The Only Creative Process That Matters: Finding Ideas and Knowing If They Are Any Good From The Smartest Man In The World

In a world drowning in boring, predictable marketing, this book is a flaming bag of genius on your front porch.

From Saul Colt, the smartest man in the world and the actual brains behind some of the most unforgettable, conversation-starting campaigns of the last two decades, comes The Only Creative Process That Matters. This isn’t another “how to go viral” BS handbook. It’s a raw, laugh-out-loud, wildly actionable roadmap to building unforgettable marketing using two deceptively simple frameworks: WoMBAT (What Might Be All The…) and Laugh/Think/Cry. Part memoir, part masterclass, part creative rocket fuel, this book is packed with big swings, bigger wins, and the lessons you only learn from being unapologetically original.

Whether you're a CMO, a startup founder, or someone who just wants to do better work that actually gets talked about, this book is your permission slip to stop playing it safe, and start making marketing that matters.

Praise for The Only Creative Process That Matters:

“In my way too many years in show business, I’ve met so many wildly creative people. Most fall into the recesses of my immature brain but others linger. Saul Colt seems to never leave. And that’s a great thing. The greatness really shines in The Only Creative Process That Matters. Only Saul could make a self-help book about marketing an enjoyable romp.”
– TIM STACK, My Name is Earl, Night Stand, Curb Your Enthusiasm

“He’s a bit like a mad scientist. He’s so ‘out-of-the-box’ that if you aren’t inspired by his ideas, you just don’t belong anywhere near Marketing. His premise of ‘laugh, think, cry’ is simple — so why aren’t more people doing it?”
– MARK SOLOWAY

“Saul is the kind of marketer I aspire to be, bold, innovative, and unafraid to push boundaries. His ideas don’t just turn heads, they move people to take action. With The Only Creative Process That Matters, I finally have a blueprint to infuse that same courage and clarity into my own marketing strategy. Saul’s process isn’t just creative, it’s catalytic.”
– PAMELA SLIM, Author, Speaker, and Agency Owner

This is the first and only book to lay out a real-world, replicable system for developing creative marketing ideas that actually work, not just on paper, but in the wild.

This book includes:

• Two proven frameworks for creative development: WoMBAT (What Might Be All The...) to generate big ideas, and Laugh/Think/Cry to evaluate them with purpose

• Dozens of campaign examples from building buzz with a cloud in the sky to reverse-engineering virality for electric supercars

• A blueprint for word-of-mouth marketing you can start using today, even if you’re not Nike, Netflix, or known for being “fun”

• A much-needed kick in the ass for brands that have become too safe, too stale, or too damn scared to stand out

The Only Creative Process That Matters isn’t for people who want to blend in, it’s for people who want their work to be remembered, talked about, and maybe even loved. Saul Colt doesn’t just challenge the industry status quo. He sets it on fire and roasts marshmallows on the flames.

You could spend years figuring out your creative process, or you could steal Saul’s and be a hell of a lot braver by lunch.

Saul Colt is the founder and fearless leader of The Idea Integration Co., the world's most creative (and slightly unhinged in the best way) word-of-mouth marketing agency. Known for making big, loud, impossible-to-ignore ideas feel not just possible but necessary, Saul has spent his career helping brands like Zipcar, FreshBooks, Xero, Voitures Extravert, and Nike stand out in crowded markets by doing the unexpected, and getting real results.Saul's work has been featured in five New York Times best-selling business books, which is a polite way of saying that other authors have been making money talking about his ideas for years. He's spoken on over 300 stages worldwide, including seven times at SXSW and twice at CES, and has been profiled, quoted, and occasionally misunderstood in publications like Forbes, Inc., Ad Age, and countless others.A CMO, and a lifelong creative, and a card-carrying member of Team "Let's Just Try It and See What Happens," Saul believes that marketing should make people feel something, ideally one of the big three: laugh, think, or cry. That belief turned into a framework, and that framework turned into this book.He wrote The Only Creative Process That Matters because the world needs more brave marketers, and because he's hoping to sell enough copies to finally buy himself that Porsche he's had his eye on since high school.