Work

All Talk No Action, Serious Advice

Garth Beyer

I had a professor who wouldn’t let anyone pitch their story until they talked to two others about it. The writer could talk to their friend or an expert on the subject, it didn’t matter.

Call it help or assistance; I just call it conversation.

Talk to a friend, a family member or call an expert about whatever it is you’re working on. The who doesn’t matter. And I don’t consider talking as inaction. Conversation is very much an action

I would never have gotten as good as I am without talking to people about what I was working on, and I’ll never get as great as I want to be unless I continue to talk to others about what I’m working on before I see it all the way through.

All talk and no action is a great way to start.

 

Stay Positive & Just Be Sure You Don’t Stay There

The Green Light

The Green Light

Garth Beyer

Go Do SomethingWho are you waiting for to turn the light green for you? Who are you waiting to tell you to GO? Whose validation are you waiting to receive before you start moving forward, before you launch, before you step on the gas?

If the answer isn’t “myself,” then you’ve given too much power to someone who doesn’t need it and who will only abuse it .

Don’t wait for anyone to give you permission, to pick you, to say your idea is worthy. Find out for yourself. Better yet, go make it worthy.

 

Stay Positive & You Control The Light, You Control The Worth

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20 Ways To Boost Your Client Connection

20 Ways To Boost Your Client Connection

Garth Beyer

Surf Bro

PR freelancing has its downfalls, but one particular positive piece about it I love is the chance to connect with a client (be it a person, a business, or perhaps an actual PR agency). Here are 20 ways you can honor, strengthen, and leverage that connection.

1) Do one unexpected thing a week for them.

2) Ask for promo gear. (shirts, mugs, pens, etc,.)

3) Work with, not for.

4) Have their birthdays written on your calendar.

5) Connect them with other like-minded people they have yet to meet.

6) Ask a lot of questions – business and personal.

7) Write blog posts for them without being requested to.

8) Post on review sites. (Must love & trust your client)

9) Share your weekend goodies with them Monday morning. (cookies, cakes, dip, etc,.)

10) Be forward and transparent about your experience working with them. (Keep a work journal they can view anytime)

11) Fire the clients consuming 80 percent or more of your time, energy, money, etc,. (Unless, of course, you only have one client…)

12) Meet up on their turf.

13) Meet up on your turf.

14) Meet up outside each others’ turfs.

15) Friend as many other employees or team members of theirs as possible.

16) Remind them each week of what you’re thankful for.

17) Be forward with what you see is working annnd what you see isn’t.

18) Challenge them.

19) Always have one piece of the puzzle you work on together.

20) Consider at the end of the day.

 

Stay Positive & Every Business Is In The Business Of Connecting

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Changing The Way You Succeed

Changing The Way You Succeed

Garth Beyer

Work Hard Work Harder

Three out of five times I chat with my mom, she reminds me, “we all have the same 24 hours.”

Think about the vast difference in difference you make compared to anyone else, using the same 24 hours. How little you accomplish compared to some, but how much you accomplish compared to others. Alas. All still with only 24 hours.

A friend of mine asked me to partake in a 21-day challenge of waking up at 4:30 a.m. each weekday. My main issue with it is the hour and a half I would gain isn’t very scalable. (Currently I wake up at 6:00 a.m. each day.)

I say it’s not scalable because most of us can do what we currently do in 10 hours, in eight. And for those who put in 15 hours of work, will more meaningful work get done if you clock in two hours earlier or stay two hours later?

What would you think of a 21-day challenge of cutting the work day two hours shorter, or three, or five? How would you do things differently? Give this a try before you go extending your workday. Even if you jump back to your regular schedule or try the 21-day challenge of waking up at 4:30 a.m., you’ll have changed the way you succeed.

 

Stay Positive & Reimagine The Work Week, Now, Not Just The Days

Garth E. Beyer

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Uncomfortable Is Original

Uncomfortable Is Original

Garth Beyer

Banana Comfort, Weird Is Good

Many blogs, many books, many talks are very, very unoriginal. The reason being is they are safe, they are familiar. Ever heard someone say every business book says the same thing, but in a different way? I’ve read enough of them that I would even push back on the “different way” part of the statement. I think all the writing was rushed.

