Hayden Fowler's  Corner

Content is the bond between you and your audience, shaping how they relate back to you or your brand. This should prompt you to reconsider quick posts that merely fill social media gaps with noise. An active online presence is crucial; your community should know what to expect from you. However, flooding your feed with mediocre content is not ideal. It's often better to take a step back than to leave your followers confused about your value. It's better to go silent for a minute, or even slow down your process, than leave people scratching their heads or rethinking the credit they gave you with their "Following." So let's cultivate that vote and give them good reasons to keep coming back for more.

This article focuses on providing a fresh perspective for creative professionals seeking their footing in a competitive world. If you produce fast video content for sales, some established formulas may serve you well, even if they lack creativity. Still, I encourage everyone to step outside their comfort zones and find genuine ways to achieve their goals while strengthening their brand identity, a.k.a., your voice.

We are constantly bombarded with information overload by our environment and devices; I refer to it as "content pollution." In today’s information-overloaded environment, focusing on quality can set you apart from the masses churning out recycled material. The purpose of content is communication; excessive noise leads us to filter it out, creating an aversion to subpar material. We must relearn how to communicate effectively and add value rather than just volume.

We are living under a mind-boggling new phenomenon of copycat content, originated primarily by TikTok with dance videos and absorbed by existing platforms like Instagram and YouTube that spit out short imitation-form content. This type of material is not only allowed but seems to be encouraged by the algorithm that populates your feed with marketing and skit videos that are just versions of once-original pieces. A few years ago, copying original material would have been plain plagiarism, but the ancient meaning of this word might not be understood by newer generations that are bombarded and praised for copying an idea and feeling ownership of their own transgression. This might be the new norm, so instead of lamenting the lack of objective creativity, let's focus on creating the content that other people will be inspired to replicate; be the source material, not the derivative pollution.

In order to create the best content, you need to really understand what your and your brand's unique voice is, which can be a challenging achievement by itself. Being creative is not an easy task, and forcing this creative process can be quite counterproductive. Genuine ideas will come from different places at different times, so binging on endless video feeds will spike your endorphins but might not give you the mental clarity to come up with and develop your own ideas. We must find a balance between the outside noise and our inside voice.

I discovered that riding bicycles for a few hours was a source of brain boost for me. I would regularly ride from Hollywood to Santa Monica, which was a 30-mile route, and sometimes venture to Malibu's pier, making it a 50-mile span of physical and mental exercise. The repetitive pedaling and strict focus on the road allowed my mind to think about ideas from different perspectives, and I came up with some fascinating insights that helped me tackle quite a few challenging creative projects. I'm not saying that you should go out and get a bicycle (but you should); instead, I hope it might encourage you to find what activities or mindsets would activate your creative zone, allowing your mind to act more freely with fewer distractions or obstacles.

Before I digress into my love for cycling, let's keep in mind that the magic source of creativity is buried somewhere inside your thoughts. Letting them unburden from content pollution and just flourish can give you the power to come up with new material—not just a cheap copy of something that is temporarily popular but void of personality. Copying material is a disservice to your own voice, your identity, and ultimately the individuality that we all need to find our self-worth as content creators.

It might be tempting to find something that was already created and proven to be popular and just add your spin on it, but I would refrain from adding more noise to the content pollution that we are all exposed to, which is just growing with the proliferation of easy creation tools flooding the market. Instead, be the clear communicator that pulls people out and give them the gift of quality and originality. Everybody is arguably a content creator these days, and we would all benefit from fresh and new ideas—and one less headless voice in a noisy landscape.