One of the Creative Phases that’s Often Missed in Business & How It’s Impacting Your Success

INTRO: After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of her businesses with a single email, your host, Kathryn Thompson, takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you're ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen, heard, and a sought after entrepreneur in your industry without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you're in the right place. Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast is here to help you ditch the cookie cutter, one size fits all approach to marketing and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned clients. When you do this, you're You can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life. Welcome to Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast. And here's your host, Kathryn Thompson.

Kathryn Thompson: Hey, hey. Superstar Theatre Tune In This Week's Episode. I cannot wait to dive in today's [00:01:00] topic because I want this episode to be somewhat of an ideation, a creative, a brainstorming session for you. And I know I've done this before, but I want this to really be a place where we can sort of ideate, stay in that childlike wonder, that curiosity, that creativity.

And hopefully by the end of it, you can kind of walk away with perhaps having a different perspective of how you might want to market and sell within your business, how you might want to show up in it, how you might want to express within it. Or you're walking away with maybe some new insight, maybe an idea dropped in.

So if you have a pen and paper near you and you love to write things down, I highly recommend that you grab it because I'm going to be sharing with you really what we do in a lot of my client sessions, whether it's one to one or it's done within Spellbound. And the reason why we carve out this time, which I call sort of the ideation stage or the [00:02:00] creative daydreaming and brainstorming stage, I actually believe we don't spend enough time here in business, if I'm being honest with you.

So much of our energy is devoted to the doing, to getting things done, and to continually just take action in the business. Even if we feel like We're pushing a boulder up a mountain, or we're going against the stream or the flow of our own life and our own business, and things feel just really hard and sort of heavy.

And I've done it. Many of my clients have done it. It's like an unlearning or unteaching sometimes that we have to go through or a daily reminder, a monthly reminder, a quarterly reminder, where we're continually reminding ourselves to come back to this phase of the creative process and this phase of the innovative process.

And this phase also then supports you in being congruent in in what it is you're actually doing, because I think sometimes when we motor and get on sort of that hamster wheel [00:03:00] or that treadmill, as I call it, sometimes it's hard to step off and sometimes it's hard to see because we're on ground level just going through the motions of it and we can't actually zoom out and look at things from that big picture perspective, which I believe is what the daydreaming and ideation and creative brainstorming is.

is sort of in that big picture perspective, which is a what a lot of the work I do with my clients one to one and in spellbound, because most people come to me and say, Hey, Kathryn, I want to do things differently. I haven't seen it modeled before. I'm not sure how to go about doing it. Or you know what? I don't resonate with the way in which a lot of marketing is taught.

But I don't see another way. And so I work with a lot of my clients to obviously create marketing and sales strategies that are fully in alignment with who they are, but allow them and enable them to be the expression, to, uh, to express in a way that's natural and genuine, right? Because so [00:04:00] much of, I think, what we're taught and what we see is Doing things like showing up live once a week or using belief shifting frameworks in order to convince people to buy from us, or, you know, um, posting five days a week on social media or having to do some type of live training, whatever it might be.

It goes against our natural tendencies and our natural way of being in the world. And it doesn't mean that we can't be successful. It just means we've got to find our own way to be successful. And for me, that happens in ideation. That happens in that daydreaming state because that allows us to envision what it is that we want.

And then what ends up happening is then we can take inspired action from there towards the thing that we want because we're really clear on what they may look like. And when I used to work in advertising, I spent many, many years working with really top companies. level creative directors. Think of [00:05:00] like Don Draper if you've ever watched that show, Mad Men, where basically that's what he is, right?

They're working in the ad world and so much of coming up with winning, and I'm talking about winning, award winning advertising campaigns, was sitting in a room full of people and just throwing idea after idea after idea out there, and it was like the craziest things would come out. And then you would start to narrow things down.

And then you'd start to see if you could put legs to something. And then you'd start to see if that's in alignment with what it is that we're actually trying to convey. Are we missing anything? Right? You've seen ads out there that have come out into public and you're like, how did that get through? Like, it's tone deaf or, or, Wow, that image or the way that it's said is actually not very good, right?