Taking time

It is amazing how well one can write when one takes the time. Think about it. When rushed to write, you use and accept your clichés. Perfect example: journalism. The tight deadlines encourage the use of clichés, of simplification, of uniformity.

When you take time while writing, you find ways to say things better than a cliché can. If you decide to use a cliché, you at least spin it on its head and make it breakdance.

To craft something original…well, it’s scary, it’s uncomfortable, and it takes time.

When you write something original. It’s weird to leave it as it is. You want to change it for fear no one will understand it or like it. It sounds weird in your head reading it over because you’ve never read anything like it before. Orange frizzled daiquiri wedding cake looked sexier than a toucan during mating season. Wasn’t reading that fun? New? An adventure? I wrote it and it feels so weird keeping it.

Alas.

Weird is original and relatable.

The thing about weird I love so much is it will never go out of style. The world will always contain compartmentalists, always produce naysayers, always attract keepers of the status quo — those who are satisfied with the comfort of everything unoriginal. There will always be those resistant to new things and those who fear anything other than what is routine, common, and banal. Yet! There are and always will be those who love and connect with the weird.

Even in light of it all, I still say do what has never been done before. Word the sentence the way you’ve never read anyone word it. If you question whether anyone will like your writing, if you think it’s too far out there, then it’s complete. Ship it. The people who matter in this world (at least who matter to you, to your art) are out there. Wayyy out there. (Think Long Tail)

Build it and they might not come. Build it weird and more will arrive than you ever expected. The freaks shall inherit the earth.

As a dear PR-wonderwoman-friend-of-mine said, “Weird is in. Weird is good. Weird is awesome. Weird is essential. Weird is where the magic is.”

 

Stay Positive & Go Bananas

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p.s. this goes for more than just writing

Know What You Want To Do In Life? You’re Still Behind

Garth Beyer

Asking what someone wants to be when they grow up is stopping the ball short. Same goes for the person who asks herself what she should really be doing with her life. If I ask you to tell me a color and you say “green,” that’s not enough either.

What kind of firefighter? What type of entrepreneur? What shade of green?

When Steve Wozniak decided to develop a computer (along with Steve Jobs), do you think he just thought to himself he was going to become a computer developer or did he think he was going to become the riskiest computer developer? the best computer developer? the most design-in-mind computer developer?

Think Seth Godin thought he would be just another marketer? Think Adam Levine thought he would be just another lead singer? Le Corbusier, David Meerman Scott, Zig Ziglar – they didn’t just think they would fill a spot in the world, they decided they would make a spot by doing things differently than anyone before them.*

When we decide what we’re going to do with our lives (for the time being, until we decide something new [and that’s okay too]), we have a chance early on to decide to do something difficult, to trailblaze, to do something in a way no one has thought of doing it before. Don’t become just another ______ (fill in the blank).

If you thought it took long to figure out what you were truly passionate about, imagine how long it takes to turn that passion into something different, unique, remarkable.

 

Stay Positive & Better Get Going

*Certainly they leveraged themselves by doing what those in the field they were interested in had done before, but they also improved, added, and twisted the techniques into their own.

Time Isn’t Everything

Garth Beyer

I could blog everyday for 5 years and still not get anywhere. You could spend 10 years on artwork and never get a chance to showcase it in a gallery. Your friend can spend his 20s fixing cars, but never get a tip. Gladwell’s idea you must spend at least 10,000 hours on something before you become a professional is incomplete. It’s not really the time the matters. It’s the bravery, the risk, the new things you try during that time.

Turns out 10,000 hours is enough time to try as many options, take as many risks and show as much bravery as it takes to truly get noticed, recognized and respected for your effort.

Time isn’t everything. Grit is.

 

Stay Positive & Start Impressing Yourself With The Work You Do