GarthBox

When a project isn’t going your way, it’s more than likely you think too much responsibility is on the shoulders of another. It’s their fault for not bringing their A game. It’s easy to think someone else is dragging your work down.

Does that not sound like you? No? Then maybe you think it’s all on you. They’re not happy and it’s your fault.

Our work is a constant sway between the two mindsets. Our job is to keep the sway to a minimum. Too far on the other guy, and you put yourself in a silo no one wants to stand around. Too hard on yourself puts you in a downward spiral no one believes they can save.

The best we can do is pay attention; to notice which way we’re swaying and how far we’ve swayed, then to work past the obstacles to get you and the team where you need to go.

 

Stay Positive & Keep Your Eyes On The Prize

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There’s the marketer who chases after the mass, trying to be everything to everyone.

Then there’s the marketer who connects with a micro audience, even if only for a moment.

Both marketers repeat the process, but only one wins out in the end.

 

Stay Positive & Which Are You?

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A better way to gauge customer interest and loyalty than to look at how many frequent flier miles they’ve gathered and how many times they’ve bought a gift card for a friend is to notice how they feel when they walk in the door, how they feel when they make a transaction, and how they feel when they walk out of the establishment.

No change you can make from the mining of data will ever be as powerful as a person to person interaction gone right. After all, people just want to be seen.

 

Stay Positive & Are You Watching What Matters?

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“We should get together to work on this sometime.”

“Let’s grab coffee sometime.”

“I’ll get back to them sometime soon.”

We’ve heard and said these lines before.

Despite our default belief, “sometime” isn’t something that happens to us.

We decide when sometime is.

Correction: We ought to decide when sometime is.

If we don’t mean for there to be an actual sometime, then let’s not trick each other into thinking there will be.

 

Stay Positive & How About Friday At 4:00 p.m.?

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Memories can’t be erased or truly forgotten.

Routines can’t be deleted from your mind once they become routines, either.

What is one to do?

The only thing one can do: Write over them.

Go to a place where you have a bad memory of and create a new memory–something special and good.

Take the habit of getting up for a beer or a cookie and change it to walking around the block or calling a friend.

 

Stay Positive & Erasing Is An Uphill Battle, Changing Is A Level Field

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Coupons and discount codes are addicting. So much so that it only takes an owner one time of offering a discount for the consumer to expect it again in the future.

Free, however, feels much more like a gift, of recognition, of care–something we tend not to expect once, let alone a second or third time.

It’s worth considering what you’re actually giving away when you give a discount.

 

Stay Positive & There’s More Of An Impact Than Just Dollar Signs

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The story we’re telling is not always the story we want to hear.

Nor is it the story other people think we’re telling.

The story we’re telling is personal, subjective and often unexplainable.

But … it is rooted in one of our core needs.

If you want to better understand the story those around you are telling themselves, don’t try to fill their shoes or play the game of situational analysis; instead try to fill their needs, desires, and dreams.

It might not reveal the full story, but it’s better than a shot in the dark.

 

Stay Positive & After All, It Always Boils Down To Fear And Love

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