Criticizing The Idea

Garth Beyer

After awhile, criticism can’t help an idea. Not because the idea can’t be improved, though.

Criticism is worth throwing at an idea until one realizes that it’s not the idea that’s the problem, but the objective the idea serves is.

Using trigonometry on a basketball court is a decent idea, but it’s going to get great skepticism. To the point that it’s calculated perfectly and still ineffective. The real problem is the objective of winning a basketball game, which is what makes using trigonometry ineffective. (A game of horse, on the other hand, might better align the objective with the problem.)

The greatest of leaders and marketers understand that the idea and objective have to go hand-in-hand. They’re often the first to recognize when the idea isn’t the problem that’s holding them back, the objective is.

And like a game of basketball and a game of horse, the pivot may only be a minor one.

Stay Positive & Eyes Wide Open

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The Loop

Garth Beyer

There’s always a loop in all we do.

The best organizations find them and fuel them, but some break them.

Not in the sense that what goes around doesn’t come around, but what’s sent into the loop is damaging to it.

Quick example: A city wants businesses to pay for lost revenue of the parking meters they use for their festival. This leads to higher participation fees for businesses, which leads to fewer businesses participating, which leads to a less impactful festival, which leads to fewer people visiting the street for the first time, which leads to fewer people coming back at another time and paying for parking.

The loop is there, but it’s broken because someone didn’t recognize its existence.

What goes around always comes around.

Best be sure we’re keeping our eye out for the loops we participate in and put intention into the “what” of the equation.

Stay Positive & Find And Fuel The Loops

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To Get To The Best

Garth Beyer

To get to the best writing, it starts with writing. Then it goes to saying it out loud. Then it goes to hearing someone else say it out loud.

To get to the best idea, it starts with ideating. Then it goes to saying it out loud. Then it goes to hearing someone else say it out loud.

Same goes for the best design, the best celebration, the best marketing.

The best can’t be achieved in a silo; it can’t be achieved silently; it can’t be achieved without others.

Stay Positive & Notice That It Goes From Little Accountability/Vulnerability To A Lot…

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Feeling Like We’ll Be Better

Garth Beyer

Medicine isn’t the only thing that has this impact on our lives: that of feeling like we’ll be better.

The best marketing does it, too.

When we see a product or service and we have that feeling that it can make us better…that’s magic.

And maybe it’s not exactly about us. Maybe it’s about our culture. Or a person living in a country on the other side of the world.

Let us not confuse this feeling with that of hope. Hope is active energy. The feeling I’m writing about is an emotional response to something we see, read or otherwise interact with (i.e., marketing, if you believe marketing to be anything that creates an emotional impact).

It’s worth taking a step back at the work you’re making and ask the question: will this make someone feel like we’ll be better?

(In case it needs stating: ambiguity here is purposeful. Thinking about it is the point.)

Stay Positive & Think On

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