A few years ago, Trolli (the gummy worm company) launched an ad campaign. It’s still running on TV and on YouTube. But there are no calls-to-action. There are no product descriptions. There are no value propositions. So how is this campaign still running? Extreme creativity.

Do you have a new song coming out? Do you have a new music video coming out? In the modern age of music promotion, every launch should be a celebration. Here are 6 content ideas to for your music YouTube channel.

Your brain is a potted plant. You can only learn so much in one day. At some point, you need to allow time for information to seep in and soak up.

The trouble is, with social media, we never let our brains dip below the boredom line for long enough to have a great idea. There’s a reason great ideas come to you in the shower–it’s one of the few times you aren’t reading, watching, writing or saying something.

Many things in life are an acquired taste. I didn’t realize this growing up. I wanted nights out and pop hits and first kisses. But there’s a slow burn that becomes more appealing in adulthood, when you realize you’ll have to find a way to keep yourself entertained for the next 60 years.

“It’s sobering to consider that the rival we’re so jealous of may in fact be jealous of us.”
Ryan Holiday, Stillness Is The Key

Would you rather take advice from a peer-reviewed study or a close friend? Technically the peer-reviewed study is more accurate. It’s more scientific. It’s more likely to end up being true. But the advice from a close friend somehow feels more true.

Axe launched their Find Your Magic campaign a few years ago, and since then have completely rebranded into an inclusive and encouraging voice in the men’s hygiene space. Getting people to take you seriously after being the GoDaddy of deodorant is tough. But Axe did it by being self-aware.

“I’m a dog walker by day and a designer by night.” People structure sentences like this often. (Usually those people are creatives who aren’t being that creative.) But I’m on board with the sentiment. Make your money, then move your dreams forward.

I take weekends off now. I didn’t used to. I used to work Friday nights and Saturday mornings and I used to check my email on accident on Sundays.

Oat milk didn’t start a shoving match with cow’s milk on the supermarket shelves. It didn’t disguise itself as regular milk in a plastic jug. Oat milk didn’t ask people to make a big switch in their life. Oat milk just started hanging out with the hipsters at third wave coffee shops.

When I bought an outdoor table from Home Depot to put on the walkway outside the front door of my old apartment, I started imagining myself at a cafe in France, perched on the balcony, enjoying the cool morning as I read a book.

I enjoy the process of making coffee. I like how it’s a tactical thing I can do with my hands, engaging my senses in my increasingly digital existence. But as I sit on the patio, sipping the slightly watered down, not perfectly extracted cup of coffee I made myself, I can’t help but wish I walked across the street to my usual coffee shop.

It’s one of the reasons I like writing so much, especially writing every day. We can all get away without opinions for a a few posts, just like we can get away without opinions for a few hours at a party. But writing and parties both become dull without a strong point of view. To be comfortable expressing yourself? That’s how you know you’ve found true friends, and true art.

Ad fatigue is real, and when busy people who are watching TV to relax start seeing the same commercials again and again, their brains automatically tune them out. Brands can conquer this by using recurring characters, like Your Cousin From Boston.

My buddy Leo is a freelance writer. He’s a surfer of LA coffee shops, sipping espresso and writing on his laptop all across the county. I was chatting with him yesterday about a project, and he told me that he just ordered a sticker that says “Writer for Hire” to put on his laptop.

No one likes delivering bad news. But when bad news is leveraged to position good news as even better, we can inspire positive action from our communities and audiences.

We’ve all stretched one task into an entire day. And we’ve all accomplished dozens of tasks in just a few hours. The difference between the two is a centered mind, and a focused schedule.

A niche is simply the topic you create about and the people you create for. If you don’t have a niche, you’ll create work without a strong perspective, or clear lane. Most travel content is just that. An oversaturated market without a strong perspective, aiming to be simply “inspirational.”

When I started my career, things were a lot like the way I just described. I was busy all the time, hustling to network and make rent, working late nights. I developed a grit, and a sort of illogical conviction that I could do it. I wasn’t sure it was true, but I believed it was because that was the only way I could make it happen.