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My daughter, Emily, got married this past weekend in Portland, Oregon.

All in all, it was a big success.

Perfect weather, logistically flawless, and wonderful to watch her smile for hours on end while surrounded by so many friends and family. I am officially declaring it the happiest day of my life.

In many ways, the wedding was unconventional…

… it was held outside next to a babbling brook.

… Emily, my new son-in-law, and a couple dozen of their friends, took care of nearly all the set up and clean up.

… of the 85 guests, about 60 of us camped out at the venue that night.

Still, there were many traditional elements: vows spoken, rings exchanged, toasts toasted.  

And, of course, the father-daughter dance … although it was not what I expected.

What I expected and was thinking about beforehand was the “performance” aspect. With all those people watching, I was hoping we would look at least vaguely capable. (I suggested to Emily that she toss her shoes and stand on my feet like she did when she was little, but I was quickly shot down.)

But when the time came, I completely forgot about how we looked and didn’t even notice the other people.

It was just Emily and me chatting quietly for three minutes in our little dance bubble – a welcome break from the hurricane frenzy of a wedding celebration.

Good Things Happen In the Space Between

While not always as much fun as a wedding (although there also tends to be a lot of drinking), working solo is likewise a bit of a hurricane.

You’re in charge of everything: finding the clients, managing the technology, participating in the marketing, handling the finances, etc. And that’s not even counting doing the work itself for which you are hired.

It’s a lot. And it’s easy to get caught up in the pace of it, since no matter how much you work, there is always more to be done.

But throughout all the years of hectic craziness, I’ve noticed something: The busy, day-to-day is not where the good ideas live.

The new products and service offerings; the fundamental improvements to your marketing; the people you meet who end up leading you to brand new things … all that happens in the quiet times – the spaces between the blocking and tackling of daily business.

Which means if you never pick your head up from “the work,” you’ll likely still be doing the same work, in the same way, under the same circumstances, for years to come.

You need the quiet to see the big openings and make the big leaps.

But those times don’t happen by themselves. Like a father-daughter dance deliberately dropped into a busy wedding day, you need to consciously and purposely build them in.

Some suggestions…

Read.

Not just things within your profession or area of expertise. Books, articles, things that catch your interest. Some of your best ideas will come from people and places that have absolutely nothing to do with your business.

Write.

I confess, I’m biased, since I enjoy writing. But you don’t have to be a “good” writer to write. All you need are the tools (I prefer typing, but many people do it by hand) and 10 minutes to write whatever words come to mind.

Don’t even worry about making sense – just write and write for 10 minutes. It’s an amazing, mind-clearing, creativity-unlocking exercise.

Talk.

One of my foundational marketing tactics is to meet with one person, face-to-face, each week (not the same person, that would be dumb).

Yes, it takes some time. But it exposes me to different ideas and forces me to talk about whatever I am working on, both of which invariably lead to new insights I can use.

Walk.

For reasons I’ve never understood, walking is better for creative thinking than sitting. Any time I’m stuck on a problem or in need of a creative breakthrough on a project, I leave my office and  go for a walk. In most cases, it doesn’t take long for things to open up.

Stop.

I hate meditation. And while I recognize the benefits, I still won’t do it. So I try the next best thing: I unplug as much as possible.

I try to leave the phone in my pocket (or, even better, at home!) while waiting for the doctor, standing in line at the grocery store, waiting to cross the street, whatever. Just a few minutes here and there is a good way to stop all the mental noise.

Here’s the bottom line.

I find it interesting that my favorite part of Emily’s wedding was when the two of us temporarily stepped away from it and had our dance.

By the same token, sometimes, the best way to move your business forward is to stop working on it for a little while and find the eye of the hurricane.

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Discussion Questions:

1. Have you ever been in the eye of a hurricane?
2. What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever seen at a wedding?
3. How do you find the “space between” in your work?

Share your answers below…

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