No blank checks — Kelford Labs Daily

“I seriously doubt that an idea is really creative unless it is thought up just before everything goes to hell, or your ears fall off, or something. It is not enough to have a good idea; you’ve got to have the idea, whether it is good or not, just before it is too late.”

— Howard Gossage, “How to be Creative about Next to Nothing at All,” The Book of Gossage

One of my favorite podcasts is Blank Check with Griffin and David.

As they say at the beginning of every episode, it’s “a podcast about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want—and sometimes those checks clear, and sometimes they bounce, baby.”

It’s a great premise for the podcast, because you get it right away: You can easily think of directors whose filmographies went off the rails as soon as they had complete freedom to do whatever they wanted.

From the Star Wars prequels to the imminent “Megalopolis” (which, though I haven’t seen it yet, is being called one of the worst big-budget movies ever made) it’s easy to recognize a “blank check” (or “cheque” for my fellow Canadians) project when you see one.

Because we instinctively get that creativity is a product of constraint.

The whole creative act is about solving a problem despite and because of obstacles. Not doing whatever we want, whenever we feel like it. That leads to bloat and boredom.

So what’s the point here?

Your marketing needs constraints, too. You need to give yourself a schedule to follow. A format to hold to.

A position to reinforce.

Otherwise, our marketing becomes bloated and boring—a blank check project that goes off the rails.

So if you’re staring at a blank page, wondering what to write on LinkedIn, in your newsletter, or on your homepage, stop.

Give yourself a time limit. Give yourself a word count limit.

Give yourself a clear and specific and singular point to make, and make well.

Give yourself a problem to solve, and you’ll solve it.

But if you give yourself unlimited time and unlimited freedom to write whatever you want—you might find that your blank check bounces.

Kelford Inc. shows you the way to always knowing what to say. Finely crafted marketing messages for hands-on entrepreneurs.