In The Box Podcast

Episode 36: Standup Comedy, Vocabulary, Range Of Emotions And More (Podcast)

On this episode of In The Box Podcast, we used our limited vocabulary to explain the necessity of expanding our vocabulary as well as the type of audiences stand up comedians ought to focus on, how to deal with shitty parents, the importance of experiencing all the emotions we can and whether or not it’s important to point blame.

Episode 36: Standup Comedy, Vocabulary, Range Of Emotions And More

Comedy – Does standup comedy only work when the audience doesn’t know you?

Vocabulary – Do you think it’s necessary to broaden our vocabulary?

Parents – What is one tip for dealing with a shitty parent?

Emotions – Is it important to experience a full range of emotions (anger, sadness)?

Bonus – Is it important to assess blame?

 

Stay Positive & Focus On Yourself For Those Who Matter

In The Box Podcast

Episode 23: Principle Of Least Interest, Promoting Efficiency, Finding Your Audience And More – Podcast

On this episode of In The Box Podcast, we talked about getting comfortable with admitting you don’t know something, how the principle of least interest can function for the better, how to promote efficiency when two people are doing the same task, what the best reward is you can give someone who has done great work, and how to find an audience. Enjoy and be sure to subscribe.

Episode 23: Principle Of Least Interest, Promoting Efficiency, Finding Your Audience And More

I don’t know – One way to get comfortable with saying ‘I don’t know”

Principle of least interest – Do you believe in the principle of least interest

Promote efficiency – Does pitting friends against each other for a reward function effectively as a way to promote efficiency?

Work rewards – What is the best reward to give someone for their hard work?

Bonus – What is one way for a business person to find their audience?

 

Stay Positive & Surround Yourself By People Who Are All In

You’re Not Charging Enough

I get asked a lot if a price someone is charging is enough.

“Should the app just be free?” “How much should the admissions ticket be, I was thinking $10.” “I really want to work with this client, should I lower my price?”

More often than not, I get a “Oh… Really?” response when I tell them they’re not charging enough. That is, until I explain why they’re not charging enough.

When I worked with my dad in his painting and remodeling business, I learned there were often jobs he had to bid for. Did he lower his price to compete with other bids? Or did he keep it high, reflective of the quality of work he would produce?

It was more of a question about the fan base he wanted, not how much money he would make. Often times he would bid a higher price to decipher whether the business was a raving fan or not. (Better to work for a fan, a friend than someone who feels they’re in a position to constantly criticize.)

Imagine Dragons can charge $300+ a ticket because they don’t need to allow critics in their concert. The price you charge is the first gateway to deciding what audience you’ll attract. Quite simply, a low price exposes you and your art to people who may not be avid fans. Is that what you want?

Free can help you in some ways. Free can attract the mass. But free won’t get you where you want to go in the world of your craft.

 

Stay Positive & So, Yes, You’re Not Charging Enough

 

Variant Feedback For Effective Communication

Martin Luther

Martin Luther revolutionized German culture and made a dent in standardizing their language. He would travel and read his translation of the Bible into the vernacular and ask each audience that listened, “How did this sound? Was it too banal? Was it strong? Did it sound good?”

He rewrote and rewrote and continued reading aloud until he got “yes” as a response from everyone from the baker to the welder to the merchant. His writing was a variant of German, intelligible to both northern and southern Germans, his target market solely because he had his system of feedback, he listened, he rewrote.

Note, Luther didn’t change the message of his writing, he merely changed the wording to effectively communicate the message he wanted. (He did get in some heat for adding some words when he shouldn’t have. Remember, this is a translation of the Bible, not much room for creativity.)

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. – Martin Luther

Who was Luther and why does he deserve this blog post? He was a constant seeker and recipient of feedback. He didn’t take criticism personally. He ignored the naysayers. If some commoner expressed a dissatisfaction with his words, Luther didn’t begin to question whether he himself was right or wrong, he merely wondered what he could do better to communicate his beliefs.

Now-a-days I see people quit, toss their business plans, and remove their books from Amazon because their message didn’t resonate with whom they thought it would. I witness speakers decide not to speak in front of an audience again because their first audience wasn’t convinced by their message. I miss out on seeing a starting blogger become influential because they stop blogging. Why continue if no one is reading, right?

