What's The Creative Brief For Your Career?

Fifteen years ago, when my (now) husband and I sat down to plan our wedding, we agreed—the first step we needed to take was obvious.

In order to come up with the answers for what kind of wedding we wanted to have, we needed to ask the right questions.

And so, as two marketers making our union official—we wrote a creative brief. Romantic, I know.

In our brief, we asked:

• What’s our goal?

• What would make the wedding feel like a success?

• How do we want the celebration to make us feel?

• What feelings do we want to bring out in our people?

• And by the way…who are our people and who are they to us?

• What adjectives would we use to describe what we want to create?

The brief kept us on task, on-brand and in lock step as a couple throughout the planning process. When families, vendors or random people with opinions pushed too hard on their hopes and dreams for the event, we always came back to the brief. It was a reminder of our intention to build something together that was authentically us. Not just the wedding. The marriage.

We’ve come back to this approach various times in our lives. After the births of both of our daughters, we wrote briefs on how we wanted those first postpartum weeks to feel. Everyone seemed to fall in line except for the babies. Go figure.

Now, in my work with clients in career transitions, I use the creative brief for a fresh look at what they want to build in this next chapter, asking:

• What will success look like in your career, right now, in this stage of your life?

• Why are you doing this work?

• What problems in the world do you want to solve?

• Who do you want to help?

• How are you uniquely positioned to do this work?

• Who’s on your support team? Who’s not?

• How do you want to feel on a typical day in your work?

• How do you want to make others feel?

• If your work had a single message, what would it be?

• What’s the tone of how that message is delivered?

• What are your non-negotiables in your work? And your nice-to-haves?

I have come to appreciate using the career creative brief in my own work and business because as I discuss often, I like ideas. I’m prone to epiphanies. I fall in love…a lot. The brief helps me focus and gives me criteria for evaluating my ideas. It gives me a way to either connect them to what I want—or to say, "Yes, that is a clever idea, but I’m not going to be the one to bring it to life." Writing a brief is a way for you to declare—this is what you want and who you want to be in your work. And it’s a way to remind you of this unique design when you act like a human and veer off your path.

A Gradual Start To The New Year Works Too

I’m the kind of woman who typically likes to kick start the year with a bang.

A big commitment.

An unthinkable goal.

A vow to turn things upside down.

That said, I don’t practice the art of resolution-making. Instead, I choose a word that will be my organizing principle for the year.

My focus, my mantra.

This year, for a multitude of reasons, my word is PEACE.

It has already influenced my approach to life as I step into the first week of this new decade.

My brain is not currently flooded with dozens of topics for new posts and pieces I want to share with you. Instead, I’ve had a few moments over the past two weeks where I sat down to write, and nothing appeared. Blank mind. Blank page. Nothing.
I did not go to a dark place. I chose to believe I truly needed a break. A refuel. Time to go out and be with the people I love. To experience life and be inspired.

I gave myself permission to simply be where I am: in a slow beginning.

To see the meticulously planned new year’s marketing barrages and authoritative voices of every other coach in my industry—and to absorb an authentic, confident message that I’m not there. I’m in a quiet place.

While most companies in our midst are egging us on to make quick and drastic changes because it’s January, I know that thoughtful, consistent and gradual shifts are what cause lasting transformation.

It’s okay if you don’t have your goals for the year mapped out yet.

First comes the thinking and the space for you. Next comes the goals that are true to where you are in this moment, and not where every “new year, new you” campaign tells you that you should be.

As I’m experiencing this year, easing in is an absolutely valid and respectable way to start. Without the pressure of exploding out of the gate, the ideas are beginning to flow again. I can see that there’s an endless supply when I listen to what I truly need. And for right now, peace is my guide to finding it.

Holiday Networking When You Know Who You Are

In years past during my digital marketing career, when I attended corporate holiday parties the highlights were…

The chocolate fountains.

Colleagues dancing.

The senior leader of our group who told us all before we walked in, "Don’t eat like pigs." An unexpected, but memorable pep talk.

Spending the whole night with the three to four people who knew me best at the company. The people who truly got me.

To contrast, as I take the "so many holiday parties, so little time" approach to networking this year, there are no chocolate fountains. Thankfully, there’s no dancing AND I can eat whatever I want, as long as it’s gluten-free.

That said, the most powerful, visceral change this time is my comfort with talking to anyone and everyone—because I know who I am and what I’m contributing to the people in my life. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished this year—so I have a lot to talk about! And those who know me even just a little know that I…ahem…like to talk.

Part of stepping into my worth and discovering my confidence in networking is also knowing that I don’t need to talk the whole time to build a connection. What a relief to re-learn that I build deeper relationships when I put "The Rachel Show" on hiatus to follow my mantra for 2019—LISTEN.

The practice of deep listening has been a focus for me this year and it has shifted the way I lead workshops, the way I show up for my clients, and who I can be for strangers. When I’m present and generous, I can help them make the connections and note the possibilities I’m seeing for them.

This mindset shift has been a game-changer for both my motivation to network (on rainy, cold evenings in venues so far from Brooklyn), and in my expectations of what will come from those events.

No matter what these connections will bring to my business or my life, I know I will learn more about people. What motivates them. What keeps them stuck. What they want from their lives. What they’re willing to release. All things that bring me energy—inspiring me to write, coach, and help people change their lives.

As you attend— parties this season, I encourage you to use these as networking opportunities to tell your authentic stories, to listen and to be present—removing all expectations that this afternoon or evening will make or break your career or your business. Have fun! Don’t judge yourself or others for unsmooth dance moves—and please, if there’s a chocolate fountain—indulge. Nobody ever regrets that decision.

I'm Grateful For You

As I take time to reflect on the most meaningful areas of my work in 2019, what tops my list for the third year in a row is:

My ongoing connection and conversation with you.

It truly makes my day when you write me a note to say a sentence or even a word prompted you to think a new way. When you tell me a piece was "just what you needed to read" today.

I hear you. I see you. And that's why I will continue to be there to remind you to be compassionate to yourself. To be a flawed human. To forgive and create anew.

The way I like to close out the year is with time to be thoughtful about what went well...and well, what didn't. To set goals for the coming year and to choose people in my life who will hold me accountable for those audacious goals.

As my gift to you this season, I'm sharing my - You Got This 2020 Planner (pdf).

Create time for yourself to wrap up this year with the gravitas it deserves.

I look forward to hearing your 2020 goals and being a member of the team that inspires you to achieve them!

All the holiday love,

Rachel