If you don’t have a vision, have a something
It gets easier to create when you know what you want to create.
It has taken me an embarrassingly long time to learn that a lot of business projects don’t have a driving vision.
Maybe it’s a theater thing. Maybe it’s just a creative industry thing in general. But for the longest time after transitioning out of theater I simply assumed most people had a vision for what they were doing.
Because artists always do.
It might be a shit vision. It might get lost or muddled. It might be disjointed and not hold water, it might actually be three warring visions in a trench coat.
Of course, you hope it’s a clear, cohesive, unifying, moving vision. But even if it’s a bad vision that falls apart, at least at the beginning there was a vision for the project.
I’ve always approached business projects the same way. Because if you don’t know where your project is heading, how could you possibly decide how to get there?
Fortunately, lack of vision does not come up very often amongst my clients (business or style). But what does happen is the vision changing, or getting muddled, or getting lost amongst the day to day running of a business.
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- How do you reorganize your CRM and email list?
- When should you pivot your business?
- How do you redesign your 16 year old website?
- What do you wear to an interview on an entirely new aspect of your career?
Those are some of the questions that have come up over the past month and all of them in some way are struggling with a lack of clear cohesive vision.
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I’m working with a non-profit client on implementing some more streamlined business systems. In this instance the vision for the whole organization is crystal clear. The vision for how the day-to-day operations and systems should run has become muddled. And so we come to questions like: how do you reorganize your CRM and email list without clearly knowing how you want to use them?
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I’m working with the founder of a next-gen fabric start up. She’s a creative, she went to fashion school, she has a vision. Her vision was B2C next-gen fabric handbags, but is getting non-fashion industry advice to focus on textile manufacturing rather than B2C finished product commerce. The question she’s facing is: should I pivot from B2C to B2B? When is it time to shift the original vision?
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I’m working with myself on redesigning HollyChayes.com. Redesigning my website has been on my list for longer than I care to remember. I’ve had some version of this website for about 16 years, there have been a lot of projects over the years, so redesigning it is pretty daunting. The question I’m facing is: what does a website hub that presents my current work, makes space for my future work, while honoring my past work, look like?
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I have a friend who does astrophotography and was invited to participate in a fireside-chat-style conversation about her work. She has no clue what to wear yet. She’s given tons of presentations in her past careers, but nothing like this, and not about her art before. The question she’s facing is: what is my vision for myself in this new phase of my career?
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Four unique situations. Four unique questions. All coming back to: what is the vision?
Once we name, or clarify, or decide, or envision for the first time the vision, the details can begin slowly falling into place.
Like the gravitational pull of a planet or the destination for a vacation, a project’s vision gives the tasks, to dos and decisions a focal point.
It’s like trying to plan a trip without any idea of where you’re going to go. “Travel more” is harder to plan than “go to Paris” or even “go anywhere as long as the flight is between $X and $Y on one of these three dates.”
A vision. A feeling. A mood. A vibe. A something. An anything that gives you a direction to point your feet, and to gut check decisions against.
Start with the something. Because “fix it” or “make it better” or “I REALLY NEED TO SOLVE THIS!” Doesn’t tell you which flights to book or month to go in or even which map to pull up.
And if you don’t have that something yet, make it your first priority.
As always, if you’d like to work together on your business, your style, or your creative life, schedule a call and we’ll get the process started.
This post was originally emailed as part of September’s newsletter. Sign up to receive next month’s email.
Photo by lilartsy on Unsplash
