How to Improve Strategy Workshops
By Levina Kusumadjaja
So you’ve done strategy workshops a couple of times now, and you’re getting into the rhythm of it. You’re feeling more comfortable talking to clients and explaining about why strategy workshops are a part of your process. But now you’re experiencing a different worry—because instead of getting anxious about actually doing the workshop, you are now wondering: “How can I grow from here?”
Here are some things you can do:
1) Connect with other brand strategists and learn together
I used to think that I shouldn’t work together with people who are doing the same thing and working in the same industry. I thought we should be competitors with one another and we shouldn’t be sharing our “secrets” to them. This mindset is 100% wrong. I’m finding that we all just want to grow, learn, and give our best for our clients. That’s why it’s so powerful to come together with other brand strategists and learn from one another.
Melinda said that one of her major game changers was joining The Futur ProGroup. And eventually later on, she started doing her own “study group” with other brand strategists. They would do strategy workshops on each other— taking turns to be in the client’s shoes and the strategist’s shoes. You can learn so much from these sessions because you learn about what it feels to be the client and what other brand strategists do. Instead of focusing on competing, you are now growing one another.
2) Focus on the client, not yourself
Strategy workshops are about the client. Strategy workshops are not about impressing our client. The focus of a strategy workshop is to figure out how you, as a brand strategist, can help your client reach their goal. When your fix your eyes on landing the project and on worrying about not being good enough for the task, you paralyze yourself. Your clouded perspective will hinder you from asking effective questions in the workshop, because your goal becomes to look good—not to solve problems.
The right focus —> clarity in workshops —> effective strategy
If you want your strategy workshops to be effective, shift your focus from yourself to your client. Focus on helping your client. It’s not about you! It’s about figuring out where your client wants to go, where your client is at right now, and how you can help them get to where they want to go. The more clouded you are with your own worries and fears, the less you will get out of the workshop, and the less effective your strategy and deliverable will be. The more focused you are on finding a solution, the more the clarity you will get, and the more effective the strategy you will produce.
3) Do some projects for free and start from there
Some people, like me, get quite uncomfortable making the big leap to brand strategy. That’s why I love this last tip, which is to try doing some strategy projects for free, and set a goal of when you would like to start charging more. For example, in the beginning of Melinda’s journey, she started by doing 5 projects for free first. And from there, she kept doubling up every time. Charge less than what you feel you could deliver, and then keep giving your best. Sometimes we need this process because we need to prove to ourselves that what we give is valuable.
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These tips that I’ve shared in this article are meant to help us maintain in that growth mindset. It’s so important for us as a creative and strategist to always make room for growth. We have to remember, we will never be quite there yet. There will always be new things that we can learn and improve on.
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!