Month: April 2012

The “Let-Someone-Else-Do-It” Attitude

Garth Beyer

How often have you muttered under the earshot of others that “If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself”?

Unfortunately, you hear that a lot more than “If you want something done right, ask someone who is a professional at it to do it”. Of course though, you, I, we, are all only human and humans take extreme pride in their ego and are ignorant that they cannot do everything to perfection. As a result, help is never asked for.

Now, it’s not so much a matter that other people can’t do something right, but more of a matter that you can do it better. Or can you?

Today I have asked a new good friend Hulbert Lee who wrote the eBook “How To Focus Better” to write a guest post. Without further ado, – Enter Hulbert –

The Value of Asking People for Help

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from starting an online business is not being afraid to ask others for help. I think when people first start out, they have a tendency of wanting to do everything themselves. Either they have grown up and have adopted that sense of “do-it-yourself” mentality or they’re simply just afraid to ask.

For me, I’ve always kind of adopted an attitude that I can do anything I want just as good as anyone else out there as long as I put in the time and effort to do it. This is a good mentality to have if you’re trying to build on one skill, but it can also have its downfalls if you’re trying to do too many things at once.

For example, when I started an online business specifically to help people focus better, I was told to create a product, create a website, get people to the website, and then market the product for the people to buy.

So I spent a few months researching and writing an e-book. After that was done, I remember spending months trying to experiment with designing my website or trying to write copy for my sales page. I spent a lot of money on software and books to learn all of this. But in the end, it just caused a lot of stress and wasted time.

It came down to the point where I realized that I was a writer — not a designer, not a copywriter.

So when I let these realizations go, I began to look for people who were experienced in these areas.

I remember when I first hired my designer to design the e-book layout (which was still in black-and-white document text back then) I was blown away by her results. Just the design made what could have been a bland text turn into something colorful and exciting to read.

I know not everyone will have the budget to hire a designer, but if you constantly seek help out there on the vast Web, sometimes you’ll get lucky.

Like when I was looking for someone to write my sales page copy, I remember digging through the forum pages, and surprisingly enough, found someone who was offering to do a free sales copy. I figured he was probably just starting out and trying to earn credibility as a copywriter.

I jumped on the opportunity and emailed him, and within only about 50 minutes, he had sent me a fresh, new copy for my sales page — all for free. Ever since then, my conversion rates have gone up for my business.

So my advice here for people, who want to succeed in the online world of business, is to always continue to ask people for help. There’s a good chance that another person, who is more experienced and talented than you, will be more than willing to help you out and offer you valuable feedback that will drive your business in the right direction and to where you want it to go.

By Hulbert Lee

After reading Hulbert’s post, I was reminded of the one great attribute that I love about the online community. You can ALWAYS find someone to help you if you search hard enough. It never hurts to do a little research to find who are professionals on the topic you need assistance on and ask them for their help.

Personally, I have even emailed Seth Godin whom I talked to before to write me a letter of recommendation. This was, of course, before he released his eBook Stop Stealing Dreams and if you have read it, you know why he did not write me one. This action made me realize why you don’t ask for help – you don’t like to take a risk. You risk getting rejected, you risk getting told your idea is unworthy of someone else’s attention (especially a professionals).

You need to know that this is not how the online community works. For example, Hulbert searched for experts that knew how to write and knew about “focusing” to read and write a testimonial for his eBook. Hulbert told me that 20% of those he asked, read and wrote a testimonial. Well, you know how they say 20% of the people have 80% of the money and success. Those people who fall under Hulberts 20% category know the power of, not only giving, but also how important it is for others to ask for help which is a main reason they choose to read and write a testimonial for him. As a result, the 20% of people are no doubt well on their way to success (whatever success means to them). The other 80% missed the opportunity to give, to connect, to learn the lesson and benefits of asking and giving help. What they, and you need to know is that when asking for help, people will not criticize you, they will help you.

All you have to do is take the risk.

 

Stay Positive and Use Your Ingenuity To Seek Assistance

Garth E. Beyer

I now call Hulbert a friend and surely he calls me one as well. It is the simple act of asking for help that will propel you to the direction of the success you want.

Positive Immortality

Garth Beyer

Time spent whilst in a positive attitude goes by as quick as if you were having fun. Yet, it  is not time wasted. It is life gained.

