Author: Garth Beyer

Yawns are contagious.

So is negativity, a cootie, and a smile…

More contagious than a smile, though, is the energy you bring in the room that everyone feeds from, assimilates to, and seems to duplicate.

Every project you work on can be exciting to work on, but that’s only part of the overall energy. The other half is the energy those you’re working with have about it. Are they as excited as you?

Whether you know it or not (you do now), your energy and excitement about a project influences the excitement and energy of those you’re working with.

Keep that in mind next time you enter a room with colleagues. You’re not the only one there and you’re not the only one your attitude and energy levels influence.

It’s incredible the level that you can bring a project up to when you bring the contagious excitement.

 

Stay Positive & Bring Out The Best In Others By Bringing It Out In Yourself

Photo credit

Save

Connecting with a fan, igniting a feeling that they’ve been understood – it used to be a surprise and delight tactic for brands.

Marketing used to be one-way. A brand would yell, mass market and blanket an audience with advertisements and that one moment you got to speak to a human or that time they started with “we listened and…” was special.

Now it’s a given. It’s expected. It’s the entry fee to a loyal fan.

If you can’t get your target to feel that they are being understood (and it’s not something you can fake), then there’s no way you’ll make it.

 

Stay Positive & What Are You Doing To Make Your Target Feel Understood?

Photo credit

Save

Those you look up to might have a routine of putting out great content and starting incredible businesses, but there’s a guarantee that one day they’ll forget/stop/giveup/switch/pause.

And then the question is if you will be established by then? Will you have kept up with them? Will you be a brand that’s worth their followers switching to?

Many get intimidated by the competition and think they’ll just hold off until the leaders step down, but the trick to becoming the leader is establishing yourself as one before anyone begins looking for you.

More importantly, you merely need to hold out longer than others.

 

Stay Positive & Are You In It For The Long Run?

Photo credit

Many times on your pursuit of doing what makes you happy, you’ll run into people who you didn’t intend to run into.

You’ll be looking for the President of an organization and get their receptionist. You’ll call for an editor, but get one of their reporters. You will market your business to one target, but another will come knocking on your door.

The big question is:

Will you be ready when they raise their hands, call your phone, knock on your door?

Turns out the only way to get good at talking about your crazy idea (and if it’s not crazy, you might consider thinking up a new one), is to talk to as many people about it.

Not critics, not your family, but people who have also pursued or are currently pursuing a big idea. Talk to anyone who will listen intently. Set up meetings, introduce yourself, reach out and connect with area business owners.

Do this, because before you can turn your idea into a reality, you’ll have to sell the story of it, and, guaranteed, you’ll come across people you weren’t looking for, but who will want to hear what you’re thinking. Are you prepared to tell your story off the cuff?

 

Stay Positive & You’re A Storyteller Now, Start Telling

Photo credit

Have you ever wondered why we engage in small talk?

For some, it might be to pass time or because you’re the only two or three in a room before the rest show up. But it’s deeper than that.

We engage with small talk to see if we connect.

Do we share a common experience? Emotion? Goal?

Are we more alike than we thought? Can I trust you? Can you trust me?

Is there a reason I should believe you that I don’t yet know?

Smart marketing is a series of engagements in small talk. It’s not a blow horn, a mass advertising initiative, a complete takeover of top search terms in your category.

Person by person, it’s about making connection, engaging in small talk, earning the permission to share your story.

 

Stay Positive & Let’s Chat

Photo credit

Expectation is one of the most powerful mind tools one has.

If you expect to get sick, it’s likelier you will. If you expect to stumble over your words during a speech, there’s a good that’ll happen. If you expect to step on your partners toes mid-tango, well, you better hope you’re partner has close-toed shoes.

However, just as expectations can be your downfall, they can also be one of your most valuable assets, especially in terms of leadership.

Expectations are often easy to communicate and ever easier to comprehend. Yet, many managers and leaders attempt to motivate employees with incentives and verbal praise when, in reality, the best kind of motivation there is is setting the right expectations.

When a co worker, employee or team member knows what’s expected of them, they’re instantly motivated to meet (and hopefully exceed) those expectations. That means the onus is on you to share what’s expected of someone.

Likewise, what do you expect from yourself?

 

Stay Positive & Verbalize Expectations

Photo credit

One of the many complaints I hear from people working in teams is that other members don’t share the same passion for the work that’s being done.

Yes, the work gets done and usually it’s great work, but the fact is the process could have been more enjoyable if there was a shared passion for it.

Alas, the answer to the shared passion conundrum is likely in the connection (or lack thereof) to the end goal, the vision.

The sooner you can connect with one another on the vision, as if you’re seeing the same thing, the stronger the process is to achieving it.

More often there’s a lack of shared passion when one person has the vision and the other has a to-do list.

 

Stay Positive & Share The Vision, Share The Passion

Photo credit

Save