GarthBox

“Hey, how’s it going?”

The question gets almost the same response every time.

“Good. How about you?”

It’s quite invigorating how much a relationship can develop when you stretch a prompt to more uncommon territory.

“Hey, what was your high so far today?”

The question gets a far more telling response. One that makes them more human. And heck, it gets them to ride the high once more, if only briefly, and they’ve got you by their side for it.

On the flip side, responding a way that’s outside the status quo has a similar impact.

When you’re asked “Hey, how’s it going?” perhaps a response of “Living the dream because that’s the best thing to do with it” may make the connection a bit stronger to start or unravel a far more impactful conversation than if you responded with the connection-halting phrase “Fine.”

Stay Positive & Go For The Unexpected

It’s a brilliant prompt to answer before a meeting. Brilliant prompt to answer entering a new year. Brilliant prompt to answer before asking someone out on a date.

Even more brilliant to share. To hold yourself and others accountable.

But the secret sauce of answering the question: knowing when a meeting is over or when a goal is met.

Far too much time is wasted beating around the bush, trying to figure out if a meeting is over or worse, decisions are made that lead to chasing shiny objects rather than work that meets the intended objective.

Oh, and what I hoped to get out of writing this post? A reminder to make the most of my time.

Stay Positive & How About You?

You work really really hard at working really really smart.

The smarter you work, the more time you have/save.

The more time you have/save, the more you can work hard.

Stay Positive & That’s How

It’s a hard question to ask.

But it’s really only a hard question to ask when we know the answer is no.

It’s an easy question to ask when the answer is yes.

The hard part there is calculating just how worth it it was.

Which, in itself, is still worth doing.

Stay Positive & Well… Was It?

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If you’re going to make it personal, then make it personal.

Too often a marketer advocates for personalization and then tries to automate it.

Doing so might work, but certainly not as well as the time and energy investment of making it as personal as possible.

The funny thing about personalization is that it’s not actually what gets delivered that resonates with someone; it’s that that someone knows how much you put in to deliver on it.

That’s why personalization builds trust and loyalty.

Stay Positive & Personalize It, Completely.

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There’s not much in the world that gets better under more stress.

Not airport security checks. Not our bodies. Now our websites.

(Maybe those cool hydraulic press videos are the exception.)

Thus the practical advice is to go left when everyone is going right. The path isn’t the one traveled, it’s the one that avoids a bottleneck. Choosing to market to a few large customers is a different strategy than marketing to millions.

Stress doesn’t equate worth.

Stay Positive & If You Notice The Stress, Now You Know Your Next Move

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Parenting is exhausting.

So is marketing.

Mainly because the premise for doing both successfully is the same: you’re there to take care of someone.

Here are a few thoughts to remember:

– Giving away swag isn’t about giving away swag; it’s about using swag to open a dialogue for you to ask someone how you can help them more.

– If you have a customer that you haven’t reached out to in the last month… are they really a customer? Are they being taken care of?

– If you talked more than listened with the last prospect you pitched, then it’s time to fix that for the next one.

It’s not only best practice to take care of a customer or client; it’s fulfilling, too.

Stay Positive & If Someone Asked Your Customer If You Cared About Them, What’s The Answer?

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