Look outside your industry to resist the trends.
So, some more tidbits for you…
The market your work lives in is likely to have a pretty narrow visual culture attached to it. Think about the visual imagery of the world of life coaches. Or fitness companies. Or wellness providers. Or small business consultants. You can probably picture it.
Most of us, when thinking about our own visual branding, go try to find examples of others in our field who are doing it well. And that's good information - but only so you can differentiate yourself.
The danger of looking at your peers too much: the trends of your field will infiltrate your brain, and convince you that those are the only viable branding options for you - some pretty variation on a whole lot of boring norms.
No. No trendy conformity for your business, if you want ANYONE to see you shine.
One way to snap your fingers and get out of this trance: go research other industries.
Are you a veterinarian? Try looking at cereal packaging.
A reiki master? Look at performance artists.
Selling ethical coffee? Look at great fashion branding.
(These are random examples, not literal instructions.)
You get the idea. Look outside your industry and notice what lights you up. This is going to give you a better picture of what differentiates the culture of YOUR work from the culture of your market.
And now on to a little more about:
Good creative works (a work of art, a program or course, a business) are not made, generally, by thinking of a perfect completed thing and then simply making a copy in real life. Rather you start creating, and you make your way through the messy wilderness of it, finding what feels good, tossing out what isn't working, learning, fumbling, and continuing.
(Many of us find this deeply UNreassuring. We want results! Brilliant ones! Now!)
Creative confidence grows in this messy process. Not by taking shortcuts. Creative confidence comes from being creative, not the other way around.
With this in mind, a couple of questions for you:
1.
How do you take yourself from a need (to reach a business goal, for example, like coming up with ideas for social media marketing, or designing a program or offer, or making branding choices) to a completed solution (like an idea, offer, image, post, product?)
2.
In that process, where do you find creative flow and interest in the process?
3.
Where do you get stuck? Where do you give up easily? Speed through parts that could use more attention?
4.
Where can you build a little more time to be in the weeds with creating? And how can you support yourself to be in that space of inspiration and uncertainty?
No matter who I am working with (usually small business owners in the digital spaces) and what they are working on (building, branding and marketing businesses) - I notice that almost every problem people face, at least in some part, comes from self-doubt around intelligence and creativity.
Creative Confidence is the foundation of being a strong CREATIVE DIRECTOR in all aspects of your work. (Yep, that's a hat you wear every day in your biz, boss.)
I hope you will take a moment to journal or reflect on the questions I am asking you here.
I wish you some good creative flow states this week, and some fun and lucrative business surprises.
This was originally published (November 18, 2020) for the Bureau of Tactical Imagination's email subscribers. To receive our weekly free education and inspiration for your business and brand building efforts, sign up here.