Creativity Tips: Sparkle

As part of a social media marketing program, Gap is providing some BlogHer speakers with outfits. It's a great idea: We get cool clothes to sample. They hope to get publicity, through posts and Tweets and word of mouth.

I'm a marketer. I love the idea. I also love Gap clothes -- I've been racking up rewards on my Gap charge card for years. So, scoring new black pants and a great pair of jeans was a treat, but not a surprise. Gap fits petites.

The surprise? Well, Brianne, the beautiful and talented Gap stylist you see here, knew that the big sparkly metallic bag and the embellished T-shirt would work for me. I would never, NEVER, have gone near either of them. I don't do sparkle. I don't do embellishments.

Well, I embellish stories. I just don't embellish me.

Fortunately, Brianne knew better. She took in my "I wear black" fashion philosophy, and then gave me choices that included black, but went far beyond.

Her approach works for creative people in all sorts of endeavors: Listen to your client. Respect their preferences. But have faith in your own talents, in your gut instincts. Give them more than what they want -- give them what they need.

After all, if they refuse to sparkle, you can always fade to black.