Responsibility

In The Box Podcast

Episode 44: Naming A Business, Limited Productivity, Pushed Into A Corner And More (Podcast)

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast we chatted through why people go to classes, conferences and conventions and a bit about how they market themselves. We also talked about naming a business, limiting ourselves to be more productive, one tip for someone who feels pushed into a corner, and what to do when you have a hamburger and a steak comes along shortly thereafter. The steak talk is a pretty funny one. Have low expectations.

Episode 44: Naming A Business, Limited Productivity, Pushed Into A Corner And More

Classes, Conferences, Conventions – Do people go to conferences, classes and conventions then become successful or do they become successful then go to them?

Naming a business – What makes naming a business so difficult?

Steak – What do you do when you have a hamburger and steak comes along shortly thereafter?

Options – Is it best for productivity sake to put limits on what you do with your time?

Bonus – One tip for someone who feels “pushed/painted into a corner”?

 

Stay Positive & Take Responsibility, Not Blame

In The Box Podcast

Episode 22: Stealing Ideas, Working With Narcissists, Making Art For Yourself And More – Podcast

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast, we took a stab at answer questions about making art for others or for yourself, one way to gain clarity when faced with a decision between two options, why people fear their ideas getting stolen, one way to handle a heavier workload (likely due to a promotion) and what to do when engaging with a narcissist. Enjoy.

Episode 22: Stealing Ideas, Working With Narcissists, Making Art For Yourself And More

Art – Make art for self or others?

Decisions – One way to gain clarity when confused about making a decision?

Stolen – Should people fear their ideas being stolen?

Responsibility load – What is one way to handle being given more responsibility (think like getting a promotion)?

Bonus – One way to deal with interacting with a narcissist?

 

Stay Positive & Remember to subscribe

Who Decided This?

Garth Beyer

Toms Decides

Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider are the names behind Harry’s. They decided on the voice, the personal assistant each person who purchases Harry’s gets, and the rules of purchasing blades.

Blake Mycoskie made the decision to give a pair of Toms shoes for each pair purchased.

If you don’t like the concept of our Connection Economy, you can only point your finger at Seth Godin who coined and writes about it.

Authorship – essentially, putting a face to a brand or concept or rule – is the best marketing strategy you can start with.

Without a name, who can you blame for pricing Gillette razors? Who said we have to shower before entering and after exiting a public pool? (Of course it makes sense to, but to have no actual authority figure giving a reason why, well, no wonder why very few obey it.) As for a larger example, who decided we were in a recession?

For businesses who have ridiculous rules of engagement and transactions, they’re free to continue doing so because there’s not one person we can write to, attempt to persuade or flat-out fire.

The reason I started to purchase solely from smaller companies is that there’s a person at the other end that has declared ownership; a single person who decides the policies, so if I don’t agree with them, I know exactly who to write to. Not surprising, though, I never need to.

Every decision, rule, policy, product needs to have one person who stands up for it. If there’s no one standing up for something, it might be because they don’t have something worth standing up for. Are we going to allow that to continue?

 

Stay Positive & Stand Up For Standing Up

Being A Leader Is Fricken Hard

Garth Beyer

Allow me to be personal, blatant and a bit motivational.

If there’s one thing I work the most hard at, it’s being a leader. I subject myself to more trials and obstacles than many others my age because I have a dream of being a real leader. I start by biting off more than I can chew. I continue by making promises that keep me busy day in and day out. I manage all this by believing that I don’t have a choice but to manage it all. Today I’ve experienced the famous quote that you will likely recall from Spider-Man,

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

My superpower is leadership and with it comes a lot of responsibility. The beautiful thing about leadership is that 90 percent of the responsibility is pleasurable. (Part of me would argue this same ratio goes for any superpower. It’s what makes it super!) Most leaders enjoy stress, take pleasure in daily deadlines and play with the difficulty of leading 10, 50, 10,000 people. Leadership is fun, but there are times – like Peter Parker – I wish it wasn’t my superpower. When I’m coughing, aching and chasing my running nose all day, I don’t want to be a leader. When I miss the friends closest to me, I wish I could drop everything and go see them immediately.

There is, however, one thing that helps counter this sorrow. When someone thanks me for my leadership commitment, when someone reminds me that the group won’t function as well without me, that, like Peter Parker, people need me, well, the unfortunate 10 percent of the superpower disappears. Sick and weary, I lead a group today because someone reminded me my leadership was needed, that it did not go unnoticed. Without that someone, I would have let the group down.

So I’ve got a task for you. Go remind someone that their superpower is needed, that it doesn’t go unnoticed. There are people all around us who make sacrifices because their great power makes them responsible to do so. There are people who need the recognition. Let’s work on bringing the superhero out in everyone.

1 person, 1 message, 1 compliment or reminder of their superpower

Everyone’s got a superpower. Your compliment might just remind someone of what theirs is.

Stay Positive & Perhaps You’ll Rediscover Yours Along The Way Too

Be The A-Player They Want To Hire

Garth Beyer

Hiring A-Players is much more difficult to do in a rough economy. Simple fact of the matter is that with a flipped economy, there aren’t more A-Player resumes, there’s a massive flux of C-Player resumes. (Find a longer explanation here.)

This framing doesn’t put the problem on your shoulders, it puts it on the business’s shoulders. I don’t like that. It’s not fair. Businesses shouldn’t be looking for the A-Player to higher. They should be deciding between this A-Player and that A-Player. It’s not them, it’s you (and yes, it’s me too).

In light of this, here are four steps you can take daily to become that A-Player.

1) Connect with someone every day. It can be something as little as sending a Tweet at someone or friending someone on FB who you haven’t seen in a while. Or something larger: coffee with a CEO, scheduling a tour of an agency to talk with employees or asking someone to be your mentor. As Brené Brown has said, “Connection is why we’re here. It’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives.”

2) Blog. I can’t stress this enough. You don’t need to do it daily, although it’s likely better if you do. (It took me a year to acquire the daily habit.) If a blog is too big of a start, try journaling for five minutes. Advised by the best.

3) Know that blog or journal you started? Notice what’s happening around you and write about it. Are you a musician? Keep an ear and an eye out for what stands out most about other musicians whether it’s their actual melody or their marketing strategy. Share what you find interesting. The thing about being human is that if you find something interesting, their’s surely someone else who agrees. No matter how different it may be.

4) Be human. Seriously.

 

Stay Positive & Four Things, Is That Too Much?

 

Everyone’s Scared

Garth Beyer

Which means two things.

1. Very few dance with it or merely walk calmly forward. Few carry on when fear is pulling them back. That means that if you were to go forward with every fear imaginable (all fear is imagined), then you have an instant advantage without doing any of the easy work. Yes, dealing with fear is the hard work, actually making/doing whatever it is you’re passionate about is easy. Haven’t you walked into an art gallery and seen paintings that you know you could replicate? Making art is easy, but shipping it, putting it on the wall, giving it away, selling it – that’s the hard stuff. And fear is with you every step of the way.

2. Shame on you for enabling others to let fear control them. For saying it’s okay that they don’t give their work away, or suggesting they keep working on something until it’s better instead of showing it as it is. After all, the only way they will get better is if they show it and get feedback… from more people than just you. Yes, fear is what walks between you and your friend with its arms around both of your shoulders. Fear is tactful at making you as nervous as the person doing their work. That’s why you have as much responsibility to push others forward as they have to push themselves. Fear is about tough love and tough love will out.

 

Stay Positive & Keep On Keeping On

Garth E. Beyer