It’s a challenge producing creative content that audiences want to engage with at a time when people are swamped with messaging everywhere they look.
Like marketers, producing creative content for targeted audiences is the core responsibility for musicians. One such musician is R&B singer John Legend, who has picked up a few lessons throughout his 13 year career on how to constantly improve creativity. And his results show it, having recently scored his first chart-topper with the song “All of Me.”
By building a large library of ideas at the start, and refining them later, you give yourself more choices to pick from, as well as full quality control over your ideas as you move along.
He recently shared his keys to creativity during Interact 2014, Oracle’s Marketing Cloud Conference, which have been summarized in the article John Legend’s 5 Tips To Marketers For Improving Creativityby author John Ellett. Let’s take a quick look at John Legend’s tips below.
Be a Great Collaborator
Collaborating opens up paths and ideas you wouldn’t have explored on your own, pushing aside any preconceived notions you have along the way. Collaborating also introduces you to people with specific expertise on varying subjects, allowing you to watch and learn from the best during the collaborative process.
Sometimes, collaborations between musicians lead to… interesting results.
Get Things Done
Waiting around for inspiration can take a while. While you should always be open to inspiration, you also need to be intentional with your time and get things done. If you want to write a short story, put pencil to paper and let your ideas flow.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t be inspired, but waiting until you always “feel inspired” to start a project or creative idea isn’t a productive approach.
Study the Greats
Learn from those in your field who have been successful and have advice you can use. Watching TED Talks or reading books are simple ways to study the greats from the comfort of your own home. For a more hands-on approach, find someone whose creative thinking you admire, and see if they’d be willing to be your mentor.
Develop Your Ideas – Refine Them Later
John Legend explained that for his last album he wrote 80 songs, but released only 19. By building a large library of ideas at the start, and refining them later, you give yourself more choices to pick from, as well as full quality control over your ideas as you move along. Being picky right off the start is constricting and affords you less flexibility to change direction as you move forward.