10 Ways To Make A Difference

Garth Beyer

1) Talk to people

2) Go sell something in person

3) Don’t just make something crafty, give it to someone too

4) Tip big (treat everyone the way you wish you would be treated)

5) Fire the people who are holding you back

6) Cut out what you don’t need in your to-do list, in your grocery list, in your work list

7) Fall in love

8) Destroy something with a kid

9) Send a handwritten letter/leave a handwritten note to anyone, make it special

10) Never give up, never never give up

 

Stay Positive & Go Make A Difference

I Haven’t Been Home

Garth Beyer

I had a strategic communications professor who at the start of the very first class told everyone if they currently were not the type of person who goes home each day and spends an hour using photoshop or if they didn’t bring their computer with them to the terrace to work on mock ads or if they didn’t have a journal with them at all times to draw ad concepts, then they weren’t passionate (advertising) designers and should be sure they are taking the class for an alternative reason, a different pursuit.

Friends upon friends of mine state something is their passion (gaming, writing, football, design, etc,.). Yet, when I ask if they’ve done their passion lately, they’re response is they haven’t been home or they left their computer somewhere or there wasn’t any time.

I have to agree with my professor that if you haven’t done your passion because of any of those reasons, then it’s not really your passion. Not saying you shouldn’t do it at all, merely be sure you’re doing it for a different reason, one worth doing it for.

 

Stay Positive & Is Your Passion Really Your Passion?

When Your Client Doesn’t Know What They Want

Garth Beyer

I’m guilty of asking a couple designer friends of mine to make me something for my website that is sharp or to make something standout. What does that even mean? There’s no sense of direction, no working visual ques for them to work from. Some of the best desginers can take Comic Sans and make it look sharp, but I’m telling you that’s not what anyone wants.

Thing is. It’s not the client’s problem anymore to communicate exactly what they want. It’s your job to give them, not just what they say they want (or what they think they want), but what they will be impressed by. After all, you’re the artist. Right?

The real question, then, is how do you deliver something the client says they want and still make it remarkable. That’s the crux of design, of PR, of art.

When a client doesn’t know exactly what they want or even if they do, it’s your job to overdeliver. That’s what you do. That’s what the client doesn’t realize they want.

Take every request to the extreme, to the crazy, and you’ll quickly discover exactly what every client wants.

Stay Positive & Remarkable Is Never What The Client Has In Mind
(it’s always something more)

When In Doubt Frankenstein Out

Garth Beyer

When you find yourself struggling to create some crafty content, Frankenstein your work.

That is, take pieces of writing in your journals or parts of your favorite photographs and stitch them together with thread of your own flare.

So often art is taking pieces of different puzzles and putting them together to create something new.

Stay Positive & Watch Your Work Come To Life

Trouble Getting A Job?

Garth Beyer

Go do something crazy. Go do something you’re afraid of. Go do the opposite of what your brain is telling you to do.

The stories you make will be worth sharing in an interview. Employers LOVE hearing stories, not just because it shows you’re willing to build your character and do something different, but because you’ve gone and done something they wish they would have done.

Better yet, you might find that the thing you end up doing is something you want to keep on doing. It’s often when we do the opposite of what our brain says is the logical thing that we find our passion. Turns out when we don’t listen to our brain, we’re actually listening to our heart.

 

Stay Positive & What Will You Go Do?

It’s The Unexpected That Matters

Garth Beyer

You could easily duplicate a comedian’s skit. Memorize all the jokes, mimic all the facial expressions. The thing is, you won’t know how to interact with an audience member who interrupts your skit. What will you say to the guy that hollers out when you only ask for the ladies to say “aww.”

Any act, any entertainment, any art is best showcased when the artist is faced with the unexpected. It can be someone in the audience or one’s own mistake.

The reason why it’s suggested you fail and fail often is how you handle disruption is what matters, what people love to see, what people are fascinated by. It’s easy to follow the expected, it’s much more difficult to follow the unexpected.

Great thing about failure is people will love when you fall and they’ll love when you surprisingly land on your feet.

 

Stay Positive & Put Yourself In The Underdog Position From Time To Time

This Is Fictional

Garth Beyer

159 people died from a rockslide yesterday.

159 stories ended after a rockslide demolished a small town yesterday.

Which gets to you more? People aren’t just people. People are living, growing, working stories. They’re emotional with their highs and lows. Are you careful how you communicate with them? Are you adding to their story? There stories could end at anytime.

 

Stay Positive & Every Day We Have A Chance To Be A High In Someone’s Story