Sam Horn - POP! Stand Out in any Crowd

Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius just has his original ideas closer together.” - G.C. Lichtenberg

Has your creative project come to a screeching halt? Are you staring at your computer and the words won’t come?

Rest assured, there is a way to get your ideas a little closer together.

I love to generate ideas. There are many times when my mind’s on fire and it’s a joy to have my fingers flying on the computer keys, trying to keep up with the flow of thoughts pouring out of my head.

It was a surprise then, when working on my book Tongue Fu! for School, that the flow of ideas dried up and writing became hard work. I was grinding it out because I had to turn my manuscript in to my publisher at the end of the month, but I wasn’t liking what I was producing.

I would re-read what I had written (I know, a fatal error) and would go “Yuck.” I knew it didn’t sing, knew it wasn’t “alive,” but I kept slogging it out because I had a deadline to meet.

I was creatively procrastinating one morning (reading the newspaper instead of writing) when I came across a fascinating article in USA Today about David Kelley, Hollywood’s former “Golden Boy.”

The article pointed out that, for a while, writer/director Kelley could do no wrong. He was the first person to receive an Emmy for Best Comedy (Ally McBeal) and Best Drama (The Practice) in the same year. Incredibly, Kelley was writing and directing BOTH shows at the same time – a grueling, almost unimaginable feat.

Then, for some reason, his pilots weren’t getting picked up and his shows started tanking in the ratings. The reporter’s opinion was that his plots were becoming increasingly bizarre and viewers were having a hard time relating to the unrealistic story lines.

A TV critic postulated why, “He’s lost his common touch. He lives in a 15 million dollar home, he’s married to Michelle Pheiffer and all he does, 24/7, is write, drive to the studio and direct and drive home. He’s become disconnected.”

A light bulb went off in my head. Here I was trying to talk about what it was like to deal with difficult people in schools – and I wasn’t spending any time in schools. I had lost touch with my audience and idea-generation had become an intellectual exercise. I was trying to “think up” my material instead of accessing my target audience and asking what THEY thought, what THEY wanted to learn, what THEY encountered on a daily basis.

I got up from my chair, drove to my sons’ school, and interviewed teachers, the principal, a guidance counselor, and a few of Tom and Andrew’s friends. By the end of that day, my mind was filled with the trials, tribulations, triumphs and mixed feelings of pride and powerlessness that are a fact of life for many educators and students.

I sat down to the computer that night and the incredibly compelling stories I had heard poured out. One afternoon of re-connecting with my intended audience renewed my passion for my project and brought it alive – because I had gotten out of my head and into the world of my target audience.

If your creative project is DOA; perhaps you’ve allowed it to become an intellectual exercise. Maybe you’re grinding it out because you’ve got a deadline and you’ve become completely detached from your topic, audience, and purpose.

That doesn’t work because that’s isolated creativity. That’s simply purging what’s in your head – without intent. If your intent is simply to finish your project, you can accomplish that – but that won’t make it sing. You will have a completed book, but, chances are, it will be lifeless and working on it will be joyless.

For creative work to become transcendent, we must have a clear intention of how it will deliver tangible value for people. We need to visualize individuals in our target audience and imagine how this project or program will solve a problem they’re facing. We need to get up from our chairs and go out into the field and talk with our intended audience and ask what they think. Find out what keeps them up at night and then go back to work with their voices and issues in your mind so your project, program or product reflects and meets their needs.

Email us at info@SamHorn.com with “IDEA Book” in your subject heading and we’ll send a discount coupon to be used towards my recently completed IDEA Book that features 25 Ways to Monetize Your Mind.

So, what POP!d out this week?

As if often does, a segment on CBS Sunday morning.

If you don’t already carve out time to watch this weekly TV program, do yourself a favor and give it a try.

You will be rewarded with fascinating, heart-warming, insightful interviews with people doing interesting things in the world. It never fails to put a smile on my face and in my heart and mind.

This week featured an interview with Jason Reitman, the director of this year’s surprise hit movie, Juno.

Jason was given the script and told, “You’ve got to read this.” He was intrigued until it was described as a “teen comedy written by a former stripper.” He was about to pass but was persuaded to give the screenplay (written by Diablo Cody) a chance.

He read it, and the rest, as they say, is cinematic history.

The film Juno, nominated for 5 Oscars, was made for $7 million, has grossed over $100 million and is still going strong.

The heart-warming part of this story is that Jason was interviewed in Art’s Diner in Hollywood with his father, well-known director Ivan Reitman. The interview took place in the same booth that Reitman Sr. met with Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd to sign them up for HIS blockbuster, Ghostbusters.

Jason related how he grew up going to the sets of his father’s movies. He didn’t want to compete with his dad and perpetually be “in his shadow” so chose a different career field, pre-med. As he said, “Everyone assumes that when a child of a director becomes a director, you’re talentless. No one ever questions you becoming a doctor.”

That is, until his father told him, “There’s not enough magic in it for you.” That was enough for Jason to decide to pursue his true passion, film-making. And, at age 30, proudly hosted the premiere of Juno at the Village Theatre in Westwood, the same movie theatre that premiered many of his dad’s films. What a satisfying full circle event.

The two Reitmans demonstrated the comfortable, jocular affection many fathers and sons wish they had with each other. At one point the interviewer asked Ivan if he was going to be attending the Academy Awards with his son. They both burst out laughing as Jason recalled that, as a brash 12 year old, he had the chutzpah to ask his dad, “Why don’t you ever go to the Oscars?”

His dad responded, “I would, if I ever got nominated.”

This year, the senior Reitman will be attending the Academy Awards ceremony, at his nominated son’s invitation.

I promise . . this is not a bait and switch.

I said I’d report back about which Super Bowl ads were the funniest, most original, most buzz-worthy.

I watched and kept waiting and waiting and waiting. Waiting for an ad that was wildly creative. One that exceeded our expectations. One that was worth the millions spent on it ($2.7 for the 60 second time slot alone, not counting the agency fee, production budget, celebrity appearance, etc.)

Nada. Zip. Nothing.

One had a moving story line (the Budweiser Clydesdale being trained to make the team by his Dalmatian friend, ala Rocky), but in many of the ad meters the following day, a baby spitting up claimed the top spot.

Yikes.

I wanted to share something that DID catch my attention Super Bowl weekend. The following quote by football player Junior Seau POP!d out of the pack . . . for all the right reasons.

When asked by a reporter what it meant for his New England Patriots team to be going for a perfect 19-0 record, Seau said, “There’s good, great, and there’s ever. We have an opportunity to be an ‘ever.’”

The reporter picked right up on it. “You mean as in ‘best ever?”

Junior just smiled.

In a week of platitudes, Junior’s observation was Purposeful, Original and Pithy. Kudos.

Super Bowl Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year.

I’ll be watching, along with an estimated 90 million (!) people around the world.

As always, I’ll pick out the ads that POP! out.

The funniest, most memorable, most strategic.

Submit your choices on Sunday, then check back on Monday and I’ll have my top 3 ads plus your favorites.

Remember, POP! stands for Purposeful, Original and Pithy — so my criteria will include which ad will best drive business for its sponsoring company AND which ad everyone’s talking about.

Buzz is the holy grail of ads. Why? When people talk about YOUR ad around the water cooler and at Starbucks, they’re acting as word of mouth ambassadors and spreading your product’s message for you. You’re getting more bang for your marketing buck.

See you Monday.