COVID-19 HIT LIKE THE CHALLENGER DISASTER OF 1986
First of all, let’s just acknowledge that 2020 felt like the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster of 1986, wouldn’t you agree? In January we were all getting ready for take-off. It was a new year, a new decade and we were all shouting praises to 2020 VISION.
I had been creating Vision Boards as a New Year ritual for over 10 years and last year I decided to host my very first VISION BOARD WORKSHOP at HUNT & GATHER and it sold out faster and with more interest than any of our other events all year. Everybody was excited and pumped for 2020. So we enthusiastically launched!
…And then out of nowhere, we were blindsided by this new reality called COVID-19. COVID-19 highjacked our 2020 VISION in what seemed like an instant. Just as the Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after take-off with the world cheering it on. Our year and decade had just launched and then like the Challenger our excitement was replaced with tragedy, fear, loss, and new challenges the entire world experienced at once.
THE SILVER LINING
We were all forced to stay home, slow down, and connect in new ways. Many of us looked within. We got still, we cultivated new hobbies, we cooked more, we baked, we created art, we planted things, we watched old reruns, we Zoomed, we explored our neighborhoods, we went on road trips, we read more, played more games… We did things we didn’t have time to do before but always wanted to. Many of us reevaluated our lives, our businesses, everything was suddenly in question.
WHAT COVID-19 HAS TAUGHT ME
For me, it was devastating. My 14-year old business, ARTdeezine had taken a backseat to my brand new dream-come-true business HUNT & GATHER. We were about to celebrate our two-year anniversary with big plans for 2020. The prior year taught me so much about what not to do and what to do more of. This was the year we were gonna be profitable. 2019 had exhausted me but I was ready to hit the ground running again, prepared to offer more community events and ways for creatives and artists to get involved and help me run things so I didn’t die of a nervous breakdown. 2019 literally almost killed me. I had landed in the hospital twice, doctors could offer no explanation as to what was wrong with me other than stress. In some ways, I am grateful for COVID. It stopped me in my tracks and forced me to look deeper. Everything I had planned for 2020 was canceled instantly and it was time to find clarity. COVID taught me to plan less, evaluate more.
WHEN YOU HAVE A SECOND BABY YOU DON’T JUST DESERT THE OLDER KID TO TAKE CARE OF THE NEW BABY
I realized that when I opened HUNT & GATHER and put ARTdeezine on the backburner I was creating a work harder not smarter kind of situation for myself. I was finally in a place where ARTdeezine was profitable which allowed me to invest in a new business but I turned my back on it. Yes, the new business was exciting because it was something I had dreamed of since I was a kid. It needed attention. It was like a newborn baby that needed me 24/7. But when you have a second baby you don’t just desert the older kid to take care of the new baby. In fact, you’ve got to pay special attention to the older kid to be sure the older kid doing OK. Had I done that, when COVID hit, ARTdeezine would have been healthy, happy, and ready to step up. After all, ARTdeezine is an online business perfect for working remotely as we all had to do all of the sudden. It was a business I had built from the ground up and right after hitting the 10-year mark I deserted it. The business that had supported me and my family for over 10 years had been forgotten. The new business, HUNT & GATHER required a different skill-set. Yes, my design expertise was front and center as far as skills needed, but there were so many new skills that needed to be learned. And I was all in, even if it meant killing myself in the process of figuring it out. Because after all, this was my dream.
STOP DUCT TAPING IT ALL TOGETHER
So when I stepped back and looked at everything, I decided I would give ARTdeezine the attention it deserved. Sure a rebrand was in order, but more importantly, the foundation needed to be planted. I took the time in 2020 while H&G remained closed, to get more clear on who my dream client was, how I wanted to serve them, and what I wanted to offer them. I realized that the reason I had deserted my business was that I was tired of the way I was running it. It was a system and process problem that needed an overhaul. Prior to 2020, I was allowing my clients to run me. They would come to me with an idea and I would take their idea and run with it. I would produce pretty things… logos, websites, marketing collateral, signage, you name it I would do it. But ARTdeezine was only a piece of the equation. These clients were having me produce a website with a logo they either created themselves DIY-style or found some other inexpensive solution elsewhere. Or we were creating a logo but not the website or the marketing collateral. The clients were managing their design and branding process themselves and duct taping it all together when what they really needed was a professional to guide them through the process of building a meaningful, cohesive brand conducive to simple yet effective marketing. When a brand is well thought out marketing is way easier. I realized if I didn’t teach them that, how would they know.
The ROOT SYSTEM
So I put ARTdeeine through my own process. Got crystal clear and am now ready to help others do the same for their clients. I developed what I call The ROOT SYSTEM which focuses on building the foundation for a meaningful brand. Most business owners skip this step and I built it into my system. Branding and Marketing is my passion and now I feel like I have figured out how best to serve my clients. Without COVID, I may have deserted ARTdeezine and ran myself ragged trying to earn the kind of money at H&G that I had worked up to for the past 14 years. H&G isn’t going anywhere but neither is ARTdeezine!
PLANTING SEEDS OF GRATITUDE
So as we begin a new challenging year, let’s go into it with an attitude of gratitude. Let’s set an intention. Every intention we set is a tiny seed of hope stemming from our souls. What does a seedling need to sprout? It needs sun, water, and cultivation. We can learn so much from nature. This blog is my seed of hope. My intention is to cultivate it and help it grow and in turn help my clients grow their businesses and live their dream life. This will be the place my businesses and passion for living a healthy abundant life come together. Humans are truly powerful because we have the ability to choose what we want to focus our energy on, and thus what we want to cultivate in our lives and businesses. For that, I am truly grateful and I encourage you to cultivate more gratitude especially in these crazy times. Let me know in the comments below how you plan to plant more seeds of gratitude this year!
