GarthBox

Conversation after conversation with business owner and marketer alike, what always comes up is a comment similar to:

“It doesn’t hurt to have/do it, it only helps.”

Note they don’t say that it’s a game changer–it just helps.

Thing is, if you add enough systems in place…a hand there…an assist here, it makes an actual difference. It doesn’t just help anymore, it changes everything.

Most businesses don’t become a success because they do one thing differently. It’s often a series of unique moments that leave a small, but frequent and consistent impact.

Don’t shrug off the little things. They are what make you better than the rest.

 

Stay Positive & If Anything, Add More

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By default, the act of doing will get you to be smarter. You’ll learn how to do better. But most importantly you’ll understand what you need to change to maintain your rate of success.

Alas, that is the problem many an entrepreneur have run into and that has subsequently lead to their business’s downfall.

When they choose to stay on course (because that’s what they set out to do, because that’s what they told their investors/friends/partners they would do, because if they change they may lose some business [the excuses can go on]) instead of choosing the alternative option: changing (for the better!), they lose out on the growth and success they deserve.

That is why I like to remind myself of how the major tech giant Samsung started out…distributing fruits and vegetables. Only through a series of redirects could they have become the successful company they are today.

A real leader understands that redirecting one’s business isn’t a sign of weakness or mark of stupidity; it’s often the only way to keep growing and make an impact.

Stay Positive & Sometimes The Impact Comes Precisely From The Redirect (That’s Okay Too!)

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Good work gets better by reaching.

When you reach, there is struggle.

As Daniel Coyle says, “When it comes to developing your talent, struggle isn’t an option–it’s a biological necessity.”

 

 

Stay Positive & Have You Reached Today?

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There are a handful of product and service cycles, many of which are either missing or have misplaced affinity.

Surely you can’t have an affinity for a product before you’re aware of it.

Another misperception and common trip up is that affinity comes after the product is used.

I’d argue that’s not affinity.

That’s impact, action, and if you’ve done it right, loyalty… but not affinity.

Affinity comes in before the action now, before the product is purchased, before one even knows if it works. Why?

Because that’s where the strongest story is. That’s when your product is the thing that aligns with the narrative of the customer. She hasn’t used it yet, but she already wants to come back to it again and again.

As marketers, we can spend time selling how the product will make ones life better once they purchase it or we can let the product do its own marketing on that scale. Instead, we can share how the product adds to the customer’s story she’s telling herself now, not later.

That is much more of a challenge (and much greater of a reward).

 

Stay Positive & There Is Affinity Between The People And The Product – Will You Find It?

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We expect others to react to our ideas far worse than they actually do.

I received an email today that contained a few content ideas for a client. She was trying to get my brain working in a different way. She was throwing ideas out there – they weren’t necessarily great ideas, but they got me thinking.

And, despite our worst fears, that’s the “worst” that usually happens.

For a moment I imagined if I was the one sending the email then I’d be thinking the recipient is judging me by my ideas. I would think it’s too risky to share half-baked thoughts. I would have been afraid to hit send for fear of personal criticism.

Alas, knowing that it was simply fear convincing me not to hit send, I would have followed through with the email. Raw. Revealing. And… ultimately resulting in a reaction that was far better than imagined.

This type of situation happens every day. As artists, we have a choice to succumb to the lizard brain, to delete the ideas or to throw them out there.

You never know. That one idea you share might just get someone thinking, acting and succeeding.

Now that’s power.

 

Stay Positive & What’ll It Be For You? Hide? Or Show?

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If you’re painting, act as if you’ll be submitting it to the Louvre.

If you’re pitching to a prospect, act as if you’re pitching to the late Steve Jobs.

If you’re writing a novel, act as if Tom Robbins will be the first one to read and edit it.

When you change the narrative (which, by the way, takes little effort), you change the result. The outcome becomes stronger. The product has in it: more care, more passion, more will than if you were just creating for the sake of creating or because your boss told you to do it.

For some they imagine that everything is a competition, others imagine the largest reward for a job magnificently done, others find an influencer and judge their work by them, “If Edward Bernays were seeing this PR proposal, would he be proud?”

All it takes is a little imagination to do better work; just a tweak of your narrative.

 

Stay Positive & You’ll Be Impressed At What Follows After Your New Narrative

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The infamous expression of six degrees of separation means that to get to who you want, you’re six or less steps/meetups/emails away from making the connection.

That was the case in 1929 when the theory was announced…

That’s simply not the case anymore.

 

Stay Positive & Ask, And You Shall Receive

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