Connections

Unlocking Potential #16: Q&A With Chris Brogan

Garth Beyer

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I have to admit, I squealed a bit when Chris’s assistant emailed me back stating Chris would be game for a Q&A as part of my Unlocking Potential series.

Chris is full of wisdom, insight, and complete passion when it comes to marketing and living life to the max. His way of working and writing has gotten me to expand my mindset to be a bit more okay with being a bit more weird.

As Chris would agree, weird is good.

Without further ado, please welcome, Chris.

Q: What’s your story in three sentences?

I started out by writing a blog that got more popular. I helped many businesses figure out how to be human at a distance. I continue to help people find ways to build their business by understanding where they belong and how they can better serve those people.

Q: Alright, that was rude of me. Use some more words to explain. How the heck did you build such a strong tribe?

I rarely need more words. The people who I’ve surrounded myself with are people who seek to be of service and who seek to connect others. Growing capabilities and connections. It’s an easy model.

Q: What have you come to find are the two or three most effective ways to get people to share a product, a story or a blog post with one another?

I find that people share what they feel resonates with them. Where most folks get it wrong is they seek numbers, not resonance. Why try to get “everyone” to see what you do? Share it with the folks who feel they belong in the circle with you. They are who want the information in the first place.

Q: What are three qualities you think every person aspiring to be a successful entrepreneur need to have? Why these three over all the other qualities?

I think entrepreneurs need to be service-minded, need to be brave, and need to be eager to share their resources at every turn where it makes sense. I think these three are great because they set up a simple framework for persistent growth of the self and of one’s networks.

Q: I asked John Saddington, who was my 11th Unlocking Potential interview, this same question. What is the biggest challenge you’re seeing today’s entrepreneurs facing?

I think most of the people calling themselves entrepreneurs are actually just people trying to make and sell things without the mindset of serving a particular group of people. They lead with the question “How can I make money” instead of “how can I help someone else succeed?”

Q: Would you tell about the most recent time you had faced a huge challenge yourself and how you did or didn’t overcome it?

I face challenges daily. I think the theme recently is, “Be willing to be even more humble and learn what you aren’t fully understanding.” That lesson keeps being introduced to my life, so I’ll keep learning.

Q: What are you afraid of? Really. Emotionally.

I’m afraid of sharks. I’m afraid of not being able to provide. I’m afraid that my ability to serve will somehow miss the people who most need what I can do to help.

Q: What are a few habits you’ve developed that were essential to your success?

I’m an expert communicator, so that serves me well. I’m very driven to produce. I’m very disciplined. Those really all help.

Q: What is something you haven’t shared with your tribe yet about yourself?

It’d be really hard to figure out what I haven’t shared. I’ll talk about anything. Poop. Sorrow. Depression. Whatever. I’m a fairly open book.

Q: Right now, in the present moment, what would you do or create if you had unlimited resources and time?

Another universe.

Q: Where can people find your remarkable work and what is the best way for someone to reach out to you?

I’m pretty easy going. chrisbrogan.com is a good enough place to start. Grab my newsletter and hit reply. I write back. 🙂

 

Stay Positive & Learn What You’re Not Fully Understanding

How To Get Clients, Customers, And New Consumers

Garth Beyer

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What’s the first question I get asked when I tell people I freelance as a PR strategist?

“How do you get your clients?”

Outreach, new customers, more clients is so important to any businesses. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling tennis ball recycling pods or leading an architectural organization or selling cupcakes, you need an income from your actions. Where’s that money come from? People. And where do those people come from? That’s the question I’m answering.

I started out doing freelance work for friends and family. If you can’t sell to your friends then you’re either selling something that’s not remarkable or you’re selling something that you’re not passionate about. Start here because it’s the perfect indicator of whether you should continue your endeavor or not.

No one wants to do work they don’t want to do. You want to do work that isn’t really work, and for that you’ve got to be doing something you’re passionate about. I decided to only work with businesses that I am passionate about. I’ll consult with any business, but the actual product, the creation end of my work, I focus on people and businesses I believe in. Being picky works in your favor (and your clients!).

From there I meet new people, check out new businesses and get involved as much as I can with the community. I go to events that the information at flies over my head. Yesterday I was at an event talking about Microsoft360 and using cloud data. The only thing I understood from the 30 minute session was that Microsoft acquired Skype, but while I was there I met a couple of folk who I could see myself working with.

Once you have a comfortable number of clients, customers and new consumers, now it’s on you to over promise and over deliver. The best way to get more clients is to treat the ones you have now. The best way to lose clients is to be off working to find new ones.

That’s it. Easy to understand. Difficult to execute. So the work of remarkable goes.

 

Stay Positive & Anything Different Work For You?

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Take The Stage: 15 Pieces Of Advice For 2015 Success

Take The Stage: 15 Pieces Of Advice For 2015 Success

Garth Beyer

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These are all tried and true practices, insights and advice of the most successful entrepreneurs, designers, brewers, writers, and artists that I’ve spoken to, listened to or seen in 2014.

Absolutely invaluable wisdom.

1) Show the world you’re not afraid.

2) Follow your gut. If it speaks to you, you don’t need confirmation from anyone else.

3) If you can’t find a job, create one. If you can’t find a way, make one.

4) Not everything you do will be a success, there will be things you do that are a flop. That’s okay as long as you push through.

5) Be completely indifferent to what people say about you.

6) Connect things that haven’t been connected; it’s how you make breakthroughs.

7) Wake up early and on your own time.

