Advertising is not a magnet of talent.

During an interview with Jeff Benjamin, the Interactive Executive Creative Director at CP+B, Jeff discusses the amount of talent available or the lack of enough talent rather:

It's not that we don't get talent, we just don't get the volume of talent that we need. We need to think about what we are doing to attract people.

We need (Google quality people) to come to our agency, but they are not interested.

What we value in this people is their entrepreneur spirit, they invention abilities, but the agency is not making and attractive pitch.

People want to make things that matter, but big advertising agencies are not perceived as the ideal place to the nurture entrepreneur personality.

The one question I ask during my interviews is: what's the last thing you invented? because I want to know that people can think and deliver ideas, passionate about making things that have not been made before, because it's a big part fo the interactive future.

Great points made by Jeff, that compliment perfectly with this post "the time is now" about how fear is killing creativity in advertising agencies.

We know where we are, we know what we need, the talent is out there, let's make this happen, let's rush forward into the future where advertising is again the magnet for crazy talent and rebels and mavericks.

what's the point of the story?

Ira Glass shares with us how to tell stories.

he’s talking about video production, but his points are easily applied to any other "creative" realm.

In this insightful series of videos he explores anecdotes and reflections and what they mean to the story.

But hidden within his "reflections" are some very interesting thoughts, like being in charge of telling a story means being ruthless editing what works and is interesting.

Finding a decent story takes more time than producing the story. Anybody in the creative field should spend enough time looking for stories.

Failure is a big part of success. You need to be on a schedule to produce things every week and before you know it, you will have something special, something people are going to want.

The most important thing for you to do is to do a lot of work. (my personal favorite)

The first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good — it’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase and a lot of people at that point quit.

And the thing I would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. We knew that it didn’t have the special thing that we wanted it to have and the thing to do is — everybody goes through that. And for you to go through it, if you’re going through it right now, if you’re just getting out of that phase or if you’re just starting off and you’re entering into that phase, you’ve got to know it’s totally normal and the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work.

Two mistakes most people who start make are: we imitate the people who are already doing what we want to do.

But you need to be yourself. There is already a real one of who you want to imitate.

The second problem is that we tend to be interested about ourselves, but in most stories the other person is more interesting.

Make sure to watch all 4 videos on you tube.

You can't survive on content alone.

What drives the creative process of a Wired cover?

"Attention to details", says Scott Dadich.

I think that the information in the talk is interesting, but what my main take away is some people are natural communicators and some are not.

Perhaps regular people are suffering due to TED and FORA itself, who offer us such a range of amazing conference and talks, hosted by brilliant communicators.

The truth is, speaking, presenting or sharing information in front of a crowd is always hard and intimidating.

The more value to those who can be memorable and entertaining and unforgettable.

If focus groups were in charge of Human evolution.

It is not a surprise that creative professionals have a hard relationship with Focus Groups. Overall the type where ideas are subjected to approval and scrutiny.

That is why we need to watch this video and ask ourselves, what would have happened if?

Focus groups are an ideal tool to gather information about the consumer's needs and state of mind towards a category or product.

Safe to Fail.

If there is anything the last 6 months have taught me is this: Pixar is the most creative company in the world.

Look at that record: 10 films; 10 hits. An unmatched streak in the history of filmaking.

what is their secret? How can they create original, creative, smart and successful films one after the other?

According to their Chief Creative Officer J. Lasseter their mantra is: "It's safe to fail."

The trick is to make those mistakes as quickly as possible and move on, a philosophy Lasseter picked up from colleague and computer science pioneer Ed Catmull

"When you think about science, it's about experimentation, and 99% of the experiments fail, but you learn from the failures and you move on," Lasseter says. "That's the great thing about Ed. He's always wanting people to keep pushing, keep experimenting, keep trying, and we always learn and keep moving forward."

For all the technical advances that have impressed audiences about Pixar, Lasseter's greatest innovation has been to extend a principle of positive risk-taking to the creative process.

• He is adamant that teams not be allowed to sequester themselves or work too long without sharing their progress with others. Lasseter doesn't believe in mandatory notes, introducing instead what he calls the "creative brain trust" at Pixar, a peer-support strategy in which all the directors and key story people from around the company get together and selflessly help on one another's films. "It doesn't matter whose idea it is, the best idea gets used," he explains.

• "Make it great." That's the mantra I've been living with ever since, just do everything we can to make it great," says Lasseter, who found confidence in Jobs' relatively hands-off approach to Pixar over the years, trusting the creative talent to steer the studio in the right direction. Lasseter put into effect was dismissing the suits and shifting the focus from an executive-led operation back to an artist-driven enterprise, where the ideas for feature films "come from the heart" of individual filmmakers.

What I find interesting about Pixar and their "safe to fail" approach is that it is intuitive and insightful about the creative mind and the creative personality.

We creatives need that that door to experimentation always OPEN.

Because once you let go of the fears of judgment and failure, you can truly explore all possibilities, be your self, share your heart.

Its about working in the ultimate creative ecosystem where ideas are grown to become great ideas.

How to make long distance presentations

KingpinzTX.com Logo Options from Honest Bros. on Vimeo.

Thinking design.

Anybody who has the word "creative" as part of his or hers job description deserves some credit.

Yes, from the outside it looks like is all fun and games. But in the inside is more like an engine that never stops, always going faster than it should, making as few stops as possible.

It's intense and it's a challenge, but it is the most amazing job I know.

Some of the most creative people I know are designers.That's why I thought that it would be good to share some thoughts about thinking like a designer.

The original list is Garr Reynold's blog; Presentation Zen

(1) Embrace constraints. Constraints and limitations are wonderful allies and lead to enhanced creativity and ingenious solutions that without constrains never would have been discovered or created.

(2) Practice restraint. it takes discipline of mind and strength of will to make the hard choices about what to include and what to exclude.

(3) Adopt the beginner's mind. As the old saying goes, in the expert's mind there are few possibilities, but for one with the beginner's mind, the world is wide open.

(4) Check your ego at the door. This is not about you, it's about them (your audience, customer, patient, student, etc.).

(5) Focus on the experience of the design. It's not the thing, it's the experience of the thing.

(6) Become a master storyteller. Often it's not only the design — i.e., the solution to a problem — that is important, but the story of it. This is related to #5 above. What's the meaning of the solution?

(7) Think communication not decoration. Design is about solving problems or making the current situation a little better than before. Design is not art, though there is art in design.

(8) Obsess about ideas not tools. Good advice is to go analog in the beginning with the simplest tools possible.

(9) Clarify your intention. Design is about choices and intentions, it is not accidental. Design is about process.

(10) Sharpen your vision & curiosity and learn from the lessons around you. Design is a "whole brain" process. You are creative, practical, rational, analytic, empathetic, and passionate. Foster these aptitudes.

(11) Learn all the "rules" and know when and why to break them.