Lesson from the Cemetery: The Secret To On Demand Creativity

They might not admit it. But every creative person wants a muse. You know, that go-to someone or something that jolts right brain stimulation when needed for content and communication.

After all, coming up with revolutionary ideas, powerful words, or world-class imagery is not always the easiest task in the world. Even when your veins are coursing with a triple-shot Americano. Or a handful of M&M's (peanuts, please).

Sure, I'll be the first to admit that strolling through the art museum, listening to a musical savant or taking in a documentary at your favorite movie house can provoke some good thinking...even extraordinary from time-to-time.

But I'll also add that these "arty" experiences are anything but fail-safe.

Over this past weekend, I asked the question if there really is any "tried and true" path to finding on-demand creativity.

I was thinking about this in a pretty off-beat location. To be precise, while at Willamette National Cemetery visiting close family members.

Outside of the warm wind rustling a few trees every so often, you could hear virtually nothing over this 270-acre sanctuary. A rare occurrence I can assure you, in a loud and busting at the seams 2.3 million metropolitan area.

I think the fact that it was the third straight day of mercury hitting the century mark that kept all but me and three others who crossed my path that morning from visiting such a tranquil peace of earth.

But after 10 minutes of peace the answer hit me.

If you really want to tap into a well of creativity at just about any time, you find a place of solitude. No conversation, no music, no urban noise. Nothing to get you amped up, ramped up or angry.

Just peace and quiet.

Just the stillness of your mind.

And it works every...single...time.

Think Lao Tzu, Hawthorne and Monet. It's a secret the great philosophers, writers and painters have known for centuries. When you've quieted your self-talk and emptied your cerebral cortex, all kinds of good things seem to bubble up to the surface.

For me last Saturday, it was the idea and content for this blog post, what critical advice to give my son about a job search and a spark for my biz partner and me, as we create strategies for conscientious organizations.

In fact, I even came up with a creative answer to my most pressing challenge of that day.

I picked a Washington cab over an Oregon pinot for a weekend dinner party.

To get our book, "25 Building Blocks To Create a Conscientious Organization" free, go to HCollaborative.com for an instant download.

10,000 Most Shared Articles on Web: Strongest Emotional Appeal?

You put a ton of effort into your content writing. But how do you make sure you get a big return on all that sweat and time?

A recent study by respected web-metrics company BuzzSumo took a look at the web's most shared articles. In fact, 10,000 of them got mapped to a specific emotional appeal. (As you who follow us know, we believe emotion is the foundation for any great piece of content writing.)

The emotions included joy, anger, sadness and so forth. Here's how those emotions ranked when put into a pie chart:

You see that easily the most popular emotions injected into these highly shared articles were:

-- Awe at 25%

-- Laughter at 17%

-- Amusement at 15%

The unpopular emotions in the chart? Sadness and anger.

There's a simple lesson in all this.

If your content is boring, you're not going to grow your audience.

So make sure it is entertaining.

David Ogilvy, my favorite ad guru, famously said in the 1960s:

"You cannot bore people into buying your product."

- David Ogilvy

If he were with us today, I'm certain he would say that applies to content as well.

~HCollaborative.com~