Hey, creative. Have you ever heard of the yes and rule, the yes and rule? It’s from improv comedy. Um, it’s a really powerful tool, a way of thinking about projects, especially if you’re in a creative business where you’re dealing with clients back and forth. So if you, if you haven’t heard of it, let me explain it, uh, where it comes from, what it does, and how it can help you in your business. Most of us, most humans, uh, when we are talking back and forth with I, uh, about ideas or something with clients or friends or whatever, because we’ve been trained by the school system and our parents and everybody else, that, um, one of the most valuable things you can do is to be right, is to have the right answer. The right answer. I’m the one with the right answer. What happens is when we get into to discussions, people will ask, um, questions of each other.
What do you think about this? What do you think about my idea? And usually are our, our reaction is like, no, that’s not the right idea, but here’s what I have to say about that. No, but, okay, you may have experiences with clients when they have ideas and they have ideas, right? They come to us and they have, even if they say they don’t, they, they really, you know, they have something in their mind they want, or they wouldn’t have called you in the first place. So what they’ll say is, uh, here’s what I’m thinking. Or maybe some this and that. And it’s really easy as a creative to get defensive of our own work, especially when someone is trying to compare our work to some other reference that they bring to us. And so it’s very easy to go, yeah, no, I, I, okay, I get that.
No, but I have an idea. Here’s what I think is the best thing to do. Uh, that is bad. One, because it’s negative, it starts with the word no. So you’re shutting your client down in a little way, which is not good client relationship management, but there is a better way. And it comes from improv comedy, and it’s called, yes. And there’s a game in improv comedy. Uh, if you ever do, if you’ve ever been a theater kid or whatever, you’ve done this game where two people pair, pair up, and then I will have an idea, I will start a premise. So we’re walking into a grocery store and we’re pushing our cart, and we notice that, um, there is a person riding a unicycle down one of the aisles toward the dairy. And then I stop. And then it’s your turn to pick up that thought and go.
Yes. And, um, there is a, a circus troupe that is, you know, doing handouts at the tasting, little tasting booths and Right, and the game goes on. In other words, you d you can’t say no, you have to start with yes. And they go Here, here’s how I’m going to improve on that one. The yes and mindset is so powerful with clients because they’re gonna come to you with some basic idea or a feeling or whatever it is. And by saying, yes, I, okay, I, I see where you’re going with that. Yes. And how about this? You’re adding onto, you’re collaborating now. You’ve brought them in. You’ve said yes. What you’re, what you say is valuable, great client management stuff, and I would like to improve on it. So see, you are still needed and you are still, uh, gonna add your unique ideas and your differentiators and what makes you special on top of their ideas, instead of negating their ideas.
This kind of mindset, the yes and approach is going to become so much more important as artificial intelligence art generators come online. Have you been following this? Has it scared to live in crap out of you yet? Well, good. Um, it doesn’t mean you’re gonna go away, but what it does mean is if you are not starting to collaborate with people and improve on their ideas, you’re just going, nah, but what about this? It’s gonna be very easy for them to go find a machine that will create the thing that you want to create for them. Machines have a hard time, um, pushing up the next level of creativity. They can do. They can do cool things with what’s already exist, amazing things, but it’s up to you and me to go, yes. And how about this thing you’ve never seen? How about this thing you’ve never heard? How about the thing nobody’s ever heard? That’s where we come in. So get into the yes and mindset. It’ll make you feel better. First of all, your clients will like you more because you’re now valuing what they say and you’re bringing them into that collaborative process. I’ve talked about being a thinking partner before, and that goes along with this. So purge no, but from your vocabulary and start thinking like a yes and person. You can do it. I love you.