S3 Ep5 The Real Reason Behind Your Creative Block In Marketing

In this episode, I open up about the period when my own marketing wasn’t landing. When I was in the middle of a creative evolution, testing new ideas, finding my voice, and realising how much pressure we put on ourselves to look like we’ve got it all figured out.

I explore how creative blocks often come not from a lack of ideas, but from filtering what we really want to say. From trying to fit into strategies, formulas, or narratives that don’t quite feel like us.

You’ll hear how I found freedom again by creating from what lit me up, even when it wasn’t “strategically” linked to my service, and how that shift unlocked my most resonant, magnetic work yet.

We’ll talk about:
 ✨ The difference between authenticity and performative vulnerability
 ✨ Why resonance, not strategy, sells
 ✨ How to infuse soul, messiness, and truth into your marketing
 ✨ And how to move from stifled and stuck to creatively alive

If you’ve ever felt like your creativity has dried up or that your words don’t sound like you anymore, this episode is your permission slip to say what you really want to say and create what truly wants to move through you.

You can book a free 15 minute call with me here.

And shop my Sales Page template here. 

I'd love to hear what you thought of this episode!

Head over to Instagram and let me know:

www.instagram.com/consciouscreatorco_

Transcript

(5:33) Now this is not a narrative you see people in marketing share often at all because the idea (5:39) is is that if you're good at marketing you should be having a successful business and your services (5:45) should all be sold out and you should have it all figured out and that is just not my reality at all. (5:50) I was in this huge transition of really changing my messaging like really embodying it myself (5:56) and discovering what directions I really wanted to go in so of course my messaging wasn't overly (6:01) clear it wasn't supposed to be I was in a trial and error phase I was just seeing what lands and (6:07) what feels good for me so naturally it wasn't very quote-unquote successful and that's okay (6:14) but I felt like it wasn't okay to say and then I realised that I couldn't freely speak I had this (6:21) huge block and when I shared a post which you may have read saying I'm not smashing it and I feel (6:29) like I can't say that because everybody always talks about their struggles in business or life (6:35) within hindsight they say oh back then I was really struggling with this but at the time you (6:42) didn't hear any of that struggle and then it creates this unease within you of like hold on a (6:51) like it's going so well and I'm feeling so lit up and everything's flowing and you were painting (6:56) this picture of brilliance to now say that you were experiencing all of this struggle within (7:03) this time and I could feel myself feeling frustrated with people doing that and yet I (7:08) wasn't doing it in that I wasn't saying that things were going really well I have a whole (7:12) piece on this in regards to authenticity not necessarily being sharing all of the struggles (7:17) but just not presenting a different reality to what you're experiencing and I definitely wasn't (7:22) doing that but I also wasn't letting myself really say what I wanted to say which was I'm (7:30) not smashing it and when I shared that I felt such a huge sigh of relief and then I also had (7:38) so much engagement of people also feeling a sigh of relief from hearing my words of like oh thank (7:44) goodness because every time I open this app everyone just feels like they're smashing it and (7:49) I feel like I'm doing something wrong like I'm not good enough why aren't I when actually the reality (7:56) is is that a lot of the people who I could see presenting themselves as smashing it online (8:02) actually weren't in reality through like conversations I'd had and just like things (8:06) that I had been realising I was like there's a mismatch here and my creative block was because (8:13) I wasn't fully owning the words that I really wanted to say and that is that you know sometimes (8:20) you have these periods where your marketing doesn't feel like it's working like I was (8:24) introducing a lot of new concepts that people had never heard of before so I had this journey (8:29) of change making within my marketing and I have a whole episode where I speak about this but (8:34) that doesn't work instantly sometimes it does some people are like yeah I get it I'm sold (8:39) and sometimes it takes a little bit longer be that for clients to grow accustomed to it or for (8:45) you to be comfortable in that messaging yourself and so there comes this point where the creative (8:52) block can exist because we're filtering what we really want to say we are consuming too much of (9:00) others and the common narratives and then trying to mould ourselves within that or doing the same (9:07) within strategies we've been told to create a certain way and then we're trying to fit ourselves (9:12) within that and the creativity dries up so fast I also had this realisation recently when it came (9:20) to my sub stack so I had named it marketing musings and I was writing about marketing which (9:27) for me is very easy and I genuinely love to do it but I kept filling my notes app with these (9:34) articles that had nothing to do with marketing they were just things that I felt lit up by and I (9:40) was just freely channelling on and they really wanted to take up space within my notes and then (9:46) I had this pull of like but I want to share them and I don't feel like I have space to do that (9:51) because everything of mine was strategically pointed to being about marketing and then (9:58) eventually selling my service which in itself was creating a block within my creations (10:04) so then I was like okay I'm gonna change the name of my sub stack and it's going to be the space (10:09) where I don't have to write about marketing and I ended up channelling this piece on why Olivia (10:16) Dean has me in a chokehold and it was a piece about being a single girl in your 30s and not (10:22) really feeling represented within a lot of the narratives that we see particularly within the (10:27) music scene it's very much either like fuck you anthems to men or it's this like longing for love (10:35) almost desperately and actually I'm that sweet spot in between where I'm very strong in my (10:43) boundaries I am a lover girl at heart like I want love I hope love is out there for me but I'm also (10:51) loving my solo time and I have amazing friendships and I have my own space and I'm doing