Note: No spoilers and this is not a review.
I just finished marathon-binging the second season of the hit show on Hulu, “The Bear.” I have to say, it seemed as though every single second made me uncomfortable in one way or another. And I’m quite sure that was the intended effect.
Maybe I’m more empathetic than the typical viewer. Or maybe I’m a sucker for those uncomfortably close close-ups and twisting moments of silence interrupted by pure chaos. But the writing, the character development, the visual design, all of it portrays people doing their very best under extremely uncomfortable conditions.
It made me really empathize with small business stakeholders, too. The hell they go through just trying to bring their dreams to life. That all-consuming passion, to the exclusion often of everything else in their worlds. You can feel it in your chest. Anxiety, fear, excitement, sometimes misery, but always the deep-down drive to do that thing you were born to do. It’s incredibly respectable, but terribly uncomfortable.
When marketers look at it through this lens, maybe there’s a reason many of our ideas make small-business clients uncomfortable. Maybe they realize the difference between what we’re putting on the line – an account, likely a small one – versus what the business’s stakeholders have to lose (often, everything). The difference is immeasurable.
So, if I’m Carmy’s marketing guy, I’m going to do a few things to help him out.
- I’m giving him a LOT of leeway to be scared or indecisive without me getting frustrated.
- I’m going to earn his trust through results. With small, deliberate steps. We’ll get through the fear and indecision together, hand in hand. He’ll have ownership.
- I’m going to double or triple down on my responsibility to bring him ideas we know will work. I don’t want to bring him a “cool” idea. I want to bring him something incredibly smart and effective and responsible that brings him more business for less money. Cool ideas will come later. Smart, responsible ideas are the order of the day.
These are my promises to The Bear and any of the upstarts I’m fortunate enough to work with. Their passion, their sacrifice, their drive to create their own destinies should be honored, respected, and handled with the utmost professionalism. OK, Chef?