GarthBox

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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One of the most helpful questions to ask a fellow entrepreneur or marketer is that if they could go back in time, what would they do differently?

Curiously, the only way they know the answer to the question is if they had studied their mistakes. If they’ve recognized moments in time where they made a poor decision.

Every mistake is an entrepreneurs strongest asset on her path to creating something remarkable.

When you take the time to study them, your chances of success multiply again and again.

 

Stay Positive & What Was Your Last Mistake? What Did You Learn From It?

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Uncomfortable conversations aren’t nearly as uncomfortable when you compare them to the ones you’ll have down the line if you don’t have them now.

Partnership agreements need to be made.

Employees need to be fired.

Your significant other needs to know how much you’re willing to sacrifice to get where you’re going.

Better to have them now.

 

 

Stay Positive & Communicate Early (And Often)

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