Digital Marketing, Media, PR Analysis And Insight – The Future Buzz

Writers block, unsuccessful brainstorming sessions and other creative stopping points generally occur from one of two things: stress or overthinking. Stress I’ll leave you to handle on your own – but overthinking is something I can help you with.

It’s a problem that happens to the best of us, but it’s curable. The first step is a brief understanding of the physiological reason why overthinking is harmful:

A recent article from Scientific American outlines some interesting research:

Trying to concentrate on monitoring the quality of your performance is counterproductive because the cerebellum, which controls complex motor tasks, is not consciously accessible.

I have a theory about creative individuals – that they have infinite potential reserves, if they figure out how to access them. It’s difficult to see this sometimes because while we have incredible moments of inspiration and flow experiences, we also have plenty of downtime where we are seemingly unable to extract from our inner creativity. The thing is, if you’re a creative person of any sort, your internal inspiration is perpetually available if you know how to access it. What I mean by this is even on days you’re feeling stressed and/or unproductive, you still have reserves you can tap at your whim.

In the beginning of 2009, I compiled 22 smart, inspirational quotes from bloggers to share with you. Today I thought it would be fun to mash-up the quotes with visuals to make them come alive (be sure to view full screen):

Sometimes we get caught up in trying to create ideas that are truly, 100% original. And yet this can prove difficult due to the very nature of the web, where on some days it seems as if everything possible has already been done (even though this is not true). There are an incredible amount of Facebook, iPhone and other platform-specific applications churned out daily. There are even more e-commerce businesses, blogs, newspapers, and niche-specific social networks vying for your attention.

Saturation in terms of raw numbers is an understatement.

image credit: aussiegall

Both personally and professionally, I’m a huge fan of Creative Commons. It actually goes beyond being an advocate – I license all my art under Creative Commons and encourage other artists and creatives to do the same, at least for some of their works. I’ve written up some of the tangible benefits before, and for it that post received coverage on Techdirt (which has more than 800,000 RSS subscribers) as well as on the Creative Commons official blog.

All the great imagery I use in my blog entries is from talented people adding their works to Flickr under a Creative Commons license. It’s all free PR for those artists taking advantage of the open nature of the system, and concurrently helps my blog content be visually appealing – it is a symbiotic relationship where everyone wins.

Are you in a corporation and see someone above you making mistakes? Put together a case and call them out, don’t ever let someone’s title stop you from that.

Find a better way to do something that’s more efficient than the way it has always been done? Don’t even ask permission, just put your new path into action.

Do you notice a vendor or agency you’re working with may not be the best choice? Don’t suffer in silence, find a better partner and cut those who are dragging you down.

image credit: brentbat

New blogs, new social networks, new interests, new businesses, new forms of marketing – these are all things that are easy to get excited about. But excitement is unsustainable and not a reason to get involved in things the way passion is. Developing passion is not instant and takes true time and dedication that an overwhelming majority will simply not put the effort into.

image credit: chris gin

I’ve been asked repeatedly how I am able to concurrently be a writer, an artist, have a career as a marketing/PR professional and be prolific at all of those things. I want to share my processes and methods I’ve developed with you, but first let’s answer the obvious question:

Why even try to become proficient in several things and instead devote all efforts to one?

image credit: here’s kate

As I walked into my loft after work, I couldn’t help but notice the ever-growing stack of books on my coffee table in disarray with sticky notes on pages of ideas I had while reading.

My “project songs” folder in my music studio has close to 1,000 projects started, but unfinished. Some are near completed songs, others are just brief snippets of melodies. I never stop myself from starting a new project when an idea strikes.

image credit: pbo31

Cross electronic music with jazz and you get UK duo Zero 7. Mix abstraction with architecture and you get Frank Gehry. Combine art, anonymous self-expression and a love of postcards and you get Post Secret. Combine an attorney with blogging and Web 2.0 and you get TechCrunch.

So many interesting artists, designers, ideas and entrepreneurs are successful because they find a unique combination of passions at a synergistic intersection.