Life Lesson

A New Kind Of Game Show

Garth Beyer

Think of The Price Is Right. Now, imagine if a contestant guessed a price wrong, that they got to try again, perhaps with a different product, a different price, a different strategy. Those who win are those who stick around through all the wrong choices, not those who gets things right again and again.

Our society puts a lot of currency on being right, but social currency comes from being wrong and not walking off the stage, which takes audacity.

It took me awhile to realize it, but our lives aren’t like The Price Is Right. We win when we give ourselves permission to suck from time to time, when we take risks, when we shun the audience in our mind that’s booing us when we do things wrong.

 

Stay Positive & When Was The Last Time You Permitted Yourself To be Wrong?

Permission To Suck

Garth Beyer

There are a few tasks a day, I imagine, that we absolutely need to do things right. There are some projects at work where there is simply no room for being wrong, especially if the shipping deadline is EOD.

That being said, each project or obligation we have to get right, we actually think to ourselves how it must be right, it must be perfect before we send it out. It becomes a constant reminder to do things slow and safely.

Oddly, though, a project where there is room for being wrong, we often don’t acknowledge that privilege and thus don’t exercise it, thus putting us at a disadvantage to those cashing out on the privilege of being wrong.

We ought to notice when there is room for wrong or, as I consider it, permission to suck because the path toward creative righteousness is made of moments of wrong, of failure, of suck. How?

Because regularly shipping work that sucks a bit or being off about a project direction – essentially being wrong about something, goes from feeling like death to being a bit of a nuisance to being a treasured opportunity.

 

Stay Positive & Recognize The Moments You’re Permitted To Suck (and cash out on them!)

The Forgotten Market

Garth Beyer

There’s a huge market comprised of people who notice, who are patient, who are watching to see if you show up every day, and if you show up with a consistent passion and focus in your work.

Bernadette is likely the best-type of friend you can make if you’re a brand. She notices good work. She’s part of the forgotten market.

She’s part of the tortoise market, rather than the hare market.

Social has brought us to think we have to appeal to the hare market to succeed; we have to be first, we have to share the most information, we have to continuously thrash (which has it’s place), we have to spread ourselves out, but so much of the racing is to the bottom.

I get caught up in the race from time to time when doing work for clients. Rushing means missing out on thinking about things differently, which requires information to sit for a bit. Thrashing has its place, but only if that’s the market you want to live in.

Think about it, Bernadette would have never talked to the painter if he were racing each day to get the job done, if he had thrown the tarps on the ground instead of graciously laying them out.

You have the choice to be picky about who you appeal to, and I suggest you consider it because all of not only what you do, but how you do it is dictated by the market you’re communicating with.

One isn’t better than the other. It merely does you, your work, and your clients justice to consider what market you want to speak to.

 

Stay Positive & Each Market Is A Lifestyle, Not Just A Marketing Style

How You Measure Client Success

Garth Beyer

Showcasing engagement on Twitter is nice. Reaching 150,000 people with one Facebook post is amazing. Highlighting a Pinterest board that a lot of people are following must mean you’re doing something right… right?

There is meaning in measuring what people are doing for or on behalf of your client. It gives you talking points, it proves you’re stirring the pot for them and getting people to interact with the brand.

I think we can do more. We can go beyond what customers, tribes, fanatics are doing for our client and notice, share, and appreciate what our client is doing for them.

The best way you can measure client success on (and off) social is by recognizing and shining the spotlight on what the brand has done for them. Sometimes this is represented by a gracious tweet or a shoutout on Facebook, but gets lost in all the examples of what the buyer is doing for the brand.

Metrics like click-through rates and subscriber numbers matter, but no one starts a business for the sake of getting engagement on a social platform, they start a business to make a real life impact on someone. Don’t you think we would want to show that’s being done on social?

 

Stay Positive & Let’s Start Measuring Results, Not Impressions

Driven By A Core Tribe

Garth Beyer

All of your idols have a core tribe.

It’s easy to distance yourself from their popularity, their status, their celebrity because they have such a large following. Surely you can’t be like them because they already exist and surely you can’t take away from their tribe, so why try?

It’s an illusion.

The most popular marketers, branders, bloggers, speakers, artists have far less true fans than you realize. They have a core tribe, likely 20 percent of all the people you think are their tribe actually are and provide for 80 percent of their status, income, and drive.

Just because someone views a blog daily, doesn’t put them as part of a person’s core tribe. Most often the core tribe is a collective of friends. You have friends, right? Then it looks like you’ve already started down the path of becoming noticed, appreciated, and respected. You’ve began growing your core tribe.

It’s not as hard as it looks. All it really requires of you is to befriend people (to be nice more than interesting) and to show up every day (give something and embrace vulnerability daily).

 

Stay Positive & 1 Million Followers On Twitter Is The Wrong Goal

Seeking Clarity

Garth Beyer

I hear a lot of good ideas. (Yes, nearly everyone I meet I ask what they would work on if they had all the time and resources to make it happen.)

I see a lot of people quickly give up on their good ideas because when they communicated them, they didn’t communicate them clearly and got discouraged.

Certainly if you can’t communicate your idea, it’s not a good one, right?

You see where I’m going here.

We need to surround ourselves with people who don’t criticize our ideas, but point out the spaces which aren’t clear.

When people ask about your idea, (usually) they’re not trying to break you; they’re sharing their confusion with you.

When I ask a question to flush out someone’s idea and I know they can’t respond immediately, I say, “you don’t need to respond right now. Think about it differently and get back to me later.” Sadly, few understand clarity is something figured out over time.

For now, know you have permission to go back to the drawing board, you have permission to suck, you have permission to think about it a bit more.

For great (not just good!) ideas follow these steps:

1) share your ideas

2) listen to people’s confusion so you know what you need to clarify

3) break. think about things differently

4) share your idea again

5) repeat steps 2-5

 

Stay Positive & Please Don’t Get Held Up On Step 1

More Choice, Easier Choosing

Garth Beyer

There’s a reason Baskin Robins only sells 31 flavors. It seems to be just enough choice to choose what you want. (Truthfully, just enough to choose two scoops. If they wanted you to only buy one scoop of iscream, perhaps they would offer only 16 flavors.)

If Baskin’ Robins were to sell 248 flavors. That would be overwhelming. You wouldn’t feel content without leaving with 8 scoops of different iscream.

The tipping point in making a choice easy is seeing the larger picture. When you notice that you’ve already chosen Baskin Robins over the other nine or so iscream venues in the area, it takes some of the stress away of choosing what’s in front of you.

When you notice you’re having iscream in the town of Rockford when you could be anywhere in the world getting iscream, the pressure of choosing an iscream flavor lessens again.

As it goes with all choices (e.g. to date this girl or not, to buy a new water softener or not, to stress about finding a job or not), when we see the bigger picture, when we take a moment to recognize all the opportunities and options we have instead of just the ones in front of us, choosing becomes easier.

So it goes, the marketer’s intention ought to focus on sharing perspectives, getting people to see all the choices, the angels, and the bigger picture. In doing so, the buyer can understand more, see their choice isn’t as stressful as they thought; in the grand scheme of things, this purchase won’t impact you as much as you’re telling yourself it is.

As Ohara Hale said, “The more you can understand, the more you can love, the more compassion you have, and in a world of compassion, will you find peace.”

Marketers call that brand devotion.

 

Stay Positive & It All Starts With Broadening The View Of Potential Leads