so well in (10:57) my own areas of life and I just didn't feel like I could really see myself within those narratives (11:05) despite it being what both myself and so many of my friends are actually experiencing and so I wrote (11:11) this whole almost like love letter to her on that and I loved writing it I felt so lit up when the (11:18) words were like flying across the screen and funnily enough I shared an interview that Olivia Dean (11:24) herself did the other day and it was about her song man I need which if you haven't heard like (11:29) put it on repeat honestly there is something in that song that just injects happiness within you (11:35) and she was being asked why she thinks people love it so much and her response was because I (11:41) love it so much like I loved writing it recording it I love performing it and if you ever ever seen (11:46) a live performance of her like that is so abundantly clear when she sings that song she's (11:51) dancing along like she's the biggest smile on her face and you can just feel the happiness being (11:57) infused within it she wasn't creating for it to be this certain kind of success she was just creating (12:04) in a way that she loves with the hope that others would love it too and that really shows and (12:09) others do love it it flew straight to the top of the charts like her tour sold out I mean I was in (12:14) many queues for her tour and like managed to grab two tickets but it was very difficult and I know (12:19) several people that didn't and this is because that creative channel came from this energy of (12:26) this is what I feel called to create I'm lit up by creating it and everything just flows from that (12:32) space and so this is what has been happening with my sub stack now I have so many notes and actually (12:39) draft articles of things that are nothing to do with marketing there can always be a tie back (12:46) to it I think because marketing is so integral to so many things that we do and experience (12:50) but I'm also challenging the urge to do that and saying but does it need one does it need a tie (12:57) back and interestingly I was speaking to a client about this the other day because she's the same (13:02) she has so many things in her drafts like of stories that she wants to tell but she's always (13:07) like but I don't feel like it's a clear enough segue into my work I don't feel like that it (13:13) sells what I do well enough to the point that then she had stopped being able to actually (13:18) write these stories because I actually haven't written one in such a while because you almost (13:23) get into that energy of well what's the point if they're not doing anything if they don't (13:28) strategically tie back to a cell then why am I writing them what's the point in sharing them (13:34) and this is very much the energy I got into which is why I changed the name of my sub stack (13:37) and I challenged her on this I was like because the problem is is people don't tend to buy from (13:44) your sales focused content and I've spoken about this in episodes before but they buy from resonance (13:50) they buy from a feeling they buy from seeing themselves within you within your approach (13:56) within your work and the way that we create that resonance actually rarely needs a cell (14:03) it does when it comes to people being kind of ready to buy but that's really what a sales (14:09) page is for that's where all of that information can be found and like we don't necessarily need (14:14) to be infusing that within all of the marketing and actually when we try to that's what creates (14:22) this creative block and so when I challenged her on some of these pieces of content we realised (14:27) that actually despite it not having a direct tie back and sell to her service it was probably the (14:34) greatest sell of her service she could share because within those pieces you really saw her (14:40) and her experiences and the way that she moves through the world and actually (14:44) how this work just weaves its way into her everyday life naturally and it's those pieces (14:52) that we really buy into we really feel we want to dive deeper into perhaps the work (15:01) even though there's not been a direct sell there so when we're speaking about these creative blocks (15:08) so often it is that we don't feel like what we have to say is the quote-unquote right thing to (15:15) say and I shared about this in my episode last week where I speak about the importance of infusing (15:22) messiness within marketing because people want to see here read about humans they want to connect (15:31) on a human to human level and the way that they do that is by seeing our humanness so we need to have (15:39) some of the messiness and a part of that is also saying what we want to say and I've spoken about (15:47) this in this last episode about clients that have come to me and are just constantly questioning (15:53) essentially if what they have to say is enough if it's clear enough if it's strategic enough (15:59) if it's sellable enough and in doing so this creative channel shuts down because when they're (16:06) free flowing in conversation with me it's effortless it's easy they have so much to say (16:12) they could keep going and going and going but when it comes to putting that in marketing (16:17) there's then this process of stifling what they have to say to the point where they wonder if (16:22) they even have anything to say and this is really key when it comes to harnessing our creative energy (16:30) because that creativity feels most alive when we are saying the things that we want to say (16:36) not the most palatable versions not the watered down ones or the most strategic but what really (16:41) feels alive within us and there's so much around like the kind of energy centres of our body like (16:47) particularly around the throat chakra and also the solar plexus here of just like these blockages (16:52) that we experience and that is a whole other topic within itself but for me and what I've (16:57) witnessed within a lot of clients it really comes back to this permission slip to say and to create (17:04) what we really want to create and kind of acknowledging that there does need to be some (17:10) strategy within our marketing again I speak about this in the last episode but not every (17:15) piece we put out into the world needs to be a strategic sellable piece when we are creating (17:22) from this place of like oh this is just moving through me it feels really alive like I actually (17:26) can't wait to share it I can't wait to put it into the world that energy is really felt (17:33) and even if people