Life Lesson

Here’s The Thing About Menus

Garth Beyer

salmagundi_c52c7523-afa2-4ccc-a1a7-41e4df4cb0fb

I love going out to lunch for the sake of staring at the restaurant’s menu. Why?

Because I can read how they describe the meals, what they are trying to sell and how they are trying to sell it. People take lunch to get away from work, I take it to get more into it simply because every product can be written like a meal on a menu. With all the restaurants and menus available to us, there’s a lot to learn.

Seth Godin wrote today about Salmagundi: “Salmagundi is a salad dish, originating in the early 17th century in England, comprising cooked meats, seafood, vegetables, fruit, leaves, nuts and flowers and dressed with oil, vinegar and spices.”

What if we tweaked the description to this: “Salmagundi is a diverse salad dish that will get you to experience variety, the spice of 17th century England.”

By tweaking it in such a way, you’ve done two things.

1. You’ve told the customer how they will feel eating Salmagundi.

2. They’re going to want to know the ingredients and they will ask the server. An advantage because menus don’t sell to people, people sell to people.

Think this through when you’re writing the description to your product. Don’t tell them what it is. Tell them how it will make them feel.

That’s why we buy food, or anything, really.

 

Stay Positive & More Please

Garth E. Beyer

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A New Edge To The Publishing Industry

Garth Beyer

What I’m about to tell you is a fallout for publishing companies, sure. But the change occurring results in the thriving  publishing industry.

Brands are now publishers.

And for the sake of those who don’t consider themselves a brand: businesses, services, inventors, creators are now publishers too.

A product won’t sell well unless you provide a copy of the story of it.

A business won’t gather as many clients unless they first share their story with them.

A freelancer won’t get as many bids unless they pitch their story, not their service.

Stories are driving the economy, and the only way to get your story out there is to publish it*

 

Stay Positive & If You Don’t Know Your Story, You’re Behind (here)

Garth E. Beyer

*word of mouth storytelling, I’ve always considered a form of publishing too.

Those Who Lack Great Ideas

Garth Beyer

Japanese-Cooking-Style

As much as I believe that everyone can come up with great ideas, I do come across those that will tell me that they can’t. Instead of fighting with them and trying to convince them of what they already believe to be false, I side with them.

That doesn’t give them an excuse not to do anything.

If anything, it encourages even more action on their part.

My simple retort then is to find a business that you value, a model that you can see yourself implementing and then build that business in an area it has yet been built in. In essence, you’re taking a great idea and using it geographically elsewhere.

Sometimes I fall into the trap of believing that a restaurant in town that centers on entertaining the customers by allowing them to watch the chefs cooking and turning that into a show is the only restaurant that does that; that there are no other restaurants like that anywhere else.

This comes to the restaurant’s advantage – the belief of “the only one”.

However, after a moments thought, you and I both know there are more restaurants that carry this model of turning a dining experience into an entertaining experience, but that doesn’t make them less valuable.

This process works with any great idea, not just restaurant based ideas. Think of some product or service you love. Guaranteed you can find almost the save product or service elsewhere – not everywhere, but elsewhere.

Don’t wait to come up with a great idea. Others have already done that for you.

 

Stay Positive & Take A Great Idea And Bring It Back Home With You

Garth E. Beyer

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The Missed (or hushed) Story Behind Burger King

Garth Beyer

If you haven’t caught it yet, an angry Burger King employee posted “NOW HIRING BKMUST BE MEXICAN” sign and was fired as a result. (click picture for link to short news article)

If you clicked and read, you’ll notice that no one has reported why the employee was angry.

Burger King team may be dedicated to diversity and inclusion, but how a company then treats its employees is another matter.

If anyone finds out why the employee did what he did, please post a link to it in the comments section. I (we) would like to know.

The Selling To Caring Gap

Garth Beyer

pencilcake

Bernadette Jiwa, who I admire dearly, wrote yesterday that most people ask, “How do I sell my idea?” when what they need to ask is, “How am I going to help people to care about this?” I don’t necessarily disagree with her, but I think what matters is the space between the two questions.

Let’s throw out some thoughts about the first question: how do I sell my idea?

It’s an honest question. After all, that is exactly what many want to do. But, if that is the question you’re asking, perhaps you have a poor idea because a good idea is never sold, it’s shared. Sharing something doesn’t mean there’s no cost to it, but it does connote gratuity, sincerity and fairness – three traits that most never receive when being sold something.

A quick thought on the second question: how am I going to help people to care about this?

The more meaningful question is “do I care about this?” Jiwa’s question is important because it centers on you: how you deliver, how you act, how you tell the story of your product. What’s necessary, though, is first understanding what it is you’re trying to share with people.

You can deliver your product inside a cake with a story about you making this cake especially for the customer, but if all that is in the cake is a pencil – all that you’ve done falls short. The gap between selling an idea or product and getting people to care about that idea or product lies in understanding the idea or product itself.

If you understand that you’re selling a pencil, it makes how you get people to care about it easier.

 

Stay Positive & What’s In It For Them?

Garth E. Beyer

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Tooting My Own Horn

Garth Beyer

Today marks two years blogging.

Earlier I had the crazy idea to write about – as upsetting as it sounds – how we need to be more like scientists doing experiments on lab rats. We need to monitor ourselves, check where we are going, ask why, ask how we feel today, evaluate how far we’ve come, how we got to this point and where we hope to be going.

Ironically, blogging has helped me do just that and then some. It’s given me the chance to share what I’ve learned, what mistakes I’ve made* and not only inspire other’s, but each day, when I write, also inspire myself.

As humble as I am, I don’t mind saying I’m proud of myself.

Ya know, it’s a shame really… that lab rats can’t pat themselves on the back. We owe it to ourselves to toot our own horns from time to time.

 

Stay Positive & Toot Toot

Garth E. Beyer

*I don’t share stories of my mistakes so that you don’t make them yourself. Mistakes are what makes your life yours.

They Are All Lies

Garth Beyer

Lies that you tell yourself after seeing someone being successful or remarkable:

They were born with more talent than me

They are fearless

I can’t make the same committment that they make

They have more time than me

They don’t have to worry about x, y, or z like I do

I would have to get into Harvard if I wanted to end up like them

It’s so easy for them

They’ve had all the support from the beginning

They never fail

 

Stay Positive & Quit Lying To Yourself

Garth E. Beyer