Just as in art, in marketing you envision the final results that you want to achieve and can only get there by passionately making the necessary steps to get there.

It doesn’t magically happen. It takes hard work, courage, time, perseverance…

If it’s all about the destination (results!), you need to be all about the steps of progress. It’s the only way to get there.

Identifying the Best Tools

There are many options and possibilities, whether you’re selecting which colored pencils to use or which marketing strategies to employ.

After conducting a lot of research, you’ll have many more ideas than you can act on and some that just aren’t the right fit for the project.

The exciting part is narrowing it down to the gems that will bring in business and achieve the results your company is seeking.

The Work Is the Best Part

Now that you have chosen your color palette or marketing tools to move forward with, the work begins.

Solidifying the plan, scheduling the deadlines, engaging the appropriate team members, generating excitement about the project, putting in the hours, and best of all seeing the progress that is being made toward the goal.

It’s energizing to see the steps being accomplished and the achieved goal coming into view.

The Joy in the Steps

An art piece may take hours, weeks, or years. The same is true with marketing and branding initiatives.

Admire and celebrate the wins along the way. It may be a jump in revenue, a surge of new customers, a big news article, or an increase in social following.

There are many results to be seen before the final destination is reached and they can be just as important as the overall results of a campaign.

The Journey to the Results

I generally like to draw and paint from my memory or my imagination, but in this case I set a goal of recreating one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been.

This is the current state of the piece and I’d say it’s about halfway finished at this point.

I can already taste the results as I see the coloring and gradients coming into sight. I’m on the right track.

The same experience happens with a complex marketing campaign that has a specific goal to reach. You monitor its progress along the way and make sure that you can see it heading in the direction of success.

It’s all in the many steps. Focus on the journey to get to the results.

This is the photo that inspired this art piece: