Life Lesson

If you wait long enough, you might get your big break. You might get picked. You might get your name thrown into the mix or showcased in a top publication or mentioned on Twitter.

It might happen if you wait long enough.

Any waiting, though, is too much waiting.

Every moment waiting is a moment you could have shared something remarkable, worked toward making a bigger impact and been there for someone who needs you now, not later.

What if you didn’t wait? What if you chose yourself?

What if you looked at every day as your big break?

 

Stay Positive & Waiting Is For Amateurs

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It’s easier to manage a list that’s short than it is to manage one that’s long but prioritized.

Something to consider next time you face the choice of either organizing your list or checking items off it.

 

Stay Positive & What Are You Afraid Of?

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Many don’t want to do the hard work of marketing because it requires that one turns off a default setting we have when making an argument.

We all know that it’s tough to convince someone of something if we merely share why we believe in it. The worldviews don’t align that way. It keeps us disconnected to share only our opinion, but we keep the satisfaction of personal authority when we tell it how it is.

That’s the default setting. And it almost never works, not in the long-term anyway.

Marketing done right is marketing done by listening; by setting our worldviews aside to have empathy; by telling ourselves the story the person we’re talking to is telling themselves.

It feels uncomfortable, like we shouldn’t try–like it’s their story, not ours.

It’s better they come to our side, right?

It’s not that marketers aren’t trustworthy, it’s that they (you know, the great ones) are so empathetic that it’s often hard to know exactly where they are coming from and why you feel like you trust them and how you can feel so understood by someone.

It’s scary and a bit uncomfortable, but that’s vulnerability and how you know they actually care.

When you can meet another in their field, what you have to say ceases to be an argument and becomes an epiphany that you each can bond over.

Far more powerful, in my opinion, then there being a winner and a loser.

 

Stay Positive & Arguments Are Passé Anyway

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You don’t need to wait until you have a signed contract or estimate to begin thinking.

You don’t need to wait for “the next big thing” to happen either.

Nor do you need to wait for your business to get on the latest social platform.

Your thoughts are your most powerful tool to get all you want: promotion, client, business…

Don’t wait until it’s in front of you to start thinking about it.

Start now so that when it is in front of you, you’re already ahead of it.

Whether it’s in your job title or not, you’re being paid to think.

Whether it’s 9:30 p.m. at night or 4:30 a.m., you’re being paid to think.

You might not see it reflected in your bank account now, but you will.

 

Stay Positive & Think More, Deeper, Smarter

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Believe it or not, this is the easiest part.

What you thought was a struggle yesterday or what you think is a challenge this week … it’s not the hardest part.

The feedback you’ve recently gotten? You’ll be given harsher feedback in the future.

The gap you leaped last year? This year’s gap is even wider.

It never gets easier. Not as long as you’re pushing yourself to be better.

The beauty of the real work is that it hasn’t started yet. It’s both a blessing and a curse.

All the more reason to not let the trips and criticisms slow you down now.

 

Stay Positive & Consider It Practice For What’s To Come

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When it comes to your staff–if they’re not as passionate about your story as you, they’re not doing you any favors.

In fact, they’re lowering the bar of your business. Your value is suffering.

If you have to close your shop for a few days to find the right person to hire. Do so.

It’ll hurt you more to hire someone on a whim so you can stay open.

Worse yet is hiring someone for the long-term who isn’t excited by why your business exists.

The worst salesperson for a carpet company is the one who says that they leave their carpet at home filthy and buy the cheaper stuff from the other guys.

The worst bartender you can hire is the one who tells customers “I don’t like beer.” (Literally experienced this at what was supposed to be a stellar craft beer bar in Chicago this weekend. Think I’ll be going back? Nope.)

You don’t need to find the Miss America of staff, but you do need to find someone with a spark of care, of generosity and of passion … then help fuel it.

Just as there are customers you shouldn’t keep as customers, there’s staff you’d be better off without.

 

Stay Positive & We Need You To Choose Better Staff More Than You Need The Staff

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Some trends are obvious why they’re happening.

Others, not so much.

Ever wonder why Sriracha is a trending sauce?

How about why people buy a small instead of a medium when a medium is only $.05 more?

Why are more people buying record players again?

It’s important to notice trends, but the marketers and brands that excel and leverage the trends are the ones who dig deep to understand how they became a trend in the first place.

It’s about the why. Always has been.

 

Stay Positive & Dig Deeper

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