Author: Garth Beyer

Putting Yourself Out There (to be judged)

Garth Beyer

Keeping tab of the facts, every time you stick your neck out on the line, people are judging you. They can’t help it and maybe you can’t help judging them in return. Regardless, putting yourself out there is a chivalrous task: respectable, rare, personal.

There is a societal shift, though. Before, putting yourself out there was sharing your story, laying out all the highs and lows of your life (always more lows, of course) and making yourself vulnerable to the fact that you have connected with someone, that they know your secrets.

Now, this happens within the first few weeks of meeting someone. These facts and life experiences are no longer associated with vulnerability – they are simply common knowledge to anyone willing to ask. There’s been a switch.

Putting yourself out there has become talking about your passion, about showing the work you have created, and about sharing your notes, your ideas, your art.

Just as difficult as it was before.

But more worth it.

 

Stay Positive & Put Yourself Out There

Garth E. Beyer

To My Friend That Needs The Reminder

Garth Beyer

At the core of the long tail, what matters is not where people who connect with you are, or even how many of them are seeking a particular way you word things or express yourself or display images, but only that some number of them exist, somewhere.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Let The Fact You Don’t Appeal To Most Shy You Away From Appealing To The Few

Garth E. Beyer

Inventors Sought!

Garth Beyer

We’re extraordinary inventors.

Not my generation, not Generation Y, not our parents’ parents, not teenagers, not our ancestors, not students at Harvard or Madison, not one specific group. All of us.

All of us are extraordinary inventors. And we should be ashamed.

We invent something in particular that there is already a surplus of. This something, we receive no credit for, no handshake, no raise, no stamp of approval, ribbon, medal, or award. We invent this something that should have only began as an idea that we acknowledgingly and self-respectingly shrugged off.

We invent new excuses.

 

Stay Positive & It’s Not Something To Be Proud Of (then why do it?)

Garth E. Beyer

Visitors, Clicks, Subscriptions

Garth Beyer

Visitors, clicks, subscriptions, pinbacks, emails, tweets, retweets, follows, facebook impressions, favorites, stars, ratings, statistics, forwards, reblogs, and bookmarks are all great. All fantastic. All give the ego a boost, maybe your moral too.

But do they matter?

If you create out of the necessity for subscriptions, if you create solely because you have people reblogging your creations, if you create to see your stats rise, you’re working, not creating.

If you can take out all stats, trackers, measures, feedback, impressions, reach, views, and audience and still create – that’s what defines an artist. A creator for the sake of creation, a creator that will follow through no matter what, with no guarantee of it working, and no expectation of it meaning anything to anyone but you, the artist.

 

Stay Positive & Artistry Is Always A Lonesome Process At Its Core

Garth E. Beyer

Avant-Garde

Garth Beyer

It’s been said that everything popular was once ridiculed and the thinkers behind it demoralized. The reason “it” became popular was definitely not the work of those who gave up, who let themselves be emotionally influenced, who backed off in the face of criticism.

Nor was it brought forth by those who were indifferent. Take, for example, the move to legalize gay marriage. Those who could care less whether it’s legalized or not have little to no influence over it being legalized. (counterarguments anticipated)

It’s the avant-garde who break through the glass, the threshold, the wall, the oppression, the fear, the criticism; all the obstacles that go along with something incredible.

“Those who belong to the avant-garde are committed to the future and thus by necessity, are also isolated; but their conviction that they are ahead of their time enables them to endure.” – Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann

More or less this is a salute to the avant-garde, as well as an expression of hope that you will become/remain one of them.

 

Stay Positive & There Is No Popular Without Avant-Garde

Garth E. Beyer

No, Thank YOU

Garth Beyer

Every damn time the barista gives me the coffee I ordered, he says, “thank you.”

I don’t write this in anger or resentment, more astonishment than anything. Is it not me who is supposed to say “thank you” to him. After all, he’s the one who did the work of making it, who topped it with whipped cream, who took an order and delivered. On top of being thankful for him making me coffee, I even tip him. So whose honor is it, really?

Obviously the artists. Obviously the person who was not only happy, but willing and passionate about taking action. Since I wasn’t ecstatic about the process of ordering a coffee, that opts me out, leaving one person left.

Seems to me like I’ve met an impresario. What would you say?

 

Stay Positive & Do What You Can Be Thankful To Be Doing

Garth E. Beyer

Missed Connections

Garth Beyer

Successful businesses are built around the idea of connecting. And with new media, this has never been easier to do.

Just yesterday I posted on Seabird’s Facebook page and they actually responded with an honest and sincere update. I thought to them I was just a fan. Now, I’m a friend.

Today I posted a suggestion on Boulders climbing gym’s page. Instead of saying something along the lines of “great idea, we’ll consider it.” They asked me a couple of questions in an effort to make my suggestion happen.

I see business to stranger interaction on Twitter all the time. The result? No longer strangers, no longer consumers, no longer another person on the email list. Instead: friends, connections on an emotional level, and above all, real trust.

What I see is businesses connecting with strangers and turning them into friends. Next, what I believe businesses need to do is discover a way to then connect friends with other friends.

For example, a friend of mine is working on her first startup. She is building a website that you can rent graduation gowns from other students who graduated before you. She can connect well with the target audience, being a recent graduate herself.

But what matters most to her business plan is the level of social interaction and connection she is using to leverage herself. It’s not just about saving money on a cap and gown. It’s about inspiring, creating, aspiring, and sharing your story with other past and current graduates within your field of interest and geography. Beneficial connections for any graduate!

If I may throw an idea in. I think every Facebook page for a restaurant/gym/local shop/retail store/movie theater (you get the idea) should have a missed connection portion on their page.

Business to peer connecting has gotten easy. Now, to benefit more than your competition, it’s about businesses connecting their peers to other peers.

 

Stay Positive & Once You Connect, Connect Others

Garth E. Beyer