies: Then they go to court and then they go to a referendum, so you've got to build the trust so you avoid those things.

Mark Sylvester: John, the teachable moment here in this show is about the credibility that you get when you share your down side first.

John Davies: Right.

Mark Sylvester: And the thing that someone could do today is just, for the first ... Maybe even for the first time, make the list cons and pros.

John Davies: Right.

Mark Sylvester: And write that list down and then kind of ruminate on that a little bit.

John Davies: Yeah, yeah. If you're listening while you're driving, at the end take your phone out and record what are the three cons of doing the project I'm working on right now. What are they? How tough are these? What are the things? Then when you look at them you say which one would the public think about first rather than what do you think about first.

Mark Sylvester: Right. That's kind of putting yourself in their shoes.

John Davies: Yeah. Truth first.

Mark Sylvester: Next week, we're going to talk ... We'll go into the next step, which is about contrast. I'm really looking forward to it and I like your point of acknowledge, contrast. You said it really fast. Acknowledge, contrast, so we want to do that quick. Thank you so much for listening. If this is the first show that you've listened to, go to TheDaviesMethod.com and hit that subscribe button so you don't miss any upcoming episodes, and if this is the first episode, go back an episode and listen to the overview.

Mark Sylvester: Thank you very much. This is Mark Sylvester with The Davies Method and we're talking about real estate.

Mark Sylvester: Thank you for listening. It's now your opportunity and responsibility to use the method today. You've completed one segment toward understanding The Davies Method. We look forward to you subscribing. Join us as we uncover and explain the nuances of John's distinctive approach. For more episodes, visit TheDaviesMethod.com. I'm Mark Sylvester recording at the PullString Press Studios in Santa Barbara, California.