How to Embrace the Creative Process

The #creativeprocess is messy and imperfect. It can be both beautiful and rough. The struggles are real and often hidden behind the polished, final output. Rarely do we talk about the tough patches, the doubts, or even the sheer grit it takes to push through sometimes. Here are some of the most important things I've learned about the creative process over time. ➡️ Embrace The Unexpected: Be open to finding inspiration anywhere. It often comes in the most unexpected places. ➡️ Keep Discovery Open-Ended: No idea is too big during the initial design stage. Ask "what if" without any creative boundaries or restrictions in place. Let the ideas flow. ➡️ Constraints Fuel Creativity: Limitations can be your friend. They serve as a catalyst to channeling energy towards finding a truly focused creative solution. ➡️ Iteration Is Queen: Creative breakthroughs often come from a series of iterations. The first draft will never be the final version and often sits so far from where you finally land. Try, Adjust, Repeat. ➡️ Collaboration Brings Perspective: The best work comes from different perspectives. One idea can inspire another, leading to some innovative and creative solutions. ➡️ Revelations Come From Rest: Creative work can be draining. Give yourself time to unplug and recharge. Those "aha" moments often occur when you do. #Creatives, what else would you add?

Stop getting bogged down in the excuses: not enough talent, no fancy art degree, wrong gear, wrong time, etc. The truth?  Sure, they may be real obstacles– but if you’re ready to stop dreaming and start MAKING, you’ll find a way around all of them. So if you’re ready to get unstuck, here’s a few non-negotiable truths about the creative process: 1. Quantity IS the new quality Forget perfection. Your mission is to PRODUCE. Stop endlessly tweaking your setup or "researching" and just MAKE. THE. THING. Sheer output is your only goal right now. If you’re expecting polished brilliance from day one, forget it. Your first attempts are probably going to be messy. Like, murky-brown-water-from-an-old-tap messy. So get comfortable with it. 2. It’s OK to suck at first Give yourself explicit permission to be terrible at first. No judgment. Just get words on paper, paint on canvas, code in the editor. Do you think my first photos were good? Hell no. The first version of CreativeLive? A Wordpress site and a webcam. You’re probably reading this because of one or both of those things, my creative (ahem…) “talent” or because I’ve built businesses that have generated 100’s of millions in revenue. And guess what: both started out as complete head-scratchers. 3. Look for “minimum viable progress” Still fantasizing about that 12-part space opera before you’ve written a 3-minute sketch? Park it (for now). What's the absolute SMALLEST, most basic version of something you can finish and (maybe) share? A blog post, a single sketch, one useful function for an app– whatever it is, just get it done. Completion, not perfection, is the goal for now. 4. The self-doubt never goes away That voice screaming that you’re not good enough, that it’s stupid, that you’ll do it later? It’s your primitive biology trying to protect you from the perceived "threat" of putting something new into the world. And it’s a part of human psychology. So get used to it, because it’s never going to disappear.  Recognize it, then ignore it. “Damn Chase… this sounds hard. I don’t know if I’ve got it in me.” To be clear, all of the above isn't about trashing your ambitions or snuffing out your desire to do big, bold, amazing things. On the contrary, it’s about forging those ambitions in the only fire that counts: consistent, imperfect action. Your skills, your unique voice, that "genius" you're chasing – it doesn’t just appear. It's BUILT. Rep by rep, sh*tty draft by sh*tty draft. → Now it’s your move. You’re out of excuses. The pros aren't waiting for a muse; they're in the workshop, making and doing. So don't just nod at this post. Don't "save it for later." Pick ONE ridiculously small piece of that dream project. Give yourself permission for it to be messy, imperfect, even a bit embarrassing. And then DO IT. Today. – 👋 Hi, I’m Chase 💪 Lifelong creator who helps other creators thrive 📸 Award-winning photographer, exited founder & bestselling author

This book changed how I thought about my business. And how I think as a creative. “The Creative Act – A Way Of Being” by Rick Rubin isn’t just inspirational, It’s a deep, strategic reframe of how you approach creativity, leadership, burn out, frustration and self-expression. Five years into building Because of Marketing, I’ve realised that if you want to build something that outlives you, it has to start with how you think. I haven't put this book down and recommended it to so many friends and founders! Almost every page, I’ve underlined or highlighted specific words and sentences. But here are my key takeaways: → Creativity Is About Awareness, Not Control Rubin reminds us that creativity starts with paying attention. Ideas don’t appear because we force them, they emerge when we create space for them to surface. As founders, we often try to force ideas into existence. But the real breakthroughs come when we step back and allow space for them to unfold. → It Expands Your Thinking Beyond A Core Problem Rubin draws from music, art, philosophy, and nature. If you’re stuck on an idea, look at other industries for inspiration. It helps you build a more expansive worldview. → Creativity Has to Be Sustainable We work in an industry that never stops, especially now we have entered the Q4 craziness. Rubin offers a roadmap for long-term creativity. He shows you how to create habits, environments, and practices that keep ideas flowing over time, helping you avoid self doubt and burn out. Because of Marketing has over 700,000 people who have hit that follow button. I don’t want Because of Marketing to only exist.  I want it to matter to our audience. For the past year, we've really honed in on where we seek inspiration, pushed ourselves creatively, studied other industries, and continue to refine every piece of content we put out. I could dive deeper but reading this book reminded me why I care so much about building Because of Marketing. - Active awareness. - Boundless curiosity. - A deep respect for the creative process. And I’ll leave you with a few of my favourite quotes from the book: “Your entire life is a form of self-expression.” “Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human.” “Failure is the information you need to get to where you’re going.” “Faith allows you to trust the direction without needing to understand it.” If you’re building something; whether it’s a brand, a business, a community or your career, this book will challenge how you see creativity, overcome self doubt and connect with your inner child. Let me know if you’ve read it! 🤎

Creativity gets better when your life gets fuller. Composer George Gershwin didn't hide from the world to create. He absorbed it. His process shows that creativity comes from paying closer attention to the life happening around you. 3 lessons for turning everyday life into creative fuel: 1. Show Up Even When You Don't Feel Ready Gershwin worked at the keyboard throughout the day. Focused bursts. Not marathon sessions. He kept notebooks nearby. Captured melodies quickly as they came. He didn't wait for perfect conditions. He didn't need long uninterrupted hours. He relied on steady contact with the instrument. So ideas had a place to land. Your move: Lower the barrier to starting. Show up for 15 minutes. Keep your tools accessible. Let momentum build from small contact, not big commitments. 2. Let Your Environment Feed Your Imagination Gershwin absorbed everything around him. New York street rhythms. Jazz clubs. Dance halls. Conversations with musicians. The energy of the city. It all shaped how he heard music. Rhapsody in Blue grew out of rhythmic impressions he picked up during travel and performance life. He treated sounds, scenes, and people as raw material. Your move: Pay attention to what's around you. Notice rhythms in your commute. Capture overheard phrases. Let the world become your notebook. 3. Use the Rest of Your Life to Recharge Your Creative Life Gershwin lived socially. Nights at parties. Rehearsals. Clubs. Meeting dancers, composers, performers. These interactions refreshed him. Gave him musical ideas. Kept him connected to the culture he was writing for. His breaks weren't escapes from work. They were part of the ecosystem that made the work possible. Your move: Stop treating social life as a distraction. Engage with people in your field. Go where the energy is. Your creative work needs input, not just output. Creativity isn't only what happens at the desk. It's what you absorb when you step away from it. The more fully you live, the more deeply you can create. ♻️ Share this with someone who needs permission to live more 🔔 Follow Kabir Sehgal for more insights on creativity

