Tired Of Professionals Saying They Were Lucky

Garth Beyer

I meet with a lot of reporters, journalists, and PR folk. I hear their stories, I heed their advice, and I ask a lot of questions.

The two most common things that I hear professionals say is

1. Learn to write well, really well.

2. I was lucky that…

The first is a “duh.” The second, well, is a lie.

None of these professionals were lucky that they ran into the headhunter of the PR firm they wanted to work for. They were not lucky that they had the credentials they needed for the job. They were not lucky that they got this or that internship. They were not lucky that the news editor had heard about them already.

These professionals didn’t land in their position by luck. They worked their asses off for it.

The real question is why do these professionals lie? Luck is a curated event, luck is the light at the end of the road, luck is a goal you meet after days, months, years(?) of hard work.

My thought is that everyone knows how difficult it is to become a doctor, yet, people still do. Then why do those in journalism and PR fear that the knowledge of how much work it will be to become a renowned journalist or PRS will stop people from becoming one.

At an even deeper level, why are these professionals not proud of how hard they worked?

I don’t have the answers for you right now. I’m not in their position. I know how difficult it is. I know how much I need to work to get where I want to be. I know the difficult leaps I need to take. I know that where I end up won’t be from luck.

When I find out the answers to these questions though, I will let you know.

Downgrading What Is Free

Garth Beyer

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As unfortunate as it is, some businesses need to downgrade what they give for free.

Let’s stick with the same example from yesterday. Suppose that this bar and grill that gives large and cool designed mugs to those who go there on their birthday had to downgrade. Suppose they have to make cuts in their budget to stay open. They decide to give away the rest of the large and cool mug supply and replace them with small, round cheap mugs that just have their logo on it.

Unlike upgrading what is free, downgrading what is free hurts the customers you haven’t yet gotten.

On the positive side, it makes those who were there to get the free large, cool designed mugs feel even better. However, this has two repercussions.

1. Feeling better about something doesn’t mean they will want to come back again.

2. Giving something awesome for free is as much about optimizing word of mouth marketing as it is about making someone feel good for coming to your bar and grill, and not someone else’s.

The gamut here is that downgrading what is free risks negative word of mouth. Imagine someone who got the large, cool designed mug on their birthday then invites someone else to the same bar and grill in two weeks to celebrate their birthday, only, neither knows that the bar and grill downgraded their birthday mugs.

You can imagine where this leads.

This leaves us with the question of how we can make downgrading what is free, work. After all, while upgrading is always an option, sometimes downgrading is not.

The answer is, when you can’t change the product to make it better (or when you’re forced to downgrade), change the delivery.

People talk more about what they experienced than what they received anyway.

 

Stay Positive & Over, Over, Over Deliver

Garth E. Beyer

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Upgrading What Is Free

Garth Beyer

NittyGritty

There’s a bar and grill in downtown Madison that gives a birthday mug to all those that go there for their birthday. They also fill that mug up with a free drink of your choice if you couldn’t have guessed.

One year they decided to redesign the mug, making it larger and more aesthetically appealing.

It bummed out all those that had gotten the smaller, less good-looking one.

When you upgrade what is free, it is a sign of your business making progress, but you run the risk of hurting your previous customers. It’s never an easy decision to make when you consider that those who have gone to your bar and grill are more likely to return than those who have never been inside.

The first way to fix this is to give the redesigned, larger mug to everyone to begin with. Don’t wait for the profits to do it. We know that people buy into how things make them feel, what also matters, though, is that what the buy continues to make them feel that way. When free things are upgraded, it devalues the feeling of what has already been given away.

I don’t recommend doing it this way.

The second and ultimately beneficial way of fixing the problem is to reach out to those who already received the smaller, less good-looking mug. Suggest that they can come in and swap their mug with a new one. Or state that for the next month, if they come in with their old mug they get a special dessert put inside it, or a discount on their meal, or another free drink.

When you upgrade what is free, you can’t neglect those who already received the smaller, less good-looking thing.

 

Stay Positive & New Customers Is Progress, Old Customers Is Profits

Garth E. Beyer

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Art Is War On The Human Brain

Garth Beyer

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Elusive graffiti artist, Banksy set up a stand in NYC selling his signature work for $60. Normally his work goes for about $40,000, to $200 thousand and up.

This says less about what art is worth and more about what we perceive as art. Reporters are not doing Banksy any justice by not reporting on why he is establishing residency in NYC one day at a time through the movement he dubs “Better Out Than In.”

This has two positive, but counterintuitive results.

Banksy’s spray art has always been to communicate a message. That message is up to each individual to decode and then act on. Since news reporters are failing to report on the messages of the work, it is completely left to the individual who sees it to make their interpretation and the mass are failing at it. This is why Banksy only made $420 from selling his work the other day.

Many would blame Banksy for not creating work that convinces people to analyze it. To that I would ask what art work does do that?

The other result is if the media did begin to analyze his efforts and voice their interpretation of his artwork, that closes the value of those who interpret Banksy’s art different from how the media says to interpret it. Banksy

For example, the media could pawn this piece off as being purely humorous, when, in fact, it could have hundreds of different purposes beyond simply invoking a chuckle.

It does not matter that Banksy sold his work for $60 a piece. What matters is why he did.

All the same, it does not matter that Banksy sprays his art work around NYC. What matters is why he is.

It doesn’t seem like the media is going to give us any answers on that. However, by the end of the month, I imagine Banksy will.

 

Stay Positive & Perhaps It’s Better That The Media Doesn’t(?)

Garth E. Beyer

Out Of Creativity

Garth Beyer

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There’s no such thing. Feeling like you’ve exhausted your creative abilities is a sign that you need to observe more, explore more, and digest more.

Feeling like you’re out of creativity is a lifestyle choice –                                                         not a byproduct of expending too much.

 

Stay Positive & Really See What’s Happening Around You

Garth E. Beyer

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Paradox Of Structure

Garth Beyer

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Imagine two playgrounds filled with kids. One playground has a fence around it. The other doesn’t.

Mentally predicting, the children at the playground without the fence would use all the space available to play.

In reality, the children in that context are closer to one another, staying close to the playground, as if there’s an even smaller invisible fence in place. All the while the children in the playground with the fence are playing in all the area up to the fence.

This is the paradox of structure and why I love borders so much.

Borders, or in the paradox of structure, fences, function with two purposes.

The first purpose is that it sets the parameter for you to go beyond. It gives you a goal to broaden your experience and bias and to explore past what feels comfortable. The second purpose is that it signifies that you already know the space leading up to the fence is “safe.”

As noticed in the paradox of structure, the kids had more fear of the outside area of the playground when there was no fence than when there was.

The fence never signifies that going past it is bad or dangerous. It is simply a reminder that this is how far you have gone before.

You have every ability to pick the fence up and move it further back.

 

Stay Positive & In Fact, Go Do That

Garth E. Beyer

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Reach Out

Garth Beyer

There’s a time to reach out for help.

There’s a time to reach out to get what you really want.

And then there’s a time to reach out with your eyes closed.

 

You’ll always be surprised with what is waiting to place itself in your hands.

 

Stay Positive & You’ve Worked Hard, Now Let The World Work A Bit

Garth E. Beyer