GarthBox

Reactions don’t get us far. They definitely don’t help strengthen relationships, either. Reactions are so quick, unthoughtful, and knee-jerkingly selfish that I’d argue that any reaction is an overreaction.

Far better: a response.

Sometimes they’re methodical and thoughtful, other times they might be as quick as a reaction, but all of the time they’re rooted in empathy.

It’s incredible the difference in action between a response and a reaction based off the same trigger.

And most incredible of all is how much a response impacts both the one responding and those involved in the response versus a reaction.

Stay Positive & Choose Wisely

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Here’s the truth about a promise:

It’s as important that the promise benefits us as it is that we trust the person making the promise.

Both attributes are needed for a fulfilled promise to create loyalty and remarkability.

You can see the paradox there, which means that the only way to have effective promises is to do them early and often.

Stay Positive & This Goes For People, For Brands, For Associations, For All

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Gifts on your birthday are good, but not as good as gifts not on your birthday.

Same for any holiday, really.

There’s something about getting an unexpected gift that really sits with a person. Universally, the feeling of being seen and appreciated and connected to someone – and then to have something tangible to remember that feeling by – is in the simplest form, magical.

This isn’t to downplay the intangible gifts of listening and empathy, but it is a reminder that there’s an opportunity in every interaction to make it more valuable with an unexpected gift.

If you’re graced with a marketing budget, it might be worth investing some of it there.

It doesn’t even need cute packaging. “Here. This is for you.” goes a long way.

Stay Positive & There’s Enough Bad Unexpected. Let’s Do What We Can To Make More Of The Good Unexpected

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Which is better?

$1,000 on a magazine ad or $1,000 on swag to include as a surprise & delight?

100 email opens or 100 handshakes?

An hour spent evaluating SEO or an hour spent sharing your thoughts on a podcast?

We decide what’s productive, how to be efficient and what ROI means to us.

Stay Positive & More Questions Like These, Please

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You know you’re at where your people are at when you can just feel it in your gut.

Sales might be a slight indication or the line out the door.

The commentary you get from the people around you might be positive.

Your friends showing up might be a signal too.

That said, there are times when all of those are true, but something still feels off.

At the end of the day, that feeling is everything.

Why?

Because if you felt it in your gut, your people did, too.

And it’s that feeling that nurtures loyalty.

Stay Positive & Feeling > Seeing/Hearing

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A realtor shared that she doesn’t like adding love letters into home purchasing offers because the feeling of rejection is even worse when it happens.

Not only did they reject your offer… after they read your love letter, they rejected you, too.

It’s personal.

Except it’s not.

Not if we don’t want it to be.

The narrative we tell ourselves is written by… ourselves. No one else.

Perhaps I could tell myself they never read the love letter and just took the highest bid.

Maybe it’s that another person offered 100K more. Even I would take that, no matter how lovely the love letter.

You know, it could have been for the best that we didn’t get that bid because we just put an offer on a house even better.

The list of narrative options can go on… with none of them making us feel personally rejected.

This doesn’t just apply to homebuying of course.

Stay Positive & Tell The Story That Helps, Not Hurts

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The rotten truth about the urgent is that the queue of it never ends.

Even when we’ve tackled all the to-dos that others tell us are urgent, we make up a few of our own so we can keep busy.

Of course, this is damaging to our future and our feeling of long term fulfillment.

Alas. The answer isn’t to get done with the urgent stuff faster, in an attempt to have time to focus on other non urgent, but more important matters.

No.

The answer is to scrutinize the urgent and, when possible, put it off a day so you can do the meaningful stuff.

It’s not about having time. It’s about making it.

Stay Positive & Who Puts The Label Of Urgent On Something?

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