When creativity is under the gun, it usually ends up getting killed. Although time pressure may drive people to work more and get more done, and may even make them feel more creative, it actually causes them, in general, to think less creatively.

 Teresa M. Amabile, Constance Noonan Hadley,
 and Steven J. Kramer – Harvard Business Review

This is especially true in sales and marketing because these are the activities that bring us customers and ultimately cash.

Business owners/leaders want sales to increase now and therefore need marketing ideas that would attract customers to buy yesterday!

There are two games being played at all times in any business: a long and a short one. You must have both working together or else you are going to encounter more trouble than you need.

For a long time, I firmly believed in the long game only – that is – build a solid foundation, ensure that there is alignment, and create a content platform that would organically attract customers to your business; ensure that your systems allow for customers to journey (for the most part) without a hitch, ensure that you have efficient ways to deal with those hitches when they occur, and ensure that on a weekly basis – everyone on your team remembers why they are there and how they impact the eventual vision and endgame.

For those clients who engaged with me, many got impatient. I wasn’t doing or recommending anything wrong, they just needed to play a shorter game as well. They needed to see something happening immediately. They need a short win.

Nowadays I insist on both games and I have put some urgency on my methodology by offering a one day marketing reset. Not weeks but in a day. I know that I am able to do this because of all the long games I’ve played before. I know where to look and I know WHAT to look for.

When your job requires you to be creative, whether you do graphic design work, are asked to sit in on a brainstorming exercise, or sometimes like me, you are called in to consult or facilitate a project, you need to be guided by a longer view strategy, that would guide your decision making now. What does my company or client want long term and how can I facilitate that with an idea now? What role is this idea going to play in the decisions that the customer needs to make to buy?

This way we don’t get stuck in – I have to generate ideas in a vacuum. We begin to see how these ideas fit into the bigger picture. The longer game.

I think the long game, for those of us tasked with creating, is one of mastery.

When you look at the exceptionally creative work off Masters, you must not ignore the years of practice, the endless routines, the hours of doubt, and the tenacious overcoming of obstacles these people endured.

ROBERT GREENE- Mastery vs. Awaken the Dimensional Mind

I’m often amazed at PR, marketing, and advertising professionals who know nothing of the greats that went before – [think PT Barnum, David Ogilvy, Lester Wunderman, John Caples, Claude Hopkins], who don’t read and who think that being creative is about being outrageous or witty or about how many followers you have.

In this uber competitive digital space that we now occupy, there is more noise than ever before and a ton of reliance on influencers.

What I see is that things like trust and loyalty, cannot be sustained long term in the absence of authenticity and truth.

Creativity is the result of effort.

Am I saying that there is no room for young creative approaches today? Absolutely not! I am saying that regardless of method, age of the creative, type of industry etc. you need to do two things:

1. Never take your eyes off the customer
2. Play both a long and a short game. Never play a short game in isolation of a longer one. You might get a short term boost, but you will burn out way before you begin to prosper long term.