GarthBox

I recently sent a video to a journalist. She was in the video. Not the main focus, but she was the MC of it. She responded with an apology about how fidgety she was. 10+ people had already reviewed the video, including myself, and no one noticed that detail.

Seth Godin accidentally wore two nearly identical – but still different – shoes on stage and it’s all he could think about. Did anyone who attended his speech notice? Nah. They were enamored with the speech he showed up to give.

If you’re selling sedatives, the fidgeting might matter. If you’re selling shoes, wearing a matching pair might matter, too.

But most of the things we focus on about ourselves don’t align with what others are focusing on us for.

Don’t let the fidgeting distract you from what you showed up to actually offer.

Stay Positive & Focused On The Goal

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If you accidentally lost all that writing you did in a word doc, you’d be pissed.

If some wiki editor reverted all your edits (even the good ones) in a couple clicks of his button, you’d want to pull your hair out.

If a person doesn’t understand your point after sharing all the facts, you’d be frustrated as heck.

Of course, all that pissy-ness, hair pulling and frustration is wasted energy.

It’s hard to notice it in the moment, but the faster you do, the faster you can get back to doing work that matters (for people who matter).

Stay Positive & Get After That Good Energy

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The best marketer finds ways to insert him or herself outside of the marketing team.

It’s more than just visiting the sales team.

It’s sitting in on a customer service call. It’s evaluating the intro email the client’s manager sends. It’s taking a look at how the invoice is designed before it’s sent. It’s evaluating the voicemail message. It’s weighing in on the customer training videos and exec presentations.

For a cafe it might be using the customer bathroom.

For a tech company it might be sitting in on every UX meeting.

For a manufacturing company it might be what’s on the walls of the facility or the lighting or the entrance door that the main workers go through.

To think marketing really is just one department…ha.

Stay Positive & Explore, Then Make Better

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A restaurant closed nearby. It’s easy to think of all the things they could have and should have done to continue their success.

Offers fall flat. People unsubscribe. Others look inside the shop and then keep walking.

After failure, it’s easy to think of all the things one should have done.

Perhaps the best marketers think about this before the failure.

Anyway, it’s far less stressful to strategize and deploy early than it is to rush and thrash later.

Stay Positive & Now, Not Later

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It’s worth taking a few wacks at how we communicate with the costumer to understand what resonates.

After a certain number though (there’s no universal one, sorry), it might be time to invest your energy in making something better rather than trying to make someone understand why they want want you’re selling.

At the end of a very long day, it might not be them, it might be you.

Stay Positive & If Your Value Isn’t Relatively Obvious, Make It Greater

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Offering price ranges for your service gives viewers a reason to engage.

A great opening sentence to a book might end with a period, but what it really does is create a gap in knowledge that the reader will want to fill (by continuing to read, of course).

Using flashy tactics gets attention, but it doesn’t always give them a reason to engage. Very few will look at your banner ad and wonder deeply about what’s between your copy and the website the button leads to, unless you’ve designed it that way (most don’t).

This is really a post about giving options.

The coffee house that only sells one size doesn’t give a person a reason to engage in a new narrative about their day. Am I a person who needs 12 ounces or am I one that needs 16 ounces?

The designer that only shares one idea in a room of 8 execs doesn’t set herself up for any form of success. Had she brought two or three, now that team is engaged.

Eliminating options might help us; might simplify things for us; we may even tell ourselves it simplifies things for others, too. Technically, it does. But consider this: would you rather have something simplified or would you rather have a story?

(See what I did there?)

Imagine a “would you rather” statement with nothing to compare it to… no gap… no option…

Stay Positive & This Isn’t Much Without That Nearby

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That’s how meaningful work goes.

It’s harder than anticipated.

It’s slower than expected.

It’s less instantly gratifying.

There are more speed humps than we thought there would be.

Even with this knowledge, we’ll still dive into the next project with hope that it’ll be different.

But it won’t, because we’re not doing the work that makes work easier, faster, more instantly gratifying and without adversity; we’re doing work that’s different, impactful and beneficial to others more than it will ever be to ourselves.

Stay Positive & It’s The Work Worth Doing

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