The Problem Isn’t That You Can’t Handle Criticism

Garth Beyer

Two hours of solid group brainstorming. A lot of bad ideas will be thrown in the air, but it’s your right and your privilege to throw as many ideas out there. Good ideas and “meh” ideas.

A friend of mine used to work at a PR agency that, during brainstorming sessions, would not let anyone leave the room until there were 70 ideas on the board. On top of that, even if their first idea was the perfect one and they knew it was, they still went to 70.

You’re a magnet. We all are when we pitch ideas. We attract the criticism and hold it with us while we shout out more ideas. The more ideas, the more criticism we hear, the heavier we feel. Finally, every magnet has its threshold and we can’t hold any more criticism. At that point, we shut up. At that point, we fail. Exhausted from holding so much criticism.

The problem isn’t that you can’t hold any more criticism. The problem is you’ve let it stop you from sharing more ideas. All the sudden you make the brainstorming session about you and not about brainstorming.

It’s two-fold. First, criticism gains weight when you take it personally. Then, second, as you take more criticism personally, you become subjective and blame yourself for poor ideas, for not moving the group forward in the right direction; you believe you’re holding the group back.

Actually, what holds the group back is your lack of more “meh” ideas.

The reason brainstorming groups work is when you share a bad idea, it saves everyone else from thinking of that same bad idea. It’s a game of trial-and-error. More specifically, it’s a game of removing all bad ideas until what you have left are the good ones. When you stop participating with your bad ideas, you’re not doing the group justice, you’re holding them back.

 

Stay Positive & If You’re Not Coming Up With Good Ideas Read This

 

Evergreen Content, Now What To Do With It?

Garth Beyer

Evergreen content is like a wrinkled shirt you found in your closet you want to wear. It’s still stylish, still fits, still brings out your eyes, but you’re not going to wear it wrinkled. Only thing to do: iron out the wrinkles.

I’ve banged my head on the wall a few times trying to come up with an idea for a blog post. I’ve been there. I’ve also watched brands bang walls against their social media teams’ heads trying to get them to come up with a fresh tweet, a viral FB post, a new blog post. I’ve seen people crack at the pressure of coming up with an idea when they’ve felt all the great ideas have been surfaced before. It’s a sad day when that happens. It’s a sad day when they ignore their wrinkled shirts.

Instead of banging your head against the wall, search for the evergreen content, that timeless tweet, that blog post that feels somewhat unfinished and iron it out. I’m not necessarily suggesting you re-purpose something you’ve written. After all, the idea of evergreen content is that it’s already a solid idea.

Narrow the content, take a different perspective to it, add to the narrative because you likely have new ideas to go with it because it was hung in the closet while you’ve experienced more of the world, more of the brand, more of your voice.

Don’t be afraid to dig up an evergreen when you’re lost for ideas, lost for content, lost for words.

 

Stay Positive & Reuse, Recycle

 

Will They Know

Garth Beyer

If you never spend a dime on native advertising, will they know what you offer?

If you never spend a dime on designing the perfect newsletter, Facebook advertising or any other marketing strategy, will people know about you and what your brand stands up for.

Perfect marketing is about the essentials, and the essentials is not to have an account on every social media platform, but to be uplifting, to do at least one thing for one person a day (free of charge), to be remarkable – that is, to be doing things that people can’t help but talk about.

The essentials don’t require a pocket full of dimes, they only require that you care.

 

Stay Positive & If You Care, They Will Know

5 Ways To Be Happy If You Die Tomorrow And 5 Ways To Be Miserable

Garth Beyer

You would die happy tomorrow if you ______ today

1) Do something you are afraid of

2) Go the extra mile for just one person

3) Give to the world what you think isn’t good enough

4) Go for a walk (no phone, no headphones)

5) Do anything on this list

 

You would die miserable tomorrow if you _____ today

1) worry about tomorrow

2) let someone else decide what you do

3) spend all your time with people you don’t love

4) stick to routine

5) Do anything on this list

 

Stay Positive & Now Switch “Die” With “Live”

Ship Yourself

Garth Beyer

You’re not just being watched, you’re being branded.

Before you ship a product, why not ship yourself? Create a personal page. Think of it as an ad for yourself that conveys important information about you, demonstrates your creative ability, conveys unique elements of your personality and professional skills.

Scrap the résumé, scrap your VC, scrap your cover letter.

 

Stay Positive & Sell You, Not Just What You Can Do

Suggestions Accepted, Obsolete Or Desired

Garth Beyer

Do you have a suggestion box at the office or hub?

Give it a try. You’ll learn one of two things.

If you don’t find any suggestions in the box, you will either know your team is comfortable enough to voice their suggestions openly without the need for a suggestion box or that you need a different team.

If you find a handful of suggestions in the box, you know to make your team feel more comfortable and to open yourself up to idea generation for business improvement.

 

Stay Positive & This, Of Course, Is Just A Suggestion

There’s More Than Just First Impressions

Garth Beyer

There’s a second, third, fourth, fifth…

First impressions are important, but that’s nothing new.

The expectation from who you meet is that you show up at your best, put your best work forward first and arrive dressed for success. What about tomorrow? Or the next day?

 

Stay Positive & A Week From The First Impression Is Way More Striking