Life Lesson

What Are You Doing It For?

Garth Beyer

Core Values

A lot of things get done throughout the work day merely because someone was too scared to say STOP or lacked the confidence to ask why they were assigned to do what they were.

From an employee stand point, every task is an opportunity to reaffirm what you’re doing it for. It’s why company culture, company goals, and, most importantly, the company message is so vital to know and understand.

Often times, when one is doing a task one deems unnecessary, they still have a legitimate purpose for doing it when they know why the company is in existence (its core value).

But not every company shares its why. Not every company inspires their employers to be part of their movement. In fact, not every company is moving.

So we must fall back on our own values. We must ask why. We must understand what we are doing this or that for… and appreciate it.

From a manager’s perspective, if employees aren’t asking why, if they’re not seeking out work that matters, then it’s an indicator of a larger company problem.

Do work that matters or be the company culture changer. They need you.

 

Stay Positive & Ask, Know, Care

Photo credit

Where Does No Fear Get You

Garth Beyer

Batman gets out of the pit because he finally fears death.

Fear can be leveraged. We can dance with fear. We can use the second strongest emotion to our benefit.

Or, we can shun fear and rely on the first strongest emotion: love.

Perks to both.

People without fear aren’t lying to you or themselves, they’re merely taking a different path to the same destination.

Only people who let fear hold them in the pit, wrong themselves.

 

Stay Positive & Rise

Reasons You’re Not Doing Creative Work That Matters

Garth Beyer
  • Your boss says no
  • You think you need more information, more knowledge, more experience
  • You have no time
  • There’s no step-by-step guide
  • It’s a low priority
  • You need more sleep
  • You’re unsure what your passion is
  • Work comes first
  • You work all day and want to relax in the evening
  • No clue where to start

All the above are real because they are my reasons for not doing creative work.

Interestingly enough, I write this to remind us we are in control of changing any one of these, but we’re afraid. The list above is a list of excuses.

The real reason for not being creative, not doing work that matters, not building something remarkable is fear.

 

Stay Positive & Where Will You Put The Fear?

Making It Better

Garth Beyer

“How can we make this better?”

Well, you can add a widget here, add another layer of code here, we can compile feedback from 100 friends and make all the necessary tweaks and add-ons too.

Making better might mean making it more complicated and, thus, less likely to be adopted, purchased, fan-boy-loved.

To make something better, we have to start with a better question.

“How can we make this more simple?”

Now you’ve got me hooked.

Easy to adopt, easy to use, easy to share doesn’t mean that something isn’t remarkable.

 

Stay Positive & It Means Quite The Opposite

Our Online Opportunity

Our Online Opportunity

Garth Beyer

When we spend hours on Imgur, spend days watching kittens grow up, spend weeks reading blog posts, but never commenting on them or sharing them, we waste our online opportunity.

The Internet was built as a hub for connection. Sure people have profited from the information age and the ability to produce, seek and share knowledge, but the real kicker, the real opportunity is connecting the unconnected.

Instead of sending a chain email pronouncing imminent death if not forwarded in the next 10 seconds, you could use those ten seconds to send an email connecting two friends, you could start a FB group or an online book club or get a group message going of 5 people who you deem influential and build a master mind group.

Connecting people — that gives you the silver. Getting the connected to create something, to be something in their entirety, to do something remarkable — that gives you the gold.

  • Sell the time of the mastermind group. It’s now a consulting group.
  • Start an online book club and flash mob a book store dressed up as your favorite fictional characters.
  • Connect those two friends and see what they learned from one another. You’ll learn something too.

There’s no shortage of people who can benefit from being connected. You can’t even call it a risk. So, what’s stopping you?

 

Stay Positive & Everyone Is Connected, But We Need You To Point It Out

Who Matters

Who Matters

Garth Beyer

Failure doesn’t always mean your product, service, work or art sucks. In fact, most of the time failure means you’re trying to make it appeal to the wrong tribe, you’re trying to get it approved by the wrong people, you’re trying to please the wrong market.

It’s why you hear “that’s really poor marketing/advertising” more often than you hear “that’s a really sucky product/blog post/service.”

Who matters matters greatly.

Don’t scrap what you’ve worked hard to build, scrap who you’ve worked hard to build it for and seek someone new, maybe someone less famous. You’ll be surprised how far re-targeting gets you.

 

Stay Positive & Try Someone New Before You Try Something New

Ebb And Flow Of Information For Creativity’s Sake

Ebb And Flow Of Information For Creativity’s Sake

Garth Beyer

I used to visit 20 websites, watch five or so videos and listen to at least two podcast episodes a day. I would say, on average, I spent about 2.5 to 3 hours taking in information for creativity’s sake. Heck, I needed more blog post ideas. Or so I thought.

For the start of 2015, I took all my online information sources, put them in a single Evernote, and haven’t really touched them since. To my surprise, it hasn’t been my downfall.

I still show up and blog every day. I still have thought-provoking conversations with friends and colleagues. I still have a steady flow of creative ideas that I document or ship. I still manage to hear and learn about the latest trends.

I’ve ignored the signals in my brain pressuring me to read more, digest more, learn more, absorb more. Instead, I realized by doing more, I’m learning just as much, but also have creative work to show for it.

Information only gets you so far. Sometimes it doesn’t get you anywhere.

 

Stay Positive & Doing Might Give You All The Info You Need