GarthBox

The scary thing about trying something new is that the first 15 minutes are going to suck.

No one wants to pay to suck. No adult, anyway.

The first 15 minutes you spend snowshoeing are going to entail you figuring them out. Just so happens that once you do get the handle of it, you’ll pay more to keep doing it.

That’s why some of the best businesses offer free entry, free trials, free first-times.

If you’re not, why not?

 

Stay Positive & Better Yet, How Can You Make Those First 15 Suck Less?

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I’m sure the majority of those who share Johnnie Walker’s Joynomics didn’t actually read the whole PDF.

Most who see there is a testimonials page for a business realize just having a testimonials page is good enough for them, no need to click in.

Those who have a paperback book on the shelves sell more ebooks, not because people fell in love with the first chapter of the print book, but because the fact there is a hardcover validates the book is important enough.

I’m not sharing these bits to entice you to ship crappy content. I’m sharing to remind you that it’s more more important that you have something to show, give, sell than it is to have nothing.

The fact you have something is powerfully influential.

The real questions now are what are you holding onto? And why?

 

Stay Positive & Stop Waiting, Start Giving

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I used to feel extremely guilty about taking a lollipop from the lollipop jar at the local car wash when I was younger.

I used to feel extremely anxious about taking control of a situation at work when the boss was taking a day off.

I used to feel like taking was bad. Now, I’m an advocate for it.

Too often we wait to be given something (responsibility, hope, time, a break) instead of taking it.

We’ve culturally grown up in a state of waiting to be given, waiting to be picked, waiting to wait instead of taking (and not feeling guilty about it).

As much as I want to say taking is easy for me now, I don’t think the comfort of taking will ever really go away.

I can say, however, that it is infinitely more rewarding, fulfilling, and fun than waiting to be given.

I still feel a bit guilty when I take a lollipop, but I do enjoy it a lot more.

 

Stay Positive & Fight Fear Back By Taking Initiative/Responsibility/Time For Yourself/?/?/?

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People like me are avid analyzers of what worked and what didn’t work.

When we need to show metrics quickly, it’s easy to compare two incomparable things. It’s easy to look at the reach of a post or open rate to say this did better than that.

However, when we take the time to truly ruminate on what worked and what didn’t, we’ll often find that you can’t compare the two. They are both outliers and outliers on two sides of a spectrum are very (very!) rarely comparable.

Outliers are subjective, but, likewise, cogently telling.

When you discover a pin with a muffin quote does significantly better than all pins and a horizontal pin of a muffin recipe does the worst of all – it’s easy to say one works and one doesn’t.

The tougher question to answer is why didn’t one work for who we wanted it to and who truly did the other one work for. You may discover that it’s quote lovers, not muffin lovers who engaged with your muffin quote. So, are muffin quotes really working if you sell muffins?

We need to shift our comparisons from what works and what doesn’t to providing meaning behind each, separately.

This goes for more than pins on Pinterst. This goes for the story you’re telling your customers. This goes for the way you ship your art. This goes for the meetings you walk out of and think “that was the best  meeting ever.” Why?

 

Stay Positive & You’ll Find People Care More About The Why Than The What

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The real way mentorships work is this:

You reach out to someone and ask to connect.

They agree.

You then proceed to ask them personal questions about their life, their business, their dreams.

Then you reconnect again and again through the months going forward.

That’s it.

There’s no stock email to send asking if someone would be your mentor. There’s no proven website to connect with mentors that will guarantee your success. There’s no path to purchase, so to say.

Mentorship is simply connecting with people and asking the right questions.

Here’s a handful to start with.

How can I work smarter?

What is your one major success?

What would you do differently?

What are your guiding principles?

What do you think is the biggest mistake we are making today?

What used to be your biggest weakness?

What has been difficult?

What motivates you?

What do you wish you knew at my stage?

 

Stay Positive & Start Sending Those Emails

Like many people, I get a lot of inspiration from music.

When I’m writing copy for a client, I put a certain genre of music on that I know the target listens to.

When it’s time to focus completely on something, I put on classical music or cellos. Sometimes it’s one song on repeat.

It’s rare that I find music that reminds me to create something human, something personal. Most music is so specific, so categorized, so for a single tribe.

Of all people, you know I’m against marketing to the masses, but I’m not against marketing to human truths, those feelings that everyone feels that connects us with each other, those thoughts that everyone has, but are too afraid to admit having, those jokes we all laugh at, but on the inside. It’s the truth that we’re all in this together.

That’s the kind of music we could all be playing more of.

I find this to be a starting example. Close your eyes and listen.

 

Stay Positive & What Music Is Your Work Playing?