You know, a really great feeling is reading a “professional development" article and realizing you already instinctively use the exact same focusing tool, mindfulness practice, or visualization exercise. The next-best thing is when, whether or not you personally use it, your company has made it a part of their culture and way of doing business. That’s what happened when I read last week’s fast company article “My Battle-Tested Secret to Handling Career Rejection: You can still be committed to your work without being (too) attached to the outcomes.” The article advises learning to stick more irons in the fire:
One setback matters less when you have a lot going on, so I've learned to
avoid putting all my eggs in a single basket. That helps remind me that I’m
not dependent on any particular opportunity to make or break me. And I can
focus on the experience of working toward each of them simultaneously instead.
This is a tool STRUKTR Studios uses with success: setting up a new project to deliver multiple wins, so that even if not every milestone is hit dead-center, not every end-criteria is met, there are plenty of other wins generated from the project.
Marni Epstein-Mervis’ upcoming workshop at General Assembly LA on Content Marketing 101 for Design and Maker Community is an example of this technique in practice. The workshop is designed to generate multiple wins. As a thought leader in the world of Content Marketing, Marni creates her workshops to get these lessons out to designers and makers to make good use of them in their own businesses. On top of that, the workshops boost Marni’s profile and the profile of STRUKTR Studios to its target market of design, hospitality, and real estate brands. The talk has still more wins. Every time Marni speaks on content marketing, she develops her skills as a public speaker. She also refines her presentations based on feedback. At the same time, the days and weeks leading up to a talk are opportunities to share that Marni and STRUKTR Studios are a thought leader in this area. STRUKTR uses evocative and effective content marketing to get the word out about content marketing.
By the time of the upcoming January 10th or March 2nd workshops, there are a number of metrics by which to measure success. Not only attendance at the workshops, but also getting the world out to new clients, plus analytics for posts shared across the STRUKTR Studios blog, newsletter platforms, and social media (instagram, facebook). There are also qualitative measurements, such as developing as a speaker and sharing valuable information with the design and maker community.
Whether your business is content marketing for the design world, like STRUKTR's, designing the next Insta-worthy restaurant, or creating a cult lifestyle brand for your boutique hotel, you can utilize these same tactics to generate multiple wins from your next project.
- Laine Mervis