Author: Garth Beyer

Suggestions Accepted, Obsolete Or Desired

Garth Beyer

Do you have a suggestion box at the office or hub?

Give it a try. You’ll learn one of two things.

If you don’t find any suggestions in the box, you will either know your team is comfortable enough to voice their suggestions openly without the need for a suggestion box or that you need a different team.

If you find a handful of suggestions in the box, you know to make your team feel more comfortable and to open yourself up to idea generation for business improvement.

 

Stay Positive & This, Of Course, Is Just A Suggestion

There’s More Than Just First Impressions

Garth Beyer

There’s a second, third, fourth, fifth…

First impressions are important, but that’s nothing new.

The expectation from who you meet is that you show up at your best, put your best work forward first and arrive dressed for success. What about tomorrow? Or the next day?

 

Stay Positive & A Week From The First Impression Is Way More Striking

You Need A Sexy Website Revamp

Garth Beyer

The design of your site isn’t as important to those who view it as it is to those who provide the content on it.

That’s the truth.

You can have a really ugly website your market audience still uses. You might think it has an extravagantly negative impact on their experience and if you could just have a sexy website revamp, you would attract more customers/readers/clients/subscribers. That’s just not the truth.

An ugly, but usable website doesn’t have that large of a negative impact on a customer (unless well designed websites are what you’re selling).

The real negative impact is on you and the team who stands behind the brand, the business, the blog.

How can you be comfortable publishing a professional and well-thought-out article on a website that looks janky? How confident can you be answering the phone and talking to people who got the number from your hideous website?

Yes, design to a degree matters to your target audience, but never as much as it matters to those contributing content on it.

 

Stay Positive & Your Site Doesn’t Just Showcase Your Brand, It Builds The Confidence Of All Those Behind It

For Some Safe Is A Selling Point

Garth Beyer

It shouldn’t be surprising there are safe products out there (safe, successful ones, mind you ).

Think of a clothing line that doesn’t want to be edgy, trendsetting or risky. Think of a business that has no true uniqueness about them. Consider a service that does nothing more than their competition does. Again, they are still successful. Think Craftsmen or Ford or Lands’ End. Safe is there selling point or so I’ve lead you to think.

The reality of it is you don’t need to take huge marketing risks or product design risks if what you’re selling isn’t the product. Perhaps you’re not really selling anything special. Perhaps you’re simply standing up for something.

Ford stands up for being tough.

TOMS stands up for giving.

Seth Godin stands up for… well, standing up.

If you don’t want to stand out, by all means, stand up for something. Playing things safe for nothing won’t lead you to success, but playing things safe for something larger than yourself will.

 

Stay Positive & What Do You Stand For?

Your Business Is Boring (Or Maybe Just You)

Garth Beyer

Before proceeding, I must note, personally, I never get bored. Bored is a choice, as you will read, whether you’re a business or an individual. I may find myself in a boring environment, but I keep myself entertained. It’s been three years since I said I was bored. Something I’m proud of.

The coffee shop I used to go to daily; it got boring.

The job I have; it’s gone down the hill to boring.

A big client I’m working with right now; the brand is boring. (…reason I have them as a client.)

I quit talking about an old favorite restaurant; boring, boring, boring.

I’ve let more friends I can count on two hands go; they were boring.

Dare I say, you might be boring too.

You might be boring if you’re not learning new tricks of your trade. You’re certainly getting boring if you’re playing things safe. Boring doesn’t just happen. Boring isn’t some sort of natural roadblock on the path to building a successful business. Being boring isn’t a prerequisite for making a breakthrough in the market. Boring is a choice.

You choose to avoid risks and stay in your comfort zone. You choose to remain out of the conversation of friends. You choose to show or, in most cases, hide your personality.

If you’re bored, what do you do? You do just about anything that will make you not feel bored, right? The same goes for customers, for friends, for clients. If you want to lose customers to your competitors (and fast!), be boring.

Do just about anything to not be boring and there’s no way you won’t be talked about, interacted with, referred to. Isn’t that your goal?

 

Stay Positive & If You Don’t Try (Something New), You Will Fail (By Becoming Boring)

What You Don’t Realize You’re Getting Paid For

Garth Beyer

Right now, as you’re reading this, you’re getting paid to ignore the trolls, turn your shoulder to the critics and shun the naysayers. Invite this belief into your world: you get paid to mute those who try dragging you down. I have yet to measure an action that receives more return on investment than ignoring trolls.

Concerned there’s an honest opinion that may help improve your work somewhere deep in the paragraph of disdain. Why not ask a friend to read the comment for you and let you know if they agree with anything. The thing about trolls is they will keep on trolling. The thing about friends is they can provide true, helpful criticism.

Ignore the trolls. Keep your faith, your motivation, your passion.

Listen to them. Lose everything.

It’s a downward spiral.

 

Stay Positive & You Can’t Please Everyone (Nor Should You Want To)

Appeal To The Masses, But If That Fails

Garth Beyer

–  Create a gadget for everyone to carry with them.

–  Write a cook book everyone can read.

–  Design a sweatshirt everyone will wear.

–  Build a desk everyone can use.

Good luck… However, if none of those tasks work out and you find yourself incapable of appealing to the masses, perhaps, just perhaps try some of the following:

–  Sketch something only a few may appreciate.

–  Design an app only a few will love.

–  Write a blog only a few will read daily.

–  Build nightstands only a few can get their hands on.

While scarcity practically multiplies your success rate, so does personalization. Make something only a few will love. I’m not sure where anyone got in their minds to be successful you have to appeal to the masses. I’m not even sure why some businesses and individuals make it an end goal.

It also pays to remember you can only stretch yourself out to so many people. Do you think you can appeal to the masses? Better question, do you even want to?

 

Stay Positive & It’s Okay Better If You Don’t