HOW I TAPPED INTO MY CREATIVITY.

While enrolled in Marie Forleo’s B-School, I was challenged to reach out to 20 people in my life and ask them about my greatest strengths. I reached out to a mix of family, friends, clients, colleagues to get a mix of answers.

I came up with five reasons not to do the exercise, including that I knew what people would say—they’d say I was smart, funny, and cute, and that would be that. It turns out I didn’t give myself enough credit, because “creativity” is my biggest strength—by a landslide. 12 out of 18 people polled listed “creative” as my first strength. The other top two strengths were that I’m dynamic and big-hearted. I started thinking about my business and how that creativity and big-heartedness needed to come through more, so that I could better serve my clients, especially during this crisis. Soonafter, the How To Share podcast was born.

Money’s tight right now, but you know what isn’t? Ideas. Creativity might be your greatest strength right now, too. If you’re searching for ideas or looking to get more creative in your communications, or change the ways in which your property is responding to the crisis, hop aboard my creativity-in-crisis train.

How creativity can keep your business in growth mode.

It may sound like an oxymoron but now is the perfect time to grow because business has slowed down. Think about all the times in the past you’ve said, “If I only had one day a week, I could do x, y, z” or “if we didn’t have guests coming in every day, we could finally finish that project.” Dust off that wish list, because right now you have the time.

This moment is the incredible opportunity to hit pause on your daily operations. If you hadn’t been forced to close, but if you wanted to get a renovation or a revitalization project completed, you probably would’ve needed to close, and sacrifice some sales, in order to do so. Just because the pandemic is the reason behind this pause, doesn’t mean you can’t still take full advantage of this time.

A great example of creativity in crisis is across the Atlantic, in the Canary Islands. If you’ve heard of them, you might also know about Lanzarote—an island in the Canaries. On the north eastern side of the island, there’s an eco-retreat that sits on the edge of Arrieta Beach, called Finca de Arrieta. Steven and I were lucky enough stay at this little slice of paradise a few years ago. The property consists of a great piece of acreage with 17 alternative-energy-powered bungalow-style properties, plus resort amenities like an honor system pantry and a chicken coop for picking up eggs, some lawn games, surf and boogie boards, and solar panels. The owners have always had a goal of being self-sustainable. 

There was one thing they always wanted and didn’t have time for—and that was to start a vegetable garden. This may seem small, but in doing so they would actually become that much closer to their goal of self-sustainability. So you can guess what happened when guests cleared out as a result of the pandemic: they took action and put more roots into the ground. They’ve planted watermelon, sweet potatoes, beans, and more, and intend to serve their guests in a whole new way, year-round, when it’s time to reopen.

Another example is our restaurant in Bend, Oregon, Barrio. When our state governor, Kate Brown, announced that all restaurants would need to close their dining services and exist doing takeout/delivery for the foreseeable future, Steven immediately went to work to figure out how to do more than just survive. He looked months into the future, when diners would be ready to return and he started asking questions. What will customers want when that time comes? How will the restaurant experience change? Steven’s been not only working to beautify his restaurant for the day when customers can return, he’s also rethinking the entire dining experience as we know it. He’s doubling down on takeout by showing up on every single delivery app and seeing which ones work best, and he’s also rethinking the in-house dining experience to anticipate his future customer’s needs. 

Each week, he’s testing out different menu items to try to meet the needs of customers dining at home. He’s not just going with the menu that was working when diners were coming in, because that’s changed. In the first week, he put out a family meal, knowing that parents are home with their kids right now and need some relief.

The third example is my marketing podcast. This was the thing that I was “waiting for a pause” to be able to start. When I finally got that pause, I had to sort of temper my excitement because I immediately saw this break from my regular work for what I’m telling you it is—the time to finally do that thing. Because my work in the traditional sense slowed down, I could actually use the new found time, to grow. In the first three months of the year, I was working constantly and it felt like I never had enough hours to pursue the things I knew would actually allow me to grow in the future. Suddenly, I found that time and launched the How To Share Podcast.

By the way, episode 6 of my podcast covers this exact topic in even more detail. Listen to the full episode here.

But Amy, I need more than time. I need cold-hard cash.

I know that sometimes time isn’t the only thing you need. You may need money and probably feel like you’re running out of it. For service based businesses though, this is a little easier. If you’re wanting to complete a major building or renovation project for your hotel, just consider that you may have needed to close down to complete the project in the first place, and that the pent-up demand for travel will lead to a strong rebound for hospitality.

Don’t let the cobwebs grow and don’t turn out the lights. Find creative ways to continue to invest right now—it will pay off.

How creativity can connect you to your customers.

This is actually an incredible time for hotels. Without doing much, there’s going to be a ton of pent up demand for travel when this is all over because travelers have had their trips postponed and cancelled. Hotel marketing has never been more powerful, it just takes a bit of creativity, and you may need to throw your existing marketing plan out the window (more on building a better marketing plan here).

My friends have reached out to say they’ve had countless trips, conferences, stuff they’ve been waiting a year for, canceled. Now they’re forced to stay home, and there’s no one to be mad at. They’re not upset with the hotel or the destination. In fact, suddenly that trip has become the thing they want more than anything. 

The value and meaning of vacations, and being outside of the home, has increased exponentially in recent weeks. There’s a lot at stake right now, and we all need to stay home, but the time will come to travel again, and the pent up demand will create a major rebound for hospitality. 

How To Keep YOUR HOTEL TOP OF MIND.

Don’t sit back and wait for that pent up demand to bubble over when the time comes. What if I told you that you can also do something right now, without inviting guests into your hotel just yet, to make sure that your hotel and destination is top of mind when the time comes to travel again? Would you invest a little more now if it meant more market share in the future?

You can see in the creative efforts to connect with their past guests that hotels are starting to understand this equation more and more. Hotels who welcome local artists are creating playlists on Spotify. Hotels with restaurants, or restaurants that are stand alone, are sharing recipes to cook at home. Pet-friendly hotels are donating supplies to animal shelters. Some hotels are sending stripped down emails from their GM or owners to share highly personal stories of what they’re day-to-day looks like now, and messages of hope.

These are just some of the ways that you can get creative to stay connected to your customers, and be the place they want to visit most, when this is all over.

How to tap into your creativity right now.

You might be wondering how to come up with ideas of your own. First of all, you know your property better than anyone. There are so many ideas inside of those walls. In episode 6 of the How To Share Podcast, I share how to reverse-engineer what you know about your hotel and your customers, to spark your own hotel marketing ideas and hospitality strategies.

Are you tapping into your creativity in crisis? Comment below.

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