Opportunity

How To Guarantee Your Product Will Be A Hit

How To Guarantee Your Product Will Be A Hit

Garth Beyer

Inventor At Work / Product Hit Guarantee

In the old days (I’m referring to just a few years ago) we would create a project or service and then try to sell it. We would develop a product and try to convince people they had the problem our product was the solution for.

Now we have to create a remarkable product or service that solves an existing problem.

The first step in any marketing or creation plan (after seeking out an existing problem, of course) is to not just write why our product is the remarkable solution, but show that it is.

In the past we could stay in our dark rooms, write a book, give it to a publisher, and then rely on the publisher to market the book and hope it hits the NYT bestseller list.

In the past we could dream up an awesome product at our desks, contact manufacturers in China, have them build it, send it to us and then hope people would buy it.

Now the publisher doesn’t do the marketing. Now few go knocking on doors.

We can’t stay in our quiet dark room anymore.

Now books gets sold before their written. Now we have a preorder list of 1,200 before we build the product.

The way to guarantee your product will be a hit once it reaches the market is to guarantee your product will be a hit before you build it. You do that by building a tribe of believers, of backers, of supporters.

Instead of putting a book out there and hoping people bite, you can blog about the book before it’s written, create a network centered around the message of your book, then you get a book proposal based on the feedback and impact you already have. You are able to show it will be a bestseller.

Kickstarter works because people have a tribe of supporters that will pay to have them build their inventions because one of their perks is that they will get weekly updates, exclusive promos, and special thank-yous. Not to mention, they simply believe in the maker, the artist, (you?). But those artists have worked hard for their trust, not just hard on the product.

We’re no longer in an age when we can rely on others to sell what we create. Sure, create for the sake of creating, because it’s fun, because there’s no better opportunity we have in life. But if you are looking to make an income off your creation,  doesn’t it make sense to guarantee your product will be a hit before you create it?

 

Stay Positive & We Have The Tools, Now Use’m

Photo credit
You’ll Make Very Little Impact

You’ll Make Very Little Impact

Garth Beyer

Doing Things Differently

There’s certainly a chance you’ll make a very large impact, but the chances are slim.

Slim indeed.

But this should be a motivator more than a turn off.

With nearly 100,000 public schools in America, as a teacher, you have an opportunity to do something different without negatively affecting the system of the other 99,999 schools.

With 500,000+ businesses starting up each year, you, as a now business owner, have an opportunity to do something different with your business without it negatively affecting the trend of others starting their businesses.

With 290,000+ books getting published each year, as a writer you have an opportunity to do something different without breaking down the publishing industry.

There are so many people doing what you are doing that you now have permission to do what you do in a drastically different way. And don’t forget, no one is paying much attention anyway.

I wrote you’re unlikely to make a huge impact, a real dent in the universe. It makes me wonder if knowing that, are you willing to give up your attempt? If you may only influence one other person through your trial of something new, something different, do you believe there’s no point in following through with it then?

Would you rather an aspiring teacher quit his pursuit and work at a gas station instead because he knows he may only impact one or two students in five years of teaching?

This is a call to experiment. And once you experiment, experiment more. Regardless of whether you’re making a large or small impact doing so.

If it’s any consolation, your chances of making a huge positive impact are far greater than making a huge negative one. It’s easier to redirect a current than it is to get others to stop all currents completely because of some pesky seaweed buildup.

 

Stay Positive & The Only Negative Impact You Can Make Is Not Making An Impact At All

Photo credit goes to one of these people

Start Your Way

Start Your Way

Garth Beyer

img_4_03

I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts lately. One in particular Debbie Millman’s. It seems every interviewee, every professional creative, every communicator began with one weird thing.

Think of a sculpture made from all the staples in wooden posts within a city. Imagine fake moss saran wrapped on a rock and sold. Consider a ridiculous feat. It can even be something that anyone can do, but no one is willing to commit to (basically half the art pieces in an art museum).

Once you become a success, people will want to hear your story. They will ask you how you started or where you started or when you knew exactly what you wanted to do with your career.

You have an opportunity when starting on the path to your own success to start in a remarkable, more specifically, weird, way.

If your serious about becoming successful, then you need to be the opposite about starting down that path. You never heard a successful person’s story start out “Well, I planned for four years figuring out everything I needed to do to get here and I worked my way very slowly here, pleasing everyone I could and trying to appeal to the masses and doing what everyone told me to blah blah blah.”

No.

You hear about people doing something crazy and weird and something worth talking about.

 

Stay Positive & The Most Important Part Of Any Story Is The Opening Paragraph

(What’s Yours?)

Photo credit

At The End Of The Day

Garth Beyer

Do you consider the end of the day throughout it? Or are you stuck in the moment, caught up in a whirlwind of emotions, captured in the small picture?

