engineeringgrowth

I work in the creative industry. I get paid for churning out innovative ideas, selling concepts, dreams and visions.

One of my biggest worry is that when I wake up one morning, I do not have any worthy ideas to contribute. Like my inner creativity department just go on strike and my mind goes blank.

An example is why I have been so quiet lately on my blog.

Allow me to let you in on a little secret. Going blank is simply an excuse.

More than anything else, creativity is not a talent, nor is it any wacky idea you pluck from thin air.

It is pure Practice, Process and Discipline.

Inspirations are readily available from the people you interact with, the things you see, hear, touch, smell, read and experience.

Question is…

• Do you Practice seeing things differently, instead of only waiting to see different things?
• Do you have a Process of collecting the inspirations instead of letting them pass?
• Do you have the Discipline of converting these inspirations into action?

For me, the missing element had always been the Discipline of getting in front of the white screen, and let the words flow through my fingers.

Even though if I had completely nothing to say.

Marketing is... the reason you pay $250 for this!

1. Watch Plenty of TV (Ads)

You can always spot someone working in the Marketing industry from the outsiders: During television commercial, instead of going to the toilet, he / she will be glued to the TV, analysing every second of the clip. Be that person. Look out for good adverts, as well as the bad ones. They will teach you what not to do in the future.

2. Master your English

I wish someone had told me this when I was growing up. Without a good fundamental in English, I was often handicapped by the grammar errors and the limited vocabulary in my repertoire to express my ideas. Vocabulary is like your weapons going into a battle. Imagine fighting a war with inferior firepower.

Two ideas: Read broadly, read vicariously! Start a Blog, begin to write, even if no body reads it (I understand!). The reward is priceless.

3. Learn Pu-Tong-Hua

In case you haven’t already noticed, China is already taking over America and the rest of the world in many economic frontiers. When you graduate in 3 years time, most of your customers would demand your sales pitch in Chinese. What’s the use of a Harvard Degree, if you cannot speak in your customers’ language?

4. Learn the Basics

One of the best thing that ever happened to me as a Marketer was the 8 years of returning to Australia. After working a few years for Asia Inc Magazine in Brunei and Singapore early in my career, I had a sense of confidence that I could take on any challenge when I immigrated to Australia. 8 months of unemployment on, I resolved to selling Kebab for an Iranian take-out and eventually started a shoe shop with my uncle, who was also my partner.

There, I learned first hand the value of customer service, the thrill of responding to customers’ complain, thinking on my feet. I also developed an insight on the effectiveness of my marketing campaigns, which I would never otherwise be able to understand, had I been pushing paper in the office.

Go, be a part time waitress, stack supermarket shelves, deliver newspaper. You’d come out better because of it!

5. Take Lots of Pictures (and create fun captions)

Print Advertisements are often nothing more than Pictures breathed into live with clever captions. Try turning your pictures into advertisements at home, insert punchy captions less than 10 words, try 5 if you can, 3 even better! Do it long enough, you’d be ready for a job as a copy writer before you know it.

Continue Reading