There Is No End

Garth Beyer

In the grand scheme of things, there isn’t. One completed task just leads to another. One goal reached is simply the starting point toward our next. There is no end.

But wait,

That assignment is due next week.

School ends in May.

10 more miles to run.

Just one more _____.

There is no end, yet, we act as if there is. The problem is that when we look at achievements as finishlines, we’re a lot less likely to start racing again.

“I did this assignment. I’m not going to start the next for a couple of weeks.”

“School ends in May. No need to learn much until it starts back up in the fall.”

“10 more miles to run. I’ll do my next race next year.”

“Just one more ____, then I’ll take a break for a while.”

The more we try to break our plans and goals up, the worse we stagger to reach the real ends of them, not just the ends we make up in our minds to make it seem easier and more manageable. Think about this the next time you “finish” something. Are you just using the completion as an excuse to wait awhile before getting back to meaningful work? Or?

 

Stay Positive & No End Could Be A Good Thing (You Decide)

Garth E. Beyer

 

If You Don’t Have Anything To Give

Garth Beyer

Have something to show.

If you don’t have anything to show. Hold your tongue.

It’s fairly simple that when you meet with anyone in your interested industry that you need something to give them or something to show them. (Best if you have both.)

However, time and time again I meet with aspiring writers, entrepreneurs and PR folk only to hear about their business plans, goals and ideas.

People care more when they see or touch something.

Not so much when all they do is hear it.

 

Stay Positive & Show + Give = Trust

Garth E. Beyer

Lost Glove. One Cold Hand.

Garth Beyer

Glove

At least 18 people felt bad today. I counted.

I waited for the bus to pick me up and transport me back to work. I noticed a single glove in the middle of the sidewalk where people get on and off the transit. It appeared not stepped on, stirring me to assume it was recently dropped. Perhaps from someone who loaded on the bus moments before I arrived at the station. Not sure what to do with it, I watched it and noticed something peculiar.

Every person who walked past the glove looked at it, stared at it just long enough to think something like “well, that sucks for someone. I wonder if they figured out they lost it yet.”

Similarly, no one knew what to do with it. They just left it there.

It surprised me to find that Jennifer Gooch tried finding a solution to this problem with onecoldhand.com. The hyperlink goes to a shout out at Carnegie Mellon University (where she attended) and not the actual website because the website no longer exists. (You can see what the website looked like by using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.)

To keep this post short, I’ll keep my argument short.

Jennifer Gooch had the business plan backward.

Today, one person lost one glove. I then watched 18 people empathize until the 19th person actually stepped on the glove, picked it up and handed it to the bus driver. The bus driver shrugged his shoulders and tossed it on the council, certainly to stay there until he decides whether it’s better off being tossed or brought to the transit’s lost and found office. (More likely the former.)

In Pittsburgh, Gooch focused on finding the owner of the one glove, only sometimes relieving it’s owner of the minimal stress of having lost it. Both her and my own’s take is to satisfy one person is, well, satisfying. However, not remarkable.

To satisfy 18+ people in one swoop is remarkable. Instead of creating OneColdHand to meet a demand that isn’t much of a demand (most don’t think, how can I find my glove. They think, when can I go buy a new pair), Gooch could have created OneColdHandTwoWarmOnes – pairing one lost left-handed glove with one lost right-handed glove, then giving them to someone without any.

A reason so many businesses flop when trying to find a niche market is that they go after the wrong long tail. Yes, there are people who use spinoff OneColdHand websites, but there is no profitability in something that is (rarely) at most, satisfying.

Consider when you’re trying to define who you want your audience to be, that although there are people wanting to reunite with their lost glove, there are far more people who have none. The question every entrepreneur or freelancer needs to ask is “who cares more?”

Ask that question enough and you’ll have your target audience. (A profitable one.)

 

Stay Positive & If Mixmatching Socks Is A Thing, Why Not Gloves?

Garth E. Beyer

Photo credit

Every. Word. Matters.

Garth Beyer

I came across this agency’s website this evening. I love their message and nearly, just nearly, do I love their motto.

Words

“We are fearless. Inventive. Humanistic.”

Am I the only one that thinks the word humanistic looks, sounds and feels opposite of what it’s meant to? Why not shorten it. “We are fearless. Inventive. Human.”

Every word matters. You would never say your were humanly over the weekend. Nor would you say you were humanistic. Then again, I guess making mistakes like this is only human.

 

Working Like You Drive

Garth Beyer

I made the short trek north from Rockford, Illinois, to Madison, Wisconsin, today while it was snowing. The roads weren’t terrible – heading north, at least.

As for those heading south, I saw nine accidents, one of which had about an eight-car pileup. Although the road I was driving on was clear, everyone was hitting their breaks and driving 30 miles under the speed limit resulting in what’s known as gaper’s block. They slowed down to look at the accident and all the pretty lights. They focused on the accident, backing up their own traffic.

This happens often in work and on those who are taking the long trek toward a common goal – they create a gaper’s block by focusing on the failings, mistakes and accidents of others.

Fortunately, no one refuses to drive because they see an accident. It puzzles me then, how someone could quit their pursuit after seeing someone else fail.

The point: keep going.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Look Back (Or To The Other Side Of The Road)

Garth E. Beyer

 

How Blogging Can Help You (+tips)

Garth Beyer

The following are notes and tips from fabulous blogger Danielle Bruflodt.meet-dani

How could blogging help you?

1) It puts your name out there.

2) You can control the content found when someone discovers your blog or social media accounts. What impression will you make?

3) It creates an online portfolio that speaks for itself.

4) Blogging teaches you valuable skills that you might not have had and helps improve the skills you already had.

5) Even if your career path doesn’t lead to blogging, the skillset is in demand for almost any occupation.

Tips for starting a blog.

1) Put thought into your name and brand so that you can avoid changing it later.

2) Learn to create your own graphics. Find a way to get free access to Photoshop and learn it.

3) Don’t focus on traffic. Put the content out there and focus on what you are creating and how you are presenting yourself.

4) Be consistent.

5) Look to the month ahead. You’ll be more likely to post if you plan in advance and the quality of your posts will likely improve.

6) Let your personality shine through in your writing.

7) You don’t have to be a great writer to be a blogger. You don’t have to be great at creating graphics to be a blogger. You don’t have to be great at social media or HTML or photography.

8) The Internet is your friend. Google and Youtube will become your best friends.

9) Be consistent with your branding and bio across all social media platforms. (logo, username, icons, business cards)

10) If you aren’t interested in being the “face” of a blog, look for a local blogger who needs help with ghost writing, graphic creation or social media and offer your services.

 

Stay Positive & Feel Free To Email Me For Input thegarthbox@gmail.com

Garth E. Beyer