For those of us who work for ourselves (and for those who aspire to), there’s a phenomenon that people don’t often talk about because it’s assumed that we’re intended to be performing and achieving high levels of success at all times. However, sometimes there are periods of feast and famine in our businesses, especially for those of us in creative professions. My colleague Rich Litvin has shared his observations on this with a nod to Hugh McLeod’s “Sex and Cash Theory of Creative Work” — and I really resonate with this. The basic notion is that the creative person has two kinds of jobs — the first being the fun, sexy kind (those projects and clients we love to work with), and the second one is ensuring that we have enough cash flows that the bills get paid each month. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not all the time. So there can be a tense duality between the need to make a living and the need to follow one’s passions. You can’t run a successful, thriving business if you have no money and your only thought is “I NEED money!”.
So when you are in a trough or a drought of sorts and cash flows are constrained, go out and create some cash. Get creative — consult to your previous employer if you can, ask for referrals from past clients and colleagues, sell something, take on a paid project (even if it’s not sexy or desirable, or doesn’t pay your usual rates) — even if just for a short period of time. These efforts will bring in much needed cash, which in turn will allow you to breathe and relax as you take care of your obligations, and allow yourself to be more generative in creating more of your desired ‘sexy’ projects. At the same time you won’t come across as being needy which generally sends prospective clients running in the other direction. It’s a worthy goal to live a life where you only focus on sexy projects that allow you to operate fully in your zone of genius and get paid well at the same time — and that is definitely a possibility. At the same time, when you want/need to create money — get busy, get creative, get focused, and start by doing whatever it takes to create some cash in the immediate term. Sometimes the Sex comes second — and it’s usually worth waiting for!!
Do you have a question, challenge or success story you’d like to share? Please be sure to leave a comment. I’d enjoy hearing from you.
~Kelli
