GarthBox

If you think the large problem is going to get solved in the last 5 minutes of a meeting, you’re lying to yourself and all those who you called to the meeting.

If you think you can communicate your full and impactful plan for going to market in 4 slides, you’re setting others up for disappointment. (And vice verse is true, too. If leadership thinks you can do that in 4 slides, they’ve set you up for failure.)

And if you think you can truly tell a story in 120 characters. One that resonates. One that gets shared. One that is from the heart. Well…

Those who make real and meaningful change in their work or their communities are the ones willing to both invest in it and listen; to put hours in, not minutes; to sit through and thoughtfully provide feedback to all 42 slides; and who use up their 120 characters in the first two sentences of a narrative that’s worth reading.

Stay Positive & If You’re Going To Commit, Then Truly Commit

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It’s a fairly solid strategy for most work, assuming that one doesn’t interpret slowness as inaction or a form of hiding.

Think of it like those little children cars you may have played with when you were younger. The ones that you slowly pull back and once you let go, they zoom forward.

The other strategy is to go from fast to faster. It works. Sometimes. But more often than not, that haste makes serious waste. Internally. Externally. In unexpected places and so on.

Stay Positive & Walk To Run

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If you’re not breaking something on a regular basis, you’re not pushing the envelop of what’s possible; of what might resonate more with your audience; of what you’re truly capable of.

A culture around permission to break things says a lot about where they stand in line with all of their competitors.

Hint: It’s in front.

Stay Positive & Break Anything Lately?

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Whatever you’re selling, your target is going to ask someone about you.

The CEO will ask her team.

The CFO will ask a competitor of theirs.

The potential user will ask their friends.

The best marketers know who the decision-maker is going to ask for feedback from. Now, can you imagine what conversation takes place if the person or group they are asking is completely in the dark of what your value proposition is and how it makes their lives easier.

It pays to know who the real decision-maker is. It pays even more to have marketed to those who that decision-maker will talk to prior to getting back to you.

Stay Positive & Smartly Widen The Net Of Your Marketing

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It blows my mind how many times a conversation with an entrepreneur goes something like this.

“We originally set out to do X but now we’re doing Y.”

It’s followed by them sharing how they’re a bit frustrated by it.

They had a plan and a passion and a vision… but now they’re doing something they didn’t think they would be doing.

The neat thing is that it becomes a lesson realized about chasing dreams: there needs to be comfort in the future swaying away from the original goal.

Maybe it’s to make more money. Maybe it’s because more audience is there than here. Maybe it’s because one develops a passion for something else. The possible reasons are endless.

But one thing rings true: you’ve gotta be comfortable in future options shaking out differently than you intend.

It mitigates frustration or self-disappointment down the road. Two emotions that are only there to hold you back.

Stay Positive & Don’t Be Held Back Down The Road

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Not jumping in to lend a helping hand.

Not being the first to ask a question.

Not asking some of the important questions.

Not dancing with fear.

Not holding your coworker accountable.

Not holding yourself accountable.

Not keeping positive.

Stay Positive & It’s Pretty Obvious Isn’t It?

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The art of seeing is actually the result of combining all the other senses.

It entails sniffing out the naysayers and wrongdoers and wasted efforts.

It involves getting hands on, touching the work, shipping the work and physically showing up.

It requires you to get so close to the why behind the work that you can taste it.

It means you’re listening more than you’re talking, curiously asking questions and yea, eavesdropping a bit on what the target audience is really saying to their friend sitting next to you.

Once you’ve done all of that, the path forward to creating something remarkable and differentiated is made clear.

Stay Positive & It’s More Than Just Hindsight/Foresight

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