{"id":2147,"date":"2020-05-06T16:38:40","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T20:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/?p=2147"},"modified":"2020-05-06T16:42:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T20:42:32","slug":"emotional-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/emotional-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2149 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/shutterstock_1463201219-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/shutterstock_1463201219-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/shutterstock_1463201219.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/>Here we are at the crossroads.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The intersection of science, humanity, civilization, politics, and, of course, self-determination.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Do we reopen now?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>How exactly do we do it in a way that does minimize the threat, but more importantly allows us to understand the value of our interaction? How do we overcome the damage (physical, psychological, financial, spiritual) that the Coronavirus pandemic has caused?<\/p>\n<p>Make no mistake CV-19 has indelibly changed our culture.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Maybe your young children will run up to each other and give hugs to their friends, but your high schooler?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>College student?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>You? We have now been taught that human interaction can be lethal to us and everyone we know and love.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Unlearning this lesson will not come easily or quickly, no matter how much we want to get back to \u201cnormal\u201d.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>So let\u2019s stop focusing on the time when this threat (or one just like it) is gone.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, let\u2019s talk about acceptable risk and emotional value.<\/p>\n<p>Unless the emotional return outweighs the emotional risk, no-one with a shred of empathy will want to engage in the activity no matter what the government says. We have to feel safe enough to be compelled to find ourselves where we will be \u2014 in the theater, at a wedding, an office, a sporting event, a bar.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>No amount of statistics or safe practices will convince anyone who wishes to live in fear.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, we have to remind each other of the purpose of why we choose society, relationship, friendship, connection.<\/p>\n<p>What does that mean for you, your art and your creative business?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>You must come to learn that the person across from you must see your interaction as a profound investment in themselves and the life they most want to live if you have any hope to move forward.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/seths.blog\/2013\/07\/people-like-us-do-stuff-like-this\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seth Godin\u2019s \u201cpeople like us do things like this<\/a>\u201d has never ever been more prescient. Your process will be that which builds trust and moves power and faith from you to you.<\/p>\n<p>I have said it many many times, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/trust\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">trust is as real as the air you breathe<\/a>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Every single moment of your work is in relationship to the creation and management of trust.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>If you move, even for a second, into the notion that you are selling a product or ignoring trust to get to the end (\u201ctrust me, you are going to love it\u201d), you will find the cost of transacting with you insurmountable.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Trust is the proverbial grease to the friction that is permanently (well, at least until all of us are vaccinated) part of your relationship.<\/p>\n<p>Not only do you have to own that you are the best in the world at what you do today, you, your art and your creative business have to be a risk worth taking.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>If you are incapable of real empathy, sympathy, connection, to listen and be heard, you are going to be ignored.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>These are<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>the true building blocks of your 3W\u2019s (i.e., where were you, where are you, where are you going).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Empathy, sympathy, connection and the ability to deeply listen and be heard are also skills.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, some might be naturally better than others, so what.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It will take work, real, persistent, daily (hourly?) work to hone these skills.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Every time you slip into selling the \u201cthing\u201d you are absolutely doing it wrong.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Fear is a virus and if your process allows it to slip in, you will find yourself not just in a difficult situation, you will find yourself excised, shunned even. Hyperbolic? Maybe, but do you really want to find out if I am right?<\/p>\n<p>Of course, this is intense and unbelievably scary.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Just a few months ago, you could sell pretty and get away with it (to my huge dismay).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Yeah, those days are toast.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>So why not come at it with a sense of love, light and kindness.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Grab a colleague and a friend.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Have a Netflix party and watch a few episodes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleditchandschwartz.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Middleditch And Schwartz<\/a> (hilarious), make up your own setting (about your business or not) and then do it yourselves.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>They go on for twenty-five minutes, how about you try for fifteen?<\/p>\n<p>You can listen to all of the pundits, experts, consultants, etc. (myself very much included) as to what you should be doing and nothing will change you more than the above exercise.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>That does not mean the advice you will receive is not valuable, it is, it is just that when you truly come from a place of \u201cyes, and\u2026\u201d you will be simultaneously contained and free.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>From there, evolution is possible. The responsibility of relationship is yours.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Pretty is gone (thank goodness), earning trust every day with intention and purpose is the gravitas you will need to go forward.<\/p>\n<p>The result will be the following: instead of shoving your clients over the threshold with promises of portfolio and price, you will be inviting them in with open arms and an open heart.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>You will be given the power to great work and you will never have to take it and in that transfer you will be nourished simply because your clients have chosen to invest in themselves through you, your art and your creative business.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Ignore the reality of transaction costs of physical interaction at your own peril.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here we are at the crossroads.\u00a0 The intersection of science, humanity, civilization, politics, and, of course, self-determination.\u00a0 Do we reopen now?\u00a0 How exactly do we do it in a way that does minimize the threat, but more importantly allows us to understand the value of our interaction? How do we overcome the damage (physical, psychological, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"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-2147","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\/2147","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2147"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2150,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147\/revisions\/2150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}