Is how did that get through that creative process where we used to call it killing puppies, right? Where we'd have all these ideas flying and we'd start [00:06:00] to like run it through basically all of these different things to make sure it's congruent with the brand. It's reflective of the brand. It's in alignment.

We're not being tone deaf or not missing something completely. And yet, That phase, like I said, is completely taken out of the online business coaching world, in my opinion, or the consulting space. There isn't that room for ideation. It's follow the proven process, follow these steps. And it dilutes and kills every ounce of our creativity, in my opinion.

And so, um, I want to walk you through essentially what we did in my ad days where we were just throwing ideas out there, the wildest, the craziest, and nothing was off the table. And the reason it wasn't off the table was because, again, it's like self editing when you're writing. If you're self editing.

While you're writing, you're killing that story, right? Because you're hyper critical on getting it right and getting it [00:07:00] perfect. And what we did in the ad days was that, and I'm sure they probably still do it, is that we threw all these ideas out there and it was an invitation to be wild, crazy out there, nothing off the table, because we knew that we would refine what it is that came forth, right?

And that some Puppies would get killed along the way because they either, we couldn't put legs to the project or the plan. It wasn't reflective of the brand, wasn't reflective of who we wanted to attract, and sometimes we would get further down the phase where we would be actually in the testing phase, right?

So we had the idea, Ideation phase, and then we would start to wean out and refine. And then we'd start to put like, I don't want to say prototype to it, but kind of like a prototype, right? Before it ever went public. Then we would put that in front of the people that we wanted to communicate and connect with, and we would get their response or their reaction to And then if we didn't get the response or reaction that we wanted, then we, then we [00:08:00] hadn't spent millions creating a commercial, let's just say, that was never going to land with the audience.

And then we would refine even further, and then eventually we would have a finished product, or a finished ad, or whatever it was, a campaign, right? And this allowed us and enabled us, one, to be highly, highly creative in the process, but also not create what we do in a vacuum, which to me is so important in this whole realm of business, which again, I think is a big piece that's often missing.

in the process of creating offers, creating messaging, right? We don't put that out to our audience to respond to. And if we do put it out and we don't get the response we want, we often kibosh and go, that didn't work and they must not want that. Rather than going back to the table and refining it or getting curious about why they didn't respond a certain way or what didn't resonate or land with them, right?

We are so conditioned in the [00:09:00] online space, in my opinion, is. to create a lot of things in isolation and to create a lot of things in our own house through exercise and education, right? Like, how to niche, who's the ideal person, what do they buy, rather than actually getting out and talking to people, right, and having those conversations.

But furthermore, Putting a message out in front of them and seeing if they actually sort of resonate and whatnot with it. So the process I take my clients through is we spend a lot of time and craft a lot of time in that ideation phase where we're just brainstorming ideas and they come to me and they say, this is what I want to create.

This is who I ultimately dream of serving. And this is the life that I want to live as a result of this. And this is why it's important to me and all of those sorts of things. And then from there, nothing's off the table, right? We get to sit and dream. And so if nothing was off the table in terms of how you marketed and how you sold, how would you actually do it?[00:10:00] 

And recently I was having conversations with a lot of my clients who are coming to me looking for experiential marketing. Marketing that goes beyond just educating, agitating pain points, um, you know, pointing out what everybody's doing wrong and then telling them what they need to do in order to get it right, right?

It's actually creating experiences. And I'm not talking about a meditation challenge or, um, a breathwork session. I'm talking about in every ounce of your communication. It's an experience that you're creating from the content that you're putting out there, right? That all has to be congruent. If you're working with people on a somatic level and you're creating holistic health and wellness shifts within them, and all your content is educational or agitating pain points, There's a disconnected incongruency in my opinion from the content that you're putting out there to what it is you actually help people with within your business and the way in [00:11:00] which you make them feel when they're within your business and for me, a lot of people that are selling the invisible and are creating these deep transformations on a much deeper level than just in our head being that sort of heady game that we often play, It's deep somatic healing sometimes is that we've got to create content that is experiential, right?

