Author: Garth Beyer

Looking back at the progress you’ve made, projects you launched, impacts you had on the culture – does it inspire you?

What you’re doing now – is it invigorating?

Looking ahead at the work you’ll touch and the people you’ll connect with – are you in awe?

Questions worth answering.

And the hack to ensure the past and future answers are positive ones is to focus on what you’re doing now. In doing so, the answer to the present question also becomes positive.

Stay Positive & Entertain The Trifecta

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After all the expected is handled, the process is executed, the work is fine-tuned – it’s worth incorporating the unexpected.

Movies do it best.

Consider Santa Clause. There’s a moment when it pans the hallway of the North Pole and there are two doors with a sign “Ballroom” above it – beyond the doors you see massive bouncing balls. Hilarious.

Or Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when the aunt is blown up like a balloon. Moments later when Harry is walking down the street, in the distance in the sky you can see his aunt still floating away. A wonderfully clever touch.

These are moments that might fly under the radar of the many. But those who witness it would miss them if they were gone.

Stay Positive & Surprise And Delight

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You probably don’t have enough resources. You probably misinterpreted a communication. You’re probably missing a key piece of information.

Probably.

The other reality is that if you haven’t figured it out yet, then the fastest way to discovery as to why you might be wrong is to take action, ship the project, act on the knowledge you have.

Best case scenario you were right.

The other best case scenario is that you learn why you were wrong and then pivot with the knowledge.

Stay Positive & Win Win

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Even when wearing pads, we don’t push it too hard, we don’t risk too much, we don’t go too far out on the edge.

And if you think what you’re about to do something that would truly requires pads, it might be time to recalculate the risk.

Better to move toward the edge, inch by inch.

No doubt you’ll tumble here and there, but it won’t be major. If anything, you’ll find the edge faster than with pads because there won’t be the constant buffer between where you are and where you want to be.

Stay Positive & Calculate Then Risk, Inch By Inch

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Rollerblading and ice skating are same same, but completely different once you start.

Pitching podcasts and pitching news outlets are same same, but completely different once you hop on the phone.

Elevating a guest experience at a coffee shop and doing so at a beer bar is same same, but vastly different once you start interacting with the guest.

Finding the familiar helps us find comfort and a starting place; but it must be treated as just that – a starting place.

We have to treat different projects differently, different people differently, different experiences differently.

Stay Positive & Figurative Copy & Paste Is A Recipe For A Fumble

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Let’s role play for a moment and assume that every interaction is about status.

Someone complaining about a poorly delivered food order is about asserting their status.

Someone entering into your store is hoping they leave feeling as if they’ve increased their status.

Someone purchasing a wine for $40 instead of the discounted bottle at $14 is sending a status message to those who will end up enjoying it.

And it doesn’t always need to be about how others see one’s status either. It can be individual satisfaction. Perhaps the wine drinker is having it alone tonight for dinner. Still, status matters.

Then it begs the more specific question of not how does one add value to a customer or client experience, but how does one help increase or reassure them of their status?

Stay Positive & Seek The Status In The Status Seekers

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Sometimes we give more because we inherently expect something in return. But the reality is that we should give regardless.

Sometimes we care more because we expect others to care more in return. But the reality is that we should care regardless.

Sometimes we are thankful and hope others will be grateful in our return. But the reality is that we should be thankful regardless.

It’s what we do that’s important, regardless of what’s received in return.

Stay Positive & Heart Up High, Head Down Low

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