Focus

In The Box Podcast

Episode 26: Victim, Attention, “It Just Feels Right,” Social Media And More – Podcast

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast, we talked about labeling people, if social media is important for every business to have, one quote Michael loves, best method for maintaining focus, and whether you can communicate to someone who what you’re selling will feel right to them.

Enjoy.

Episode 26: Victim, Attention, “It Just Feels Right,” Social Media And More

Social media – How important is social media to a business?

Quote – What is one quote you love and why?

Victim – Does calling a “victim” a “victim” actually negatively impact the individual on the receiving end of the unwanted act?

Attention – Name the best method you have found to maintain your attention span and not succumb to all the potential distractions around you?

Bonus – How do you communicate that something feels right?

 

Stay Positive & You’re Awesome For Listening (That’s My Label To You)

How To Focus Better Part 2

Garth Beyer

How To Focus Better

Most relationships don’t work to their fullest potential when all you think about is what you can get out of them.

Relationships, marketing, selling is all about giving.

Focus isn’t in that category, though.

As written in part 1, focus requires there to be curiosity. If you’re finding a reason to ask why and to dig deeper into something, it’s impossible not to focus. However, to carry it further, focus requires both curiosity and intention.

There needs to be a gentle motivation to stay with the object. What will you get out of it? What’s in it for you? It’s this intention that makes fishing such a focus-sport. The fishermen is curious if anything will bite, if this particular bate will work, if the weather is right as well as he’s thinking of having what he catches for dinner, that’s what’s in it for him.

For complete focus, be curious, but also maintain intention.

 

Stay Positive & What’s In It For You?

In The Box Podcast

Episode 20: Not Knowing, New Info, Focus vs Multitasking And More – Podcast

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast, we chatted about effectively managing time, how one comes to terms with their own mortality, if we operate better while multitasking, how to come to terms with not knowing and how to shed old worldviews.

Episode 20: Not Knowing, New Info, Focus vs Multitasking And More

Time – How do you effectively manage your time? (One tool/tip)

Mortality – What is one way you come to terms with your own mortality?

Focus vs Multitasking – Is our power/intellect at its prime when we focus on one thing or does multitasking require more skill?

Not knowing – How can we come to terms with not knowing? ex: not knowing if it will work, not knowing if we should try, etc.

New Info – How do you critically engage new info that is different from a previously held strong belief?

 

Stay Positive & What’s One Way You Mange Your Time?

What You’re Keeping Track Of

Garth Beyer

I’ve got a list of past failures. Given that I fail often, it’s a long one.

What are you keeping track of? The number of times you’ve failed, guessed wrong, invested in the wrong stock, passed on pursuing an invention?

Much more productive – and I’m working on this myself – to keep track of our successes.

Sure, learn from the failures and the paths not taken, but why hold onto them. Better to remind ourselves of when we were right, what worked, when we took risks and turned out to succeed by doing so.

It’s a tough list to make, but worth the investment of attention.

 

Stay Positive & Focusing On The Good Attracts More Good

Where’s Your Attention At?

Garth Beyer

It’s easy to notice the not-so-good. Easy to talk bout bad advertisements. Easy to rant about poor customer service. (Just did yesterday, oops.)

The number of blogs and conversations dedicated to the bad and the ugly are infinite.

It’s sad, really, that there’s so much bad stuff out there to comment on. Sadder yet there are those out there willing to focus so much attention on it.

You have to wonder, does it do good to focus so intensely on the negative?

The typical response is that we learn more from failure than we do success. However, that only holds true when it comes to our own actions, not others’. When it comes to others’, we learn more from their successes than their failures. (That’s why we attend seminars, to learn what works. Sure we hear a failure story or two, but it’s a lead to them saying what works. They don’t focus on the negative and we benefit greatly from that.)

Better to learn from others what success looks like than what it doesn’t. Reason being is we can dedicate our lives to seeing what doesn’t work and still not find the answer for what works.

It’s best to celebrate the success of others and attempt our own.

 

Stay Positive & Time Spent On Negative Is Time Not Spent On The Positive

Stressful Work, Self-Evaluation And Hacking Your Productivity (And How To Win Monopoly)

Garth Beyer

Hacking Productivity

It’s been more than two years since I gave a Toastmasters speech. I connected with the president of the club I used to be involved in and had dinner with her yesterday. We chatted about the PR life and how stressful the work is. (Top 10 most stressful careers!)

I agreed that it’s stressful work, but it’s as stressful as you let it be; there are ways to lessen the stress.

One of my old friends gave a speech at the meeting about saving mental energy for more important decisions by limiting the options you have for what to wear. A few months ago I mentioned the benefit of wearing the same outfit each day. Jobs did it. Zuckerberg does it. So many others do it to save mental energy for work and decisions that matter.

What I do each weekend is evaluate my week in terms of stress, productivity, time, focus… all that important stuff that dictates your level of happiness or unhappiness. I stop doing what’s unproductive, I stop having meetings with people who don’t create value, I read more, I freewrite for 15 minutes every night, I meditate in the morning and recite a mantra I wrote – all the things I do and don’t do are done or not done with purpose.

The president asked me something like, “Isn’t that exhausting or stressful to have to be so on top of everything?” She was obviously thinking about the benefit of going with the flow, letting things be, simplifying life (which certainly has its value at times). My response…

It’s fun to hack your productivity, your energy, your focus. It’s like the moment you learn how to win Monopoly: just make sure you buy St. James. Place then begin to build on the orange. Works every time. The excitement of learning, knowing and then implementing the practice which nearly guarantees success is what drives me to reevaluate, review, and renew my objectives of the week each weekend.

Stress is not an external force we have no control over. We design our stress, and by evaluating ourselves on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, we begin to notice what’s working and what isn’t in our lives. We respond rather than react. It’s an art, and there is so much beauty in art.

 

Stay Positive & There Is No Better Game To Hack Than The Work Game

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Become A Remarkable Business Owner

Garth Beyer

“Instead of caring about everyone and taking what you can get, embrace a subset, find the weird, and love them more than anyone else ever could.” – Seth Godin 

Great Business Owner

Great business owners

… are determined to get it right even if it calls on them to change their worldview or do what they previously said they wouldn’t. No matter what the cost is, they will do it right.

… are in complete awe and fascination for the remarkable impact little things done just right can have on people. It’s not just noticing the little things, it’s being the source of them.

… are in cahoots with the requirement that to reach a higher level of achievement, they must focus their attention on systematizing the plethora of (what many see as) insignificant, banal, grunt work that makes up every business.

… are working more than they should for the monetary return they are receiving on their investment. But the intrinsic value they receive from working with passion is priceless.

… are providing the people who they work with and who work for them an idea that is truly worth working for. They tell a story worth believing in.

… are always imagining, dreaming, visualizing; are always in wonder.

… are absorbed by the people, and not the work. You will only ever love the game if you love the players.

… are seeing their business as a product and treating it accordingly. Yes, that means treating it as a system, defining all its pieces, and writing out a strategy, people, marketing, etc., plan.

… are treating all customers in a way that makes them feel right, even if they are not.

… are working to be the best they can be, to learning what they don’t know, to acting more human than their competitors.

… are aware of Lippmann’s and so many others similar conclusions that reality only exists in someone’s perceptions, attitudes, beliefs and conclusions. It is not subjective or definable to the mass. To understand a customer you must understand the images in their head.

“The problem with most failing businesses is not that their owners don’t know enough about finance, marketing, management, and operations, but that they spend their time and energy defending what they think they know.” – Michael Gerber

 

Stay Positive & All You Do Is A Reflection Of Who You Are

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