GarthBox

Day in and day out, unless I’ve felt like I’ve had my legs hanging over the edge, then I know I haven’t taken a chance at doing work that matters.

I see two parts to this picture.

There’s what’s in front: risk, fear, uncertainty, cluelessness, and, of course, a bit of excitement about what we’re doing. (It’s that excitement that defines great work.)

Then there’s what’s behind: support from those around you, the foundation you’re sitting on, the fear of conforming and upholding the status quo – all of which we so often forget when we’re looking at what’s in front of us.

Today, go to the edge, there are more people there than you think and they’re becoming more remarkable and successful by the hour. In fact, what they’re looking for is a new edge. Can you beat’m there?

 

Stay Positive & Go Dangle On The Edge Of Something Remarkable

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Strategy and tactics mean nothing unless you ask “Why?” every moment along the way.

I like to think of it this way: if someone were to write a book about everything you’ve done for a business (yours or someone else’s) would they enjoy reading it? Would it hold their attention? More importantly, will they understand it (the why!)?

 

Stay Positive & You’re In The Business Of “Why” Now

You can call more often to get more leads, sell at a lower price, make a camera that’s more powerful all to be better than your competition. More often than not, trying to be better is racing to the bottom, and the worst part is you might win.

Better, I feel, to be different than to be better.

What motivations are your competitors not fulfilling? What gap does your competition not care enough to fill? What void can you place yourself in to leverage the power of giving something that people need, but have not yet gotten? What angle are you pitching that your competitors can’t?

 

Stay Positive & Be A Maker (Race To The Top)

Have you found the energy that you thrive off?

Put me in a room of people who accept and are excited by the challenge of finalizing a creative brief in three weeks instead of the average nine — that gets me going.

Team me up with people who use “Yes, and” instead of “No, but” — the mentality gives me permission to suck and the confidence to voice my thoughts. Damn, that’s a good feeling.

Send me into a meeting where the people are short and to the point, ultimately driven to reach a common goal as quickly and smartly as possible – that gets my blood pumping.

Once you take a moment to recognize the energy that drives you, you can set out to surround yourself with more of that energy.

I look at it this way: YES, you can work on energizing yourself without anyone else AND you can leverage the energy of those around you.

 

Stay Positive & You Are The Average Of The 5 People You Spend The Most Time With

The hardest part of a creative brief isn’t the demographics. It’s not the competitive analysis. It’s not even the creative idea and all that’s going to be done to instill brand devotion in the audience. The hardest part is how we’re going to measure success.

I saw a funny card at the American Players Theater last night in the gift shop. It showed a CEO discussing a chart to a roundtable of people. The chart in place showed negative growth/a decline of success.

Barging in the door was a man with another chart showing positive growth/an increase of success. The statement underneath the image: Wait! Use this chart from the PR team.

The reason that scenario works is because no explanation of what success means was established from the start. What happens is the team and the client agree to do something interesting and then the PR team chooses to measure whatever worked in whatever way it worked. It’s a client-pleasing tactic.

PR Executives get away with it because they often delete the “How are we measuring success?” prompt from the brief. Answering it is risky. It’s far easier to see what works and ignore what doesn’t; easier to praise gaining 50 followers on Twitter, but ignore the unstated goal of engaging with 50 current followers on Twitter.

If we want to produce real value in our marketing strategies then we have to answer the question of how we will measure success in all we set out to do. Brands are driven by focusing on what works and dropping what doesn’t, but if we don’t know if something is working (we need measurement to know!) then we’ve succumbed to the blind leading the blind – not a profitable or connective marketing method.

 

Stay Positive & Well? What’s Success Look Like?

You can’t satisfy everyone. You can’t perfectly appeal to all the masses. But you can choose your customers, and for them, every rule is made to be bent or broken for the sake of creating a loyalist.

That is, every rule can be bent for those customers who matter most.

You can’t break every rule for everyone, but those who you do break it for strengthen your core tribe.

 

Stay Positive & Customers Choose The Best Companies, Why Not The Other Way Around Too?

I just finished up reading a few dozen essays from 13-year-olds for a contest a client is running. It opened my eyes up to the realization they write like many adults do. Here are some tips for impressing and delighting your readers, no matter your age.

1) Write less and say more. People are human and everyone only has 24 hours in a day. They don’t want to spend more than they need to reading what you wrote.

2) If there’s a prompt: follow it. After you write a sentence, go back and ask if it answers the prompt. If not, cut it. See tip 1.

3) Write to one person, but don’t be too specific. You might know things about the reader, but you don’t know the reader.

4) Be personal. That means answering “why” until you write something inspiring to anyone who reads it. Otherwise known as real, truthful, and authentic.

 

Stay Positive & We Could All Write A Bit Better