GarthBox

To start something new is fresh, it’s exciting; we’re inspired and motivated and enthralled by the possibilities.

All these good vibes stop the lizard brain from speaking up to tell us all the reasons we shouldn’t.

Of course, after awhile down a project, the sizzle of starting fizzles out and the lizard brain starts getting to us.

We lose some motivation. The project doesn’t feel fresh anymore; it feels like work, hard work.

The solution is simple: treat a project like a series of starts.

Every milestone is unique. Every day is distinct. Every action at improving and building the project is actually the start of something new – if we choose to view it that way.

And that’s just it: it’s a choice.

Stay Positive & What’ll You Choose?

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It’s a good feeling to feel seen. It’s a good feeling to feel gotten and understood. It’s a good feeling to be cared for.

While writing someone’s name on a cup or bottle or name tag can make something personal, marketers and makers can do more.

More to make a person feel as if their name is written on it even when it’s not.

There’s a reason the expression “this has your name written all over it” exists.

It’s meaningful. Powerful.

And if we can get people to think it to themselves (“this has my name written all over it”), then we’ve done our jobs as marketers and creators of value.

Stay Positive & Is Their Name On It?

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A little levity is the cherry on top.

A little levity can be the contribution you’re remembered by.

A little levity can make all the difference in an otherwise boring meeting.

A little levity can break down barriers, put fears at bay, and connect you with someone stone-faced.

A little levity can go a long way.

Stay Positive & Lev A Little

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It’s easy to make comparisons. Especially ones that can convince us not to leap or ones that make us feel worse. Even the ones that make us feel better aren’t quite right.

Marketers love comparing because it’s so inherent to the stories we try telling ourselves. To compare is our default setting of making sense of something; to evaluating it.

And so marketers will make up comparisons. They’ll leverage them. They’ll plant little comparison seeds.

There’s no stopping that kind of marketer. There’s only controlling the stories we tell ourselves.

Comparison may be a default setting, but it’s still a choice.

We can choose not to compare. To take something at face value. To leap.

Stay Positive & Compared To What?

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In all that you do, touch and interact with, you’re a middleman.

Something has entered your life (beckoned or not) and then something will come of it.

We can do nothing much of the time and not get in trouble. We can take the crap we’re often give and give it back out.

“I’m just doing my job” or “I didn’t think they would care” or “I’m just passing along the short end of the stick that I was given”

The excuses are endless if we want to be that kind of middleman. Otherwise, there’s a chance for us to be a different kind.

The kind that evaluates and improves what we’re handed. Garbage in, value out, as opposed to garbage in, garbage out.

If we’re all middlemen, we might as well be badass ones.

Stay Positive & Always Room For Improvement

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This isn’t about the way you go about following up (email, in person, call, text, so on).

This is about the feeling you have about following up.

Is it the kind that you need to do. Where you feel you have to follow up. It’s work, a task to check off, part of your job role?

Or is it the kind that you want to do?

Where you feel energized by the work that’s in motion and you want to ensure that energy keeps growing? It’s a privilege and an opportunity. The kind of follow up that gives you a chance to better the impact of the work and be there for someone else?

If you find yourself following up more often out of necessity than desire, it’s worth evaluating the work you’re involved with and adjust as needed.

Stay Positive & How’s It Going?

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Trick question. Trick answer.

To make the logo bigger will cost more than it would to make a better product.

Mainly because the logo can never be big enough.

But at some point, sooner than you might think, you can add more value to your offering that people talk, people pay, people share it.

Any time you want to make the logo bigger, consider investing in a better product or service first.

Stay Positive & This Or That

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