 

Stay Positive and Your Attitude Indestructible

Garth E. Beyer

Preparation & Expectation Reversed

Garth Beyer

Whoever said “Prepare for the worst but expect the best” was wrong, very wrong indeed.

However, something I agree with – that surely you do to – is that “Actions speak louder than words”. Wouldn’t preparing for the best, be best? Putting forth the effort and action required to prepare for something that will be in the top 10% of greatest accomplishments is what is important. You don’t want to prepare for the worst as discussed in an earlier post (Safety First: The Art Of Preparation) So why not prepare for the best but expect the worst? After all, our greatest moments of happiness arrive when something that was positively unexpected occurs. This means that when whatever you prepared for was a success, you will feel a billion times greater because you thought it wouldn’t turn out that great.

After this, it might be better to start saying that actions speak louder than thoughts too.

 

Stay Positive and Keep Doing Better Than Expected

Garth E. Beyer

Safety First: The Art of Preparation

Garth Beyer

While growing up one of the biggest influences in my life was my Uncle Chuck.  All I would ever hear him saying whenever we would do something together was safety first, safety first, safety first. Before we pull out in a car, before we lit fireworks, before we hiked, before we traveled, before we did anything it was safety first. This life lesson has been most prevalent in my life and I respect and admire my uncle for teaching it to me – even though it would often get annoying. Then again that just means it’s important enough to be repeated. And it was.

Knowing me, I have to improve every lesson I learn and change everything I listen to and try to incorporate it to fit my life just as you should do with everything you hear. However, this lesson I learned from my uncle of safety first has evolved itself into every aspect of my life in the form of preparation. The best process of safely succeeding and being safe if failure occurs defines preparation.

There has been no art more simplistic, straightforward and rewarding than the art of preparation.

“Let’s proclaim that art has no greater enemy than those artists who permit their art to become subservient to socio-political issues or ideals. In so doing, they not only violate art’s fundamental sovereignty, they surrender that independence from function that made it art in the first place.” – Tom Robbins

At the heart of “safety first” is preparation. At the heart of “preparation” is the transformation of oneself into an outlaw, a rebel. For the only successful artists are those who break the boundaries, status-quo and socio-pathetic expectations. Now, disaster disrupts thousands upon thousands of lives each week. What separates artists from the disaster is not preparing for the worst, but preparing for the best. Contrary to belief, in life there is always someone there to recover you when disaster strikes. The laws of the universe and connection to all things living incorporate “safety first” into all of our lives. This leads to the necessity of an  interrogation that will find out why so many people prepare for the worst case scenario when the safety net has already been placed. (It is beneficial to know that the safety net is placed as long as you accept the consequence of ill preparation)

As any art form that has ever been created, there are dozens of different ways to look at it. Preparation can compensate for lack of talent. Preparation creates confidence which results in the prevention of failure and assurance of success. Positive life impacts come when preparation meets opportunity. Know safety, no pain. No safety, know pain. By failing to prepare, you prepare to fail. Confidence is preparation, everything else is beyond control.

From now on, I expect and will hold you accountable to always prepare for the best. That is all your focus should ever be on.

Stay Positive and Safety First

Garth E. Beyer

2 Business Ideas Seeking Feedback

Garth Beyer

In this age of abnormal business ideas, if followed through correctly can attract the most attention (and revenue). Recently I have had a couple wild ideas for both a hotel business and a restaurant business. I would love to get your feedback. Let’s jump right into it.

Business Idea Number 1: Creating a new string of Hotels that will beat all competitors within 5 years

There are quite a few areas of business that are nearly impossible to create a start-up in because the competition is too completely monopolized. The hotel industry being one of them. As far back as I can recall, there are only about 5 different hotels that completely dominate. Now tell me if this idea will not raise that number to 6.

To begin, open up a few hotels whose prices would nearly consider them to be non-profit while providing the best service. While other hotels succeed by incorporating one of the three factors of a successful business: lowest price, best quality, best service, these hotels would incorporate the two easiest, cheapest and most significant of the factors. After all, you can’t complain about quality if the service is the greatest you have ever experienced in an inexpensive hotel business.

