Why I Interact With Everyone: My Hope

Garth Beyer

My hope is that you remain discontent with how society defines success;

that you understand some rules are unjust and are meant to be broken;

that you use the broken pieces to build your character;

that you will light the match which ignites the fire in your belly, the warmth of your heart, and what is necessary for passion to turn into something tangible;

that you either walk away or plow over the naysayers;

that you never stop transforming;

that from time to time – the more often the better – you just start and ship something immediately, just do what you need to do right away and feel that special sense of completion;

that you manage to find a way to always keep your head up;

that you would be willing to get arrested for what you do;

that you always try;

that you be you;

that you

 

Stay Positive & Remember I’m Here For You

Garth E. Beyer

Safeguarding Confidence

Safeguarding Confidence

Garth Beyer

My personal life is like searching something on Google, just without my overconfidence in suggesting what you will finish typing. Regardless of how personal your search or question is, I’ll give you an answer.

Going into PR, thankfully, I learned that I can keep my personal life as open as I want. However, areas of my professional life, of the PR realm, confidential information of clients has to remain seal tight. There are two reasons this was tough to do at first.

1. I believe in communication being the foundation of everything successful, whether it’s good or bad, nothing should stay unsaid.

2. You never know what someone else may be able to help you with or add to what you know if you can’t discuss it.

It did not become so easy to keep confidential matters confidential until I did an interview with Michelle Welsch in which she touches on the concept of protecting the names of everyone who attends her Project Exponential events. She says,

“I want to create a space where everyone’s on the same playing field. This anonymity allows people the freedom to step away from their work and whatever preconceived notions or judgements someone might have about what they do for one evening and connect with others in a meaningful way. There are plenty of events that list of the names of attendees. You go, hoping to meet specific people there and may walk way with a few business cards that, if you’re lucky, turn into something remarkable. You may also miss meeting a handful of incredible people who didn’t have the job or the title you wanted to see.”

Michelle made confidentiality a key supporting factor in making her events work so well. It’s a skill, a mind-set even, to be able to leverage confidentiality. Not only does she build trust and credibility at every event when she keeps items confidential, but she creates real connections between people, not connections based on status, prestige, name, income, etc.

As well as in Public Relations, you not only safeguard the confidence people have in you when you keep material confidential, but you enable yourself to discover a new way to leverage something very few people attempt leveraging in the PR world.

Michelle has an event coming up and you’re invited to connect in a different way! You can buy your tickets here

Once You Leave

Garth Beyer

Once you leave your cubicle, your apartment, your comfort zone, your box, you expose yourself. You risk at all levels. Most people stay in their zone because of that risk, because of their fear. Nothing can throw you out of wack if you stay put in your structure. The interesting revelation is this:

Once you leave your cubicle, your apartment, your comfort zone, your box, you expose yourself. But what you expose yourself to is never what you think and worry about. Once you leave your zone, everything that you dreamed of, craved, and desired in your zone, comes to you.

Want to find love? How can you do that when you stay in your room all day? Forget it. Anyway, love will find you….once you leave your room.

Want to see something truly beautiful? Even more beautiful than what you can Google on the internet or see out your window? You have to leave your space.

Want to laugh unexpectedly? Once you leave your box, something will happen that makes you crack up.

Just getting out of the place you confine yourself to, that you are comfortable with, is all it takes to get what you want. You don’t have to go after it, you don’t have to jump 50 hurdles to get it, all you need to do is get out!

Go to the park. Find a place to see the sunset. Walk to the grocery store. Don’t worry about how you dress, what you carry, or if you wear any shoes. Just leave.

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This post was inspired by the experience I just had. I’ve been in my apartment all day (got off work early) and wasn’t planning on leaving it. I was comfortable, I was safe with my books, my notepads, sticky notes, pens and laptop. I was content, even happy with the breeze and the sound of the water (how could I not be?). Then I decided to do something off Michelle Welsch’s Manual For Daily Adventure. I got up, grabbed a favorite book (Keri Smith’s How To Be An Explorer Of The World) and went to the park. The following things are what I got to experience because I left my apartment.

  • See a runner giving it her all.
  • Laugh and shake my head after watching two black basketball players almost get in a fight and one repeating to the other “you’re not gangsta!”
  • Three girls checking me out.
  • Laugh at a women on the phone only talking about getting drunk, hammered, plastered. Quote: “We will get drunk Sunday, that’s what labor day is for”
  • Pinpointed where an odd noise I kept hearing was coming from to a woman practicing opera.
  • Felt soft grass.
  • Got to observe more things, people, animals, sounds, sights, etc., than I would have in my apartment.
  • On my way back, had a good conversation with the three girls. If they didn’t smoke, I would have asked one for her number. Oh well.
  • Got to feel the ground. (Went barefoot)

That list sure beats the hell out of a list of what I would have experienced if I stayed in my apartment. The same goes for your cubicle at work, your comfort zone at school, your chair in the meeting room, your spot on the bus, your way you walk to work, your seat in class, and any “square” that you feel comfortable in.

