Work

Digging Through Layers

Garth Beyer

Dig To The Remarkable

I’ve never heard of anyone finding gold right on the surface. Never heard of treasure, just sitting there on an island. Never heard a success story come easily. To get anything of value, there’s work, time, effort, sweat and an absolute resiliency involved.

Successful people don’t settle, they dig.

To get to an inspiring thought, a creative idea, a brilliant strategy one has to dig through the layers of fear, worry, anxiety, nervousness, resentment, and I’m sure a few other negative thought-layers I’m missing here.

Half the battle of coming up with a great PR plan or something as simple as a blog post is digging through the dirt until you find something pure enough, remarkable enough, worth sharing, doing, writing, etc,.

If we recognize that in any important decision there are mental and emotional layers we have to dig through, we can track where we are at in the process and obtain a confidence boost by knowing we’ve done the hard work of digging through our insecurities.

Another thing I’ve never heard of is our mind being empty of value once we work through the top layers of fear, doubt, and uncertainty. Nope. There’s something remarkable down there every time.

 

Stay Positive & Uncover The Remarkable

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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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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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Second Best

Garth Beyer

Rather than quitting, burning the manuscript, scrapping the design because it’s not perfect, not exactly what you wanted, not what you promised, what else could you do with your project?

The business model you began building, but never completed, could you put it online anyway? Perhaps someone could work off it. Perhaps it will inspire someone. Perhaps it would show people you’re onto something and they may start waiting to see what else you share.

The novel you started writing, but didn’t finish. Maybe you can manage writing a conclusion regardless it’s not where you wanted the conclusion to be, and shipping it. Someone may read it and be impressed. Someone may feel confident in shipping their own work because they saw you still did.

Shipping something that’s your second best can still be a place of inspiration, of growth, of connecting with others. When you know you won’t finish with a first place project, consider shipping a second best version.

Two benefits of second best:

1) There’s no resentment, no regret, no disappointment for not finishing and shipping your art.

2) Instead of sitting on the project, waiting to be inspired to finish it, you can just move on.

 

Stay Positive & Move On, Move Forward

They Weren’t Always The Way They Are

They Weren’t Always The Way They Are

Garth Beyer

Conversations And Opinions Change

Richard Branson. Bernadette Jiwa. Chris Brogan. These idols of ours, they weren’t always this remarkable, this flawless, this all-knowing, this helpful.

Jump back to page 400 of Seth Godin’s blog and notice how different the style of writing is.

Listen to the first few podcasts of Debbie Millman or James Altucher and notice how different their conversations are.

Watch some of Tim Ferriss’s old YouTube videos compared to what he rolls out today.

They weren’t always the way they are now. Through falling, failure, and feedback, they’ve come a long way. However!

If we asked any one of our idols if they are happy with where they are at, they would say there is still room for improvement, that they’re still tweaking things, still trying new ways of communicating, of growing.

The way they are now won’t be the way they are 20 months from now either.

You can’t glide at remarkable, you can’t plateau at incredible, you can’t pause at excellent. These labels are only stamped on those who keep moving forward. It doesn’t do anyone justice when we just accept that someone is talented.

Nor does it do us justice to think we can’t also work to where our idols are at now. They’ve made it to remarkable and work to stay that way. Why can’t/shouldn’t/won’t we?

 

Stay Positive & Let’s Do It

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Movement Tells A Story

Garth Beyer

Story Ladder

What you’re passionate about doesn’t necessarily come easy. No matter if you’re doing what you love or not, you’re still climbing a ladder, trying to reach the top, trying to make progress.

Creating art is a method of taking on problems from an outer level with complete focus and forming them into an almost subconscious solution process that allows you to then focus on the next problem. Each step of the ladder presents a new problem to solve. At face value, it’s not enjoyable, not fun, but what sets an artist apart from others who climb is that they find a way to love the process, to enjoy the struggle.

We build value in ourselves when we climb the ladder, when we accomplish goals, when we are moving. When we stop moving up the ladder to say “look at me now,” we tell the wrong story. Humans are inclined to see narratives where there are none because it can afford meaning to our lives, Cody Delistraty at The Atlantic writes. Storytelling when standing still is an oxymoron. It doesn’t resonate well, it doesn’t inspire, it doesn’t tell the message you really want to be telling.

People view you differently when seeing where you’re at now, compared to where you’re going. Sure, saying where you’ve been and what you’ve accomplished and how you got to where you’re at now can be remarkable, but only if people know there is more to come from you; that where you decided to stop and shout down is not the highest you will climb.

Movement tells a story, and people die standing still.

If tasks start seeming easy, if you tackle all your problems subconsciously, if there’s no longer need to focus, no struggle with a problem, it means you’ve stopped climbing, that you’re standing still.

 

Stay Positive & Is That Really The Story You Want To Tell?

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