GarthBox

Surprise and delight lives outside the norm.

Same with remarkability.

Loyalty is enhanced with tactics outside the norm.

The list goes on.

Stay Positive & Brands Die Inside The Norm

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You can plow through the work and get it done. You might get a few scrapes along the way and feel alone.

You can go through the work and surround yourself with people willing to help you along the way.

A third alternative is to build support points first before you go through the work. Call friends to help along the way. Set yourself up for success. Have trial points and rewards throughout the process.

Sometimes support is given to us; most of the time it’s up to us to give it to ourselves.

Stay Positive & Set Yourself Up For Success

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Time is something to everyone.

For some it’s money.

For others it’s a different kind of time; maybe time they could have spent with family.

Some might think of time as an opportunity while others think it’s work.

One thing stands true about time: what you think it is may very well be different than what someone else thinks it is.

We’re quick to tell ourselves a story about time that makes us feel better when we’re late to a meeting, when a sales call doesn’t go well, when an email gets sent with a spelling mistake.

Perhaps it’s worth the time to pause and think of what that time actually means to those around us.

Stay Positive & Then, Speak Or Do Differently

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Sometimes moving out of the way is the best move you can make.

Once momentum is started, let it build on itself.

Once you’ve inspired and aligned the team, let them roll out.

Once you’ve broken the ice, let them converse and connect.

By all means, be the one that gets the ball rolling but then… let it roll.

Stay Positive & Onto The Next

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Businesses would be better off if they took a page out of the playbook of some of the greatest restaurateurs.

No. Not the McDonalds and Dunkin of the world but the ones who open different, authentic restaurants. Restaurant groups, if you will.

They realized before making the mistake that people don’t want more of the restaurant that is a success, they want more of the restaurateur.

When a restaurant opens up another location, they risk rebellion from their current base because it’s no longer unique, no longer special to them; they no longer feel like insiders because people on the other end of the city get what they get now, too. Not cool.

I’d argue that anything that can be commoditized and replicated to eternity already has. Trying to win that game is a race to the bottom or will drain you before you achieve it. Restaurants or another type of business.

When you’re ready to expand (and kudos to you for leaning in to do it, no small feat!), consider what expansion really means: more of the same thing? or more of you?

Maybe, just maybe, even a better version of you, too?

Stay Positive & Eyes On The Unique Prize

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If you’re Johnny Cupcakes, you pour a lot of energy into your packaging. (From my upstairs office window, I got to watch the mailperson grab a box designed like an oven, smirk with curiosity, and then leave it at my door.)

And that’s just the outside of the box. Even more good design and intention goes into the packing material inside the box.

Now, if Johnny decided to eliminate the packaging or use the same ziplock style clear plastic bags that every clothing chain is using, he might as well just do the minimum packaging he needs to get product out the door. Mailpersons won’t look twice.

Or consider white glove service (HT to Seth Godin for the idea): the moment that continuing with a little smudge on a glove is okay, the company might as well just do the minimum and wear dirty gloves, or none at all.

Standing on the edge of a spectrum is risky – and sometimes it hurts – but it’s not as damaging to a brand as being somewhere in the middle. Every now and then a brand slips through the cracks and makes it big based on being average, but they don’t live long.

Standing for something doesn’t work. Moving on the max of it, sure does. It also lasts a very long time. (Looking at you Patagonia.)

Stay Positive & See You At The Extreme

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It’s a power move; not in the sense of impressing your status on others, but in increasing your status, increasing your impact, and increasing your feeling of fulfillment at the end of the day.

When you’re doing something meaningful, what else can you do while you’re at it?

Naturally, there’s a yin to this yang, too. If you’re doing something with negative effects, what are the things that you might as well be destroying while you’re at it.

This isn’t to get you to do that, but asking what else you can do while you’re at it sheds a light on the light or dark of what you are doing.

Then you’ve got the choice to do more while you’re at it or not.

Stay Positive & More Light Please

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