Introducing: Creative Constructs

A biweekly newsletter with strategies and systems to help quell creative chaos

You ever have a creative breakthrough so profound that it changes the way that you see both your work and yourself?

Because that’s what I’ve been working through the last few weeks, and I’m so excited to share it with you…

I’ve always had trouble summing up the work that I do because it seems to float across multiple disciplines:

First, there’s the content marketing stuff.

• Organizations and individuals turn to me for help figuring out what type of content they shoud be creating, and how they can optimize their content strategy.

• My first book, The Content Fuel Framework, shared my system for coming up with new and original content ideas whenever you need them.

• My second book shared a method for using content as a tool for trust-building with your audience.

Then there’s the marketing and branding stuff:

• I audit organizations’ existing materials to help create a structured and memorable internal framework that outlines their brand voice, purpose, or both.

• I help individuals turn their collections of scattered ideas and concepts into proprietary frameworks, visual models, or processes that can form the basis of a book, a speech, or a service offering.

Then there’s the operational stuff:

• I audit operations for content teams, helping to establish more streamlined processes and create templates and documentation that improve efficiency.

• I create and sell templates, worksheets, workbooks, guides and other resources to help make content marketing easier and simpler.

To say that I work in “marketing and branding” or “content” or “operations” always felt like selling myself short, especially because it didn’t even acknowledge that when I speak at conferences—my primary “role”—I’m teaching all of these things, function more like an educator than a marketer or creator.

Recently, though, something clicked into place and I saw clearly what this work really is.

It’s creative system architecture.

In all this work, I’m using the powers of pattern recognition and visual thinking that my autistic brain has gifted me to identify the hidden structures that live underneath creative work and operations, and to optimize and improve then organization of those creative efforts.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been trying on the identity of Creative Systems Architect, and I’ve begun to see the effects already. Word has begun to get around that I’m the person you come to when you need to quell creative chaos by implementing and optimizing creative systems.

And that’s exactly what I do.

With this revelation came the realization that I had lots of creative systems knowledge to share, and that I could help many more creatives if I were sharing it more readily.

And that is how Creative Constructs was born.

This new biweekly newsletter will be my way of sharing the strategies, systems, tips, and tricks I’ve picked up across my 15+ years of organizing creativity, with an emphasis on the tactical, the actionable, and the inspiring.

Here’s what you can expect in each biweekly issue:

• Reflections: Personal stories and insights to inspire your thinking.

• Tactical Takeaways: Creative systems, strategies, and tips you can use right away

• Creative Resources: Recommended articles, videos, tools, books, podcasts, and more to inspire and optimize your creativity

• Updates: What I’m working on and where you can see or hear from me next

If this sounds like your jam, stick around—I’d love to have you along for the ride.

Until next time, keep quelling creative chaos,

Melanie