Life Lesson

Show Up Early, Stay Late

Show Up Early, Stay Late

Garth Beyer

Pick Yourself event

When it comes to work, simply show up on time, do the important work first and end up leaving early.

When it comes to meetings, events, gatherings, seminars, networking parties, ceremonies, workshops, conventions, conferences, and powwows, show up early and stay late.

By showing up early, you have a hand at setting the agenda or at least setting up the room (perhaps so you get to sit by those who have the most influence?), you get to meet the organizer(s) (they are like the secretary, as important to have like you as the boss), and you get more time to make friends with others who show up early (making friends is a reason you’re there, right?).

By staying late, you get to connect with others who attended and are hoping to connect too (you’re not chasing connections), you typically get to meet the keynote speaker or the key influencer if you stick around (you’ll learn what they didn’t get to tell you during their time in the spotlight), and you’ll hear the down and dirty of what people really think (both helping you know who to avoid and how to make things go smooth if you ever organize an event yourself).

The things you learn, see and hear before and after an event is sometimes more fruitful than the event itself.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Take My Word For It. Go Learn, See, And Hear For Yourself

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What Do You Have?

What Do You Have?

Garth Beyer

Blackhawks Fans

Clients? Members? Customers? Friends? Bypassers? Fans? Impulse buyers?

The people you interact with for business success. What do you refer to them as?

The answer gives me insight into your business model. Changing the answer, then, means changing your business model, and, by extension, your level of success. Chris Brogan has friends. Seth Godin has members. Edelman has clients. The Blackhawks have fans.

 

Stay Positive & People Foremost Love Being Friends And Members

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Changing The Way You Succeed

Changing The Way You Succeed

Garth Beyer

Work Hard Work Harder

Three out of five times I chat with my mom, she reminds me, “we all have the same 24 hours.”

Think about the vast difference in difference you make compared to anyone else, using the same 24 hours. How little you accomplish compared to some, but how much you accomplish compared to others. Alas. All still with only 24 hours.

A friend of mine asked me to partake in a 21-day challenge of waking up at 4:30 a.m. each weekday. My main issue with it is the hour and a half I would gain isn’t very scalable. (Currently I wake up at 6:00 a.m. each day.)

I say it’s not scalable because most of us can do what we currently do in 10 hours, in eight. And for those who put in 15 hours of work, will more meaningful work get done if you clock in two hours earlier or stay two hours later?

What would you think of a 21-day challenge of cutting the work day two hours shorter, or three, or five? How would you do things differently? Give this a try before you go extending your workday. Even if you jump back to your regular schedule or try the 21-day challenge of waking up at 4:30 a.m., you’ll have changed the way you succeed.

 

Stay Positive & Reimagine The Work Week, Now, Not Just The Days

Garth E. Beyer

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The Quicker You Decide…

The Quicker You Decide…

Garth Beyer

Decide

the more time you will have.

The quicker you decide on a theme, the more time you will have to create article topics for it.

The quicker you decide on a name, the more time you will have to brand it.

The quicker you decide on a goal, the more time you have to work toward it.

And my personal favorite,

The quicker you decide, the more time you have to either roll in the success of the decision or the more time you will have to learn from the failure of it.

 

Stay Positive & What’s Taking You So Long?

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Good Out Of The Gate

Good Out Of The Gate

Garth Beyer

Good Out Of The Gate

Not many are.

Typically, the only person who expects you to be good out of the gate is you.

I might be wrong with that statement. Some may expect good out of the gate from you, but they’ll never check.

They won’t read your first book and if they open it, they won’t read all of it. They won’t follow your blog and check in every day for the first three months you blog daily. They won’t watch your YouTube bit detailing your new invention. 50 Instagram photos down the line, they’ll never scroll down to see what your first 5 were.

Don’t focus on being good out of the gate, focus on feeling good.

You’ve started something. You’ve finished and shipped something. You’ve practiced. You’re troll-free because no one is paying attention yet. Enjoy it. Relish it. Leverage the opportunity.

 

Stay Positive & No One Is Watching, Why Not Experiment?

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Assorted Links

Garth Beyer

1) Littering says a lot about you (see)

2) Life sucks, meditation isn’t what you think (read)

3) Thirty things I’ve learned (read)

4) Lessons learned (read)

5) To enjoy an experience more, wait for it longer (read)

6) The drinker’s manifesto (read)

7) The next big thing in fancy food (short read)

Expecting Conversation

Expecting Conversation

Garth Beyer

Instagram Photo

I see a lot of social media posts and talk to others who create online content wondering why they are not getting any engagement, why no one is commenting on their Instagram photo or replying to any Tweets. My reply is two-fold.

Lack Of Communication

Those who see the blog post, the Instagram photo, the podcast, don’t know what they are supposed to do next. Amateurs – and I don’t mean it as an insult – simply state what they want the viewer to do. Some write “leave a comment in the comments section below” at the end of their blogpost or ask “please share this video with your friends” at the end of their YouTube bit. It works!

The more experienced communicators can craft the message in a way that asks the viewer to participate, to communicate in some way without asking straightforward. The wording, the voice, the structure matters, but takes hours of practice to get right.

Writing into a void is easy, writing to interact without requesting the interaction is di-fi-cult.

Take care how you craft your next message, when you write your next blog post, when you post an Instagram photo description. Be sure an objective viewer will know what you want them to do.

Lack Of Emotion

Simply stating, a lot of created social media content is safe. It’s banal. It’s all numbered, bolded, bulleted and smells like a PowerPoint.

If you’re not getting interaction (when interaction is what you want) you’re lacking emotion in your content. The Instagram photo isn’t moving enough, the YouTube channel doesn’t make the viewer feel like anything has changed after watching, the blog post doesn’t make the reader giddy to start something new.

The question to ask before you start anything, before you tweet, before you share a photo on FB: how do you want viewers to feel?

Just as important, the question to ask before you finish anything, before you hit send, before you upload: will the viewers feel what you want them to feel?

 

Stay Positive & Voice Matters

Photo credit: me