Build a Process, Part 2

In the last newsletter I shared my story of being a young spelling bee champ and how my failures created lifelong regrets. Well, it wasn’t that bad but I learned some tough lessons at an early age that I believe prepared me for bigger things later in life. 

I’m going to shift gears this week to make a case for a valuable lesson I learned from that experience, which is the importance of creating processes. As a creative professional you already have an arsenal of processes that you’ve created over the years in your practice. The idea is to dissect how you created them and apply it to running your business. 

For example, over the years I’ve created an ideation process for coming up with new concepts to pitch to clients. It involves research, identifying and defining the problems, then a brainstorming session to come up with as many solutions as possible. I use this same process for many areas of my practice, including teaching it within the Creators Creed program. 

It became a process through repetition, documentation, and training many others how to use it for themselves. I’ve recorded many ideation sessions and re-watched them to understand what works and what doesn’t, while also getting direct feedback from collaborators to make improvements. 

Teachable = Transferable. If someone else can repeat the outcome, then it is a process. 

A major challenge for entrepreneurs is growing enough to step outside from daily operations, allowing space to give attention to creative things like vision and strategy. This is where processes come into play. It requires effort to build them for your business but here are 3 reasons why it’s worth it:  

1. Process Conserves Energy. Without process you rely on energy, memory, and presence to get things done. It’s like starting from scratch every single time. With process you create repeatable ways to bring ideas to scale. 

Example: Delivering a regular newsletter with quality requires a lot of time and energy! But with a simple process it becomes faster, more creative and more consistent. 

2. Process Delivers Consistent Quality. Process is not about doing things the same way every time, it’s about delivering consistent quality even as your methods evolve. It’s not about tasks and procedures, it’s about how you show up and how you treat clients. 

Example: For every client I have a process for understanding their needs and building a plan to meet their goals. This creates reliable results and builds trust.  

3. Process Enables Growth Through Reflection. Systems are not fixed, they are prototypes that can be measured, improved, and optimized. 

Example: Creators Creed is a living system. Every entrepreneur who goes through it adds insight, and the program improves through reflection and iteration.

I encourage you to make a list of things you do on a regular basis that consume your time and keep you from nourishing your creativity. Think about how you’ve created systems in other areas of your life and how you built them. Generally it requires documenting your workflow and creating a way to teach it to others. 

I hope this is helpful. If you need help on how to create more processes for your business please reach out.