 

Stay Positive & Experience Life

Garth E. Beyer

Three Lists To Always Have

Garth Beyer

These lists are very cut and dry. You don’t need me to tell you why you should have them. It matters not even where you have them or how often you read them, as long as you have written completely out.

1. A list of sources of inspiration. It can be in the form of bullet points, a collage, or the real thing. Regardless, still write down everything that you draw inspiration from because if you don’t feel inspired just writing it down, it’s not strong enough. If it’s not strong enough, go find something that is. Write it down.

2. A list of places you want to go. Pull out a map or a globe if you have to, Google odd places to travel, pick locations that a typical tourist would go to, or be weird and write that you want to travel to the lake where they filmed The Notebook or where the tomb of Oscar Wilde is. If you broke up the world into square feet, it leaves you with almost 5-1/2 quadrillion square feet to choose from.

“Nothing beats travel to expand your knowledge, your palette, and your empathy for your fellow men and women.” – Debbie Berne

3. A list of ways you can contribute, volunteer, and give.

 

Stay Positive & Write Then Animate Your Lists

Garth E. Beyer

A Lot About Women And Love

Garth Beyer

Yes, it’s that kind of post. A trend I see with famous writers and thinkers is that their thoughts on love, women, and relationships never get brought to light until they are dead. (The people themselves, not their relationships. Well, those too I suppose)

Note: This post is not going to be the typical inverted pyramid style. The small stuff will grow into the deep stuff. Ready?

 

“Ethics is just a word made up by women” – Co-worker I’m starting to keep notes of all the one liners he says. Maybe I’ll write a book from them someday.

 

Beauty: When you first meet, you either see it right away or she slowly opens your eyes to it. The way in which it happens is not the matter. The matter is that every woman, once their beauty is seen by another, must perform upkeep. While she may think her beauty lies in makeup and moisturizer, it really is a result of the relationships she maintains with another. Once severed, she does not become ugly, hideous, grotesque. Her beauty disappears, becomes void, incoherent. When it comes to a woman’s beauty, it is there or it is not, nothing replaces it. Beauty is impermanent.

 

A woman who loves knows everything, a woman who doesn’t is clueless to everything, including herself.

 

I get a hard time, mainly from myself, about not finishing puzzles. I always match two pieces and call it finished. My views on life and puzzles is that there can be 500 pieces or more than 7 billion pieces, but all it takes is two that connect to make it worth it.

 

I made you responsible for my happiness, not only that. I made it hard for you. I lost myself. I forgot I create my own happiness and that is what makes you most happy and vice verse. Being there, sharing experiences, giving support, having fun, that is a relationship, that is love. I respect our differences in our way of living and dreaming and I’m loving the process of growing into everything love means.” – an excerpt from the journal of a guy whose relationship ended three days later.

 

If your arm is not around her when you introduce her to anyone, it’s unlikely love.

 

When it comes to love, always dream more than you can. The tragedy of a perfect relationship is that once success is met, it doesn’t matter. Once you are living with your partner, are financially sound, are entertaining each other on a regular basis, once you feel that it’s perfect, none of it matters. You got to where you wanted to go and once you do that, you decline, everyone does. (Aside from those who feel stuck, which is a fair amount, but being stuck is just another type of decline). So dream HUGE about the relationship you will nurture, make it an impossible goal; when you tell someone your plans, they better be in disbelief, they better tell you it’s impossible, they better expect you to fail. You better fail! The point isn’t to succeed, it’s to have a goal of a successful relationship so high that you will never reach it. But you will try because that is how love manifests.

 

The best memories hurt the most.

 

The Impermanence of Love

“What is a plan?”

“Gods have a plan

but animals don’t”

“What happens when a God has a plan and animals don’t?”

“It’s magnificent – the love that wont happen ’til the God ceases to be.

See – you can pray for love, but it doesn’t change a thing”

“What does the animal see”

“Nothing…

Nothing changes, only deteriorates

and that’s not change, change is too late”

“What is change?”

“Do you know of sacrifice? it is very strange,

It is when you want to give up a piece of your heart

to gain a piece of life with another.

Change succeeds sacrifice”

“Do you think me a God or animal?”

“Neither.

I’ve been a God

and done as an animal – sacrificed everything for another.

I once thought as you may,

that you become more of what you sacrifice. –

It is not true.”

“What are you?”

“Non-existent.”

 

Humans are passionate, but inconsistent.