That has, there's an experience when somebody feels it. There's, they are moved by it on a cellular level versus just on a mental level, right? And by mental level, I mean that we're saying things like, you know, if you're struggling to sleep at night, And you are kept up at night with tons of anxiety and you wanna shut your brain off.

Here are the five things that you can do that is very heady and that is very mental, right? But if you are somebody who's gonna shift somebody's somatic. existence, then it's not the mental shift that you're doing. [00:12:00] And so what would you do? How would you show them through your somatic work? How would you show them through all of the communication that you create?

all of the content that you create for social media, any of the free experiences or paid experiences perhaps that you're using, uh, to sell, whatever it might be, how are you creating that somatic experience in your content? Or are you just giving tips, tricks, and hacks that never really get to the somatic level anyways?

Because there's an incongruency there, right? And so I want to come back to the question I asked. If everything was off the table, there was no framework, there was no, you didn't have to write a hook or a call to action, uh, you didn't have to hold people's attention. You could literally just show up and express yourself on social media.

Would your content look any different? Would you be on social media to begin with? Is that how you would connect and communicate [00:13:00] with people? How would you want what you do to be? To make others feel, like how would you want them to feel when they came across that content that you were putting out there?

And is what you're doing right now a reflection of that? And is what you're doing right now something that you're so convicted that you stand behind going, Yes, I love the way I express my business. I'm loving the way I create content. I love writing emails. I love communicating and how I communicate. And it's super in alignment with what I do.

Or do you feel like it's a job that you have to do within your business? Because when we are in our natural expression, It's not work. It's effortless. It's easeful. It comes like a hit of inspiration that we can just share and that we can talk about it on end for days and days and days because [00:14:00] we have the energy for it.

When we don't have the energy for it, or when we feel a lot of resistance to it, it's often because we're trying to fit ourselves into that mold. And so if there was Any wild idea that you wanted to put out there and nothing's off the table and nothing, you can't get it wrong. And there's, there's so much room for refinement.

What would that be? How would you show out? What would you offer? How would your content look and feel? How would the tone of voice and the frequency that you transmuted through what you were saying, how would that feel? Would you feel like you had clarity all the time of what to say and how to say? Would you stop kind of asking that question of what do I say and how do I say it?

Because you just have the clarity, it just comes to you. You don't need a script, you don't need a template. I want you to just play in this, right? And you might feel like it's, you're [00:15:00] going, you're, it's directionless, like that there's no direction here. You're just throwing things against sort of a notepad or a whiteboard or whatever.

And again, this is where I think people get restless, right? They're like, what's the point of this? And the point is, is that when we can just dream for a minute, get playful within that, get creative, get curious, explore. That's when these magical ideas sort of form. And what we thought we, where we wanted to go or how it was going to look doesn't transpire that way because we don't actually know how it's going to end.

And I was sharing this with clients recently. I was saying that when I sit to write or when I sit to record a podcast, I have sort of an idea of what I want to say, like an essence, but I have no idea where it's going to go. I have no idea what the beginning, the end, the middle is going to look like. And if I had to map it out, [00:16:00] I would really struggle to show up on my podcast.

I'd really struggle to create social media content because it would feel really rigid and boxy to me. And when things are sort of rigid and boxy, I almost like get tongue tied and lose my voice. So that's why the dream state and the play, playing within that is so, so vital, because we can also start to catch ourselves when we, when we write an idea down and then we Get self critical about it and go, well, that won't work, or I don't see anybody doing that, or what if it doesn't work, or this is too wild and audacious, and who do I think I am?

Whatever the voice is inside of your brain, right, that gets critical, that prevents you then from, like, pulling that thread just a little bit more, right? Just teasing that thread out just a little bit more. It's the killing of the puppies, the refining of it, the [00:17:00] getting curious about it, following that thread just a little bit.

