How Getting Bored Will Grow Your Brand
Getting caught in a constant cycle of “doing” can make scaling your DTC brand harder than it needs to be. Spending more time “getting bored” and giving your mind to think creatively will help you develop creative solutions to scaling constraints and unlock scale.
Founders often get stuck in a vicious cycle of always “doing,” especially in a period of scaling. As you scale your brand, there are more and more tasks and projects that need to be done. There are increasing demands on your time. Everyone is vying for your attention. They want meetings with you, they want approval of decisions, they want approval and sign off on final project deliverables. It’s exhausting – and I understand how it feels. I’ve been there before several times.
Here's the problem – if you’re always too busy doing things, you’ll never find the time to “get bored” and give your brain the mental space to come up with the creative solutions that your brand needs to overcome scaling constraints. Even worse – the constant “doing” quickly becomes exhausting and can turn into full-fledged burn out.
Here’s the reality – as you scale, your brand needs more and more of your thinking not your doing. To scale the business beyond yourself, your job is to build a machine of people and systems that get the doing done. Then you need to get yourself out of the machine and spend time thinking about strategy and how to improve the machine.
Here’s the good news – today I have a few tips to help you break this vicious cycle of doing and replace it with the life-giving, scale-enhancing cycle of getting bored and thinking creatively.
Tips for Creating a Habit of “Getting Bored” and Thinking
In a nutshell, what I recommend is this – make creative thinking a regular part of your weekly work routine. Now let me be clear – I am not talking about working extra hours during nights and weekends to accomplish this. I am talking about scheduling time to regularly think creatively during your normal workday, on a regular basis – in other words: make it a habit.
Here are three tips that have helped me immensely with creating this habit –
Schedule Clarity Breaks: A clarity break is a regularly scheduled meeting with yourself, booked on your calendar. The goal is to create space where you can sit in silence and rise above the everyday demands of your job to reflect and think at a thirty-thousand-foot view. There are a few best practices I follow that make or break this routine. First, do it away from the office. Your normal work environment has too many triggers that will pull your mind back “into the business.” The goal of this exercise is to work “on the business.” Second, schedule it in your calendar with a regular frequency. I suggest at least once per week for at least 60 minutes. Lastly, ask yourself these questions during your break:
Is the Vision/plan on track for the business?
What is the number one goal for the business?
Am I focusing on the most important things?
Do I have the right people in the right seats to grow?
Schedule a Workday to Read, Research and Learn: This one can be extremely hard for founders to implement. Believe me – I know from personal experience. Why? Because reading, researching and listening to podcasts can feel like “wasting time” and being “unproductive.” However, as the founder and leader of your brand, personal development is of paramount importance. You must continuously expand your knowledge and perspectives if you want to come up with creative solutions to scaling constraints. Trust me – implementing this routine will be a major unlock for you. You can’t know what you don’t know, and the most creative ideas often come from outside yourself. So - find books, newsletters, articles and podcasts about the challenges you are facing, and draw on that knowledge to come up with more creative solutions to your scaling issues. I promise investing this time will be worthwhile. If you are nervous about devoting an entire day to these activities, start with one or two hours a week. I guarantee that you’ll increase the frequency and duration of this routine when you see the fruit it bears.
Go on Regular Walks: one of my favorite hacks for giving my mind space to wander and think creatively is to consistently go on walks during my workday. In fact, I try to go on a thirty to sixty-minute walk every day of the week. During these walks my subconscious mind comes up with my most creative strategic solutions. There’s a reason that Steve Jobs often held one-on-one meetings with his leadership team during “walk and talks.” Because it works. Give it a shot – you won’t regret it.
Conclusion
In summary – as you scale your brand, it is essential that you spend less time doing and more time thinking. As your brand’s visionary leader, creative thinking will make or break the success of your scaling journey. Follow the tips provided in this article and you’ll quickly be on your way to experiencing regular periods of “boredom” and mental clarity - and the result will be more creativity than you ever thought possible.
One final note: at Free to Grow CFO, we provide Fractional CFO services for growing DTC brands. We exist to give brand founders the executive-level CFO advice and expertise they need to make scaling decisions with confidence. By taking over the finance function for you, we free up your time to get out of working “in the business” so you can have the mental space to think and lead.
If you’re ready to learn more about how Free to Grow CFO can help you free you up to spend more time thinking creatively, click here to book a free intro call.
Until next time, scale on!
