What Are They Hungry For?

What Are They Hungry For?

Garth Beyer

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

If I asked your friends and followers to give me a few adjectives to describe you, will they all say one or two of the same adjectives?

If so – and those adjectives are what you aim for – then you are marketing yourself well.

Now, let’s flip the situation around. If you were asked to name a few adjectives that describe each of your followers, would one or two of them fit each follower?

Often times we try to build tribes, gain large followings, and generally market to the mass because we have an idea that we want every type of person to be interested in.

The truth is not everyone will be interested in joining your tribe. One person may hop on your idea at the start because they are idea generators, unreal optimists, and creative folk, but as soon as your idea gains momentum, they may fall off. They just don’t share the same adjectives as you and your core tribe.

A quicker way to have adjective consistency with your tribe (and retain membership) is to ask why each member of your tribe joined. Answers will vary and it will take a while to figure out exactly why the majority join.

Once you find out the why, you can change your marketing to appeal to what most people answered with. “To meet people like me,” “to build my résumé,” “because I was restless.” They will practically give you the content for your new marketing plan.

Don’t place a variety of food out and shout to everyone that they can have some. Ask what a few people are hungry for and then provide solely that.

 

Stay Positive & To Build A Tribe, Just Ask People Why They Joined In The First Place

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Limits Work In Your Favor

Limits Work In Your Favor

Garth Beyer

Stacks Of Wasted Words

I once had a professor who assigned groups of his students to write an elaborate creative and advertising brief. The document was to include everything from a SWOT analysis to target demographics to a media buying plan. When it was time to turn in parts of the overall plan, each part was 20+ pages when it should have been 2-5.

It was 20+ pages because the students wanted to use big words, repeat themselves in different ways with hopes it would convey their point better, and generally they thought it made them look better and, thus, get a better grade.

Oddly enough (sarcasm), 60+ page documents don’t move people.

Often times it’s one sentence, one page summary, one short video that makes someone move to buy, to research, to book, to subscribe, to hit “like.”

While I agree there are benefits to getting students to have a 60+ page mindset, I’m not so sure it accomplished the goal of what the class was for.

Sometimes limits, ceilings, maximums can work in your favor: they force you to write concise, they encourage big thinking of small ideas, they push you to work in ways that resonate with the target audience you want to impact. No one wants to spent three hours of their day looking over your brief, no matter how good you say it is.

And if you can’t communicate your message in just a few lines, is it really worth communicating, really worth investing in?

The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?
Ecclesiastes 6:11

 

Stay Positive & Can You Guess Where Those Long Docs End Up? (see pic above)

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Is It Ready To Be Shipped?

Garth Beyer

The true answer is no. It never will be.

The stories in Curb magazine have been edited by at minimum 5 other writers, but it wouldn’t hurt to have more people edit them. Also, the authors have all sat with at least two other experts to review their work. All in all, each story has been read for edits at least 20 times. Yet, they will never be ready to ship. There will always be more tweaks that can be made.

Alas, we’ll ship them because they are good enough.

As in, good, now enough.

So asking if it’s ready to be shipped is the wrong question. As long as it’s good enough to get the message across appropriately, then ship. Don’t waste time you can better spend working on the next project.

 

Stay Positive & Ship Something Everyday

If You’re Not Going To Act On Your Great Idea

Garth Beyer

Share Your Great Idea

then please share it, give it away, put it out there for others to use.

You’re doing a disservice when you hold on to your idea for the right time, the right funding, the right medium. You’re holding everyone back when you keep your idea because you don’t want it to be stolen. You’re holding yourself back when you don’t do all of what you can right now.

If an idea doesn’t move you to constantly do all it takes to see it to fruition, then set it free.

A good idea that stays an idea and doesn’t connect with action, promotion, and care, is just dead weight.

I always look at it this way: tomorrow someone might do a google search, might be handed your name or email or web address, and when they look you up, they might read what you wrote, see what’s on your mind, and it might be just what they needed.

There’s a large chance putting your great idea out there won’t make an impact, no one will see it, and it will be lost out in the noise, but the risk of depriving someone who may need that idea tomorrow. I’m just not willing to take that risk.

 

Stay Positive & Make It Happen Or Let It Free

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The Path Successful People Take

Garth Beyer

They come up with a lot of bad ideas until they start coming up with good ideas.

Then they start to market those good ideas very poorly.

Soon enough, they pair good marketing strategies with good ideas.

Which step are you at?

 

Stay Positive & If You Didn’t Notice, Failure Is The Stepping Stone

#RandomCall

Garth Beyer

Zachary Lukasiewicz and I connected over LinkedIn and ended up recording our Google hangout for your pleasure. It was the first time we talked other than a few private messages to set up the hangout. Scott Herren was also with Zachary. We chatted about entrepreneurship, startup communities, how students need to take advantage of opportunities and how to stay positive. There were technical issues at the start of the talk, jump to the 4-minute mark to start.

You can watch it here. Enjoy.

 

Stay Positive & Making Connections Is Everything

Why Good Habits Don’t Last

Why Good Habits Don’t Last

Garth Beyer

Daily Grind Habit

Max Ogles wrote on Medium that it’s because the habits are generally not enjoyable. The thing is, most people set out to master good habits, not to maintain them. Simply stating it, maintaining good habits is the unenjoyable part, not necessarily the habit itself.

We go into goal-setting with a subconscious acknowledgment that there are a million good habits that we should have, but don’t. Once we’ve developed one good habit, we begin to see all the other good habits we’re missing.

Moreover, and quite plainly, we gain more pleasure out of turning something into a habit, of moving forward than of maintaining the habit. The reason that good habits don’t last is we’re no longer moving toward something. We’ve stagnated. We’ve began standing still. People die standing still.

When you’ve developed your good habit, you’re left with two options.

1) You can choose to start practicing a new good habit. (This will happen regardless, unless you choose the next option.)

2) You can slightly shift your good habit.

It’s one thing to exercise each day, but once it becomes mechanic, repetitive, unenjoyable, you can switch up the type of exercise. Strive to build a habit of boxing daily instead of running. This way you maintain the benefits exercising and retain the pleasure of striving to acquire a new habit.

By all means, follow Ogles advice to learn how to enjoy any habit, but know that stopping a good habit isn’t a bad thing so long as you’re on track to starting a new good habit.

 

Stay Positive & Keep Trying Different Good Habits Until You Find The Ones That Work For You

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