Getting In Tune with Your Creativity

No.203: 1st July 2024

Hi, it’s David here.

This week's newsletter is written by Creative Director Domenique Osborne.

Domenique is a member of our Expert Talent Network and in between working on major projects she works on quick turnaround projects for BeenThereDoneThat.

It works for her because it uses her skills when needed and works for our clients because they get her expertise on travel, beauty and youth projects when they need it.

Domenique shares how she keeps her creative juices going in between juicy projects.

As always curious to hear what you think and would love to hear from you if you think you need a bit of creative strategic acupuncture to get your juices going.

David Alberts

Co-Founder and Chief Vision Officer at BeenThereDoneThat

Hi, it’s Domenique here.

Her name is Mother.?

She’s a cherry red beauty with a throaty twang and a pink shoulder strap embroidered with bodacious red roses.

Mother is an autoharp.?

She was named in honor of “Mother” Maybelle Carter, the mother of June Carter Cash, and arguably the entirety of country music.

Mother entered my life in 2020, a truly wild time for all of humanity. My husband and I had moved full-time to the Hudson Valley and I was…not working. For the firstborn daughter of an Italian mother, “not working” is an uncomfortable state of being. To work is to be useful and being useful is the way you make generations of coarse-palmed and stoop-backed Nonnas proud. I was already pushing the boundaries of usefulness by being a writer, so actual unemployment was a bridge too far.?

But how do you work when there is no work? Sure, your portfolio can always use some polishing and it’s important to tend to contacts and recruiter relationships, but what’s next when no briefs are coming in?

If you’re me, you just say eff it all and give yourself permission to do something else for a while. It was a chance to stop banging my head against the wall and stressing about the next job or big idea.

Have you ever heard someone say they have their best ideas in the shower? Working on creative projects outside of the creative projects you get paid to do is kind of like that…but you get to keep your clothes on.?

This not-work kind of work is a great way to remember how your brain sounds when it’s not beholden to clients. How does your inner weirdo REALLY want to play when you let it out and eliminate the rules? Mine wants to do Leonard Cohen and Erykah Badu covers and I don’t ask why. I just do it.?

Working on songs doesn’t bring in any money, but it’s helped rewrite my perspective on what work actually means. I’m letting myself fail more and have fun. And creating without fear can lead to ideas that are bigger, better and scarier than you thought you were capable of, which can carry over into every job that comes along.

As a visionary, producer and all-around music god Rick Rubin says, “There are no right answers for anything involved in art. We’re all just trying experiments to find our way.”?

As a full-time freelancer, I sometimes find myself with stretches where the big assignments are proving elusive, or maybe I’m stuck on a line, or a new project (like this essay.) That’s when I pick up Mother and start experimenting with some weird rhythms or tricky chords and try to find a whole new way in.??

So for anyone else who struggles with ideas of work and usefulness, I say: find your own thing to work on when you’re not working. It’s the quickest way to overhaul your whole creative process and free your mind from the fear of failing. Because guess what? You’re not going to be good at it at first (or maybe ever). But it doesn’t matter because this is just for YOU.?

Now grab those finger paints or a ball of clay, start writing the great American novel or even pick up an instrument.

Just not Mother. She’s mine.

Domenique Osborne

Freelance Creative Director, Writer, Voiceover and Member of the BeenThereDoneThat Expert Network

Supporting Articles

1. Advice for Creatives: You Need to Waste Time If You Want to Be Great (Guest Column)

2. Rick Rubin's Advice for Creators

3. I Used to Cringe at Self-Help Books. Until This One Changed My Life.

4. How making jewelry got me out of my creative rut

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