Back on subject, with the two factors of low cost and best service being incorporated from the beginning, the hotels would quickly gain attention and a reputation which leads to increased revenue. Also from the start of the business, every customer would be told to keep their key cards which they can show at any other hotel and pay the same price that they originally paid for. Every year, a new key card would be given as the price increases. This is sending the message that there will be expansion and improvements in the near future that will lead to increased prices. The focus is to hit the 3rd factor of business success – quality. As you know, quality costs more money.By notifying customers that the price will go up within a year, it motivates them to visit and pay the minimum amount while they can. This instant increase in customers would provide the money to increase the quality and price for the next year.

Imagine a single room originally cost $45 a night. By the 3rd year of business, it has now increased to $75 dollars. Those who stayed a night at the hotel during the first year of business and kept their card would still only pay $45 dollars a night. All the while, the new customers who have to pay $75 a night will be able to redeem their card next time they stay for the same price. By the fifth year of business, we could be charging the average hotel amount, if not more, for a one night stay.

The difference in revenue with other hotels would be that they have a constant value they can calculate. At this particular hotel, the profit could be within a $100 dollar range. Regardless, I guarantee by using this technique the year-end profit would be much more than a competing hotel.

What do you think?

The Second Business Idea: The Take Home Restaurant

I am sure you can connect with my hatred for taking home food from restaurants. It is never good warmed up. It either tastes different, doesn’t warm up properly or get’s all soggy by the time you warm it up. The majority of take home meals just get thrown away. So what if there was a restaurant that was specialized and based solely on providing food that when taken home can be reheated and taste just the same.

But it doesn’t just stop there.

We all know buying in bulk is cheaper. At this restaurant, any plate you order, I would guarantee you could not finish. Of course, the meal would be free if you could. Being able to buy in bulk would mean that the food could be sold cheaper to the customer as well.

What do you think of this simple restaurant idea that would only serve food that could be taken home, reheated and taste great?

 

Stay Positive and Criticize Please

Garth E. Beyer

Life’s Perfect Moment

Garth Beyer
Quoted from: http://priscellie.deviantart.com/art/Music-3952212

Can you recall the last time you listened to music? Specifically, do you remember a short segment of the song where the sound went shallow, nearly quiet and suddenly there was a breakdown?

You can find the use of breakdowns in all types of music: heavy screamo, flamboyant alternative music, dub step and if you listen closely, you can find the breakdowns that happen in a classical Mozart song.

If you can, I encourage you to take a moment now and play a song that you know has a very noticeable break down and try to relate how you feel during the transition. May I suggest “Action is the Anecdote” by And Then There Were None as it is the song that inspired this post.

Now, I can imagine that you will rock along with the song and as it prepares for the breakdown, you prepare as well. Since the music has nearly paused, you can feel your heart beat a couple times before the breakdown occurs. If it’s a great enough lead to a breakdown, you may even get goosebumps. As the breakdown occurs, it is as if you were just given wings. The experience involves getting built up with an extreme form of unknown emotion and anticipation that is only released when the breakdown occurs.

What does this have to do with a perfect life moment? – Everything

It’s unlikely you can recall the last time you had the same experience in a life situation because life adds an additional step you have to go through.

Let me explain, everything is going smoothly in life until it begins to dim. You start feeling slightly depressed and things aren’t going the way you want, but nothing so bad that you can’t survive. As life flat lines at a low level, a surge of anticipation begins to seep into all of your nerves and before you realize it, your life’s scale instantly shoots up and out of the ordinary.

This moment never happens.

In life, the only way you can experience a sudden burst of happy progression is after hitting bottom – not flat lining above it. The closest analogy to this is to work off the saying the harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

The following three phase process would describe life’s perfect moment. Think of the first moment as a ball falling at it’s normal rate. The second phase is like magnifying the moment before impact that seems to last a life time. The third phase is the ball suddenly springing upward without hitting the ground.

However, in life the ball must always hit the ground in order to bounce higher then one could think possible.

Life’s Perfect Moment Is the moment when times get tough, a combination of excitement and anticipation overcomes all of your senses and you know that your quality and appreciation of life will – before you can fully comprehend – it completely amaze you. Why does this not happen? Why do we have to hit bottom? Why is it the only way for us to experience life’s perfect moment is in music?

Stay Positive and Defy Gravity

Garth E. Beyer

On a side note, while I was thinking about the ball analogy I realized something of key importance. Too often people will tell you that success is getting back up when you fall down. I say that success is taking the risks that made you fall down in the first place. Cheers