Creativity Archives - Page 2 of 2

Credit: MindysBookWorms.org

I’m on a quest to define creativity. Is it innovation, or are there differences between the two? I wrote recently about the need for PR and marketing to be more creative when it comes to putting a social media marketing plan together. Then I gave a list of nine tools available from which to select.

That’s really not creativity; that’s merely being smart about researching the space to see which tools fit the required strategy.

Then I read Inc. magazine about Stan Richards, founder of The Richards Group, an ad agency behind some of the most creative and controversial campaigns in advertising. (P.S. If you want to see one of THE MOST creative websites I’ve seen in awhile, hit his agency link, and here’s a link to his book, The Peaceable Kingdom.)

“Creativity doesn’t need a muse; it needs a drill sergeant,” he said. Richards’ firm adheres to strict rules:

>>8:30 a.m. prompt start to the day

>>Accounting for each quarter hour or be docked $8.63 from pay

>>On time to meetings or risk being shut out

>>Close of business is 6 p.m.; go home

The man posts billings of $1.28 billion; he owns the most successful independent shop ever. Hats off, Stan!

Is creativity innate? It’s my humble thinking that the mind hinders creative embellishment. When your mind blocks your actions, you become inhibited. There is no comfort in your own skin; you fear making the wrong move, saying the wrong thing, looking like a fool (to yourself) among company.

Now put these thoughts into a company brainstorm where the team is attempting to define the big idea. (PR is all about the big idea.) Instead of being the first to say, “what about…” you tag team off someone else and slowly open your mind to new ideas.

Perhaps creativity is confidence. Stan Richards says creativity is discipline and regimented rules.

As a blogger it’s more imperative to be creative than ever before. This is my 252nd post; not so sure it’s a milestone of any sort, but looking back on a bloggers’ life, each post came from somewhere. The inspiration people take so lightly is actually extremely serious.

So, creativity also requires the ability to be inspired.

I’ll share about me a bit because it’s relevant. My mind has always been creative; I visualize the look of interiors in color and how a brochure should be designed with the raw copy in front of me. I hammer a nail on the wall eyes only and plop art perfectly in place (heh, perfectly to me because slightly askew fits my out-of-the-box persona). A steady stream of ideas leads to the ability for strategic brainstorming and also the ability to drill into segments and enhance each with detail.

With all that said, can we assume creativity is innate? Born in some and not others? Given as a gift to right brain thinkers while left brains lead with logic? Here are some of the conclusions from above, and I’m hoping you’ll add your thoughts to help with this discussion:

>>Creativity requires an open and unhindered mind.

>>Creativity requires inspiration and the ability to be inspired.

>>Creativity is confidence.

>>Creativity is innate.

>>Creativity is not innovation.

Please share your thinking, because more thinking also leads to a higher level of creativity.

credit: blogs.laweekly.com

It’s Saturday and finally hot. My mind takes silly twists and turns without the confines of intense focus of the customary work week (which has grown to encompass nights and weekends).

I’m sitting in the streaming sunshine with streaming thoughts (stay with me here) marveling at all the comments still active on three blogs I commented on and wrote yesterday (do people ever put up boundaries?). Scanning a headline in O’Dwyers “Congloms, PR service firms see big Q1 gains,” I did a double take — condoms? Really?

And then my mind immediately returned to a sassy comment I’d made the other day in conversation (what, me sassy?); whatever happened to the condom (the link is clean…from Wikipedia)?

There’s a high profile case that has me blown away (well only wind blown) — that of the Terminator having sired a love child 10 years ago with his housekeeper while married to his also-celebrity wife Maria Shriver with whom he sired three(?) children.

And, let’s not forget John Edwards whose high-profile wife was terminal with cancer while he sired a love child he tried to keep under wraps unsuccessfully with a vendor to his presidential campaign. I’m not the man in the heat of passion with some young tart wanting a piece of his DNA; however, wouldn’t one think if he was a man in such a position of power and celebrity as these two both were that a condom would be in order?

I don’t know, call me stupid.

So what do condoms have to do with social media? Uhmm, nothing…but let me stretch the confines of creativity to ensure I’m ready for Monday…(you know keeping my brain cells focused on intense work over a weekend).

Let me define this useful item, (rarely used by celebrity males at least two we’re aware of which keeps mass production in check), as a sheath or protective barrier (it’s also defined as such by Wikipedia, a link above). And, a protective barrier has many uses in social media…here are three for you:

**How do you protect your Facebook page from getting spammed with negative comments? Let’s ask Burson-Marstellar! Why, you just remove the unacceptable posts from unfriendlies and hope for the best (aka suffer the backlash).

**How do you protect your Twitter account from being seen by your boss? You keep it locked and only accept tweeps by approval, of course. For sure; that’s a marvelous way to grow a community and engage, isn’t it?

**How do you add more subscribers and commenters to your blog posts? You take off the protective barrier and hope that posts like this don’t offend anyone. And, if your “subscribe” widget isn’t working or you miss the deadline for the Feedburner distribution by 20 minutes, that really helps protect anyone from reading a really bad Saturday post that truly stretches it.

That is all.

Soulati-'TUDE!

Thinking About Creativity