Assorted Links

Garth Beyer

1) How three simple (but powerful) words can put you on the path to happiness (read) If you’re a goal setter, you’ll want to read this and understand how important it is you look at your goals in terms of adjectives. No one likes being unhappy when they get what they want.

2) How to turn small talk into smart conversation (read) I made these mistakes at a meet up just the other week. I was struggling to get through the 30 minutes we had planned to chat. Originally I thought she was just introverted. Then I read this and realized I was asking all the wrong questions.

3) Newcastle Brown Ale tries to sneak into Doritos commercial contest (watch/read) Clever advertising. Period.

4) The evolution of pop culture (read) We, as marketers, often spend too much time on the hype part of a product or service or business and less on creating what the market has asked for, creating something that’s worth talking about, finding those who are looking for what we have.

5)  Use this link and get a free month of Skillshare. (learn) I’ve learned so much from Skillshare classes. I suggest you check out the community. You don’t have to stay or pay if you don’t like it.

They Will Be Pleased, Regardless

Garth Beyer

Don't Appeal To The Mass

When you make an effort to reach the masses, to please the majority, to advertise to all, you are inevitably creating a bitter experience for some.

You see this with retail stores quite often. Owners spend their time outside of the store trying to reach the masses, and in doing so, they neglect and devalue those already in it. It’s better of them to treat and please the customers already in their store if they wish for more newcomers.

We need to recognize people will want us to build an experience for the mass. The thought process of most is that one event that calls out to a majority is better than five events that call out to smaller groups.

Writing a book that is safe, that anyone walking around the bookstore will want to pick up, seems to be the most logical thing to do, but it’s not. It’s better to write five shorter books that target a specific tribe.

You may win the lottery, you may have a successful large event, but all who attended, all who bought your book will revert back to their search for the one that makes them feel most valued, most part of a tribe.

They will eventually be pleased, regardless of the decision you make because it’s our natural inclination to find a place where we have a consistent pleasurable experience, one that connects us with like-minded people, one that all who attend or purchase can give the same answer to “People like us ______.”

We can’t please everyone at once, so why bother?

But we can please everyone over a period of time/a series of events/a number of books by recognizing the tribes people are part of and creating a remarkable experience for each of them.

Thing is, you may find out that pleasing one tribe is all you need to do. Stephen King doesn’t need to write a book specific to a bunch of tribes. All he needs is one group to please.

Anyway, if one were to measure effort, I’d say it takes about the same to appeal to the mass as it does to appeal to smaller tribes. The results, however, are different… very different.

 

Stay Positive & Different Is What You Want

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Short Stack Opportunity

Garth Beyer

Short Stack Eats

Breakfast joint Short Stack Eats in Madison has a weekly blind special. If you ask them what’s in it, they charge you $12.95. If you order on good faith, it’s only $6.95.

The real perk of going to Short Stack Eats is if you ask once, you can always be braver next time since the special changes each week.

Think about that for a moment.

Is it an opportunity or a risk? Will we be braver next week? Can we change the way we see something from risk to opportunity?

We can certainly afford the risk of a breakfast, but if we have the mindset of risk instead of opportunity about something as simple as breakfast, do we wear those glasses when we look at larger decisions regarding entrepreneurship, leadership or creativity?

Can we afford to have that mindset?

Thing is, with decisions that matter, we can’t pay extra to know whether something will work for us or not. We may not have the chance to be braver next week in the same capacity. And in the real world if we end up getting something we don’t like, it’s not as easy to find someone else who will take it off our plate (pun intended).

Seems to me the only way to look at big decisions and blind specials is as opportunities.

 

Stay Positive & Be Brave

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Why I Fricken’ Love Public Relations

Garth Beyer

Can you define public relations?

What about the definition of marketing?

How about “brand,” can you define that?

Let’s see… how about the definition of customer service?

Essentially, the definitions are the same: all rational and emotional perceptions about a product, service or company that are created through communications and experience.

Within that, you discover the definition of marketing, the definition of customer service and the definition of public relations.

“You know someone is in PR when you ask them what they do and they respond with ‘I am X (or Y or Z), but I do a bit of everything.'”

I love PR because it’s not just one thing, it’s not just crisis communications, not just brand management, not just interacting with press outlets, not just social media, not just newsletters or call centers; it’s everything.

It’s collecting and analyzing data collected on rational and emotional perceptions people have about a product as well as people themselves and their worldviews, then communicating a particular feeling and experience to them that shares your story and connects them to a community of people just like them.

Public relations is knowing how to create a big picture. And I love that.

The key action, then, for you, me and everyone looking to be awesome at PR is to constantly seek out our weak links and focus on them until they’re up to par.

 

Stay Positive & Better Get Going, PR Is A Long Haul

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HT 37signals, Kennedy Communications, and Dave Florin

What It Takes For Ideas To Spread

Garth Beyer

Ideas That Spread

As I’m ironing out speech ideas and book ideas, I’m ruminating on the difficulty of introducing an idea that spreads.

We no longer need a book or a speech or a consultation to tell us how to solve a problem we have. Google and YouTube is there for that. If you’re searching for a “How to,” the Internet is your friend.

But the “Why do” …that might be worthy of print media or a Ted talk or a podcast.

Instead of producing something that shares a solution to someone’s problem, we have the opportunity to share something we are passionate about with someone who might not know they had a problem with their “why,” which, may in turn alter the “how to” they seek.

Our goal, then, ought to be to find those who don’t know they need help and proceed to inspire them with an idea worth spreading.