And sometimes ideals will come in a very abstract way and therefore need refinement. and therefore need a two way street, a co creation, a collaboration, whether that's with people that you want to work with and you dream about working with, or whether that's mentors and guides within your world, or whether that's in a community you're in, whatever it might be, that you're able to sort of throw that against a sounding board.

Now, some people might say, Well, you want to be careful about that because then people won't, you know, what if they criticize or they don't get it? Well, that's something you just have to be aware of, right? We just have to be aware of that. And we have to be aware that if people don't understand it, and yet we feel really drawn and pulled to it, we can still pursue it, right?

I mean, there was creative directors I worked with all the time that would have big, audacious visions. And at first we wouldn't [00:18:00] get it. And it wasn't until it actually molded a little bit more and came to fruition, that it started to make sense. So sometimes there's just that deep trust that it's like, it might seem really wild and crazy right now, and people might not get it, but I'm going to follow it because once it comes to fruition, I trust That it's something that I want to pursue or put out into the world.

So I want to ask you if you create this space for yourself within your business, do you cultivate the space to sit in that creative ideation? Are you boomeranging your ideas out into the collective consciousness to see whether or not they resonate or they land? And if you're not doing that, I highly, highly suggest that you do.

It's such a game changer. It's a game changer in business. It's a game changer in developing self trust for yourself, because you start to really trust your ideas and [00:19:00] what's possible, because that critical self talk starts to get quieter and quieter the more that you say it. And then pursue sit in that and then pursue.

So I'm hoping that from this, you're getting some sort of insight, some sort of maybe aha, or perspective shift, or a, Wait a minute, I've just been putting stuff out there based on creating something within a vacuum within my own house without, you know, talking or conversing or even ideating with other people.

And no wonder I never nailed it the first time. No wonder I didn't get a hundred percent right. Because like I said, in the ad days, we had major phases of every project. Ideation, prototype, testing, refinement. prototyping again, refinement, and then launching once we got to a place where we [00:20:00] knew that it was resonating with the people we wanted or was getting the reaction that we wanted, then that's when we would put it out into the world.

But it went through many, many phases. And I think in business, especially in the online coaching consulting, we don't give ourselves enough space. We want to just sell right away and make the sale. And I get it. I get we need to make sales in our business. But when we slow down, we have the ability to speed up.

We have the ability to get it right a lot quicker and really connect with our people because we've listened to them. We've put it out in front of them before ever doing a big massive launch and all of those sorts of things and put a ton of effort and time into creating a course. Let's just say that.

we never even really knew if they wanted in the first place. So with that, I hope that you can journal, you can spend some time in that ideation, that creative place to [00:21:00] dream up how you want to show up, to dream up what your content looks like, to question whether you're doing it in a way right now that's conforming to what you think you need to do.

And if you wanted to change and pivot, what would that look like? And if the ideas and the things, if your notion is, I don't know, then you need to sit in that quiet space because they will come. Maybe you need to go for a walk, maybe you need to, you know, um, cook, maybe you need to do a vigorous workout, whatever it is for you, go for a drive, have a bath, I don't know.

But it's giving yourself the space if your brain and mental brain is so full of what you need to do, and it's so full of what everybody else is doing, I can almost guarantee you that the ideas won't drop in. And if that inner critic is really loud, it's going to prevent anything from coming in. If there's so much resistance there, because you're, you're self critical about yourself, you're going to limit that creativity.

So you've got to give yourself that grace and space [00:22:00] as well and get really curious about that. And the more awareness you can cultivate around this, the more, you're going to unlock and open up. So with that, I hope this episode has been an insight, perspective shift, whatever it might be for you. And I cannot wait for next week's.

Cheers. Thanks for listening. We'll see you right back here next time. You can also find us on social media at Creatively Owned and online at creativelyowned. com. Until next time, keep showing up as your authentic self.