There’s a Secret formula for your first meeting with a prospective client. Don’t push your product or service learn to be of service and position your art to be the solution they are looking for…Here’s how.
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Hi. I’m Tracy Margieson, and I’m the project manager of the Arts Wellbeing Collective at Arts Centre Melbourne, and I’m here today to give you a hot tip about dealing with what I like to call the hamster wheel effect. So, how often do you get to the end of a project and go, “Done. Okay, next one.” Then you do it all again? You work hard on a project. You run, and run, and run, and run until closing night, or until the piece is finished, or the event is over, and then, straight away, you go, “Okay, next.”
Have you ever noticed that when you do this, all the things that you’d been worried about during that project, all the things that went a little bit off track, all the things that went well, everything you could have done differently, all the people you had these little niggles with, they all come with you to the next project, and suddenly it piles up and it piles up, and you feel like you can’t stop, you can’t pause, everything has been building, all the issues have been building, all that historical knowledge from, you know, three or four projects ago with that person who let you down that time, and then it just explodes? You burn out, you leave the industry, you just can’t take it anymore.
Well, we really don’t want this to happen. The good news is that the way through this hamster wheel effect is quite fun. I’m about to give you permission to celebrate. So, at the end of a project, pause, debrief, and celebrate. It’s vital that you debrief and celebrate. If you just debrief, you miss this opportunity to give yourself and your team a pat on the back. Instead of putting an exclamation mark at the end of your project, you’ve put a little comma and you keep powering through. Suddenly you feel like you haven’t achieved anything because you’ve never stopped to think about, or celebrate just how much you do achieve. Equally, if you only celebrate and don’t debrief, you miss the opportunity to learn from any errors or to sort out any issues.
So, here’s what I want you to do right now. Think of something that you’ve finished. It could be that you’ve just finished watching this video. Pause. Give yourself a pat on the back for taking time out of your day for yourself and your professional development. Think about anything you could have done differently. Maybe you had half an eye on your phone the whole time in case an important text message came through in the last three minutes, maybe you were multitasking but you didn’t quite end up committing to any of the tasks. Whatever it is, I want you to think of something that you did well, something that you want to do better, take a pause, take a breath, and then continue. Don’t let the work and the associated challenges from the work pile up on you. Pause, debrief, and celebrate to help avoid the hamster wheel.
I hope you found this hot tip useful, and if you’d like to find out more about Art Centre Melbourne or the Arts Wellbeing Collective, visit artswellbeingcollective.com.au.
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