Author: Garth Beyer

It’s true that the customer is always right.

Not after a disagreement or when a promise went unfulfilled. Not necessarily after they’ve submitted a complaint or sent you an email with their thoughts.

The customer is right before any of that.

Unless, of course, you’re in business for yourself and not them.

In which case, you’re right. But at what cost?

Stay Positive & You Fit Into Their Story (Not The Other Way Around)

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I’ve seen, watched and been part of dozens and dozens of pitches. Through them all, I’ve noticed a reoccurring theme.

Those who are the most passionate about what they’re pitching get a little lost in it. A little off tangent. A little lofty and hopeful.

But damn, is it convincing because at the end of the day, we’re more willing to buy into someone’s passion to make something work than to buy into an absolutely perfect plan.

Which might seem counter to expectations. Doesn’t it seem more obvious we’d search for a guarantee that something will work instead of someone who has heart?

The reason we don’t is because – deep down – we know that the person with heart will find a way to make it work, even if a nicely laid out plan goes awry.

And if we know anything about plans, it’s that a plan never happens the way we think it will, which makes our surest bet to be on someone who can keep moving forward despite that.

Stay Positive & Heart And Plan Go Hand In Hand

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Showing up is a part of building a tribe, journeying to success and feeling fulfilled.

But showing up is more than being present.

It’s about having something you’re ready to give.

It’s about using your presence generously.

Stay Positive & What’s Your Gift?

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Jerry Seinfeld has a method for all of his continued – and hysterical – madness. He has a calendar that, each day, he puts an X on once he’s completed his daily task.

He knows that we all love streaks. It’s a way we can gamify our lives, and in his case, a way to gamify success. The only thing we have to do is not break the streak.

For Tom Peters, he likes to think of things as being one minute away from continuing a streak – it’s not a significant amount. Another way to look at it as being one bite away.

Consider that you’re on a diet and you’ve fallen off track, you’ve broken the streak, but all you are is one bite away from getting back on board.

Let’s face it: The streak will get broken, so it’s worth having a mentality in place to start it up again.

Not with frustration or increased gumption or fear and shame, but with passion and contentedness.

And that’s where forgiveness comes in. Self forgiveness. The act of not getting hung up on breaking the streak. That’s the key to maintaining flow and momentum.

Stay Positive & Carry On

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Some mentors may have all the smarts of what we are working with them to learn, but there might be a drag.

They might not understand the way we work and learn; how we appreciate feedback and what the root of our motivation for connecting with them was in the first place.

Too often in situations like this, we hold onto the mentor. We’ve been trained growing up to have one – that it’s better to have one than not.

That’s not quite true if we actually care about our development.

Better to let a mentor go even if that means we fly solo until we find another that gets us.

One of the worse decisions we can make is to hold onto something that’s supposed to help us move forward, but isn’t.

Stay Positive & Keep Searching. They Are Out There

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Some (maybe you?) are auditory learners. They learn by listening. So to really think deeply about a topic or memorize a business strategy, they need to hear the thought leadership.

Then there are the visual learners. They learn by watching, observing, witnessing how things are done. What they see makes a real impact on them.

Lastly there are the kinesthetic learners. These are the one’s who need to be hands-on, tactile, experiencing the lesson to remember it. They won’t just read about how to play the trumpet, they have to do it, even if it’s poorly at first.

While we all have a way we learn better than the others (I’m a kinesthetic learner), there’s not a doubt that using each way to learn leads to better results than only choosing one path.

A car might get you from A to Z, but adding some nitrous oxide and a pair of solid tires will get you there faster. If you’re a visual learner, it still helps more than harms to listen and get hands-on with it, too.

Stay Positive & Read, Watch, Do, Repeat

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A friend of mine was traveling back to the states, but got stuck in England because the airline she booked with went bankrupt and neglected telling her.

An author friend tried submitting her book to her first dream publisher and they said no.

A friend planned a brilliant educational event, but the venue never promoted it and no one but her two friends arrived.

Without notice, the bridge we think can bring us from where we are (point A) to where we wish to be (point B) can disappear. Poof.

My friend traveling has a whole new inventory of empathy after her experience, though, and she made it back safely with the helpful advice of a few friends.

My author friend submitted and published her own book and hundreds have already bought in and fell in love with the work.

The event friend, he ran it any way and picked up on some nuances that he’ll change for future events. Progress was still made.

Lesson is that the “poof” doesn’t mean it’s the end, it’s over, that moving on isn’t worth it.

If anything the poof is a signal we need to keep moving, find another way and learn how to build an alternate bridge.

Stay Positive & It’s Your Choice

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