 

A stable relationship can be judged as such when there is a balance between the number of times you open the car door for your lady and the number of times that you let her do it herself.

 

Never say to a woman that you are letting her do something. It can even be in the most considerate way such as, “I’m letting you have your space.” Think about it. Really think about it right now because every woman reading this is smiling in agreement at the truth of this. Never say you are letting them.

 

When people are using their phones and iPods, are they unavailable? I’d say the iPod is the new promise ring. You may hit on someone that’s wearing a ring, but you don’t say a word to someone with their ear buds in. Is this what the world has come to?

 

Why I don’t approve of homosexuality with women: Quite plainly, they decrease the chance of a guy finding the girl of his dreams. When a girl is lesbian, that is one less girl in the world the guy has a chance with. The world is hard enough for men to find a good woman, and now they go off and enter relationships with other women leaving the guy less of a chance.

Now you may think, well, why doesn’t the guy become gay as well? Don’t the gay guys balance out the gay girls?

Why I don’t approve of homosexuality with men: Most gay guys aren’t just gay, they are super gay, and can you guess who likes super gay guys (beside other gay guys?) Girls. And not just any girls, typically the gorgeous ones. They cling to their gay boys like their prized possession and protector. Gay guys make it so girls don’t feel the need to have a real man and that decreases a guys chances even further to finding the right girl.

 

Life is so much about competition as it is, and of course, Love, the only reason worth living, is the toughest competition of all.

 

Why is it only girls that we see often can we have a chance with? Why is society built so that if I see someone I can’t just introduce myself and see if we have anything in common? We make love so difficult. My imaginary world would be a place in which you can go and talk to any girl and it’s normal. If that was the case, there still isn’t a promise you would find love quicker. The chances of finding someone that you spark something with right away is somewhere around 2% I would imagine. Although, you would make more friends but more friends doesn’t make it more likely to turn a friendship into a relationship because you know that there are so many other girls out there you can talk to and hopefully spark something with right away. So, this general acceptance in society to make starting conversations with strangers doesn’t really make finding love easier, it simply makes finding love more of an experience. What do you think?

 

Stay Positive & Heck, In Love You’re Doomed, But Best To Make Your Journey To Damnation As Near To Cloud Nine As Possible

Garth E. Beyer

Hitting The Media Over And Over And Over And Over

Hitting The Media Over And Over And Over And Over

Garth Beyer

I have briefly stated before how PR is not advertising, but those in PR strategically use different forms of advertising to leverage the success of their goal. Cutting the crust off the whole debate of how influential media is to producing sales, you can check the case studies of Dr. Max McCombs and Dr. Donald Shaw who developed the theory of Agenda-Setting in their Chapel Hill Study (1968).

In essence, they discovered that media influence was a temporary result which would die down in the minds of the viewers within hours after being exposed to the particular piece of media persuasion, depending on the medium used. (How often do you get told during an advertisement to “Act Now!“)

When you find yourself complaining about a particular ad that is put on repeat (remember the tv commercial that played itself again right after the first one, or the radio ad which plays right after one song and before the next?) you are seeing the abused type of agenda setting.

Before McCombs and Shaw, a particular Bernard Cohen had begun building the theory by observing and stating that the press “may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.”*

Next up were Rogers and Dearing (1996), who had tried to better explain the Agenda-Setting Theory by providing more key concepts and definitions in Agenda Setting: Communication Concepts.

For an understanding of the gist of Agenda Setting, here is a positive example of how you could use Agenda Setting for the grand opening of a Coffee Shop.

You are the Public Relations Specialist for the largest Coffee House in Seattle (largest, meaning square feet, not number of Coffee Houses) which will be having its grand opening in two months. Honestly speaking, you better have your news release and press kit developed already.

Now, the announcement has gone out and not only is the media interested, but so are a few local Coffee Shops. You then begin to accept and arrange media requests for interviews, pre-opening tours, and exclusive photo shoots.

Now that you have set the agenda for the media, you direct more of your efforts toward the public by sending personal invitations to all the Coffee Shops in the surrounding area. In addition, you apply direct messaging to the demographic of people who purchase coffee on a daily basis. By notifying these people of your event, you have set the agenda for the public.

The media and the public are all over the day of your grand opening and you obtain extraordinary coverage. Now you want to remain in the spotlight of the media and public by setting even more agendas for testimonials, follow-up features, and stories from those who converted to buying your business’s coffee.

Agenda-Setting: If you noticed, no where did you hit the media over and over and over and over with the same material. You set the agenda for coverage on all levels, devoting your focus to specific types of coverage which hit a target audience.

Remember, your agenda is to make theirs.

 

*Cohen, B (1963). The press and foreign policy. New York: Harcourt.