Chop wood, carry water. Head down. Just get through it all.
Maybe farmers enjoy getting up at four in the morning to milk cows. Every day. Or maybe they just see it as a sense of duty and responsibility. Not much emotion either way.
We are fast approaching the time when all creative businesses are going to be busy — either bringing projects to fruition or being deep in the throes of getting ready to be done.
So this is also the time many creative business owners say to me that they are too busy to talk. Too busy to take the time to think. They have to get sh_t done don’t you know.
While I can appreciate the desire to immerse yourself in your projects and to make sure you do all that you can to execute as well as you are able, I also want to say that, too often, chaos and responsibility are justifications for staying stuck. No, the time for making deep strategic change is not when you are in the throes of busy season. Look at the “game film” though.
Taking an hour out of your week to think offers the opportunity to see what you can learn from the moment, to take inventory of what is going right and why. And if you have done the work of honing your story, your message, your one thing, it will be about checking in to make sure you are walking the walk of the new you.
If you have done the work to truly define your one thing — the thing you have to have in order for you to do your best work, now is the time to test where you can see your one thing and how you can bring it to the fore in what you are doing. This cannot be random or, worse, assumed. Instead, it has to be intentional — planned for, tested, evaluated and then adjusted. Over and over again. The whole point is to be better at being busy than you were when you started the season. The only way that can happen is to have a singular purpose of what you want to be better at (hint, hint: defining and living your one thing).
An example: You have made a point of highlighting the power of details and your need to plan each moment for your client. To do that you need vendor sign-off, not just on design but on flow a full thirty days before your event. In addition, you need better tools for communication. In the past, you just assumed your vendors would “have your back” and they knew what they had to do. Sure, there was always a stray player but you could bring them back. Clients also knew to stay out of your way except they always had their panic moment when you need to sit down with them to talk them off the ledge.
Having decided to be outrageous with your need for detail, you are feeling pushback from everyone. Why are you adding on so much to everyone’s plate? You hear them, except you are much more calm than usual since you have all that you need now to do your work better. So you are caught. Do you go back to what you have done before, something that does function, or stick to your (new) knitting and remain committed to the idea that you will have a superior result? How exactly is that going to happen when you are in the trenches? Perhaps, maybe, just maybe, you will ask yourself (and your staff) how you can set intention with each interaction your creative business has with each other, the client and colleagues/vendors.
What if each interaction was monitored as to why it was done as much as what, how, when and where? The result would be a growing sense of purpose, a conviction to the mission as you have defined it. Details are awesome, they make magic. Rinse and repeat over and over until you are done.
This, of course, is where the rubber hits the road. One of my favorite quotes is from Mike Tyson — everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Creative business is no different and when busy season hits with the “new” you, you are going to get punched in the face. Do not kid yourself to think that you have dealt with getting hit before. You have, just not in this way.
Developing a great strategy, creating an awesome foundation that really speaks to the story you want to tell with your art and your creative business is fantastic and incredibly necessary. Just as important though is walking the walk. And this is where it gets incredibly hard — you know how to walk, just not this way, so you delude yourself to think that if you just tweak how you already know how to walk, the foundation, the theory, the strategy will take over. Does not work that way. You have to stay with the intention of what you created and appreciate the diligence it takes to maintain your conviction to your one thing.
Which brings me to the point of the hour a week to just think. For twenty minutes, just take stock of what you and your team have done well to deliver the one thing. For the next twenty minutes, how can you do it better. The last twenty is to fix what has not gone well. In that order. And write it down — how things were said, when they were said and what was effective and what was not. This is how you learn to walk the walk. Leave the decision whether to walk a different (or the old) walk for later.
The point of being busy is to create awesome art for clients that care. Let it be more than just about getting done though. Let it be about getting closer to what matters — purpose, intent, conviction. This is how you will leap forward into each busy season to come. Or you can put your head down, chop wood and carry water. Your choice.