How do you navigate ambiguity? One of the things I teach in creative thinking is the ability to embrace ambiguity—the skill of staying open to uncertainties rather than rushing to resolve them. It’s easy to talk about, but one of the hardest things to practice, especially when life or work feels complex and uncertain. This past week, I worked with a group navigating a lot of ambiguity, and it got me thinking: How do we support ourselves and others during uncertain times? Here are some things I’ve found that help: 1. Take care of yourself. When we're stressed, our good habits—eating healthy, exercising, and getting enough sleep—often get replaced by quick fixes like junk food, doomscrolling, and caffeine overload. But when we neglect our well-being, it becomes even more challenging to sit with uncertainty. Prioritizing small acts of self-care helps build the resilience needed to handle ambiguity. 2. Check in on others. Uncertainty isn’t just an individual experience—it’s collective. Reach out to friends, family, and colleagues who might feel overwhelmed. A simple “How are you doing?” or “Thinking of you” can make a huge difference. Sometimes, just knowing we’re not alone in the uncertainty makes navigating easier. 3. Take time to breathe—phone-free. Whatever this looks like for you—taking a walk, sitting in your favorite chair by the fire, or just closing your eyes for a few deep breaths—stepping away from screens helps create space for clarity. The constant flood of information can make ambiguity feel heavier than it is. Sometimes, we need to sit with the unknown and let things unfold. Other times, we’re ready to actively engage with it. If you feel the need to problem-solve, try shifting your perspective: 4. Reframe uncertainty as a possibility. Instead of seeing ambiguity as something to fear, try viewing it as a space for new opportunities. Ask yourself: What possibilities might emerge from this? Shifting your mindset from dread to curiosity can open up creative solutions you hadn’t considered. 5. Trust the process. Sid Parnes, one of the creators of Creative Problem Solving, often said to "trust the process". This means embracing the idea that even when things feel uncertain, creativity thrives when we allow ideas to unfold over time. Instead of forcing a solution too soon, stay engaged, remain open to new inputs, and trust that the right insights will emerge when they are needed. How do you navigate ambiguity? What strategies have helped you embrace uncertainty in your work or life? I’d love to hear your thoughts. #creativity #education #ambiguity

"But shouldn't the creative process be ... a little messy?" This is the pushback I often hear when I talk about implementing rigorous processes in brand development. There's a myth that creative work thrives in chaos, that structure somehow stifles innovation. Here's the truth: A solid process doesn't restrict creativity; it empowers it. Think about it. When you're not constantly reinventing how you work, you can focus your energy on what matters most: the creative output itself. It's like having a well-organized kitchen before cooking a complex meal. You're not wasting time hunting for ingredients; you're focusing on perfecting the dish. Let me break down what a proven brand development process looks like. First, we build the foundation. This means defining mission, vision and values, then crafting positioning and messaging frameworks. This isn't just paperwork; it's your brand's DNA. Next comes identity development. We're talking visual and verbal components working in harmony. But here's the key: We're not just making pretty designs. We're creating a system that can scale. Finally, we activate. This includes templates, campaigns and ongoing creative, all flowing from that strong foundation. Not every brand needs every piece of this puzzle, but the most successful brands I've worked with aren't the ones with the biggest budgets or the wildest ideas. They're the ones that respect the process, then unleash their creativity within it. Simply put, process doesn't kill creativity. It sets it free.

Remember watching a baby learn to walk? They don't approach it as a problem to solve - there's no methodical analysis of muscle groups or gravity. No PowerPoint presentations or strategic planning meetings for these tiny innovators - just pure, unfiltered 'what happens if I do THIS?' experimentation. They embrace a natural drive to explore and create new possibilities, falling countless times without losing their inherent innovative spirit. This innate innovative capacity is something we all possessed, yet somewhere along the way, many of us traded it for the more comfortable realm of problem-solving. Like a butterfly returning to its chrysalis, we often retreat to the familiar confines of fixing what's broken rather than imagining what could be. According to a 2023 McKinsey study, companies that prioritize innovation over problem-solving are 3.5 times more likely to achieve top-quartile financial performance in their industries. Yet many organizations remain trapped in the problem-solving paradigm, perfecting processes that may not even serve their future needs. To embrace innovation: * Create "possibility spaces" - dedicated time where the only rule is there are no problems to solve, only opportunities to explore. This might feel uncomfortable at first, like speaking a new language. * Practice reverse constraints - instead of listing limitations, start by imagining what would be possible if current constraints didn't exist. Then work backward to reality while preserving the spark of possibility. Think of it like being a culinary rebel–instead of asking 'What ingredients do I have?', you start by imagining 'What mind-blowing dish could I create if ingredients were unlimited?' * Cultivate productive discomfort - recognize that the slight unease you feel when pushing beyond conventional solutions is actually a signal you're growing. The most powerful realization? Innovation isn't about having better answers - it's about asking better questions. While problem-solving starts with "How do we fix this?", innovation begins with "What might be possible?" We stand at a crossroads every day: we can choose the well-worn path of problem-solving, making incremental improvements to what exists, or we can embrace the uncertainty of innovation. Like a tree growing through concrete, innovation may require more effort and feel less stable, but it's the only way to truly break through to new ground. The question isn't whether you can innovate - you've been doing it since your first steps. The question is whether you're ready to reclaim that natural ability and let it transform your future.

