GarthBox

If you’re living in fear or anxiety or worry or concern – it’s likely you’re narrating a story of how something is going to go wrong before it has.

No wonder it’s so difficult to do the work that matters – let alone share it out with the world, to hit send, to ship.

The smartest way around this is to shift the narrative – turn it into one of success in advance.

The downside is that it’s much harder to do – the outcome, however, is much more helpful with motivation, energy, passion and raising the bar of the work you’re doing.

Two forces of difficulty are available, one prevents work from getting done and the other encourages the best foot forward.

Which difficulty you face is a choice you get to make.

Stay Positive & Make The Difficult Worth It

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Two ways to ensure the safety of the values inside a package.

1. Package it with other values (swag, other boxed gifts, branded candy).

2. Package it with valueless items (peanuts, crinkle paper, plastic pillows).

Failure to pack a box tight is sure to result in the valuable item being broken or damaged in some way.

But what you pack the goods with also sends a signal about your brand and just how valuable the main item is.

Same goes for ideas, not just birthday presents.

Stay Positive & Package Things Right

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There will never be a time that anyone is given as much grace as now (hopefully there will never be another time like now, since most grace is given during stressful and tumultuous times.)

The responsibility then, is truly to pivot, to try something new, to invest in spaces unexplored by you or your tribe.

If it works, it’s generous. If it doesn’t, your tribe will understand.

“Everyone is trying to do anything they can to make it through.”

Except they’re not. Not everyone.

Stay Positive & Your Time To Stand Out

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Bottom funnel numbers, sure, makes sense. Need to measure. Need to quantify. Numbers matter, especially when it comes to sales, profit, investors, etc.,

Awareness. Loyalty. Impression (not the numerical impression). Impact. – these are far more difficult to measure, but extremely important to evaluate.

Does it put them to sleep? Are they excited and moved? Do they share it with others (and does it become more valuable when they do)?

Hard to quantify in a dashboard and sentiment analysis only goes so far (IMO – AI isn’t sophisticated enough to understand the nuances of sarcasm through the published word and like most numerical metrics, once you focus on them, they are easy to change).

Quantify when you need to, otherwise focus on the emotion ignited and the actions that follow rather than some easily influenced numerical data.

Stay Positive & Seek Out The Emotion

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There’s the secrete formula to becoming an impresario.

You need skill and you need care.

And here’s all it takes to get either: curiosity.

If you’re curious enough about what it takes, then you’ll have enough motivation to learn the skill(s).

And if you’re curious enough about why it matters, then you’ll be inspired enough to share what you create.

Skill and care, that’s all it takes.

Stay Positive & Are You Thinking About What’s Next? (It’s A Curious Thing To Do)

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I’m a little unconvinced when someone says they are a professional and all they do is push buttons.

I guess, in a way, they are a professional in that strict (rather, restricted) category of pushing buttons.

But the real professionals, the ones that get paid more, get talked about, get sought after go beyond the button-pushing.

They bring art and invent new buttons (the metaphorical ones that others carry) and they push them because they’re professionalism is designed around finding the edge and then ideating or innovating beyond the boundary.

Pushing buttons is all well and good, but it’s not what the world demands. If anything, it’s what the world is optimizing (or automating) away from.

Will you stay behind? Or go beyond the buttons?

Stay Positive & Go Ahead, Push Yourself

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The most important component of the business plan is the potential market size.

Without confidence and facts in there being a market available to you – and a sizeable one to support not only the sustaining of your business but the growth and development of it too, then everything else is either an uphill battle or waste.

This is the problem with marketing driven organizations. They market regardless of the market capture rate.

On the other hand, this is where the success lies in market driven organizations. They market where the need is, where the volume is, where the share is.

You can argue that there is a vast sea of potential customers… you can design the best rod and reel and lure… you can situate boats and fishers across the entire water… and you can use GPS that tells you there are fish under the water – but, and this is the big but: if they’re not hungry…

Figuring out if fish are hungry (and then figuring what they are hungry for) isn’t easy, but it’s essential if you plan to run a thriving business.

Stay Positive & Start There, Then Cast Your Net

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