Author: Garth Beyer

A good gauge of productivity is that we’re doing more output than input.

But rarely do we evaluate what the output is.

Is the output hours or is it generosity?

Is it money or is it trust?

Is it a script or is it connection?

Stay Positive & Above All, Are We Consistent

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The other day I wrote about 17 prompts to hone in your dream and ensure success. I felt a little preachy that I shared them, but not my answers.

So, here they are. They’re also proof that it doesn’t take days to answer them. Spit out what you can now in this moment and then revisit your answers a few months from now.

• My product is for people who believe
  • that beer brings them closer to others.
• I will focus on people who
  • want an escape, but also want to increase their status.
• I promise that engaging with what I make will
  • help you get an experience, conversation or beer to remember.
• Who loves what you do?
  • Positive-minded craft beer drinkers.
• Who tells their friends?
  • Those who have craft beer fanatic friends.
• Who waits in line?
  • The crazy (awesome) beer geeks.
• Who buys the lot?
  • ^^
• Who can you help?
  • Beer drinker or not – we’re here to lend a hand (sometimes with a beer) to the community around us.
• Who makes you care?
  • The people. Especially the ones who doubt their own potential. 
• Who has the problem you can solve?
  • Craft beer drinkers without a cellar.
• Who is your muse, your right customer, your reason?
  • Pouring a perfect experience for people who care, too.
• I made this because
  • I wouldn’t be able to look myself in the mirror if I didn’t leap.
• People need this because
  • they strive for increasing their status and escaping the world (in the most positive sense).
• I do it this way because 
  • I believe that it will never get easier, but it will always be worth it.
• I want to appeal to this customer because
  • I was once the customer and didn’t have the experiences I thought I deserved.
• This is the right thing to do because
  • it’s too late to be the wrong thing 😉
• Our company exists because
  • I give a damn.

If you didn’t know, I’m working to open a craft beer bar – which is the perspective from which I answered the questions.

Stay Positive & Here’s To Your Success

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Getting air time as a brand can seem important.

But if you treat a brand like a person (because at the foundation of it, it’s all people anyway) how much of the talking would you want to listen to?

Imagine you’re at a table talking with a brand that’s not yours.

How much of the brand talking would you take until you walk away with clarity that they are there for themselves and not you?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of professing our facts and features, widgets and weavers, spirit and splendors, but it’s more important to do one thing above all else: ask questions so you can listen and have something real to act on.

Unless you’re branded as a professional speaker, it’s better to make sure others are doing more of the talking.

Plus, listening shows them that you care.

Stay Positive & We Need More Brands People To Care

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It’s important to give a damn about the people in the arena with you. To collaborate and hold each other accountable and be each other’s pillar of support.

Just as important is to give a damn about the work you’re doing. To ensure it’s getting your maximum attention, effort and care as you pursue excellence.

Equally important is to give a damn about the target the work is for, the people you seek to change. They need to know you’re listening and there for them for the long haul.

Very often we nail one of the three and sometimes, maybe two.

But the optimal form of work and existence is to be giving a damn about all three. It’s amazing the change we can make when we do.

Stay Positive & Damn, It’s Hard, But Worth It

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I’m all for deadlines.

Self-prescribed deadlines and asking others to give you one.

Deadlines with rewards that come after and deadlines with something unpleasant if we don’t meet them.

Alarms set with deadlines and the accountability of having others follow up with your progress.

But most importantly, I’m all for deadlines that get moved when it’s going to make the work stronger or better resonate with the target of the work.

When a family member passes or you (or someone else) is absolutely crushed with a thousand other deadlines.

When we learn something new about the worldview of the people we’re making the work for.

When we’re given a new tool to make the work better than we thought we could–but we just need another day or two.

There are plenty of right reasons to keep a deadline, but it’s worth remembering there are plenty of right reasons to move one, too.

Stay Positive & It’s What Makes Project Management An Art

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Consistency is the hallmark of the successful.

But it’s not just a consistency of how they say things or why they’re seeking to make the change they are–it’s about the consistency of behaviors.

Consider the last time you chose to not go with your gut. You were likely upset with your decision. That’s because your behavior in that moment was inconsistent.

The gut is nice because we feel it when we don’t listen to it, but it takes more mental awareness to notice when we’ve skipped an opportunity to be generous or passed on the chance to deeply listen to a customer’s story.

Stay Positive & We Must Show Up, Every Day

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The two areas that you need to have the most expertise in order for an idea to be successful are in your self and in your target.

Below are a handful of prompts (in no particular order) I’ve come across and that have been most helpful to me in ensuring I’ve tightened and targeted my ideas for success.

Go ahead and do the work of answering all of them, you’ll be thankful you did.

• My product is for people who believe_____.
• Who loves what you do?
• Who has the problem you can solve?
• I will focus on people who want ____.
• Who tells their friends?
• I promise that engaging with what I make will help you get _____.
• We made this because _______.
• Who makes you care?
• People need this because _______.
• Who is your muse, your right customer, your reason?
• Who waits in line?
• We do it this way because _______.
• We want to appeal to this customer because _______.
• Who can you help?
• This is the right thing to do because _______.
• Who buys the lot?
• Our company exists because _______.

Stay Positive & The Only Wrong Answer Is Not Answering

Photo credit and likely a HT to Seth, Bernadette and any others I may have seen these prompts from.