Tag / creativity

by Jake

The terror of the blank page (or screen)

Mornings in my world are spent teaching A/V classes to a bunch of bright-eyed teenagers in a rural high school that’s as small as it is full of character.

You might wonder what the scariest part of this routine is. For me, it’s the chill that runs down my spine when administrators grace the classroom with their presence for observation. But for the students? It’s the stark terror of facing the infinite possibilities of a blank screen (or page, but honestly, we rarely actually write anything).

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Photo Credit: TheArtGuy via Compfight cc
by Jake

Make a pot

(Photo Credit: TheArtGuy via Compfight cc)

If you try to make every press release, every commercial, every radio script you work on an absolute masterpiece, the pinnacle of innovation and a trendsetter not just regionally but globally, you’ll drive yourself insane. You’ll never make deadlines. You’ll get depressed.

Basically, you’ll fail. The truth is that no one’s going to have a 100 percent success rate 100 percent of the time.  You can’t always be brilliant, so learn the value of “good enough to get the job done.”

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by Jake

Going viral

Creating a viral video — that’s the dream, isn’t it?

I had that happen just this week, and I’m still waiting to see the implications. The idea came to me suddenly and completely. I knew what I wanted to say, I knew how to put the video together, and I had a strong feeling that it’d resonate. It was a bolt of lightning, one of those creative sparks that I had to act on right the hell now.

But I stepped back for a minute, thought about it, and turned it into a powerful marketing tool. Here’s why it worked, and how it’s going to help my business get its name out.

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by Jake

Quick tip: Find your inspiration space

Running low on ideas? Think about where you got your last one.

No, seriously. What was happening around you the last time that you had a eureka-aha-holy-crap-that’s-a-great-thought moment? Chances are it wasn’t the first time that you’ve had inspiration there.

For me, it’s two places: a stretch between my dad’s house and my own (but only when driving alone), and also behind the piano at my church. For some reason, those are the two places on this planet I’ve found where my mind gets in just the right place for crazy awesome ideas to bubble up to the surface.

There’s science behind it. If your brain is working hard on a problem, a little bit of distraction and a shot of dopamine can kick-start your subconscious into overdrive, making solutions suddenly pop up that your conscious mind might ordinarily suppress. That’s a gross oversimplification, but you can read more about it here.

So when you’re stuck… head to your inspiration space.