What's Next
Whether it’s the failure of a business or the end of a marriage, a personal health scare or a global pandemic, a crisis throws things into upheaval. It’s stressful. But, at the same time, things have a way of becoming very clear in a crisis. We’re better able to distinguish what matters most to us. Like it or not, these past few months, the time and inclination to reflect has been thrust upon us.
I live in New York City, and, shortly after the coronavirus pandemic hit, I found myself at the epicenter of a crisis. The projects I was working on were postponed. In the past, a lull in work had typically been a great time to do some business development, but I found the idea of suggesting that people pay me to help them sell things felt shallow and tone-deaf in time people were losing their jobs in record numbers and many businesses were shuttering, hoping to suffer but not perish.
About a month ago, renowned chef Gabrielle Hamilton wrote a beautiful article for the New York Times entitled My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore? The title caught my eye, not only because her restaurant was one of my favorites, but mainly because it so accurately echoed how I was feeling about my own business. “Forced to shutter Prune,” she wrote, “I’ve been revisiting my original dreams for it – and wondering if there will still be a place for it in the New York of the future.”
It is my inclination to plan – I am a strategist after all – but I decided instead to lean in to the unknown for a while. My life was full, with 3 children to feed and homeschool, a healthy stockpile of art supplies for my creative explorations, and a patient husband who has embraced my need to paint murals on our bedroom walls and turn the coffee table into my home studio. For the past 10 weeks, I have focused on loving people and making things and holding space for what might come next. I have been, as Gabrielle Hamilton so eloquently put it, revisiting my dreams.
The capacity for reinvention is a hallmark of successful people. Reinvention is part recalibration - to better serve the needs of your audience – and part reflection – to ensure that your actions are aligned with your own values and purpose.
It struck me that the reinvention process I’d immersed myself in was in fact the same process I’ve been taking my clients through for years. And that brands of all kinds – just like my own – were rethinking and reinventing in the new context we’re facing. The game had changed, but the basic rules remained the same:
Reflect on what your brand stands for and what products and services your business will offer
Align your offering with what customers care most about
Gather inspiration from sources both close in and far afield
Define your brand’s full promise and forge a path toward it
A crisis can, in fact, be a powerful business accelerator – a catalyst for evolving new business models and establishing new relationships. I see this happening now in my business, and I believe it will happen for everyone who brings rigor and mindfulness to the process of opening to new opportunities. As the world reimagines everything from education to dating – and most definitely healthcare – this is a perfect time to think about strategy, to spot trends and harness opportunities, and to question what’s next.