GarthBox

We’re often tricked into believing that we need to jump on every trend.

Why not? It’s there for the taking. There’s a way we can spin our brand to fit it, so why not?

But what glitters is not always gold. It comes down to your business’s core values.

It might be trendy to put a face to a company and encourage the behavior of a pressworthy CEO, but if you’re seeking to create impact from within, perhaps the spotlight needs to shine on the real all-stars.

It might be trendy to cut the sugar and be honest about your beverage, but if you’re wanting to win with a millennial consumer, you have to ignore the trend and add more caffeine.

Trends are there for the reaping, but that doesn’t mean you needn’t be selective. Quite the opposite. Every trend you jump on that doesn’t align with core values muddies brand recognition and affinity.

“I thought you were this, but now you’re that,” the consumer thinks.

“I thought you said you believed in X and now it looks like you believe in Y,” the shopper questions.

Trends can quickly become a recipe for failure. Like any business decision, trends must be scrutinized against the company’s core values.

 

Stay Positive & Stick To Your Core

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We’re rationalizing entrepreneurs and humans. When we see an organization become so successful or watch a business fall, we want to know why. We’ll collect variables and choose a hypothesis and eventually become stumped because business isn’t as scientific as we think: We can’t often pinpoint a controlled variable because there are too many variables in constant play.

Needless to say, some are in the thought that business is strictly humanitarian; that because a single scientific method cannot be seen through, that a business’s success or failure is then best based on gut, instinct, feelings, emotion, hunches and human interactions and reactions.

I’m not one to buy into either side of the spectrum, rather, I focus on quasi-experimentation: experimental design without a controlled variable. In doing so, you can still discover patterns and leverage them. You can still notice trends and capitalize on them. You learn to combine science and emotion for actionable results.

Ever want to know how a business succeeds? They follow a very extreme, mind-numbing, difficult-to-replicate, time-consuming and strenuous process…

They try something and see if it works.

 

Stay Positive & The Key Is The Second Half

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The world of being chosen has passed.

You don’t need to stand and raise your hand and wait…wait…wait. You can insert yourself on the team of your choosing. And, for some who don’t like the available team options, you are privileged (!) with creating that all-star team of people playing at the same positive level as you. You can become captain whenever you chose.

Most often people who find business success have a zero tolerance policy for others who will bring them down. Poor attitudes, cut-throat competition, and people who are only ever tuned into Wii-FM (What’s In It For Me) aren’t worth your care, your sincerity or your time. After all, they won’t miss you when you’re gone.

The longer I’m in business, studying, talking, and learning, the more I see that a single business doesn’t succeed; a set of businesses do because they’ve built a community, a system connected so when one succeeds, they all do.

Isn’t that the way it should be?

 

Stay Positive & Who’s On Your Team?

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It makes sense for you to desire being placed in papers and online outlets before you open your business. At that point, any publicity is good publicity, right?

Not quite.

What’s most important is that before you begin pitching your idea or your opening to local outlets, you need to earn the trust of the readers (and influencers) in the area. For most, that even means the competition.

I’ve found more businesses succeed when they build relationships with neighborhood associations and other area businesses before they go knocking on the doors of journalists.

The quickest way to have communities and businesses to team up against you is to think being pressworthy will earn you their trust.

 

Stay Positive & Press Should Be A Reminder About Your Values, Not An Introduction To Them

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Many brands act as if their target is Linda. Interrupting them, saying what they want to say and only talking when it’s convenient for them.

Unfortunately it’s not just what we say, how we say it or how many times we can say something to the target.

What matters is we’re there when they are listening. We are there when they want us to be. We are there when they are present.

 

Stay Positive & When Are The Moments It’s Convenient For Your Target?

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Brainstorms actually deserve the name Emotionstorms if you do them right.

A successful brainstorm requires you to put out half-baked ideas to people who you think will judge you (and hey, they might! But you share anyway.)

Brainstorms are effective when everyone in the room is vulnerable; when someone speaks up at the same time they feel like they might be wrong.

Brainstorms are emotionally exhausting, but perpetually rewarding.

You can lighten the pressure by thinking about how one of your ideas may get chosen or how what you say might inspire someone else to think of a remarkable idea–these situations make you feel good, as if putting yourself out there was worth it.

However, reality is still uncomfortable. Putting in the emotional labor is uneasy. Thinking of ideas you’ve never thought of, don’t know how they would truly work–all the while worrying about what others are thinking about you will always be taxing.

But you have to show up. We need you to.

 

Stay Positive & It’s Not A Successful Brainstorm Unless You Leave Emotionally Drained

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There’s a key difference between needs and problems.

A problem might be not having the software to balance your business’s budget. A problem might be getting product from point A to point B.

We need businesses that solve problems, but more importantly we desire businesses that fulfill our needs.

A need for communication, community, or connectedness. Needs are universal truths that we all desire (but acquire in different ways). A sense of belonging or something worth working for.

No solution to a problem is long-lasting unless it also fulfills a need.

 

Stay Positive & Break It Down: What Problems Are You Solving? What Needs?

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