It’s overwhelming in the moment, but at the end of the day, whoever is causing you stress, is just a person, likely heading back home to be with their equally demanding family. The aggressive client wanting a discount for no reason is just a person, likely heading back home to make his or her special someone feel special. The fevered parent you had to console is just a person, likely heading back home to deal with all the trials and tribulations of being a parent.

It’s not that every person is fighting their own battle, it’s that many of them are losing it.

You get the opportunity each day to help them fight. That is a privilege in my opinion.

 

Stay Positive & People Aren’t That Bad When You See Them As People

Garth E. Beyer

There Is Always Evidence

Garth Beyer

A lot of us wait to see evidence that our actions are making the impact that we want, that our decisions were right ones, that we’re on the best path.

Self-acknowledgment is motivating, but it’s also self-defeating. We take an action and then wait, we stand still, we let fate take it from there until we see results.

While were waiting, the world keeps spinning – spinning other things than just the results were hoping for.

There are other opportunities out there. Don’t miss one because you’re waiting for the outcome of one you took earlier.

And you can always take solace in the fact that there is always evidence that what you want just might happen. I mean, after all, isn’t taking the lead of an opportunity evidence enough that you’ll get what you want.

People die standing still.

 

Stay Positive & Success Isn’t Judged By Results, It’s Measured By Movement

Garth E. Beyer

Meet By Chance

Garth Beyer

We meet few people by chance.

Every year we meet hundreds – and for some, thousands – of people willing to be a part of our lives, to benefit us in some way.

Pause and think of all the people who you considered as truly meeting last year. Was there something special attached to meeting that person? Did you help them? Did they assist you? Did one or both of you leave learning something? Are you still communicating and benefiting off each other’s energy?

You never meet anyone without something special transpiring from it. Every meet, all are opportunities in one experience or another. We are due them certain considerations as much as they are due us.

The people who get the most out of meeting someone are the ones who know there’s a reason for them meeting this person, and they are going to make sure they find it.

It’s not coincidence that the most successful people in the world have the most connections with other people, the most communications, the most meet-ups.

 

Stay Positive & Make This Year One Of Connectivity

Garth E. Beyer

Motivated Teenagers, This Is For You. (Because My Parents Never Showed Me)

Garth Beyer

We’re emotional human beings, we feel disappointment, sorrow, sympathy, false hope, regret, and a bit of anger.

However, for the sake of what I am about to share with you, let’s be on the same page. Sure, we as teenagers are emotional, but in an extremely different way from the average person. We teenagers are emotional in the sense that we are meant for more than what we are currently doing. We aren’t feeling challenged and it sucks. It hits us emotionally. School is easy and homework is even easier. Making friends is easy and connecting with strangers is even easier. Chores are easy and making money is even easier … the list goes on. Things just come easy to us, likely because we work for it, but that is only part of the point. Being blatant, we are gifted individuals.

I’m turning 20 in November and I’ve recently come across an opportunity so-very-close to perfect for teenagers who have fire in their belly, a passion for improvement, and a motivation to be successful. You have probably not heard of the Thiel Fellowship and like I said, I had just found out about it the the other day. Greatly interested, I submitted my email address to be notified when the next application process for the Fellowship would begin (sometime this fall).

The Fellowship: When you apply for the Thiel Fellowship, you are applying to be part of a handpicked group of teenagers who will be given $100,000 NOT TO GO TO SCHOOL for two years and to work on turning their ideas (business’s, inventions, software, etc.,) into reality.

Now here is the kicker. Only people age 19 and under can enter the Fellowship. I would just be turning 20 when the application process opens so I am SOL. Why is this so important for you? If you haven’t already Googled it, let me tell you in the shortest version.

This is your chance to live your dreams of “If only I had the money.” The Thiel Fellowship says, “here, let me give you all the resources you need: money, mentors, like-minded people, tools, resources, everything.” They take away the excuses that prevent you from doing the emotional labor of creating something you believe in. This is your opportunity to quit being emotionally frustrated with your life and be emotionally passionate about it instead… all before the age of 20.

So you may be wondering if you should apply or not. I have a simple solution for you. Answer this question: Do you have a passionate drive to make the world a better place? If yes, then apply.

 

I don’t blame my parents for not showing me an opportunity like this while I was still able to apply, but I would blame myself if I didn’t compensate for it by not showing you.

For information and the application, visit the Thiel Fellowship.

If you decide to apply, send me an email, let me know your thoughts. I would be more than happy to dedicate time, resources, and an extra bit of passion to your work.

 

Stay Positive & Go After It

Garth E. Beyer ( thegarthbox@gmail.com )