For a spreadable idea, you few things must fall into place:

1) You must be passionate about an idea that is, at minimum, different from what has been done before. The cue here is often the saying, “We’re doing things just a bit different.” For an idea to spread, there must be both a sense of security (doing things that we know already works) and a little adventure (but doing them a bit differently).

2) The audience must understand the basics of your idea, which you typically don’t need to go in depth about. Recall, Google has you covered as well as bookstores when it comes to the basics. Ideas that spread aren’t sent out to beginners, they are given as a gift to those who 1) understand the foundation of your idea already and 2) trust you. Which leads us to the third and final variable.

3) Ideas spread as quickly as the path established for them allows; that is, the relationship you have, the connection you have built determines the speed at which an idea can spread. The stronger the relationship, the easier it is for an idea to go viral. This goes further than just making a connection between you and someone in your target audience; it requires you to connect your target audience to each other, ultimately creating multiple pathways for the idea to spread.

Lastly, ideas don’t spread simply by throwing them out there. Ideas spread when they are remarkable, as in, worth making remarks about, worth talking to others about, worth sharing.

For an idea to resonate, the idea must focus on the part of doing or thinking about things differently.

 

Stay Positive & Go Spread Something Remarkable

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Unlocking Potential #11: Q&A With John Saddington

Garth Beyer

John Saddington

I regularly write about the importance of being human, of momentum and of the need to continuously try new things. Top experimenter John Saddington is a living example of doing all the above.

John is linchpin who I recall wore a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle t-shirt to Seth Godin’s Pick Yourself event in Tribeca, and asked Seth a question about blogging platforms. It should have come as no surprise to me that John was asking for input because he was in the process of developing his new (and awesome!) blogging platform app, Desk.

John has been blogging for more than 14 years, so it goes without saying how much of a privilege it is to have him be part of this series. Without further ado, welcome John.

Q: You’re a hacker and a human. Tell us how you got into hacking. What’s your story?

John: Yes, that’s my tagline. I think it’s important to let others know that I am a human being. This is one of those “duh” statements but it carries a lot of personal importance to me. It means that I suffer and struggle with just as many things as the next person. But, I have “hacked” my way to a solution that works for me.

I will always be looking for more solutions to life, just as the next person, to ensure that I can survive and thrive in the limited amount of time that I have on planet earth.​

Q: What qualities are needed in a person for them to become successful hackers, humans, entrepreneurs? 

John: A willingness to experiment, be wrong, and fail. A desire to get help, all the time, and to stay humble. To be curious about learning new things and tenacious about not giving up. To be a person of integrity, honest, and true.​

Q: For this next question, I’m sure there are hundreds of answers, but just write about the first two or three that come to mind. What are some hacks you can share about entrepreneurship?

​John: Time box everything. What I mean by this is create a “start” and “end” point to all your experiments and projects. This helps create momentum and helps you establish objective markers for whether or not it’s actually working.

Secondly, get help. Do more things with others and less alone.​

Q: Tell us a bit about Desk PM: How did you go about strategizing a publishing app so it would be as successful as it is? What sort of questions did you ask and answer before you built and shipped the app?

​John: There wasn’t a strategy. It was luck and a long marinating process (over 12 years) as I thought about this application as it tied so closely to my writing and blogging over the last 14 years. Then, I executed. That’s about it. I didn’t deliberate or try to do massive planning or anything like that. The only question that I asked was this (and one that I continue to ask): Do I still love this app? Am I using it every single day?

If the answer ever becomes “No” then I’ve lost the original vision and I should throw it all away.​

Q: What’s the most recent big decision you’ve had to make and how did you rationalize your decision?

John: The biggest decision recently was to join with some friends to work @ The Iron Yard.​ This was the culmination of long-standing relationships and a deep love for education (I got a Masters in Education). I joined them full-time in late 2013.

Q: Would you mind sharing one of your biggest failures and how you worked past it or what you learned from it?

John: I raised ~ $300,000 and spent much more than that on a failed iOS app that netted, over a two year period, just north of $1,300 dollars. I am still learning from this fiscal failure of an app and project. I am still recovering. I wrote a few things here.​

Q: Who and where do you go to for motivation? Any particular mentors or bloggers?

John: I go to my friends and most importantly my wife and kids. I find a ton of motivation in my quiet times as I reflect on spiritual topics, God, and through meditation.​

Q: Perhaps there’s a couple quotes or life mottos you live by?

​”Never give up.” – Dad

“Always have options.” – Dad

“It never hurts to ask.” – Dad

Q: What is the biggest challenge todays entrepreneurs are faced with? 

​John: I’m not sure. Does that matter?​

Q: This one might be a toughie, answer however you would like. What does it take to create something remarkable?

John: It starts with a decision to pursue it and then it requires the courage to not quit.​

Q: Where can people find you and you art? What’s the best way to reach you?

​John: My personal blog: http://john.do

 

Stay Positive & Publish On

Checklist For A Happy Day

Garth Beyer

Happy Day Happy Robot

I was meditating earlier and thought of what makes a happy day. This is what I came up with. Note, it’s simple. We often turn simple things complex because it’s easy to do so. I’ve made this as short and universal as it can be.

– Learn something new

– Love someone

– Do something for you

– Teach, ship or build something

If you check these four tasks off during the day, guaranteed you’ll go to bed feeling fulfilled, content, happy with your day. As a bonus, you can always write each day too, particularly about three things you’re thankful for. It’s impossible to be sad and grateful at the same time.

 

Stay Positive & Make This Day A Happy One

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