Creative Bulletin n.266

Yesterday I spent the whole day filming new videos for The Creative Ambush, and I had an absolute blast trying to create totally different sets inside a 50-square-meter apartment 😅

At the beginning of the week, we started a mentorship program with one of the world’s top Facebook advertising experts (we really need to take that next leap), and our hope was that he’d pull out a magic wand and say: “Do this instead of that,” and ta-da—magic.

Of course, that’s not what happened 😂 Instead of showing us the miraculous path, he started analyzing our car and pointed out a whole bunch of things we kind of already knew, but were choosing to ignore.

Resistance to effort. At first, Lino and I exchanged a defeated glance, like, “This again?” Then, by the end of the call, we did a bit of soul-searching: truth is, whether due to lack of time or plain laziness, we’ve been neglecting some important aspects of our ad creation over the past few months.

When moments like this hit—where you’ve already worked so hard and then someone makes you realize you have to go back to the drawing board—it really knocks the wind out of you. You feel like slumping into a chair, complaining, and never getting back up.

Creativity never ends. What helps me in these situations is remembering that when it comes to creativity, there’s no finish line. Sometimes we’re tempted to think, “Ah, I just want a moment of peace,” but that’s an illusion. There will always be something to do, tweak, fix—a new spark and a new road to follow. And when it comes, we’ve got to ride it—ideally, while having fun. I took the chance to lock myself in for a day and play around with the new camera ❤️

🌈 Creative takeaway: don’t cut yourself too much slack

When there’s a lot on our plate, it’s human to want shortcuts or to try and optimize outcomes. At the agency, there was a saying: “Minimal effort, maximum return.” Find a way to do little but get a lot out of it. Yesterday, I realized that’s just an excuse to put in less effort.

And it’s not even that true: it actually took me less time to build proper sets than to slap something together and try to fix it afterward. On the other hand, with this bulletin I thought, “Oh, I’ll just whip it up quickly,” and I ended up writing and rewriting it three times.

Bottom line: let’s focus on quality—on how we do what we do—and not cut ourselves too much slack, or the bill comes later. Haha.

With ❤️,
Matteo

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