Untangling an influx of ideas and remembering stuckness is temporary

Mike Herman, VP Creative Director

Fun Facts:?

??Plays online chess daily to keep his brain sharp.?

?? Watches reruns of “The Office” on repeat??

?? Goes into strategy mode for Fantasy Football #GoBills?

A solid creative briefing can open a floodgate of ideas for many creatives, and while that may seem like a best-case scenario, sometimes that influx of thoughts leads to utter stuckness. Imagine each of those ideas as threads all rushing together at once and eventually winding tightly together. Soon, untangling all those ideas and deciding which ones are worth pursuing can feel daunting. For Mythic VP Creative Director Mike Herman, stuckness often looks a lot like this.?

“All the ideas can start to rush in all at once and it’s tough to know where to go,” Mike explained. “Each one will spark me going this way or that way.”?

But the challenge is finding the right path forward and figuring out which of those ideas is worth untangling first. While it may sound like a no-brainer, Mike said when this type of stuckness sets in, he likes to go back to the very beginning and dig into the work.?

“You’ve got to start somewhere,” he said. “You’ve got to trust your gut, dive in headfirst and start going down a path that feels right to you.”

Inevitably, there are days when trekking down a path that feels right leads to a dead end, and when that happens, Mike said he always takes a step back to try to unpack where he started. While Mike, like many creatives, is a firm believer in taking mental brain breaks when this happens, an experience from early on in his career shaped how he responds to stuckness.?

A new business opportunity came through the door, and, as Mike recalls, it was one of his first substantial creative opportunities — the only problem was that he was buried in client work, and the deadlines were mounting, getting tighter by the day.?

He recalled thinking, There's no way we're going to get this all done in time. It's just not possible.

But despite his anxiety over the pending deadline, Mike’s creative director at the time talked him down from the doubt that was only exacerbating his stuckness. She reminded Mike that not only is stuckness temporary, but they would undoubtedly come up with something because that’s what creatives do.?

“Having that reassurance from leadership during that point in my career was inspiring,” Mike said.??

Being surrounded by people who embraced the fact that stuckness is temporary allowed Mike to remain calm, cool and collected despite the impending creative challenge and get the work done and done right.?

“That’s always stuck in my head and I try to pass it along to other creatives,” Mike added. “Take it one thing at a time. You have to start at one point and that will take you to the next thing and the next thing and, eventually, you'll end up somewhere great.”?

So when he follows a path and gets to one of those tangled bits, before going back to the initial web of ideas, Mike searches for inspiration out in the wild, immersing himself in both the brand and the category while searching for a spark.

“Also, I'll try to find a related subcategory that kind of makes sense, but it's completely different and just immerse myself in it to try to find that spark, that little bit of something that might take me down the right path,” he added.?

When nothing seems to be working, Mike said there are two tried and true approaches he uses to get his creative juices flowing. First, he takes a short mental brain break, which may mean working on something different for a while or getting some fresh air. Mike said sometimes his kids just need to take their dad for a walk so he can focus on something different, even if it’s for a short time.

When all else fails, Mike said there’s nothing an episode of “The Office” can’t fix. For him, tapping into humor serves as an inspiration for creativity and a quick mental reset.?

“I love the writing; I love the acting; I love the chemistry on that show,” Mike added. “It's a great distraction to help reset and spark new sources of inspiration or just decompress.”

To this day, when stuckness sets in, and that tangled web of ideas feels like it’s closing in, Mike still turns to these tried and true tricks that help him return to the very beginning and get something down on paper. After all, stuckness is only temporary, even if it may not seem that way in the moment, and getting something down is better than not starting at all.?

In a world where attention spans are limited, we're glad you stuck with it and made it to the end of this article because we certainly think it was worth the read. If you like what you saw and want to know how you can partner with a team that's brimming with creative ideas, reach out to our CMO, Taylor Bryant ([email protected]), and get a conversation with Mythic started today.