Author: Garth Beyer

It puts a huge smile on my face to see the transitional leap so many businesses are taking to hire people with initiative rather than obedience.

Funny how I’m just writing about this today when I asked Michael on last week’s podcast what he would look for in a person if he were hiring. He said initiative. (Episode 33)

Bravo to brands for up-ing the game, the standards, and for realizing the connection economy we’re living in before it was too late for them. Sadly we have another problem.

The workforce who is looking for jobs is still under the impression businesses are hiring the compliant. School has taught them how simple compliance is to measure and to test for. It’s easy to know when they’re doing a good job and when they’re not. They are seeking low standards and easy acceptance into the work world.

Many of those doors have closed though.

We need to change the mindset we have about the workplaces we want to be in and the brands we want to work with. They’re not looking for compliant workers, they’re looking for artists who take initiative.

Of course, initiative isn’t any easier to take, to do, to be. That’s on me and you. The cool thing about initiative is once you take it, we all benefit.

 

Stay Positive & Here’s Godin On Initiative

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Beginner content is more free than ever before. It’s being created by more people than ever.

When looking to move your business forward, don’t expect to win big by marketing to the masses with beginner content.

It doesn’t matter if the majority of people don’t know how to cook or play an instrument or ride a motorcycle. The easy mindset tricks you to think it’s in your favor to create more beginner content. But it’s not.

You’re much better off helping the intermediates improve, the experts finesse, the geniuses consult.

It’s always more profiting (and emotionally rewarding) to help people who care, not help people to care.

 

Stay Positive & Create More Care Content

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We’re never given enough responsibility (mainly because we don’t take it).

We’re never given enough (art, love, credibility).

We’re never given enough praise or opportunity or entitlement.

We are, though, in fact, given enough moments to say thank you. And it makes a world of difference when we take advantage of them, even, maybe, sometimes abuse them.

Thank you for reading my blog. It makes the things I don’t get enough of less meaningful.

 

Stay Positive & Thank Someone Special Today

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No one goes through life wanting to do things that make them unhappy.

That’s not to say you don’t do things you don’t like. In fact, life is often a mix of the two.

What’s important is that you take the time to sit down and list all the things you’ve done that made you happy.

There’s a trend in that list.

It’s your passion.

 

Stay Positive & Take The Time, Now, Not Later

Many marketers are driven to think big. Think huge reach. Think massive circulation.

Here’s the problem.

People have always been good at ignoring advertising, flipping off barkers, discarding unsolicited emails.

No matter what next tech leap we take, people will get good at ignoring how we use it to advertise to them. Since it’s harder to disrupt, we focus on creating content for people.

But the truth about content is there’s a limit to the amount of content a person can consume on a daily basis, so thinking mass doesn’t work there either.

• I can only listen to so many podcasts in a day.
• Watch so many Netflix shows.
• Read so many blogs.

I just read Seth Godin’s post on the coming podcast surplus and felt really small.

I felt small because so few podcasts are listened to on a daily basis.

I have a podcast. How do I expect to land in one of the 14 podcasts that someone has time to listen to?

Not only that, but the risk someone would have to take to change one of the 14 podcasts they listen to for a different one is so strong that people are more likely to stick with what they know and like already.

Sounds like two very good reasons to stop podcasting, stop blogging, stop tweeting, stop creating and certainly not start making something else that no one will make time for.

I’m being sarcastic, of course.

The takeaway from feeling small is to market small, market niche, market with the intention of getting one person to share the piece of content.

Every person might only have bandwidth to consume 14 podcast episodes, 3 Netflix shows, 8 blogs and will stick with them until…

• someone who they trust says they ought to check out a different podcast.
• someone gets invited over by a friend and that friend puts on How I Met Your Mother.
• someone speaks at a conference and you want to read more about the way they think.

Now the marketing world beings to look a lot brighter. Now we can play with ways that surprise and delight people. Now we can create content that get people to feel a certain way when it’s shared. Now our marketing has a purpose, a purpose to connect.

 

Stay Positive & If That’s Not Exciting, I Don’t Know What Is

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