GarthBox

After reading a book about beer, food and flavor, I sat wondering what the book was missing.

It taught me fundamentals, facts and figures. It made me more of an expert than I already was. It got me thinking about approaching beer dinners in a new way. Then it hit me. The book never taught me how what I’ve learned helps me relate to others.

It’s a fair question to think on: How does knowing about X help me connect with others.

Whether you’re a casual in-taker of information or a professional teacher (whatever the lesson), are you discussing how knowing something helps one relate to another?

We are in the connection economy, after all.

 

Stay Positive & The Informational Age Was So 2010

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Here’s a question worth having employees answer…maybe even one that’s worth sending in a stranger to ask so you get a real response.

“What differentiates your brand from others?”

Every employee should be able to artfully articulate the answer, and all the answers ought to be aligned with the truth of why your brand exists.

If you’re already afraid to have your employees (and I mean every single employee) answer this, then you have work to do.

 

Stay Positive & They Do Know The Answer To It, Right?

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There are two types of people in the world.

Those who need to be motivated to start a project, chase a dream, do something they love, and then there’s those who need to kill a project they care about. This post is for the latter.

When we’re inspired, passionate and motivated about a project, we’re usually feeling the same about a few other projects, too. Most of the time, the projects are all within a similar theme. But as we continue to follow our hearts and do what we love, we lose bandwidth, time gets crunched and stress levels around balancing it all begin to rise.

The best advice I’ve heard from an entrepreneur I met in New York was that sometimes you have to kill your babies.

When those projects you started from scratch and raised up to this point stop serving you the way you want; when they become more work in the long run than the return you’ll see; when you’ve found a project that you care more about, that has a greater impact, that you wish you had more time to focus on…then it’s time to do that project.

It’s easy to stop doing meaningless tasks and make more time by turning off the TV and figuring out a way to work harder on the project during your commute, but it’s more meaningful to shave off the least meaningful projects on your list even if they’re still meaningful.

It’s hard, but worth it.

 

Stay Positive & Time To Make A List

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When in doubt of what to do next, how to fix a problem, how to increase revenue, how to develop a referral program, how to go a further distance than competitors; care more.

Caring can be your competitive advantage.

 

Stay Positive & You Do Care, Right?

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It’s incredible how much more powerful a story becomes once the one telling it has accepted that all their experiences are part of that story.

The stories that go untrusted, unenjoyed, and that we’re unconvinced by are often the ones where gaps are left because of fear or embarrassment.

Turns out those are the exact stories that get people to resonate with you in the first place.

 

Stay Positive & A Perfectly Imperfect Story Beats A Perfect One Every Time

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The language you use often strengths or weakens a tribe.

If you call a widget one thing and another calls it something different, neither are wrong, but you’re not connecting.

How you pronounce gif might be fun, but someone’s going to cringe when you’re in a room presenting work to a client and you say it differently than they would.

A tribe dictionary isn’t a bad idea.

 

Stay Positive & Agree On Your Tribe’s Jargon

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Why do people buy your product or service?

It’s certainly more than you offering a solution to a problem they have.

Is it for the rush? The community? The hope?

There’s something deeper.

 

Stay Positive & Find It

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