The Infinite Team: Why I Study Competitors Like Collaborators

I don't have competitors. I have collaborators.

When I submitted Earthworks Audio's ETHOS microphone to the iF Design Award, I didn't tell management. Not because I was hiding it. But because I wanted the win to arrive as a gift, not as shared anxiety about whether we'd make it.

On January 21, 2023, the call came through. ETHOS had won the global iF Design Award in the Audio category for Products. The jury — 133 independent experts from 56 countries — had selected it from nearly 11,000 entries. We were competing in the same category as Apple, Google, and Sonos.

I called the CEO.

"Pack your bags for Germany. I got you and the owner flights to sit with Apple and Google while you collect your trophy."

That's not secrecy. That's staging a moment.

The Logitech Lesson: Design as a CEO-Level Strategy

I learned this approach at Logitech.

When CEO Bracken Darrell brought in Alistair Curtis as Head of Design, the entire company repositioned around what Bracken called "Big D Design." Not styling. Not aesthetics. Design as a CEO-level business strategy that could move stock prices.

I watched Logitech shift its language. I watched the retail materials change. I watched the "Look Like a Leader" campaign roll out. And I watched them win iF Design Awards and Red Dot Awards for every new product introduction after that repositioning.

The stock went from $7 to over $100.

That wasn't because the products got better. Logitech mice were always good. It was because design became the signal to the market that Logitech was now a premium brand worth premium pricing. And the awards validated that claim faster than any marketing campaign could.

When I hired Sebastian Pandelache to help me build the Earthworks brand guidelines from scratch, winning iF was always part of the plan. Not as a vanity metric. As a market signal. A way to tell dealers, partners, and the industry that Earthworks was now competing on design — and that positioning justified the pricing strategy, the Miraval Studios partnership, and the entire brand transformation.

I didn't ask for permission to submit. I operated with the confidence that we'd already won. I just needed the jury to confirm it.

How the iF Submission Actually Worked

The application wasn't just product photos and specs. I leaned hard into the Miraval connection. Brad Pitt and Damien Quintard converting the legendary Miraval cave studio in the South of France into a palace of light and space — and choosing Earthworks microphones because the brand language of Speed, Light, Steel, and Honesty aligned with their vision.

I stacked the wins: iF Design Award-winning brand aesthetic built by Sebastian Pandelache. Partnership with one of the most culturally significant recording studios in the world. A microphone designed specifically to be on camera for the streaming age — solving a real problem for creators who needed to look as good as they sounded.

When the iF team called for the follow-up interview, I gave them the same stacked inevitability. This wasn't a microphone competing for an award. This was a design solution that had already changed the category. The award was just confirmation.

We won because I operated from the position that we'd already won. That's not arrogance. That's preparation meeting inevitability.

The Infinite Team: Competitors as Teachers

Here's where most people get it wrong. They think competitors are threats. Obstacles. People to beat.

I think competitors are collaborators who don't know they're collaborating.

Every time a competitor launches a product, they're teaching me what the market is ready to hear. Every time they get press coverage, they're showing me which journalists understand the space and write with precision. Every time they talk about their positioning, they're revealing what language resonates and what falls flat.

I don't study competitors to copy them. I study them to understand what the market wants before the market fully articulates it.

This is how the Forbes strategy actually worked.

The Forbes Strategy: Mining Language and Harvesting Sentiment

Mark Sparrow didn't find us. I found him by studying competitor press coverage.

I scan every major tech and audio publication for new product launches in adjacent categories. Not to see what products are coming out. To see which journalists cover those products well. When I find someone who writes with precision and enthusiasm — someone who actually understands the space — I note how they write, what details they care about, and which angles they prefer.

Then I reach out.

The message is simple:

"Great article. I really liked how you covered [specific detail]. Let me know when you want to take mine for a test drive so you can A/B."

Then I give them the story they wish they could write — compressed into three lines of pure stacked-win emotion.

For the Forbes ETHOS feature, the pitch was:

"Just won the global iF Design Award because it was designed to be on camera for streamers. Collaborating with Standard/Nebula who manage creators with 500 million monthly eyeballs. First mic built for the streaming age."

Three lines. Award validation. Distribution scale. Category claim.

Mark Sparrow said yes because I made it easy to say yes. I handed him a story with a validated hook (iF Award), a scale number (500M eyeballs), and a positioning angle (first mic designed to be on camera). He didn't have to work to find the story. I delivered it pre-assembled.

That's not manipulation. That's collaboration. I'm giving him what he needs to write a great piece. He's giving me distribution I couldn't buy. Both of us win.

Why This Is the Infinite Team

The infinite team means recognizing that everyone who touches your category can become part of your coordination infrastructure — if you align their success with yours.

Competitors aren't threats. They're showing you what the market wants. When Shure launches a new vocal mic and gets coverage, they're teaching you which publications care about live sound and which journalists write about it well. When Rode releases a streaming product and the press calls it "game-changing," they're showing you what language the market is ready to hear. You study that. You harvest that sentiment. You use it.

Journalists aren't gatekeepers. They're collaborators who need better stories. When you give them a three-line pitch that stacks wins and solves their problem (finding a story worth writing), they become force multipliers. Mark Sparrow at Forbes didn't work for Earthworks. But his review repositioned the brand in a way no internal marketing could.

Award juries aren't judges. They're validators who confirm what you already know. The iF jury didn't tell me ETHOS was well-designed. They confirmed it. That confirmation became a signal to the market that Earthworks was now competing at the same level as Apple, Google, and Sonos. The award wasn't the goal. The signal was the goal.

The Operating Principle: Confidence That the Win Already Exists

I didn't submit to iF hoping we'd win. I submitted knowing we'd win. The product solved a real problem. The design language was flawless. The Miraval partnership validated the brand positioning. The only question was timing.

I didn't pitch Mark Sparrow hoping he'd cover us. I pitched him knowing he'd say yes. The story was too good. The wins were too stacked. The angle was too clear.

That's not arrogance. That's operating from preparation. When you've done the work — when you've built the product right, hired the best Creative Director you've ever worked with, aligned partnerships that validate your positioning, and studied the market until you know what it wants before it knows it wants it — the outcomes become inevitable.

You're not gambling. You're staging reveals.

What the Infinite Team Proves

You don't need a massive budget to win awards and press coverage. You need intelligence systems that treat competitors as teachers, journalists as collaborators, and outcomes as inevitable.

The iF submission cost a few hundred dollars. The Forbes feature cost nothing but the time it took to identify the right journalist and compress the story into three lines. Both outcomes repositioned the brand. Both became ammunition for every dealer conversation, channel partner briefing, and investor discussion that followed.

And both happened because I stopped thinking about competitors as threats and started thinking about them as part of the infinite team — people whose work, whether they know it or not, makes my work easier.

The infinite team is everyone. You just have to know how to activate them.

‍