GarthBox

There aren’t too many outliers that are going to stroll through as a potential customer of yours. After all, you’ve narrowed your audience, focused your brand, zeroed in on your tribe to serve.

BUT, outliers will arrive.

And such, it’s worth remembering that it’s a competitive advantage to accommodate them, and it doesn’t cost much.

Have something on hand for the person who brings their dog everywhere, the vegetarian, the person who needs their phone charged, the one that needs a container for to-go.

And each time someone asks for a special accommodation, make it easier for yourself to accomplish it in the future.

I recall the first time someone brought a growler to fill up at the bar, except they didn’t bring the cap to it and we didn’t have caps. I asked if they had five minutes and I literally ran up the street to a homebrew shop, purchased an entire bag of caps (around $11) and wa-lah. A happy outlier of a guest in that moment as well as the few that have since come with their growlers without caps.

Stay Positive & Be Prepared

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There’s no question of whether or not you will fail. No point in investing hours, days, weeks into trying to prevent it.

For more productive is to consider what you’ll do and where you’ll be after you fail.

You’ll be closer (how much closer is based on how big of a fail [the bigger, the closer]) and smarter (how much smarter is based on how much you learn from the failure [the bigger the failure, the more to learn]).

Almost makes sense to leap further and more often, doesn’t it?

Stay Positive & Take The Leaps

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The actions you make, what you do, the product you manifest certainly plays a significant role in how you’re viewed, what status you hold, the impact you can make. No argument there.

But often in the right mindset of creation and maker movement, we forget that we still need to be seen.

Seen at the meetings. Seen by our team members. Seen by our customers. Seen by our followers.

And not just seen doing the work, but seen in the spaces that people like you do that work, seen in spaces that followers are looking for people like you, seen at your place of work.

Where you are seen, working or not working your muse matters.

Stay Positive & See You Later?

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Now more than ever people are finding more pride in figuring out solutions to problems they face – on their own. Now more than ever they value being trusted to figure something out. Now more than ever the quickest way to lose an incredible employee is to be a helicopter boss.

As hard as the urge pulls you to respond to a text, intervene when a mistake occurs or reply to the email of someone asking for help right away, consider waiting twenty minutes before going to the rescue.

It’s amazing how within 20 minutes of what feels like an emergency, you’ll get another text that says “Never mind. I figured it out.” or get an email with a proposed solution to the problem “X just happened. What do you think if I do Y to fix it?”

Great leaders give others the chance to lead themselves.

Stay Positive & Leaders Lead, Rescuers, Rescue

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It’s easy to find two of the same product or service out there. Actually, easy enough to find dozens of them.

How do you pick the one with more value?

Well, look to the maker, of course.

Who has more heart? Who cares more? Who loves, truly loves, the product they’re making or service they’re providing?

That right there is why brands matter as well as the culture and story of the people behind them.

(And if you’re the one that is the maker reading this, it’s worth double checking that you’re the one that’s worth being chosen over the others. If not, then let’s find a way to do what you love. People are incredible at detecting who truly cares and who doesn’t.)

Stay Positive & Love What You Do

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Too often information is placed in one spot and never moved.

Who has time for that, anyway? There is work to be done.

But information placement is part of design, and as part of design, needs your regular attention.

By all means, if no one is reading your information, make better information, but also try a different placement.

Your website might not be the best spot for it. The tack board might not be the best place for it. Your instagram account might not be the best place for it.

Don’t let information placement be an afterthought (I made this thing and put it here, so I need to put the info right next to it) or one that goes un-bettered (that pamphlet station has always been there, why would I move it?)

Stay Positive & Always Improve The What AND The Where

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Sharing is truly caring.

And we need more people who care.

Share what you learned. Share what you made. Share what others created.

Currency in the connection economy comes from what we share, not what we have.

Start a blog. A pseudonym Twitter account. A neighborhood weekly meetup. Whatever you need to craft your place to share.

Stay Positive & Care More Often

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