All business owners are uniquely positioned in life to be creative.
Creativity does not do well in a vacuum. So the next secret to your branding success is to collaborate. The ideas resulting from collaboration are always greater than the sum of their parts.
Simply put, collaboration is about working together, especially in a joint intellectual effort. You might also hear it referred to as co-creation (collaborating in a creative manner) or as collaborative creation.
Regardless of what you call it, what this way of working demands from us is that we open ourselves up to new ideas, accept new norms, and courageously allow ourselves new ways of seeing and interacting with the world.
Taking on another’s perspective is not any easier with creative projects than it is with relationships. Sometimes I think it may even be harder since we tend to defend our own creativity from the influence of others if we believe we’d somehow be diminished if we were inclusive of other’s ideas and direction.
But this is not really so. That’s just ego talking. As I said up front, creativity does not do well in a vacuum. In reality, creativity is what underlies all change. I know change is hard yet, without creativity, the world would be stagnant.
A successful model you can follow is one you’ve been exposed to your entire life – the Hollywood model. Just look at all the credits rolling at the end of every movie you’ve ever seen. Literally hundreds of people bring their special skills and talents together working as a team to create the director’s vision of the movie.
As an author or business owner, you are that director. Put the best people you can find to hire or work with in roles that serve your vision. Your end product will be better for it. Always be looking for opportunities to partner up, exchange services and support, create joint ventures, and get feedback. That’s the way you build a better brand.
INSIDER TIP: When collaborating with others, you never want to be the smartest person in the room.