Having lived through 9/11, Hurricane Irene and now Hurricane Sandy, all I can say is that it sucks. Big time. Without question, many are suffering worse fates than I could ever dream of and I do count myself quite fortunate to have only lost power for a few days. Still, I am a victim without categorization. My life is forever changed and I, like so so many others, am left to ponder the consequences of what it all means. I am scared, feel vulnerable and yet somehow have to hold it together for my business and my family most of all. Of course, there will be healing and we will all come through on the other side. That will be tomorrow, but today I am still struggling to feel the feelings of being a victim. Running away from the emotional power of all things irrational is natural to all of us. We want to be okay even when it is not possible. And yet, in that place we are away from intuition, our own center that can offer answers when it seems none are available. My work right now is to not run away no matter the temptation.
For creative business, two thoughts. First, for those of you who have been deeply affected by Hurricane Sandy, please find someone you trust to talk to you candidly and openly about your business. If you think I am that person, call me or email me. After 9/11, I received almost four hundred thousand dollars for a business that was dead. Hard to deliver dinners downtown when your customers have vanished overnight forever. In hindsight, I would have loved someone to sit me down and say that the business did not make sense any more and here is where it might make sense (maybe figure out how to move to midtown, etc.). Instead, very well meaning people gave me a lot of money so that I could prove we were not victims. Except that we were and I needed wisdom first, money second. You absolutely need money first for all things imperative – food, shelter, heat, transportation, health care, etc. However, with regard to your creative business just now — please, wisdom first, money second. If you run a salt water taffy stand on the Jersey Shore, whose beach does not exist any more, getting and borrowing money to reopen no matter how good it might feel, has to be done with perspective of your new reality. It might take years and years for people to come back, if ever. What would it be like if you sold one tenth of the taffy you used to sell? Substitute your creative business for the salt water taffy stand and you get the idea.
Next, have empathy for your clients, existing and new. If you are an interior designer with a project that was about to finish, only to see it destroyed by Sandy (either at the warehouse or their home), know that the environment you were creating, together with all of the emotions surrounding it, have been rocked. A bride and groom watching their day evaporate? Even a corporate client not receiving its graphic design collateral is a big deal. Yes, you can have a good contract to cover disasters like Sandy (and here is a very good force majeure provision for the event industry), but no contract is going to take away the fact that it is a mess that will take two like-minded parties to fix. So start with empathy. Know that if you have done the true work of your creative business, you will have formed a relationship that will help everyone find a workable solution. There will be no perfect answers, only workable ones.
Your clients will be able to relate to your issues – impossible delivery, other bookings, inventory already purchased and lost – if you start with relating to theirs. Give them a voice to what they have lost, without judgment. When people feel understood, especially about emotions surrounding the incomprehensible, they tend to move through it with you as opposed to trying to stick it to you. There will be outliers of course, but I have faith in relationship and mutual respect much more than I do fancy words in a contract.
To this point, I bring up Ina May Gaskin. Ina May is a midwife who delivers babies on her “farm” in Tennessee. She has been at it for more than forty years despite no formal medical training. She has a maneuver named after her in OB-GYN training and she routinely delivers babies vaginally that no hospital might consider – breech, after C-Section, etc. Here is a terrific New York Time article about her and the home birth movement. Makes no difference to me about whether you believe in home birth or not, I only bring up the fact that in over forty years and three thousand births, she has never been sued and does not have malpractice insurance. Oh, and things have gone wrong – a mortality, neurological damage, etc. – it is just that everyone knows what is happening and understands the risks.
Here is the parallel for creative business to Ina May with respect to natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy – sh_t happens, really really bad sh-t. If you work hard enough to find clients that see the world as you do, those who respect what it is you are working to create for them, when the worst happens, you will find your way through it together. The journey will be a function of your relationship, not in spite of it.
