The Biggest Concern Of Those With A Great Idea

The Biggest Concern Of Those With A Great Idea

Garth Beyer

Steal Ideas

People (you?) are amazing. The ideas some come up with and share with me, they are truly remarkable. Consistently the thinker of the great idea wants to see it to fruition, but doesn’t have the time, resources, money, etc,.

Instead of just starting small (or just starting. period), instead of sharing their idea with someone who might partner with them, instead of starting a blog and writing about their idea to become an expert and build their brand for when they can see the idea through, they forfeit their idea for fear of it being stolen. That is the biggest concern of those with a great idea. “What if someone steals it?”

Newsflash: You can’t own an idea. Even if you copyright or trademark, neither can save your idea, they can only preserve the expression of your idea. This form or protection requires you to act on your idea. (Even then, I have a few words about that.)

The best way to resolve the concern and to shun the pirates?

Create something they can’t duplicate the same way. Work so hard and so fast to turn your great idea into reality that the competition can’t keep up. Be so remarkable that even if someone tried duplicating your product or service, everyone would know their product or service is not your product or service.

You can leverage the pirates by giving them something they can steal and encouraging them to (think music industry). You can nurture the pirates (start a blog you share your ideas on for them to feed off). Or you can outperform them (actually create that great idea).

 

Stay Positive & I Put My Money On Option Three

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What’s Next?

Garth Beyer

The job of any creative is to be pursuing what’s next, to gather the resources to make it happen, to make the connections to make it happen, to share ideas to make it happen.

 

Stay Positive & There Is A Next, Right?

What Does Your Business Obituary Read?

What Does Your Business Obituary Read?

Garth Beyer

The Economist ends their magazines with an obituary, sometimes of famous people, other times of someone very few people know. They’re a nobody to most, but even nobodies have stories. When you read one, it’s incredible how the writer knew so much about the person. When you think hard on it, you realize the obituary was written long before the person’s death or at least a reporter kept a tally on the person’s life so they had everything to write it when it was near the time for them to kick the bucket.

Most celebrities, political figures, and all-around famous folk. All of their obituaries are drafted.

Yours? Mine? Likely not yet, anyway.

This concept had me thinking. What about your business obituary. Have you thought that far out about it? What will its legacy be? What will people say its story was? Is what you’re doing worth remembering years later? Are you keeping track of the little moments that have made your business great?

The Economist writers don’t follow people around and make their life into a grand story; the people are living a grand story and the reporters are merely telling it.

This begs the big question: what does the draft of your business obituary look like right now?

Is it worth one?

 

Stay Positive & It’s Interesting When Your Both The Subject And The Reporter

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Two Things To Do Before A One-On-One Meeting

Two Things To Do Before A One-On-One Meeting

Garth Beyer

Coffee Shop One-On-One Meetup

Anyone who knows me personally knows I have a habit of scheduling one-on-one meetings quite regularly. I think carefully about who I meet, but sometimes I even ignore my own guidelines.

While I don’t need to argue the reasons to have one-on-one meetings (InkHouse just did it for me), I can offer a couple of tips on what to do to have a successful one-on-one.

1) Read newspaper headlines or short blurbs of front page stories. Whether you bring up a headline topic or the person who you are meeting with does, you can at least say you caught it briefly. (It’s also a great conversation starter and fall-back small talk if there are periods of awkward silence.)

Often times if they mention a topic first and you are able to connect with it (“Yea, I saw that in the NYT this morning.”) then they will go on to talk about it. No deep thought from your end is necessary. You won’t lose clout by stating you didn’t get the full story yet. In fact, they will get pleasure from informing you more about it.

However, you will lose some informed credibility if you don’t know what’s going on in the world, especially when they bring it up as it’s obviously a matter of interest for them and thus, should be for you (at least for the sake of the meeting).

