GarthBox

Have you ever wondered why we engage in small talk?

For some, it might be to pass time or because you’re the only two or three in a room before the rest show up. But it’s deeper than that.

We engage with small talk to see if we connect.

Do we share a common experience? Emotion? Goal?

Are we more alike than we thought? Can I trust you? Can you trust me?

Is there a reason I should believe you that I don’t yet know?

Smart marketing is a series of engagements in small talk. It’s not a blow horn, a mass advertising initiative, a complete takeover of top search terms in your category.

Person by person, it’s about making connection, engaging in small talk, earning the permission to share your story.

 

Stay Positive & Let’s Chat

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Expectation is one of the most powerful mind tools one has.

If you expect to get sick, it’s likelier you will. If you expect to stumble over your words during a speech, there’s a good that’ll happen. If you expect to step on your partners toes mid-tango, well, you better hope you’re partner has close-toed shoes.

However, just as expectations can be your downfall, they can also be one of your most valuable assets, especially in terms of leadership.

Expectations are often easy to communicate and ever easier to comprehend. Yet, many managers and leaders attempt to motivate employees with incentives and verbal praise when, in reality, the best kind of motivation there is is setting the right expectations.

When a co worker, employee or team member knows what’s expected of them, they’re instantly motivated to meet (and hopefully exceed) those expectations. That means the onus is on you to share what’s expected of someone.

Likewise, what do you expect from yourself?

 

Stay Positive & Verbalize Expectations

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One of the many complaints I hear from people working in teams is that other members don’t share the same passion for the work that’s being done.

Yes, the work gets done and usually it’s great work, but the fact is the process could have been more enjoyable if there was a shared passion for it.

Alas, the answer to the shared passion conundrum is likely in the connection (or lack thereof) to the end goal, the vision.

The sooner you can connect with one another on the vision, as if you’re seeing the same thing, the stronger the process is to achieving it.

More often there’s a lack of shared passion when one person has the vision and the other has a to-do list.

 

Stay Positive & Share The Vision, Share The Passion

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The regular result of being faced with doing a task that’s uncomfortable, that your nervous you’ll screw up, that’s maybe something new for you? You have to pee.

Of course there are other reactions too: Check email, get something to drink, grab a different pen, ask your coworker how their evening was, check in on a project that’s on someone else’s plate, check email again, etc,.

You can work to motivate yourself to do what you need to do. For some that’s enough. But for those who it doesn’t work for, my advice is: don’t go to the bathroom.

Instead, spend your energy not doing the task that will take you away from doing what matters. See how long you can hold it. Test yourself how long you can forgo checking email. It’s a mental game, but it works.

 

Stay Positive & Aren’t Games Fun?

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There’s something in the brain that when you see an ad, read a story, witness a moving video about a product, you instantly feel cared for. Someone believes in a product enough to put marketing dollars behind it; to show they care.

Sure, some abuse marketing. There will always be those who see a problem and throw money at it, but that still hasn’t stopped us from recognizing that any marketing initiative is a manifestation of someone who cares.

We’re willing to go through the weeds to find a brand that can show they care more than others. After all, when you can’t compete on function or style (because everyone is doing it) what’s left to strive for?

 

Stay Positive & Find Those Heartstrings

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The truth about business success is that it’s not going to last.

That’s the arena you’re playing in when you start or take one over. It’s ever-changing, ever-competitive, ever-pulling you to do something new or to do something more. And for every business, there are limits.

Only so much can be produced in 24 hours…attempting to do so for cheaper is a race to the bottom.

Only so much quality can be produced….before your target, business, and entire brand begins to change.

The success that Apple sees now isn’t the success they’ll see forever. Same for Logitech, Justin’s Chocolate, and Qdoba. Same for the Ma and Pa shops, too.

The best thing we can do is to make choices that increase our chance of success and understand that success may change (and it should!) as time goes on.

 

Stay Positive & There’s No Guarantee Of Success To Begin With, Let Alone Everlasting Success

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Strategy always involves risk because we don’t know for sure how our choices will turn out.

A strategic plan, by definition, is one that’s different from a competitors or one that’s entirely new to an industry. Within that plan there are layers of uncertainty.

But strategy is ultimately necessary (when decided on by the right people in the right seats); it’s what keeps you differentiated, aligned on your core values, and provides the blue print for profits.

Yet, when problems arise, profits tumble, shareholders question your leadership, many think they’re failing on execution, not strategy. They think “If I run a little faster than I’ll exceed more.”

But the truth is that running faster doesn’t help if you’re going in the wrong direction. All things considered (leadership, capabilities, financials, etc,.) any sign of failure can be tracked back to strategy.

The big question is if it’s the wrong strategy all-together or if it’s a piece that can be adjusted and still make the model work.

Or, you know, you can keep shrugging it off to be the wrong execution or not enough of it.

 

Stay Positive & Ready To Do The Emotional Labor Of Finding Out?

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