You, right?
If you’re not, I guarantee you someone is.
Moreover, it might not be the story you want or like.
Stay Positive & What Story Are You Telling?
Author: Garth Beyer
All Talk No Action, Serious Advice
I had a professor who wouldn’t let anyone pitch their story until they talked to two others about it. The writer could talk to their friend or an expert on the subject, it didn’t matter.
Call it help or assistance; I just call it conversation.
Talk to a friend, a family member or call an expert about whatever it is you’re working on. The who doesn’t matter. And I don’t consider talking as inaction. Conversation is very much an action
I would never have gotten as good as I am without talking to people about what I was working on, and I’ll never get as great as I want to be unless I continue to talk to others about what I’m working on before I see it all the way through.
All talk and no action is a great way to start.
Stay Positive & Just Be Sure You Don’t Stay There
Enlighten Others
My Issue With A Team Based Philosophy
I got to chat with the staff of a general excellence award winning city-regional magazine today. Their editor-in-chief couldn’t make it, but a few of the other team members did. (One person from design, editorial, online and business.) It was a rough start when they began by trying to tell us about their magazine and philosophy.
First they had to decide who would do it. (Don’t you think they should all be jumping to talk about it?) Once they decided who would give the spiel, it came out much less a spiel and more of a “we cover these main things and we focus in on this city-region.”
A magazine philosophy, a PR agency philosophy, any team philosophy isn’t just for the top dog to know. What if the top dog isn’t there to give the spiel as was the case today? Will everyone on the team be able to fill in the blank when someone wants to know about the product or service?
As a some-what aside, something I love about most of the startups I’ve encountered is everyone working has an elevator pitch. From the founder, to the marketer, to the salesmen, to the customer service folk; everyone can give you an elevator pitch, everyone can share the startups philosophy, everyone has a spiel they can give. And, most importantly, everyone wants to.
Stay Positive & A Philosophy Says Just As Much About Your Team (knowing it) As It Does Your Business (acting on it)
Enlighten Others
The Biggest Concern Of Those With A Great Idea
People (you?) are amazing. The ideas some come up with and share with me, they are truly remarkable. Consistently the thinker of the great idea wants to see it to fruition, but doesn’t have the time, resources, money, etc,.
Instead of just starting small (or just starting. period), instead of sharing their idea with someone who might partner with them, instead of starting a blog and writing about their idea to become an expert and build their brand for when they can see the idea through, they forfeit their idea for fear of it being stolen. That is the biggest concern of those with a great idea. “What if someone steals it?”
Newsflash: You can’t own an idea. Even if you copyright or trademark, neither can save your idea, they can only preserve the expression of your idea. This form or protection requires you to act on your idea. (Even then, I have a few words about that.)
The best way to resolve the concern and to shun the pirates?
Create something they can’t duplicate the same way. Work so hard and so fast to turn your great idea into reality that the competition can’t keep up. Be so remarkable that even if someone tried duplicating your product or service, everyone would know their product or service is not your product or service.
You can leverage the pirates by giving them something they can steal and encouraging them to (think music industry). You can nurture the pirates (start a blog you share your ideas on for them to feed off). Or you can outperform them (actually create that great idea).
Stay Positive & I Put My Money On Option Three
Photo credit
Enlighten Others
What’s Next?
The job of any creative is to be pursuing what’s next, to gather the resources to make it happen, to make the connections to make it happen, to share ideas to make it happen.
Stay Positive & There Is A Next, Right?
Enlighten Others
What Does Your Business Obituary Read?
The Economist ends their magazines with an obituary, sometimes of famous people, other times of someone very few people know. They’re a nobody to most, but even nobodies have stories. When you read one, it’s incredible how the writer knew so much about the person. When you think hard on it, you realize the obituary was written long before the person’s death or at least a reporter kept a tally on the person’s life so they had everything to write it when it was near the time for them to kick the bucket.
Most celebrities, political figures, and all-around famous folk. All of their obituaries are drafted.
Yours? Mine? Likely not yet, anyway.
This concept had me thinking. What about your business obituary. Have you thought that far out about it? What will its legacy be? What will people say its story was? Is what you’re doing worth remembering years later? Are you keeping track of the little moments that have made your business great?
The Economist writers don’t follow people around and make their life into a grand story; the people are living a grand story and the reporters are merely telling it.
This begs the big question: what does the draft of your business obituary look like right now?
Is it worth one?
Stay Positive & It’s Interesting When Your Both The Subject And The Reporter
Photo credit
Enlighten Others
Two Things To Do Before A One-On-One Meeting
Anyone who knows me personally knows I have a habit of scheduling one-on-one meetings quite regularly. I think carefully about who I meet, but sometimes I even ignore my own guidelines.
While I don’t need to argue the reasons to have one-on-one meetings (InkHouse just did it for me), I can offer a couple of tips on what to do to have a successful one-on-one.
1) Read newspaper headlines or short blurbs of front page stories. Whether you bring up a headline topic or the person who you are meeting with does, you can at least say you caught it briefly. (It’s also a great conversation starter and fall-back small talk if there are periods of awkward silence.)
Often times if they mention a topic first and you are able to connect with it (“Yea, I saw that in the NYT this morning.”) then they will go on to talk about it. No deep thought from your end is necessary. You won’t lose clout by stating you didn’t get the full story yet. In fact, they will get pleasure from informing you more about it.
However, you will lose some informed credibility if you don’t know what’s going on in the world, especially when they bring it up as it’s obviously a matter of interest for them and thus, should be for you (at least for the sake of the meeting).
2) Listen to a podcast that is either motivational, entrepreneurial or focused on a shared interest of you and the person you’re meeting with. Many one-on-one meetings end up being an act of back-and-forth storytelling. “I remember when X happened to me.” Or “Have you used MailChimp? Did you know that if you enter ‘boredom’ in their search box, you get to play Asteroids!” (I learned that nugget by listening to Debbie Millman’s podcast with Ben Chestnut and Aarron Walter and used it during a meeting with an aspiring game developer.)
By listening to a few podcasts you will learn something new, think about experiences you’ve had (essentially jostling your memory), and give you something of value to share. They will put you in the mood to meet with someone, to socialize, to generate new ideas together. If those aren’t reasons for your one-on-one meeting, what kind of meetings are you going on?
Best of luck. Let me know how these tips help.
Stay Positive & Go Schedule A Couple Of Meetings
Photo credit