8) Mornings are the only time that a routine should take place.

9) An overwhelming number of entrepreneurs go through divorces because of their focus on business instead of relationships. Just be aware.

10) Connect with two people a day. Lunch date. Twitter chat. FB message. Good morning email.

11) Go where you’re treated best.

12) Find patterns. It’s the best way to guarantee an idea will work. (You may not understand the benefit of this advice until you start noticing patterns and asking why they are there.)

13) Keep going after something and you’ll get it. Stop and you’ll never.

14) If you make one decision over another because “it doesn’t really matter,” then you’re making the wrong decision because everything matters.

15) Hustle has to be in your legs, not your hands. Don’t get stuck in busy work, do work that matters, that moves you forward.

 

I don’t take these numbered posts lightly. I put a lot of thought and heart into what advice matters and can best serve you. I can chat for 10 minutes on any one of these, so feel free to reach out and make a friend this new year.

 

Stay Positive & Take The Stage This 2015

Protip: you can start right now.

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It’s Not The Answer You Want

It’s Not The Answer You Want

Garth Beyer

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How do you tell someone who feels like you’ve done them wrong, that you can’t do anything about it? How do you get people to talk about politics when they don’t want to? How do you get a hardcore punk-rocker to buy your classical music? How do you get a math major to write a fiction novel that’s not sci-fi?

The answer is you don’t. Not only do you spend their time and energy on something they don’t care about or are uncomfortable talking about or working on, you also waste your own hour and effort appealing to someone who doesn’t want to hear the message you have to offer.

As much as the world seems like it’s a discourse in manipulation and persuasion, it’s not. The game isn’t the game you think it is. It’s not who can please the most, who can convert the most, who can get the others out of their bubble into their own. The game is finding and connecting those with the same bubble as you; color, shape, goal and all.

Campaigns don’t move forward logically, that’s why so many people are frustrated with politics. Campaigns move forward emotionally, through connections of people who trust one another. The lesson here is not to preach to those who don’t trust you and you don’t earn trust with those who don’t agree with you.

Run social media for business’s who believe in it. Talk politics with those who enjoy talking about politics. Please those willing to be please. Don’t aim for the masses, the market that’s not listening or anyone who you haven’t fist earned the trust of.

 

Stay Positive & Your Message Is Only As Strong As The Peoples’ Trust In Hearing It

(not how convinced you are that you’re right)

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Giving Whenever Asked

Giving Whenever Asked

Garth Beyer

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If I signed up for everything my friends and acquaintances asked me to, I would be spread out, seriously vulnerable and broke. If I gave whenever asked to give, I’d have nothing left to give. Out of time, of money, of resources. I have to say no to people I care about more often than you may think. I’m not necessarily a hard sell. I’m just selfish. I have to be.

For those I say no to, I wish I could help, but I can’t. For those I say no to, let me suggest something new and give you a newsflash. Newsflash first.

Newsflash: You don’t need my help, my tribe, my resources to be successful. You have the power to gather your own tribe and create a strategy for success.

Something new: Do the hard work. Don’t seek out the people who can make your success happen with a wave of their wand and don’t seek people out who you can piggyback off their success. Do the hard work of developing your one page marketing plan, the hard work of seeing it all the way through, the hard work of starting out small and growing over a long period of time.

If you’re not in it for the long run, why are you in it?

 

Stay Positive & Enjoy The Journey, Really, Enjoy It

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It’s Not Just About Showing Up

Garth Beyer

You’ve got to check if you’re showing up in the right place. Are you where all the bright-minded people are hanging out? Are you really where the people you want to be like are hanging out? It matters.

I hang out on the 4th floor of the journalism and communications building in Madison. It’s the floor where all the professors and TAs are constantly walking. It’s where you find the students who care most about journalism because they are meeting with the professors and TAs. It’s where all the visiting celebrity journalists check-in. It’s where I’ve made some of the most special connections.

Think of it like dating in college again. The someone you’re interested in is in the same class as you, but it always seems inappropriate to make a move during class. However, you know he/she grabs coffee every Saturday morning at that one coffee shop. Don’t lie. You’re there every Saturday morning. Why? Because it’s not just about showing up (to class), it’s about showing up at the right place (to the coffee shop).

Same goes for getting venture capitalists to invest, for selling your book, for getting a mentor…

 

Stay Positive & It Helps To Have A Pick-Up Line Ready Too

There Are More Of You Out There

Garth Beyer

Finding people like you is tough. Ignorance made me think I was the only one who had difficulty finding people who thought the same as me. I’m not. You’re not either.

No matter how many people we can share similarities with (there are a lot!), very few seem to just click. Taking away from the romance of the two pieces of a puzzle that fit together, I have to break it to you that there are no two, three, or four piece puzzles that work. At least none that are any appealing.

The puzzle concept is a fair analogy. You, one piece of the puzzle, fit perfectly together with only a couple other pieces. That doesn’t mean you’re complete. Nor will you ever feel complete with only a few perfect pieces. Should you reject all the other pieces that connect with each other and with those who you connect with, simply because they can’t connect directly with you? Of course not.

This is the Connection Economy. No one said it was the Perfect Connection Economy.

Connect with as many as you can, no matter how weak or strong the tie will be. Pretty soon, you’ll have pieces fighting over each other to be closest to you. But, you’ll never get there if you reject all those who don’t think exactly like you.

One is lonely, two is company, a hundred is one hell of a party.

 

Stay Positive & Who Doesn’t Want That?