don't buy from that particular piece it could be this chain reaction where they (17:39) read that they click on something else that perhaps has more of a sellable tone to it maybe (17:44) they click through to your sales page I was speaking to a client the other day who the way (17:48) she signed up to work with me was she saw like something heartfelt that I'd written on one of (17:52) my pins loved it clicked through to the website felt so seen within the first two paragraphs that (17:59) she just booked to work with me instantly and I hadn't even got to any of like the selling or the (18:04) logistics or anything like that and when she asked me about that sales page I told her that that was (18:10) something that I scribbled in my journal when I was sat on my sofa it's just this like idea came (18:15) through me of I think I had been stuck on what to say actually on the page and I sat down and I asked (18:21) myself like what's the intention here like what is it about this work that really moves you like (18:27) where do you want it to meet people and to feel really alive for them and I just channelled so (18:33) much within my journal really messily and then I kind of came and put it into a sales page format (18:39) because this client was saying that she struggles sitting with an actual sales page in front of her (18:43) which of course so many of us do and I think the difference for me between that like sales page (18:49) template and the blank page of my journal is that I give myself permission to just say what I want (18:57) to say when it's in the journal I'm just capturing what feels alive for me in that moment and what (19:03) wants to move through me versus this like constructed way of creating that so much of (19:10) marketing feels like and when I open up that blank page and give permission to just flow (19:15) and say what I want to say like I can't get it wrong I'm just writing what I want to write (19:23) there's an aliveness to it that if we can infuse that within marketing of course meet an element (19:28) of strategy within it too not only do we feel so creatively alive within our creations but others (19:37) enjoy reading it like this client said that she was totally captivated by the first two paragraphs (19:42) and that is the power of creating marketing that feels really real and resonant for us like I (19:49) wasn't like putting this incredible strategy within those first two paragraphs that was like (19:54) oh my god I need it because this strategy is so good and sell to me so well I was just channelling (20:01) like what this service is to me and why it's so important and where I wanted to meet people and (20:07) all of that stuff that felt really alive and I have actually created a sales page template (20:12) for you to be able to buy and download and copy and paste as many times as you need to for as many (20:17) different services that you have that is really rooted in this energy it starts with a meditation (20:23) so that you can really feel into your service and see it almost through the client's eyes (20:30) really be amongst it experience the transformation in a meditative form and then there's prompts (20:36) that I invite you to actually open your journal and journal on or like free flow and have (20:42) conversations on that then start to bring your service to life in a way that becomes your sales (20:49) page but it is from this creative energy where like I said you are lit up you are really infusing you (20:58) within your words you're really meeting people human to human and this is something I say all (21:05) the time like you as a service provider or you know whatever kind of business owner you are (21:10) you already get and understand your clients on the deepest level you are the best person to speak (21:16) about your work it's just that often we get lost in the strategies of how to do so that we forget (21:23) that actually we already have all the words within us and when we're creatively blocked for whatever (21:29) reason those words are just struggling to come through for whatever reason perhaps it's the (21:34) stories we've told ourselves like people don't want to hear that don't won't sell it people (21:38) won't agree with that when we really give permission for those words to rise and be on (21:44) the page and yes we meet them with an element of strategy as well we have the most magnetic (21:50) powerful marketing and we also unlock that creative process where for me I can just channel (21:56) and channel I've been sat here writing for hours I suddenly realised that I've not eaten and like (22:00) I just go in such a little vortex of it because I've just unleashed what I really want to say (22:06) I've removed the filters and just allowed the words to express and this is what their sales (22:12) page template is designed to really help you do it's what I'm infusing within the marketing news (22:18) programme that I'm putting together like this is coming into so much of my work right now (22:22) and I will leave all of the details for that below but I really invite you to ask yourself (22:29) what are you holding back on what you want to say like could your creative block be that actually (22:36) you know what you want to create you're just not fully giving yourself permission to do so (22:42) and if anything comes through for you for this I would love to hear about it please come and let (22:47) me know but I challenge you just to write one thing that you really want to say but it almost (22:53) meets the edge of like should I say this should I put this out will people get it like put it out (22:59) and see what happens because the more we flex this muscle and we create from this place of truth (23:04) and trust and what we really have to say the more the ideas keep coming thank you so much (23:10) for listening to this episode I'm looking forward to seeing you in the next one thank you so much (23:15) for listening to this episode I really hope that it was helpful for you and if it has made you want (23:22) to find out more of the ways you can work with me all of the information about one-to-one my (23:28) resources my programmes are all listed below in the show notes if you found this helpful I would (23:36) really appreciate if you could take a moment just to write a review this helps other creators just (23:43) like yourselves find this podcast and have an even greater impact from their services (23:50) I would really really love to hear from you please feel free to get in touch with me over (23:56) on Instagram or via email both of which again you can find below thank you so much for being here (24:03) and until next time