GarthBox

There’s vertical thinking and learning; it’s industry focused, extremely relatable and it’s about following the groove left by others that have succeeded before you. The woman who wants to run her own marketing consultancy? She can talk to a thousand others who have done marketing consulting.

Many an entrepreneur sticks to vertical learning, but what if there’s fewer businesses out there that are similar to what you want to do? What if you’re trying to enter a highly competitive market where those in your industry don’t want to share their insights, don’t want you to grow, don’t want you in the pool?

That’s where horizontal learning come in.

I was on the phone with a co-owner of a cigar shop five states away that shared more applicable knowledge for opening a bar than some of those who have opened bars have shared. Once you realize that lessons from any industry can be applied to yours, it makes success that much more achievable.

It doesn’t matter if no one has done what you want to do before. It doesn’t matter if your competitors aren’t willing to lend you a hand. What matters is that you understand all there is to know (universal traits) about running a successful business.

You can figure out the industry-specific lessons through trial-and-error, and still succeed.

 

Stay Positive & There’s No Limit To What You Can Learn (And From Whom)

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It’s not a matter of who your competition is.

Who doesn’t matter if you’re not checking in on what they are doing.

Who doesn’t matter if you’re not constantly striving to show up more often.

Who means nothing if it’s just a list of names you reel off.

When it comes to competition, what is the most important aspect to explain.

It’s great to know that the coffee shop down the straight is your competitor, but what are you going to do about it? What is it that’s making them remarkable right now? What are you going to do better? The who isn’t nearly as important as the what.

 

Stay Positive & What Are You Going To Do About It?

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Dumb ideas are underrated. Not only that, but anytime a dumb idea shows itself, self-shaming typically follows.

“God that was stupid. Why did I say that? I better not say anything else.”

“I never realized how bad of an idea that was until I shared it. No one got what I was trying to say. Am I even thinking on the same level as them? I better let them take it from here.”

These are the stories people tell themselves when they share a dumb idea. They’re sad really (and recently what I told myself during a couple of brainstorming sessions this week). Alas, I recognized the lizard brain and remembered the benefits of sharing dumb ideas:

1. No one will share the same idea and feel dumb. You took one for the team. Thank you.
2. One dumb idea could spur a great one from someone else or from yourself if you don’t shut down.
3. Most work in life is really about eliminating the bad. It’s often easier to find the good that way, and sharing bad ideas gets you one step closer to a good one.
4. You’ve made others more comfortable in sharing ideas that might not work, and it’s in that space that the best ideas are found.

From here on out, don’t get down on yourself for sharing a dumb idea. It’s needed.

 

Stay Positive & Breathe Your Sigh Of Relief

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It doesn’t take years to be excellent, it takes years to consistently be excellent.

Right now you have the choice to do the remarkable. You’re a minute away, as Tom Peters likes to say.

That habit you promised yourself you’d keep, but haven’t? You’re one bite away from being back on track.

Once you get over the fact that you don’t need years of experience to be excellent, you can begin to focus on the tough work that comes with maintaining it.

You don’t need to read 20 books before you can provide excellent customer service. You can provide excellent customer service now and then refine it as you read the 20 books.

Being the greatest marketer, brewer, artist and so on – you can start now.

 

Stay Positive & There’s No Reason Not To

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A common interview question is “What do you think is in store for X industry?”

In my mind, there are two types of predictions. One is based only on what you see, think and feel from observing, taking notes and talking to others. These are easy predictions to sell and they’re typically self-fulfilling prophecies.

The other type of prediction, the one that you can be most sure will occur is similar to the first type of prediction except one critical element–you’re actively working to make the prediction a reality.

You can predict the death of newspapers because that’s what you’ve read online and your colleague said, but, what’s more valuable in your prediction is that you don’t have a newspaper subscription, you write for a digital-only pub, you rely on Facebook ads and the Craigslist marketplace instead of the papers. Your actions make the prediction true, if only in your world.

And, it turns out, what happens in your world has a more significant impact on the world at large than you might think.

 

Stay Positive & Spoiler Alert

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If you’re reading this, there’s no doubt that you work with numbers or know you should.

But putting together numbers, analytics, data can be…exhausting. Maybe you’re not good at excel. Maybe you don’t want to measure with quantitative data. Or…maybe you realize a lot of the measurements you’re told to gather are a waste.

Sure if more people  see your post, then more will buy, but not enough. It’s not a 1-2 ratio, and not because there’s competition for eyeballs, but because people are telling themselves different stories at different phases on their path to purchase.

“Measurement is fabulous. Unless you’re busy measuring what’s easy to measure as opposed to what’s important.” – Seth Godin

Before you dig into any data, be sure you know the answer to these three questions.

1. What’s your specific goal? Did you want conversions? Email sign ups? People to just see your name? There’s valid reasons for all these goals, but you need to pick one per initiative.
2. How will you measure it? Is it cost per engagement? Is it those who sign up for your email list and open 10 of your emails in a row? Is it an ad recall rate?
3. Are you going to use those numbers? If you learn one method is better than another, do you have additional resources to invest in it? If you’re not happy with your impressions, will you stop using that ad unit despite everyone saying you shouldn’t?

Every initiative needs an answer to each question. If there isn’t one or it’s not communicated well-enough, then that’s when measurement reports become a waste.

 

Stay Positive & Bring Measurement And Meaning Together Again

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Your imagination is limitless when you give it space to work its magic.

Space in terms of imagination, is time. Time to think. Time to create. To ponder. To connect.

You can make anything better–naturally I might add–by investing in the moment. Pausing to let your brain think. Going down one path instead of a hundred.

A pillow is just a pillow that you put your head on to sleep, but when you invest in the moment with two minutes, you begin considering what more a pillow could be. What if you did this more at work, with your significant other, with your muse?

Now is also a great opportunity to remember that time is not something you have.

Time is something you make.

 

Stay Positive & Choice Is Yours

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