It Only Makes Sense

Garth Beyer

When I write long form fiction or create a business plan or branding strategy, I have a check-list by each page.

  • see
  • smell
  • taste
  • hear
  • touch

When you walk into a store, do you notice the pleasant smell? Scent marketers are paid to make the store smell pleasant so you stay longer, enjoy yourself more and generally feel relaxed while shopping. Not all stores do this, in fact, not many do.

Hostess, with their Twinkies, really sells the sound of opening the Twinkie package.

Apple does a fine job with design when it comes to their pads, you can see it. More importantly, you can touch it. You can swipe your finger, hold it in the corner with one hand, graze your palm across it.

Appealing to the five senses even comes in play when selling a home. A couple of homes at the Madison parade of homes did a fine job of checking off the list of senses.

My significant other and I could see the entire house, we could smell lemons in one and a pleasant sort of Febreez smell in another. We could taste the wine and beer just by looking at the bars downstairs. (One house did have water and sprite in the fridge for guests, but unfortunately did not advertise it.) Just outside the homes, there was a food cart. Another house had a very hotel feel to it, specifically in the bathroom. Not three steps into the bathroom my significant other was dancing. They had music playing, fit to the hotel, a Frank Sanatra-feel. And yes, we could touch the railings, the carpet, the backsplash, the cabinet knobs. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check.

When writing, when designing, when strategizing, let’s not forget the other senses. I can’t guarantee a sale, but I can guarantee appealing to all senses lowers the number of complaints and raises the talkability-factor of the product or service.

 

Stay Positive & Mmm Mmmm Good

 

 

Nervous, Anxious, Worried.

Garth Beyer

You’ve got a special talent, you know.

When you’re nervous about a certain event, you can start focusing on the success of that event or even how to make it more successful than imagined.

When you’re anxious, you can think of all the benefits you’ll be exposed to when the time your anxious for arrives.

When you’re worried, you can consider everything you have the power to change to also change the outcome or you can think of how much you have to be grateful for already.

Your special talent is movement. When you stand still, when you think the same thoughts of being nervous, anxious, worried, your causing a fast death.

And as for complaining about being nervous, anxious, worried, let me quote my neighbor: “Man, I don’t complain about nothin’. Not the hot. Not the cold. As long as I wake up in the morning. It’s going to be an okay day.”

With a little movement (of the body and the mind), you can make today more than okay.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Waste Your Talent

 

One Great Thing Makes Everything Else Better

Garth Beyer

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If you know anything about Madison, Wis., you know hot & spicy cheese bread is a big deal. In fact, it’s Stella’s Bakery’s one great thing. As a result, all their other pastries are delicious. Stella’s one great thing makes everything else better.

Take the hot & spicy cheese bread away and everything else tastes a bit more bland.

Take Apple’s design away and everything else starts to feel cheaply made.

Take the Dre out of Dre’s Beats and, well, you get the point.

The piece of advice all these brands take to heart: don’t try to be everything. Be remarkable at one thing. The rest follows.

 

Stay Positive & Can You Guess My One Great Thing?

Go ahead. Guess. I’ll mail a loaf of hot & spicy cheese bread to the person who guesses it.

To Know What You Stand For

Garth Beyer

I shouldn’t have to search through your website to find your big idea, your brand essence, your mainstay. Creating a linchpin brand comes from saying no to enough little ideas so all anyone can see is the big idea. Zappos gave up a lot to stand up for service. Apple let a lot of things go so they could focus on design.

 

Stay Positive & What Do You Let Go Of?

You Can Still Do It

Garth Beyer

If you have an idea and the few people you share it with express they don’t like it, you know you can still do it, right?

Why waste the night wondering if they are right when you can spend the night making it right.

 

Stay Positive & They May Take Your Hope, But Not Your Time

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