2) Listen to a podcast that is either motivational, entrepreneurial or focused on a shared interest of you and the person you’re meeting with. Many one-on-one meetings end up being an act of back-and-forth storytelling. “I remember when X happened to me.” Or “Have you used MailChimp? Did you know that if you enter ‘boredom’ in their search box, you get to play Asteroids!” (I learned that nugget by listening to Debbie Millman’s podcast with Ben Chestnut and Aarron Walter and used it during a meeting with an aspiring game developer.)

By listening to a few podcasts you will learn something new, think about experiences you’ve had (essentially jostling your memory), and give you something of value to share. They will put you in the mood to meet with someone, to socialize, to generate new ideas together. If those aren’t reasons for your one-on-one meeting, what kind of meetings are you going on?

Best of luck. Let me know how these tips help.

 

Stay Positive & Go Schedule A Couple Of Meetings

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It’s Not Better Late Than Never

It’s Not Better Late Than Never

Garth Beyer

Show up early. Apply early. Get up early. Get there early. Send it early.

Sometimes you’ll get somewhere early and end up waiting.

Sometimes you’ll send the email early and not get a response until late.

More often than not, you’ll get a response, a connection, a reward for being early.

It’s been nearly three years since I wrote It PAYS To Be Early. Every experience I’ve had since then has reaffirmed my belief in there always being benefits to doing and showing up to things early. I’ve learned one more important thing.

The times I have been late… the trending result was the same as if I never showed up, never applied, never sent that email.

 

Stay Positive & Early Is Better Than Late And Never

Your Media Control

Your Media Control

Garth Beyer

Media Control

You have media control. You know that, right?

I touched on it when I wrote you’re a marketer now.

Being a marketer and having media control. They go hand-in-hand.

You might consider your landing pad as the media you control. Or perhaps it’s your email signature.

If you’re letting someone else dictate your control, you’re holding yourself back from progress. If the small efforts you make on Twitter aren’t moving you forward, then control some other media where your tribe resonates more.

If the three minutes you spend on LinkedIn isn’t getting you closer to an end goal, put the three minutes elsewhere (perhaps just brainstorming a better place to spend them).

Is shooting off the 140-character-half-thought worth it? Do you have control of the TV or does TV control you? Where are you spending your time?

Sometimes media platforms do work against you, so it goes with any endeavor in work; where there is forward movement, there will always be friction. But most friction is self-inflicted. Media control is the exception of the don’t put your eggs in one basket adage. When you do, you increase the friction, you move forward slower, and you get burnt out.

 

Stay Positive & Build A Home Base Instead Of 100 Huts

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It Takes More Than Gold Star Stickers

It Takes More Than Gold Star Stickers

Garth Beyer

BonusPerhaps your partners, your employees, your teammates don’t need gold stars. Maybe they don’t need the bonus incentive to do extra work. It’s possible the reward system is a band-aid to a larger problem, not the solution to it.

There’s a few things I know for a fact when it comes to getting others to go the extra mile, take on more work, create something remarkable in addition to their job description.

1) Praise. I don’t need to show you the statistics of those who would rather receive less pay if it meant more recognition. And there is this. Endorsed by the one and only. I give email shoutouts to my team of writers when one of them does something way in advance or something remarkable and unasked. Everyone sees who the shoutout is for and why.

2) Passion. As manager or whatever similar title you hold, it falls under your job description to encourage your team to work with passion. If they are assigned a task that doesn’t suit them (and you should know without them mentioning it), then work out a different way to frame the objective to ignite the fire in their belly. You achieve this by acting on fact number three.

3) Connection. You must connect with each individual to learn what encourages them to go past all expectations. Every one is different and to treat them or reward them all the same is a tragedy. You wouldn’t treat all your customers the same, why would you your team?

The question isn’t what can you reward them with for working extra. The question is how can you get to know them better to learn what drives them to do more.

Often times, simply by connecting, it is reward in and of itself.

 

Stay Positive & Toss The Gold Stickers And Bonuses, Your Team Deserves More

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