One of the hardest shifts for any creative professional is this: The work isn't yours. The ideas, the concepts, the solutions you pour yourself into — they belong to the client. And for a lot of people, especially early in a career built on creativity, that feels like a threat. It's not. It's actually a gift. Here's what changes when you internalize it: You stop falling in love with your first idea. You stop defending a direction because it came from you. You stop making the work about proving something. And you start making it about solving something. When you design for a client's brand — for their audience, their story, their goals — the attachment shifts. Your north star becomes: Does this work for them? Does this work for their audience? That's when the real creative freedom starts. Because you can experiment broadly, fail forward, generate dozens of directions — You're not protecting your ego. You're building their world. I've watched this reframe transform careers. It takes the weight off. It makes you a better collaborator, a better problem-solver, and ultimately a better creative. Design is not self-expression. It's a commercial service. And when you embrace that — the work gets better, and so do you.

There’s a truth most creators feel but rarely say: the creative process is chaotic. It’s supposed to be. Making something from nothing is messy by nature. It starts with sparks, gut feelings, and a blank screen. And it ends, hopefully, with a finished video. But traditional media figured out something important: While you can’t remove the chaos, you CAN wrap it in operational control. When I was leading studios at MTV and Discovery, whether it was a weekly show or a 12-part documentary, creativity never followed a clean line. But we built systems around that chaos. 🔷 Production cadences 🔷 Greenlight calendars 🔷 Post workflows 🔷 Budget targets Systems that allowed us to scale artistic output that’s unpredictable by nature. That’s how a studio like Disney can ship 20+ movies a year. Not by streamlining the creative process but by streamlining everything around it. This is the unlock I see missing in the YouTube world today. Most creators try to do everything. Write, shoot, edit, upload, post, repeat. They’re constantly reinventing the wheel, often burning out in the process. Being “the everything” isn’t a superpower. It’s a bottleneck. This is the mindset shift that will create the unlock: Treating your channel like a creative studio, not a content hustle. That means: 🔷 Separating the creative core from the operational layer. 🔷 Delegating, documenting, and designing for scale. 🔷 Building repeatable systems that allow you to be creative on schedule. No, you don’t need to adopt the bloat of Hollywood. But the playbook of operationalizing creative output is critical if you ever want to grow beyond being a lifestyle business. Just remember, systems don’t kill the art, they protect it.

Most people skip the first step of content creation. I did too—until I learned a lesson from film editing. In film, there are five key stages: 1. Development – coming up with the concept, writing the script 2. Pre-production – casting, planning, storyboarding 3. Production – filming the scenes 4. Post-production – editing, color, sound 5. Distribution – releasing it into the world When I saw this breakdown (shoutout to an Instagram Reel by @OMGAdrian), I had a lightbulb moment. I’d been skipping development and pre-production entirely. No concept, no outline—just pulling out my phone and hoping something coherent came out. But once I started treating my content like a mini production? Everything changed. I now write down ideas based on prompts like: What mistakes have I made? What do I wish someone told me sooner? Where am I best-in-class? What interesting stories do I have? Then make a script and shot list for a video. It’s made filming feel less like a scramble and more like a rhythm. Same thing happened when I helped my mom with her Instagram. She’s a painter and hadn’t posted in 71 weeks. Not because she didn’t want to—but because she didn’t have clarity about where to begin. So we reverse-engineered her creation process: 1. Select a painting 2. Take a photo in her garden 3. Write a caption 4. Hit post or schedule In 25 minutes, we captured 20+ paintings—and unlocked momentum. Lesson: If you’re blocked, zoom out. Before you create, design the process. Creativity doesn’t start with a camera—it starts with clarity.