Invested Time

Garth Beyer

I don’t tell people “thank you for your time.”

Instead I say, “thank you for investing the time in me/with me.”

Are you using people’s time to get off the hook? To make your life easier? Or are you using their time to learn, to give back 10-fold, to help you do the work in a new way?

It’s not just wording something differently, it’s thinking about things differently.

When you acknowledge someone is investing in you, you’re bound to do work that matters.

 

Stay Positive & It Also Makes Them Feel Good About How They Spent Their Time

Are They True Loyalists

Garth Beyer

EPSON scanner imagePromo lovers might not be actual brand advocates. People offering free samples at the grocery store are always exhausted because they experience first-hand someone coming up five times in an hour not because they love the brand, rather, they want free food. It takes a toll on brands when they invest time, energy, and rewards to so-perceived “loyalists.”

My advice is there needs to be a check in place before you treat someone as if they are a brand loyalist.

You may not need to go to the extreme of only rewarding those with tattoo’s of your logo, but there needs to be some type of way to decipher between someone signing up for your promo (and it’s their 23rd sign up for a promo today) and someone who truly cares about your brand that they are only signing up for your promo.

You’ve got to see the bigger picture of those who subscribe, retweet, enroll and purchase. Just as it takes a toll on the gal handing out pizza samples at the grocery store, it takes a toll on the brand’s social media presence. Time, energy, and communication gets spent where it doesn’t convert.

 

Stay Positive & Avoid The White (And The Too Colorful) Noise

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Solve The Big Problems Better

Solve The Big Problems Better

Garth Beyer

Often times we dig to find a new problem, an issue someone else missed. If our business or product isn’t getting talked about, if our profits aren’t rising, then there’s a problem we’re just not seeing. Right?

Perhaps we see it that way because it’s easier to turn rocks over, searching for little issues than it is to tackle a current problem in a new way. Why? Because trying something new, doing things differently is risky, especially when it comes to existing problems.

What if the solution you try worsens the brand experience? What if you execute it poorly and lose customers? What if you’re unable to fulfill your new promise? Risky. Risky.

But worth it.

You can keep searching for small problems and come up with simple solutions or you can get innovative with the solutions for problems you’re already facing, the problems that matter, the problems that convert.

 

Stay Positive & Focus On The Work That Matters

Systems For Remarkable Expire

Systems For Remarkable Expire

Garth Beyer

One source of remarkability comes from over delivering on a promise you’ve made. It’s a process that can often be systemized, but certainly not long-term.

Over the long run, a system for remarkable becomes the system for expected, for average, for normal… none of which are in the game plan for success.

It’s on you and me to consistently check systems, to monitor and redirect and add and update. It’s on us to retain a system of remarkable.

If you’ve done something the same way for a while now, it might be worth asking how you can do it a bit differently.

 

Stay Positive & Remarkable Is A Process, Not Just A Product

Match Making (Pitches, PR, And Relationship Principles)

Garth Beyer

Connection

I wish I could say I failed to research people before I met them and I lost out on an opportunity because of it, but it’s not true. I may have missed pieces of information about a person that, hindsight 20/20, I could have used in conversation with them (like telling Seth Godin I’ve seen a photo of his action figure riding a pink angry unicorn), but typically I’m able to bring up two points in every conversation.

1) Something they’ve done that I admire

2) Something of theirs that we can both connect on

These two points are essential to match making with journalists, PR teams and clients, as well as someone you’re going to have coffee with.

When you’re applying to an agency or any job, you do your research on the company: their history, their clients, their goals… anything and everything you can find online or in their brochures (are brochures still a thing?).

Why would you treat a journalist you’re pitching to, a client you want to do business with, a friend of a friend you’re meeting for the first time with any differently?

You don’t.

A journalist will be more likely to cover your story if you start by acknowledging a piece they have written (check box #1) and how you two both love the book she referenced in that story (check box #2).

Not only do you establish a connection with the person, you add credibility to yourself, you show you care because you wouldn’t take the time to research and prepare if you didn’t, and you build trust with that (now) special someone.

The twist is the two check box process works to your advantage in another unique way. It shows you whether or not you want to work and connect with this reporter, that agency, or this guy’s friend.

If they’ve created nothing remarkable and you can’t find a node to connect on, are they a person you want to be investing in?

 

Stay Positive & 7 Billion People In This World, You’ve Got The Right To Be Picky

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What The Successful Believe In

Garth Beyer

Keep On Keeping On

It’s only Tuesday and I’ve been reminded

1) relationships are everything. They build and attract new business. They provide insight you would have not received (or you would have learned the hard way) had you not made the connection. You will know if you’re on the right track in work and life based on the praise from those you’ve connected with. Nothing is more energizing than an hour spent turning a stranger into a friend or an hour spent with someone better than you.

2) you must have a definition of what’s good enough. Too often we work toward perfection and either never ship the product or we ship it too late. When it comes to logos at Aly Asylum, they have to pass the tattoo test. “Would you tattoo this logo on your arm?” If the answer is yes, then it’s good enough. Ship it.

3) ignore the naysayers. It’s on you to establish a mental and emotional filter, to allow and accept personal and helpful feedback while shutting out the negative, the criticism, the feedback many will call “constructive.” It helps to surround yourself with people who have a sort of forwardness to their personality. They act as a reflection of how something is, not how something should be or isn’t.

Now let’s get on with the week, develop some relationships, ship something daily, and shun the trolls.

 

Stay Positive & Keep On Keeping On

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In The Box Podcast

Episode 1: Creatives, Working Smart, The Power Of Nothing And More – Podcast

Garth Beyer

IN THE BOX PODCAST

We’re finally here! Michael and I have recorded a handful of episodes over the last month, and we’re ready to launch!

In The Box Podcast is where we take ideas to the edge of reality, we question motives, we search for answers under unturned rocks, and we think about things differently.

The way we roll with the podcast is we have 6 themes and one question for each, which Michael and I split between the two of us. You’ll learn in the second or third podcast that Michael and I don’t know too much about each other. We had a class together in college, which at the end of we would chat, usually resulting with a deep conversation and concluding with some form of enlightenment. Okay, maybe enlightenment is too strong of a word. Basically we have awesome conversations that we think you’ll enjoy. You can let us know if you do by rating our podcast in iTunes.

Episode 1: Creatives, Working Smart, And The Power Of Nothing

Gatekeepers – Gatekeepers in the industry, are they necessary?

Working Hard – What is the definition of hard work?

Comedy – Does comedy have to come from a place of pain?

Placebos – Placebos outside of medical field useful?

Craft Beer – Is Wisconsin still the beer state?

Social Media – Do businesses hide from the important work by focusing on social media?

 

Stay Positive & Listen On! Subscribe! Rate! Wooo!