The Four Keys to Creative Action4 min read
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It’s easy for our marketing to get stuck in a rut. We don’t know why people aren’t responding, let alone buying.
Look, the pandemic, the economy, right-wing insurrectionists, vaccines, and God knows what else, has made marketing a little harder right now.
We are all tired, fatigued, and distracted.
There are really only two solutions to this situation:
More Visibility and More Value.
Visibility is getting in front of more of your prospective clients.
Value is giving those prospective clients experiences, tastes, and samples of your work.
If you ultimately want to generate more business this is ALL you need to focus on. Everything else is pretty much spinning your wheels.
So, what will you do to reach out in some way? – to past clients, business associates, groups, podcast interviews, etc.
And then, what experiences can you give them? What samples, demos, tastes can you offer?
OK, sounds good, but here’s the challenge:
What do you actually do? What are the ideas that will actually get you more Visibility and Value?
You are inundated by too many ideas and too much information these days. Email, social media, online articles, and video.
There are so many options that we become overwhelmed and stalled.
No, before you can apply any ideas you need to understand the process and principles of creative action.
And this is exactly how it works:
1. An idea pops into your head – perhaps after a lot of thinking, reading, watching, and research.
2. You look at the viability of the idea and perhaps run it by a couple of people.
3. You create a plan. Usually, the simpler the better.
4. You give it a shot and test it out. You put it into action.
This is the creative process, more or less, for every creative business idea ever conceived.
Including ways to get Visibility and convey Value about your business.
But here’s how creative action gets stalled:
Step #1 is coming up with a decent idea that may actually work to brings you Visibility and Value.
But most people rarely actually formulate an idea. “Hmm, that’s worth looking into and trying!”
Marketing ideas seem abstract, something other people do. So, no matter how much you read and study, no real ideas emerge.
The issue here is a lack of self-confidence. “Who am I to come up with good marketing ideas? That’s just not me!”
However, if you do grab onto a good idea, this is just the start.
Step #2 is looking hard at the viability of the idea and perhaps brainstorming with some other people.
My guess is that about 80% never get past this step.
Your idea only remains a vague notion. There’s no meat on the bones and you don’t put in any time to flesh it out.
The culprit here is usually self-doubt. “I can’t make it work. I’m just not good at this marketing stuff.”
But if you get beyond this step…
Step #3 is creating an actual plan. Writing something down – thinking it through and figuring out what skills, tools, and resources you’ll need to put it into action.
At this point, about 95% never get beyond this step.
The “great idea” becomes too hard or complex to implement.
The problem here is perfectionism. “It’s just not good enough. I’ll never get it right.”
Then, there’s a final step…
Step #4 is putting the idea into action. You go to work and write, design, get technical assistance, etc.
And ultimately you launch, test, relaunch, etc.
But fewer than 1% of people get to this step.
The idea that seemed so good starts to feel uncertain, risky.
The fear here is that you’ll fail. “Nobody will respond. They won’t like it anyway.”
So, the path to creative action is strewn with pitfalls:
No self-confidence.
Self-doubt.
Perfectionism.
Fear of failure.
Is there a way to get past all of these creative land mines?
The short answer is: Stop thinking and start taking action. One small step at a time.
All your thinking is related to the past and the future.
That is where all those pitfalls exist – what you have done before and what you think you are capable of. And what you think might happen if you take action.
I recommend you don’t trust your thinking.
Stop believing in the past or future. They don’t exist in the present, which is the only time that you can take action.
So, when a good idea comes, just trust that if you stay in the present, the next action that needs to be taken will clearly present itself.
You don’t need to work through all your issues, doubts, uncertainties, and fears. Instead, learn to ignore them.
Put your attention on your intention and the next step instead.
Cheers, Robert
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