{"id":2123,"date":"2020-04-08T19:10:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T23:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/?p=2123"},"modified":"2020-04-08T19:14:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T23:14:34","slug":"clarity-of-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/clarity-of-expression\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarity Of Expression"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2125 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/shutterstock_272996219-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"414\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/shutterstock_272996219-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/shutterstock_272996219.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 414px) 100vw, 414px\" \/>I am grateful for the coronavirus pandemic.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Of course, it is cataclysmically awful in just about every way imaginable.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>However, I have fallen ever more deeply in love with my wife as I marvel at her remarkable humanity.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>My children love us and each other and together they are finding joy in that love.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, there is unbelievable stress and anxiety.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We all wish we could be out in the world and having the ability to physically connect being taken from us, we suffer.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Still, though, there is love, kindness and light.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>And that is everything.<\/p>\n<p>For creative business, diamonds are made under intense pressure and heat.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Quite literally, imperfections are burned away in this time.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>As someone remarked on Instagram, it took her 14 years to get what I have been throwing down, but now she gets it.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I am grateful.<\/p>\n<p>What am I talking about?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Value delivery, alignment, process, scarcity, honoring the irrational, intention and conviction. Go back and read my blog over the years and you will see these themes over and over (and over) again.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>If you have chosen to go the other way of package, focused on price and the thing, with randomness associated with value (i.e., 50% down, 50% prior to delivery), being just-this-much-better than your competition, the coronavirus is exposing you with exquisite pain. Yes, I have empathy and sympathy for your creative business.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Then again your straw house is getting blown over by the strongest wind.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>While the coronavirus wind may ultimately take all houses, I am absolutely confident that those artists who have worked diligently on why they matter will be the very last to go.<\/p>\n<p>It is very important to understand that there are two things happening to the global economy.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Paul Krugman lays it out very well <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/04\/06\/opinion\/coronavirus-economy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in this column<\/a>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>First, we are in a medically induced coma in order for us to save ourselves from ever more horrible consequences.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Next, we will be in a stagnant economy for which demand will shrivel and the pain of de-leveraging all things will cause a horrible recession.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Whether or not governments can try to solve both remains and all of us pray they do.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>No matter though, you and your creative business have been given an unwelcome window for which can, in fact, choose your course.<\/p>\n<p>You might blame the world and all things around you (fair enough) for what is happening to your creative business and you might dig in to what you have already built. OR.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>You might take the time to reconsider the very foundation you have built to date.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Does it really, truly serve you in your effort to create joy?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>And, reminder, create joy is a technical term to me.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Create \u2014 make what has never existed before.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Joy \u2014 the essence of what we all seek to feel alive. Together \u2014 the permission to be transformative in your work so that those who enjoy it are forever changed by the effort.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>If it does not, then might I suggest that now is the time to erase the box, rip it up and start over brick by brick by brick.<\/p>\n<p>I cannot think of another time before or in the future where we have ALL been given permission to start over, to dare what we never could have without the coronavirus pandemic.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Perhaps you believe you do not have to, and that is awesome, grounded intention and conviction are there for a reason.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>BUT, if it is only because you refuse to be open to humility that there might be a better way for you, hubris is a bitch.<\/p>\n<p>Change sucks.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Like it or not, we are all now forced to change and contemplate the new constraint that the coronavirus has imposed on us all.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/the-phoenix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Phoenix<\/a> is burning and it is death.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>There will be rebirth.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>So what.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Between now and then we need to contemplate how we intend to live (i.e., not just exist) in a new world order.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Be prepared to defend the story of your creative business and how it is going to deliver the outrageous promise you will most certainly need to make to your clients (old and new).<\/p>\n<p>A few other thoughts.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>For some of you, now is the time to make hay.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Wayfair has exploded as has Zoom.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>There are those of you out there for whom the world is now a very very bright place in a sea of darkness.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Naturally, your good fortune might make you feel guilty relative to your peers.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>While it is most certainly false guilt, you cannot just push it away.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Give it its due and then live on the stage you, your art and creative business were born to play on.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The world needs your full throated voice now more than ever.<\/p>\n<p>Last, perfect is the enemy of done.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>No one knows what tomorrow will look like.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We are all contemplating what will be necessary and making it up as we go.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We will all be wrong until we are not.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>You were delusional enough to start in the first place and you must be delusional enough to start again.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>No one has the answer, yet you must still listen.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Whether you choose to hear is the very choice you must honor now more than any other.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In the midst of it all you can be grateful to epic awfulness in front of us all as are compelled to confront yourself and question everything.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>You do you because you must.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am grateful for the coronavirus pandemic.\u00a0 Of course, it is cataclysmically awful in just about every way imaginable.\u00a0 However, I have fallen ever more deeply in love with my wife as I marvel at her remarkable humanity.\u00a0 My children love us and each other and together they are finding joy in that love.\u00a0 Yes, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing","category-pricing","category-strategy","category-structure","category-trends"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2123"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2126,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123\/revisions\/2126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}