Critics

Do You Continue To Perform?

Garth Beyer

If you performed your art on the street and three passersby tossed in money with a note attached:

The first was a one-dollar bill and a note that said: when you perform, I’m inspired, signed by someone who had once given up.

The second was a five-dollar bill and a note that said: I love your performance, thank you, signed by someone whose loved one just died.

The third was a twenty-dollar bill and a note that said: stop it.

Would you continue to perform?

 

Stay Positive & If Not $20, Then How Much?

You’re Not Charging Enough

Garth Beyer

I get asked a lot if a price someone is charging is enough.

“Should the app just be free?” “How much should the admissions ticket be, I was thinking $10.” “I really want to work with this client, should I lower my price?”

More often than not, I get a “Oh… Really?” response when I tell them they’re not charging enough. That is, until I explain why they’re not charging enough.

When I worked with my dad in his painting and remodeling business, I learned there were often jobs he had to bid for. Did he lower his price to compete with other bids? Or did he keep it high, reflective of the quality of work he would produce?

It was more of a question about the fan base he wanted, not how much money he would make. Often times he would bid a higher price to decipher whether the business was a raving fan or not. (Better to work for a fan, a friend than someone who feels they’re in a position to constantly criticize.)

Imagine Dragons can charge $300+ a ticket because they don’t need to allow critics in their concert. The price you charge is the first gateway to deciding what audience you’ll attract. Quite simply, a low price exposes you and your art to people who may not be avid fans. Is that what you want?

Free can help you in some ways. Free can attract the mass. But free won’t get you where you want to go in the world of your craft.

 

Stay Positive & So, Yes, You’re Not Charging Enough

 

Those You Can’t Convince

Garth Beyer

The naysayers, the critics, parents, your boss – all the people you can’t please, can’t convince, can’t alter their worldview, can be ignored.

The naysayers can be shunned. The critics given the cold shoulder. The comments from parents, bosses, and those you thought were friends can be tossed in a void.

There are a lot of non-believers out there.

You’re not required to respond to them, acknowledge them, or, worse yet, believe them.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Prove Others Wrong, Merely Prove Yourself Right

What The Successful Believe In

Garth Beyer

Keep On Keeping On

It’s only Tuesday and I’ve been reminded

1) relationships are everything. They build and attract new business. They provide insight you would have not received (or you would have learned the hard way) had you not made the connection. You will know if you’re on the right track in work and life based on the praise from those you’ve connected with. Nothing is more energizing than an hour spent turning a stranger into a friend or an hour spent with someone better than you.

2) you must have a definition of what’s good enough. Too often we work toward perfection and either never ship the product or we ship it too late. When it comes to logos at Aly Asylum, they have to pass the tattoo test. “Would you tattoo this logo on your arm?” If the answer is yes, then it’s good enough. Ship it.

3) ignore the naysayers. It’s on you to establish a mental and emotional filter, to allow and accept personal and helpful feedback while shutting out the negative, the criticism, the feedback many will call “constructive.” It helps to surround yourself with people who have a sort of forwardness to their personality. They act as a reflection of how something is, not how something should be or isn’t.

Now let’s get on with the week, develop some relationships, ship something daily, and shun the trolls.

 

Stay Positive & Keep On Keeping On

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Don’t Bother With Critics

Garth Beyer

Ignore The Critics, Shun The Naysayers

If it’s a critic you’ll never be able to please, don’t try.

If it’s a critic you might be able to please, don’t try.

If it’s a critic you can please, don’t try.

There are two people we all mean to please: those who care and ourselves. Unfortunately we get confused about critics. We think mattering equals caring, and so we let them judge us, let them decide to pick us or not, let them control our progress (or worse yet, the direction of our progress).

Critics don’t care, friends do. And it’s easier to turn a stranger into a friend than it is a critic.

 

Stay Positive & Having Critics Is Essential, Listening To Them Is Optional

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Take The Time To Provide Feedback

Take The Time To Provide Feedback

Garth Beyer

You're Doing It Wrong (Feedback)

Feedback is one of the many practical, but often difficult practices of a leader, manager or the alike. It’s often ignored because it’s an uncomfortable practice to criticize someone’s work meaningfully; to provide legitimate advice that doesn’t pain the emotions of the one being critiqued.

To sit down with a person and carefully show them all that they’ve done wrong is not something anyone – whether  they are in a leadership role or not – looks forward to, which is why so many resort to sending an email instead. I plead you refrain from that method.

Providing in-person feedback is vitally important for the future success of those needing the critique. Not only do you both work through being uncomfortably vulnerable and leave having learned from mistakes, there’s also a behind-the-conscious interpretation of feedback on the receiver’s end.

By receiving feedback, they know they can keep improving, that you believe there’s more to them than what they’re showing, and it gives them something to strive for.

Consider this perspective: What are you telling them when you don’t provide feedback? When you don’t provide feedback, you communicate that you don’t think they can do better, that they can’t learn from their mistakes, that you don’t see them as capable of improvement. Is that how you want your employees, partners, friends to feel?

Feedback. Provide it.

 

Stay Positive & It’s Time Well Spent, It’s An Investment, It’s Worth It

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