Michelle Welsch

Easier As You Go

Easier As You Go

Garth Beyer

Do Something That Scares You

When was the last time you committed to doing something that scared you out of your shoes?

It’s national novel writing month. 50,000 words in a month. Maybe give it a try?

A friend of mine just ran a 50-mile race. What distance scares you? Give it a go?

Michelle hosted a dinner in NYC from Nepal. Read about it. Replicate it in your town?

The concept, the tendency of staying in our shoes, our comfort zones is a cheap one. As Godin wrote, “It’s tempting to say, ‘this is who I am, habits are hardwired, it’s in my DNA, I’m going to live with it.'” Tempting, and an easy way out, he writes.

Getting from point A to point B gets a lot easier once you accept getting to point B is possible.

 

Stay Positive & Easier Once You Commit, Easier Once You Start, Easier As You Go

Photo credit

Connect To Connect To Connections

Garth Beyer

Yesterday I participated in a Twitter chat that a dear friend of mine put together.

For some it was their first Twitter chat, for others, far from their last. #cxchat is where connectors, entrepreneurs, creatives and makers share resources on topics such as networking, relationship management, professional growth, and community development.

Hosted by Michelle, she came up with a question every ten minutes that introduced a new topic. Rather than going through my reaction to the chat, here are three notes I really want to make.

1.

2. (What I believe is) the most powerful moment of the chat – when Karthik tweeted “Knowledge is on wikipedia, what’s not is the courage to apply it.”

3. You can find the #cxchat summary here.

Oh, yes. Can’t end without saying that Michelle will be putting on another #cxchat Tuesday the 11th at 4:00p.m. eastern time.

 

Stay Positive & Looking For Role Models?

Garth E. Beyer

*Yes, number 1 was left blank because I was speechless. Speechless that there really are people out there that want to connect with you, hear your ideas, share them, nurture them, and encourage you in return for your encouragement. There are people who are not looking to make it big, but working to make it – whatever “it” is into something remarkable. I’m speechless because after connecting with these impresario’s, they connected me to even more.

Writing On The Wall

Garth Beyer

My friend Michelle inspired me to write this post.

When I was growing up, my first AIM (AOL instant messenger) username was Writing0nTh3WaLL. My favorite song was “The Writing On The Wall.” And oddly enough, I liked to write on walls. – Still do –

Today, I read a post of Michelle’s which said, “You may never see the writing on the wall.”

In NYC, there’s a thing called the Underbelly Project. It’s where you can find all the writing on the wall. But it’s a different kind of writing, the most passionate kind; the kind that those writing it knew it may not work.

When you wait and look for the writing on the wall you aren’t only playing it safe, you’re regressing.

With your art, nothing is certain even in your most certain moments. When you are waiting for the guarantee of success or failure, when you rehearse through every failure or success, when you try to  steady your hand before you take a whack at the nail, you’ll never follow through. Doing is about risking.

When you use the writing on the wall idiom, you’re also insinuating that there are people who don’t see it. (If everyone could see it, there would be no need for the idiom.)

Leave it to other people to see the writing on the wall.

 

Stay Positive & More People Are Wrong About The Writing On The Wall Than They Are Right

Garth E. Beyer

Top Blogs And Blog Posts (2012)

Garth Beyer

These are the top 5 blog posts in the sense of the number of views.

These are the top 5 blog posts of my choice and popularity.

These are the top 5 blogs I kept up with throughout the year. Admittingly, Seth Godin’s is the only one that I read nearly every single blog post from. The other blogs I stop by every week or two.

Dream Acheivers

Garth Beyer

I can go on and on about different ways you can advance your career, improve your life, find love, make money, follow your heart, achieve your passions, and live the life of your dreams. Wait … I do go on about all of that. I try to simplify everything and make each lesson short and focused, yet it’s still not short enough. Now there are too many quick lessons. So for all you stragglers, all you movers and shakers, all you who want success simplified, I am going to tell you the two actions you need to take.

Everything you want, your dreams, the life your heart and mind both want, can be achieved by practicing these two actions. These metaphorically-successful-twins are two actions that teach you absolutely everything you need to know about becoming a success in your passion.

The first is to make a list. Hell. Make two or three. My great friend Michelle Welsch calls it a list for dream chasers.

I’ll share my list sometime. I made it just over a year ago. One of the items is to have a book of poems published. The catch is that I want to have the same number of poems as Oscar Wilde … + one. He would respect that.

Similarly, my list of 100 things is actually 110. I’m that kind of guy.

Number 1: Make that list.

The second action is my favorite. It’s closely related to the first. It requires dreaming, fantasizing, feeling strong emotions, and getting lost in the feeling of achieving something. Yet, this second action also appeals to our amygdala, or lizard brain. It’s the single best action you can take to punch fear in its face, to kick shyness in the head, to slap hesitancy from the collection of reactions you can have.

The second action is to get/give your phone number to the opposite sex.

