Five Techniques to Boost Your Creativity
PLAN NOW FOR HALLOWEEN
- Pet psychic: contact Marla Steele on Facebook, her website, call her at 707 328 4997, or email at italktopets@yahoo.com
- People psychics: contact Eddie Conner at 818 388 5695, or email him at EddieAppointments@gmail.com.
Gary Spivey call him at 1-800-827-4279, or email him at spiveyreadings@gmail.com
- Social media contest: Dogoween! Offer a big prize for the best photo of a listener’s pet dressed in costume, and listeners will drive interaction.
- Online video content: Pumpkin drop. Not great radio content, but dropping stuff makes for fun viral video. Check out this example from Q104 Halifax.
- Topic: “When We Ran Out Of Halloween Candy, We Gave Them (BLANK.) Steve Stevens at WVOK Birmingham got stories about cornbread and cough drops.
ADVICE TO YOUR YOUNGER SELF
SETUP: Ask your older listeners to share the wisdom they would give themselves at age 20.
You can adjust the age range for any demographic, but Dave Ryan at KDWB asked Minneapolis women over age 40 for their wisdom.
- “He’s not worth it.”
- “Careers count.”
- “Trust yourself.”
Move past the advice by probing for the story behind each piece of advice, because it is usually based on interesting drama.
WHERE DID YOU GET STUCK?
SETUP: Todd Pettengill of WPLJ’s Todd and Jayde in New York got stuck in an elevator for an hour with a German family. “And they stunk!” That reminded listeners of when they got stuck.
- A pregnant woman got stuck in the dryer.
- Four-year-old boy got stuck in a microwave.
- An employee got stuck in the elevator on the job. “They thought I quit, because I didn’t show up.”
- Daughter locked keys in the trunk – didn’t realize she could press the unlock button inside the car and unlock the trunk.
SCHOOL NURSE STORIES
SETUP: From Studio Think Tank – Reach out to school nurses to hear the best excuses kids create for getting out of class early.
Tommy Sablan of the Bob and Coe show at KGB San Diego writes, “I was having lunch with a friend of mine. She’s an elementary school nurse. She was telling me the cutest stories about little kids trying to come up with ways to get home. She had one little boy come in claiming he was seeing lines and holes all over the floor and didn’t know how to walk through them.
One kid said please call my grandpa to take me to McDonald’s, but not my mom.
Another kid came in saying she had a terrible fever and headache and was hoping to go home after she played at recess.
COACHING TIP
TUNING UP YOUR CREATIVE INSTRUMENT
Too many on-air talents take too little care of their most important creative asset – themselves.
How you treat your physical self has an important role in how well you think, speak, improvise, and how you look on-camera.
Check out some of the surprising advice from What Your Daily Routine Should Look Like by Erin Broadwin of Business Insider.
- Don’t shower. Really? Yes. For some, showering daily is bad for your skin and hair.
- Wait one hour after waking to enjoy coffee. The caffeine interacts with cortisol hormones in your body.
- Avoid carbohydrates No bagels, muffins, pancakes, etc. (That goes for breakfastand lunch! Skip the pasta.)
- Get lots of water – through drinking and vegetables like cauliflower, peppers, and spinach, which are 92% water.
- Put away all screens 30 minutes before bedtime.
What about alcohol the night before a show? Read that and other expert recommendations in the full article from Business Insider.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
HOW TO HEAR SOMEONE’S INNER THOUGHTS
We encourage hosts to verbalize the thoughts and realizations that flow through their head. Doing so is humanizing and often opens the door for others to share their point of view.
Watch Howard Stern lead Pete Davidson past typical surface-level conversation in this clip from SiriusXM.
APP OF THE WEEK
YOUSICIAN
Want to be a rock star? This app helps you learn songs on your piano or guitar and it gives you feedback so you get better.
RANDY-ISM
Think you’re not creative?
Creative rituals can change that.
UPCOMING DATES
MLB postseason begins, October 2
NHL season opens, October 3
Columbus Day, October 8
NBA season opens, October 16
Boss’ Day, October 16
MLB World Series begins, October 23
Halloween, October 31
People’s Choice Awards, November 11
Worldwide Radio Summit, Burbank, March 27-29 (We’ll be there!)
