As we move ever closer to living in a post-COVID world, the question everyone should be asking is what will you take with you?
If you have not yet listened to my conversation with Michael Beneville on this week’s podcast, I hope you can find the time. During our conversation and the multiple times I have listened back, I have become more convinced than ever that COVID has permanently shifted our culture and been an unbelievable accelerant in just so many ways. In a sea of awfulness, the silver lining exists. So let’s talk about four areas that deserve consideration: digital communication, project management, cash flow and marketing (but only from the perspective of messaging — not attracting eyeballs).
Digital Communication – Yes, this one is here to stay. Grandma learned Zoom. The comfort we all have with communicating digitally is not going anywhere. There most certainly is a tremendous value in actual human interaction but the power of digital connectivity offers unparalleled ways to communicate ideas and thereby engender powerfully effective decision-making that simply cannot exist in the physical realm. For instance, what if you can render out what you imagine and walk through it in real time with your client? What if you can use these rooms to effectively manage production? Will you make the investment? Will there be a Zoom room as a permanent part of your business? The days of — I sent a text, dropped an email or left a voice mail are done when the expectation is that I can know my 3Ws 24/7 no matter how busy I am or where I might be in the world.
Project Management – Following on digital communication, the notion of how “it” (whatever it is) moves from your brain to manifestation has exploded during COVID. The ability to use digital tools to ensure that production is moving as expected is not going anywhere, nor should it. See the idea of using renderings to denote production progress. The fuel of effective decision making in design will necessarily require more efficient production. No, this does not mean there will not be FUBAR moments, it just means the ability to recover and keep going should be manifestly better. It is never the falling down, it is always the getting back up. Post-COVID, you will be expected to get back up with more resilience then when you fell down. Every time.
Cash Flow – Digital payment systems have really come to the fore in COVID — touch less and peer-to-peer payments are valuable when you want to pay your friend for whatever you might want to pay them for. What it means for your creative business is that the idea that you should wait for payment today by paper check is antiquated. Value delivery needs to be honored and if you deliver value you should be paid for it. I loathe random payments (i.e., 50% up front 50% two weeks before delivery) and want to tie value paid for value delivered. When billing and payment is analog, it can be exhausting to send bills and receive payments on anything other than a bulk basis. Pre-COVID, I could hear this excuse (lame as I always thought it to be), post-COVID, not a chance. If you deliver an idea (i.e., design), that your client loves and approves of, you need to be paid almost instantly. Yes, that means within three days. Why not? Paying your creative business is as easy as hitting a button. To get paid appropriately however, means you have to bill appropriately. If you presented an idea on the first of the month, it is no longer acceptable to bill for that idea on the thirtieth. Pairing cash flow with value delivery has a huge impact on any business, creative business most of all. Oh, and the better you are at managing cash flow is a direct reflection on how well you are managing digital communications and, ultimately, project management. Just saying.
Marketing – In no way do I know how to get eyeballs to your creative business. If that is what you believe you need to move forward post-COVID, I get it and can see the value of being know in the market(s) you wish to serve. BUT BUT BUT, at a certain point I have to be able to know what you stand for, what the experience is going to be like working with you and your creative business. When I look through everyone’s social media feeds I see incredible images of awesome work, but, for the most part, I have no idea about what you care about and almost certainly no idea why. If you appreciate the growth in emotionality — the need for your art, your creative business to provide hope to its clients — is here to stay (and it is), then you have to be willing to give a window into the underneath that drives the experience. Else how will we know the joy that awaits in the journey?
Before you jump to me being too woo woo, how about the notion I hinted at last time — your ability to get better at the art you create is marginal at best. Your cake might look and taste a little better, your photograph a touch more impactful, your musicality slightly improved. However, you were already awesome and now you are just a little more awesome. Why does that merit a dramatic shift in anything — your fee, your production budget, etc.? It does not. On the other hand, using all that COVID has given you, your art and your creative business to create an exponentially better experience, that is a real opportunity and yours for the taking if you dare. Creative businesses sell strategy, not product. If I have no ability to know why your strategy matters, I will default to product and there good enough great, is not.