Wrong.

By doing what Luther did and sharing our ideas, our blog posts, our podcasts, our business plans, our art, we have the opportunity (I mean, come on, there are more than seven billion connected people on this planet) to check whether our way of communicating is effective for the audience we’re reaching for. Why are we not doing this more often?

Why are we limiting ourselves to mastermind groups, to people who already think like us, to our idols or our best friends when it comes to seeking feedback and tweaking the way we communicate? Certainly I’m not suggesting reaching out to all seven billion people, but the group you’re now letting influence your communications can increase in size and as a result your words, your art, your message can get stronger.

 

Stay Positive & Send Something My Way, I’ll Give Some Feedback thegarthbox@gmail.com

* Worth a read: The social Origins of Good ideas. Essentially the best ideas come from outside communities, just as often as the best feedback.

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You’re A Marketer Now, Get It Right

You’re A Marketer Now, Get It Right

New Age Marketing

Marketers used to rent eye-balls, they used to take out a loan for a potential audience, they would buy media space to shotgun market. That was marketing at its most traditional. That was marketing when the masses mattered, when there were only 3 television networks, when developers hadn’t come up with a way to block pop-up ads yet.

When I write you’re a marketer now, I’m not knighting you a marketer, I’m reminding you that you’re a marketer now, as in, you’re a marketer in the 21st century, as in the post-renting, post-loaning, post-shotgun marketing world of it.

Now as a marketer you own eye-balls, you own an audience and you own media space in a niche location. The success of your marketing is dependent in how you find those looking for you, treat those who already find you, and provide for those who frequently visit your home; be it your blog, your catalogue, your YouTube account or some other space your tribe gathers.

Marketing involves ownership, and ownership is scary. The stakes are much higher for marketers than they were 10 years ago. You can’t blame the mass for not clicking your ads, you can’t blame the lack of newspaper circulation for the decreasing sales numbers, you can’t blame Facebook for preventing your video from going viral. If some effort of yours is unsuccessful, it’s your fault. More ad space, bigger banners, extra magazine inserts won’t help.

Getting marketing right involves taking care of what you own.

For many that starts with understanding that you have ownership of an audience and a space.

 

Stay Positive & Remember My Favorite Aspect Of Marketing: You Get To Choose What You Own

And here is some bill the cat for you.

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Making Marketing Sense Of The Domino Effect

Making Marketing Sense Of The Domino Effect

Domino Effect

If you have three lines of dominoes and topple the first domino in each line, it doesn’t make sense to race toward the end of the lines and try to knock dominoes down along the way, right? They will be knocked down anyway.

The cheapo marketer will see those dominoes down the line as a safe target audience and will race to tip a domino further down the line instead of searching for a different line of dominoes. Why?

In the way things trend from friend to friend, it makes sense to go down the line and say “hey, all your friends are doing it! Why not be one of the first too?” Targeting these folk makes the marketer look like what she’s doing is successful. Profits are up, subscriptions are up, sure. But as said, they would have gone up without the effort.

Marketing sense is when you know a business is remarkable enough to have a domino effect. In these cases, the marketer needs to do the difficult task of finding new domino lines instead of targeting one’s already scheduled to tip.

Careful who you trust. All marketers are liars, right?

 

Stay Positive & Know When Your Story Is Remarkable Enough To Market Itself

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What Matters Most About Your Reach

It’s about what people keep of yours, right? They keep and hoard your books and are the first to buy one when it’s released. They keep their name tag they got at your event they attended. They keep the t-shirt with your logo you gave them. They keep remnants of you in their memory box or inspiration folder or Safari bookmark. Was any of this your goal?

I think it’s better to be talked about, to get someone to wear the t-shirt in hopes someone else asks about the logo, to encourage your tribe to share the books they buy with friends who can also benefit from them and to create an online space where like-minded followers can connect with each other.

Impact is about moving, about connecting, about shaking people into action, not about storing memories.

 

Stay Positive & What Are You Getting Your Audience To Do?