Very few people want to actually do the work.

I don’t really know much about John Mayer, and have never listened to much of his music, but found myself absolutely fascinated by his episode of Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton podcast.

If you haven’t heard it, here’s the Spotify link - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5oIFI4DeTBhinIeFoL3eNq?si=28b379fedab44fdd 

(Honestly, you’d probably be better off just listening to that, but for anyone still reading, I’ll continue.)

I was going to try to dig up some quotes, but it’s genuinely too hard. It runs for over 2 hours and all of it is gold. Just two passionate, talented people going deep into the creative process, and I’ll add that it’s probably the most animated and involved I’ve ever heard Rick on an episode.

There’s a section where they really get into the depths. The fear of the void (even Rick says that, despite making hundreds of albums, he’s still terrified at the beginning of each project), the ‘not knowing’ how any of this is actually going to happen and just having to be confident that somehow ‘it will all work out’, the need to bring a lot of bad things to surface to get to anything good, the days and days and days of ‘excavating’ through what feels like nothing until you somehow ‘crack the code’ and then in 15 minutes you have a song, and once you’ve done that ‘fun part’ (which is the best feeling the world) then the ACTUAL work starts to craft the idea (which is a world of pain all over again), and you can’t walk away from that - you can’t go home, you can’t go to dinner, you have to lock yourself in a room and get to work - and how that is both their favourite and least favourite part all at once.

It’s a cathartic listen. Not just because I get it and I’ve felt it, because it’s the dirt and the muck and the toil and the blood that most people don’t have the stomach for. Every human has the capacity for creativity, but there’s a reason that very few of us end up with the title or job or role of ‘creative’. It’s not because we have some god-given gift, it’s because we’re the only ones willing to DO THE WORK, over and over and over, every single day, and not just dust our hands and walk away at the first pang of discomfort.

It’s an undeniable truth that we see all the time. There’s a reason that creatives hate ‘brainstorm sessions’. Because, in almost every case, it’s an hour or two of everyone else throwing some ideas around before leaving the room and forgetting about it. The only people left to sift through all the shit that’s left behind - are the creatives. Everyone else is, effectively, LARPing. There’s a reason that so many brands beat their chest about building internal creative departments before pivoting or even shutting the whole thing down after a year or two - because it’s just not in their DNA to roll around in the muck. There’s a reason that LinkedIn is now inundated with marketers gleefully posting that ‘creatives are dead’ and ‘agencies are dead’ and how they ‘just did this in 3 minutes!’ in an inadvertent admittance that, up until this point, they’ve resented the hard parts of the job and now believe they don’t have to make an effort anymore. (Would not be publicly bragging about my lack of graft if I were a middle manager in a large corporation right now, to be perfectly frank.)

The bullheaded willingness to do what others won’t is what makes everyone great at their craft. I’m talking about creativity here, but it’s equally so for suits, producers, strategists, editors, marketers, and every other role. (On every job I’ve ever worked on a producer makes something happen that blows my mind.)

Technology has always lead to seismic shifts, whether it’s the invention of the printing press, or the move from film to digital, or the shift from traditional to fragmented media - but the constant remains that doing something great always requires people deeply giving a shit and willing to work for it.

There’s a saying among writers, ‘hate writing, love having written’, and for most of my career it’s probably something I subscribed to. Despite achieving some modicum of success, I wouldn’t say I particularly enjoyed the ‘writing process’ as much as the outcome of having made something, and I probably wouldn’t even say I’ve ever felt 100% comfortable even being called a ‘writer’.

But lately, I’m feeling a change. And I think it has something to do with AI. I use AI regularly, practically daily, but not ‘to write’. Nothing on this newsletter, or on my LinkedIn posts, or in the work I produce has ever been ‘written by AI’. Sure, AI might’ve been involved in the process, but when it’s time to sit down and write ‘the thing’, whatever it is, I’m finding myself feeling energised by that bit now.

I want to write the hard bit, because I want to put myself into it. Every day now I’m reading cold, soulless, vapid e-mails/DMs/posts/ads that make me feel nothing at all, and I have no interest in contributing to it. The challenge of putting something out into the world, and yes, even something as innocuous as a ‘post’ or a piece of ‘advertising’, that actually connects with another person feels more alive than ever.

Given how grim the general vibe is out there at present, I’d be interested to know - Does anyone else feel the same? Am I the only one? Is anyone else feeling a sudden want to do the hard shit while everyone else is bathing in apathy and drinking the bathwater?

I think it comes down to that word I’ve mentioned before, intention.

Giving the world’s most powerful technology to someone with the ambition and work ethic of a doorknob is still only going to take them so far.

Those that intend to make cheap, quick, shit things, will do so with whatever’s at their disposal. Maybe now at a grander scale. (Just what the world needs.)

Those that intend to make things worth making, might now have more avenues available.

And those avenues might be provided by executing with AI, but equally, they might come from AI doing their ‘laundry and dishes’ so they can sit down and write, or paint, or design, or even just think.

Maybe we’ll all get in touch again with what got us into this weird business to begin with.

Marketing ideas for marketers who hate boring

The best marketing ideas come from marketers who live it. That’s what The Marketing Millennials delivers: real insights, fresh takes, and no fluff. Written by Daniel Murray, a marketer who knows what works, this newsletter cuts through the noise so you can stop guessing and start winning. Subscribe and level up your marketing game.

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