Fear—The Kryptonite of Creativity

In a year that has been anything but predictable or “normal,” business owners have had to be flexible, diligent and creative to survive. Those willing to take risks have seen the benefits.

You either adapt and survive or you live by fear of what a creative risk may look like. Choose to take the risk. Choose to think creatively—you’re still selling a strawberry, but it may look differently. Develop new products or services, market in new ways and show up for your customers like never before. We’ve seen some of the best moves made during this time coming from those thinking differently about their business. Are you one of them?

• How have you shown up for your clients in new ways?
• How have you delivered a service in new ways or created a new offering to meet customer needs?
• How have you changed course and gotten creative?
• How will you continue to take creative risks in your business in 2021?

The fear of failure can hinder your ability to see and seize opportunity. When we turn the page to 2021, the pandemic doesn’t just go away. The vaccines aren’t suddenly fixing our problems. We have to be flexible and fearless in the way we approach our businesses while keeping our staff and customers safe. It means we can’t assume we will ever go back to “business as usual.” We can learn from the past several months and determine how we’ll show up in the new year.

Pushing Past Fear

If you’re ready to look at your business with fresh eyes, consider new ways of showing up and ready to make a move, know that we are too. When business is going well, we tend to fall into relaxed (dare we say, lazy) marketing habits. When things are not as good as we’d like, we start blaming our marketing – or lack of – for underperforming. Now is the time to take a closer look, get creative and be more focused on your marketing efforts than ever before because your customer is making decisions in completely new ways.

Get back to the root of what you do. What problem do you solve?

Evaluate service offerings. What service offerings can you still provide? Is it enough? What new offerings can you add to the list?

Review and refine your process. Can you keep operating in the same way? What changes need to be made? What has worked? What’s failed?

Consider your customer. What has changed for them? What priorities have been realigned? Do your services fit into their new lifestyle? How can you meet them in this new place?

Kick the tires on your marketing plan. In what ways can you reach your market? In what new ways can you go after a new market with a new offering? Does social media finally need to a priority? Does your website need to deliver on selling who you are and what you do? Does your email marketing game need a revival? Would a handwritten card be a better solution? Would offering free services as part of your offerings set you apart? Do you need to take your product/service completely online or in a mobile way show up for your customers?

Make a plan. Take action. Set a plan in motion to take action on this new course. Now is not the time to hold back in fear of what’s around the corner, but rather lean in and get creative on how to face it. What tools do you need to make things happen? What resources or people in play do you need to reach these new goals?

When we choose creative problem-solving over fear, we can be set free. Even, if the idea fails. Learn, adjust and move to the next. Your customer didn’t go for the yellow strawberry? Maybe they’ll go for the green one. Whatever you do, keep going. We’re here to help in any way we can. Here with the push you need, the creative ideas to get you out of your funk or the jolt of creativity you need to propel your next move. Whatever it is, we’re in this together.