Yes. That means you have to talk to them, introduce yourself, find a way to connect, get them to laugh, create or give something fun and unforgettable, and make a one minute to one hour conversation remarkable.

If you have this skill – rather, collection of skills – you can get a number, you can get a buyer, you can get a partner, you can get a team, you can get a deal, you can get anything you want.

Note: Congratulations if you already have a romantic partner. That doesn’t mean you are exempt from this action. If you end up getting a number, toss it, collect it, or save it for a rainy day. (Yes that last one was a metaphor.) If you don’t like the intimate idea of giving your phone number, give your email, or business card. Make a friend, you never know what kind of connections they will have or what ideas someone new can spark in you.

Number 2: Get/give your number

If you take these two actions, practice them, make them your daily prayer, and integrate the lessons from them into any area of your life, I guarantee you will excel. I bet all my earnings, all my writings, and I’d love to also bet my soul, but someone may already have it (it could be you)

 

Stay Positive & Do The One Two

Garth E. Beyer

Shutting Fear Out … In New York

Shutting Fear Out … In New York

Garth Beyer
We may have liberty, but we still have a lizard brain

Who has heard about the lizard brain? No one? Well I’ll have to change that.

The lizard brain is what makes us not do what we say we are going to do. It’s what stops us from checking tasks off our to-do list, it stops us from writing the book we want, stops us from sending that application in, it stops us from living a meaningful, adventurous, exciting life. The lizard brain can also be referred to as the Amygdala, the part of our brain which registers fear. This fear has a voice and it tells us to compromise, to play it safe, to stay where we are comfortable. This reference to the lizard brain was coined by Seth Godin, author, marketer, and revolutionary starter.

During this mass media age, I believe Seth Godin to be one of the most insightful and helpful authors to us digital natives. Seth Godin has written more than 14 books that have all been best sellers and translated into over 30 languages. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. Even if a five-mile wide meteor struck the earth today, you could still say that Seth Godin has made a larger impact on society.

You may think this author is important because you imagine him to be the motivating type. He is no more motivating than a rock. He is however a person who can bring you to understand why you do what you do, rather, why you don’t do what you don’t do. He explains in his most infamous book, Linchpin¸how the closer you get to delivering something, to accomplishment, to taking a risk, the harder the lizard brain works to stop you.  This ability, to make us aware, is what makes Seth Godin so important.

If it’s not clear already, Seth is an idol of mine. Heck, I flew out to New York to see him and wrote about that experience here. Seth has taught me how to build a tribe, inspired me to keep shipping, and has helped me realize the inner workings of my brain and ego in such a simplistic manner. I continue to read his books and build off his ideas and will do my absolute best to get a one-on-one interview with him over the holidays because I am planning a trip to NYC. I truly owe it to Seth for getting me to where I am today. (HT to Seth Godin)

Side note: If anyone has someone they can introduce me to through email/phone/person that either lives in New York or has other contacts in New York, I would greatly appreciate it. I plan on spending the summer in New York to find an opportunity to become more of a writer and to connect with some of the most brilliant minded people. Michelle being one of them, she’s something special! Thank you!

 

Stay Positive & People Help People, Who Help People, Who Help Other People, Who Help More People …

Garth E. Beyer

Safeguarding Confidence

Safeguarding Confidence

Garth Beyer

My personal life is like searching something on Google, just without my overconfidence in suggesting what you will finish typing. Regardless of how personal your search or question is, I’ll give you an answer.

Going into PR, thankfully, I learned that I can keep my personal life as open as I want. However, areas of my professional life, of the PR realm, confidential information of clients has to remain seal tight. There are two reasons this was tough to do at first.

1. I believe in communication being the foundation of everything successful, whether it’s good or bad, nothing should stay unsaid.

2. You never know what someone else may be able to help you with or add to what you know if you can’t discuss it.

It did not become so easy to keep confidential matters confidential until I did an interview with Michelle Welsch in which she touches on the concept of protecting the names of everyone who attends her Project Exponential events. She says,

“I want to create a space where everyone’s on the same playing field. This anonymity allows people the freedom to step away from their work and whatever preconceived notions or judgements someone might have about what they do for one evening and connect with others in a meaningful way. There are plenty of events that list of the names of attendees. You go, hoping to meet specific people there and may walk way with a few business cards that, if you’re lucky, turn into something remarkable. You may also miss meeting a handful of incredible people who didn’t have the job or the title you wanted to see.”

Michelle made confidentiality a key supporting factor in making her events work so well. It’s a skill, a mind-set even, to be able to leverage confidentiality. Not only does she build trust and credibility at every event when she keeps items confidential, but she creates real connections between people, not connections based on status, prestige, name, income, etc.

As well as in Public Relations, you not only safeguard the confidence people have in you when you keep material confidential, but you enable yourself to discover a new way to leverage something very few people attempt leveraging in the PR world.

Michelle has an event coming up and you’re invited to connect in a different way! You can buy your tickets here