EP 28. Why You Lost Your Creativity (and How to Get It Back as an Entrepreneur)

Have you ever felt like your entire life revolves around your business… and suddenly, the creativity just disappears?

In this episode, I’m breaking down why so many entrepreneurs hit creative blocks, feel disconnected from their content, and start believing something is “wrong” with their strategy… when in reality, it has nothing to do with strategy at all.

This is your reminder that sometimes the best thing you can do for your business… is step away from it.

🔍 IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL UNCOVER:

• Why constantly thinking about your business actually kills your creativity
• The real reason you feel “blocked” (and why it’s not your strategy)
• Why monetizing everything makes your business feel draining
• The danger of doom scrolling VS intentional consumption
• How to create better content without relying on AI or overthinking
• Simple ways to bring creativity back (even with just 10 minutes a day)

🗂️ CASE EVIDENCE FROM THIS FILE:

• "You are not doing this for anybody. You're doing this for yourself."
• "Your brain is not getting enough rest. That's why it doesn't feel creative."
• "Sometimes the best thing that you can do for your business is do something that has nothing to do with your business."

📌 LET’S CONNECT ON SOCIALS:

• Instagram: @jelenaostrovska
• Threads: @jelenaostrovska
• Facebook: Jelena Ostrovska
• YouTube: Jelena Ostrovska
• LinkedIn: Jelena Ostrovska

🔐 WORK WITH ME:

🗃️ [Course] The Content Confidential – Build Content That Positions, Persuades & Converts

📲 [Private Coaching] Learn more about 1:1 support (strategy sessions or ongoing consulting here)

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Have you ever felt like everything you do in your business is just for your business? And then at some point you simply lose the creativity. You're not feeling like creating new programs, you're not feeling like creating content, you're not feeling like getting in front of the camera, you just feel blocked. Now, and the reason why that happens is because when our brain is only on when it comes to the business, and we don't focus on anything besides the business, we don't have any hobbies, we think that we're too busy for that, then we just slide into that routine and all we think about is business, business, business. I just have to complete this to-do list, I just have to get this done. I'm so busy with my calendar, I have no white space, and that's when the creativity dips. Now, this kind of thing happened to me multiple times throughout my career. So last week I've had this, I call it a creative energy outburst, and I started a Substack account, or should I say restarted because I made an account last year, never did anything with it because I thought that I just don't have the time. Got back into sketching and drawing literally every single day, just something little, and also started a book talk account. Was not on my cards for 2026 at all, but I felt the creative block, so I had to get myself out of that rut. And now here's what's fascinating about doing something for yourself rather than for your business or for the monetization purposes, because a lot of the times people start their artistry or they want to start a quote unquote side project, and all they think about is how to monetize that. And I do believe that that's when the hobby becomes draining because you think of it like a moneymaker, when you're actually thinking of your hobby as a way to unplug, as a way to give yourself fresh perspectives, as a way to just enjoy yourself in the moment and do something that you truly like. That's when things actually are enjoyable. When you're not just here to make the money, you're not just here for an exhibition, or you're here to monetize your TikTok account or hit a thousand subscribers so you can go live and turn on monetization features and all those kinds of things. You're posting something just to do something creative and fun. Because the problem with a lot of business owners is they get online, they work on their programs, they create their offer suites, funnels, email marketing. This is great. I love that stuff. I work on this for myself, I work on this kind of stuff with my clients. But at some point, you have to look at your business and kind of zoom out and think, what do I actually want to do aside from this? Like, do you actually have a hobby? So I want you to right now evaluate what is something that you've done before you started a business that maybe you forgot to do. Or you simply say to yourself, I don't have the time or the energy for it. Journal it down. It could be photography, it could be sketching, it could be painting. Paint by numbers even, because why not? Or one of those drawings where you scratch things out. I actually have one of those. I haven't used it not even once, so I should actually pick it up. So it could be anything, could be knitting, could be sawing something on a sewing machine, singing. There are a gazillion different hobbies that I'm sure you have something. So think it through. What is something that you've enjoyed doing as a kid, but then when adult life started and adulting became too hard, you're like, okay, I just don't have the energy. Think of that and write it down. Now, and here's the issue that happens with a lot of entrepreneurs when they do not use any kind of creative outlet for themselves is the burnout. The burnout from launching, the burnout from creating content, the burnout from showing up on all of the platforms and doing all the things because there's always that pressure from maybe your coaches, from the internet in general. You log into YouTube and there is how to build your Instagram account to 100k followers. You need to follow this algorithm, you need to follow this update, and then your eyes just go in all of these directions. And you're like, okay, so I need to be doing all of this, and then you start thinking to yourself, okay, so something is not working in the business. So you may be making the money, you may be bringing in the clients, but there is just something that feels a little disconnected. So you immediately think, oh, it's my strategy that's the problem. Or it's my marketing that's the problem. Maybe it's my niche. Maybe I have to niche down a little bit further. That is BS. I call BS on that all the time. And then you also might be thinking, I've already talked about everything under the sun in my business. I've already talked about XYZ topic, I've talked about everything. And I can say this from experience as well. I felt like this multiple times, especially when you're in business for let's just say five plus years. For me, it's 10 plus years, and you do feel like you've talked about everything. Even despite all the technology happening, especially if you are a marketer and you're listening to this, maybe you are like a coach, a business coach, productivity coach. There are certain things that you always talk about, and you're like, man, my my tongue is tired of talking about this exact same thing. I can definitely relate. And then what happens is when you feel that way, is you start scrolling on social media, and that scrolling becomes doom scrolling when you're like, I just need to find another inspiration. I just need to find something to talk about, something fresh and something new. I've done this, and it does work from the market research perspective when you not just doom scrolling, but when you specifically go into social media with the intention to do the research, and that's great. It always works for me, it always works for my clients as well. But at some point, you need to actually take a step back and instead of just consuming the content and letting other people's thoughts affect your thinking and your creativity, instead, you need to just shut the damn laptop down, turn off your phone, go for a walk, of all things. If you are like, I don't know what my hobbies are, I don't know what I enjoy, go to YouTube, type in how to find a hobby. Okay, so how to do something creative. And it can be literally drawing, picking up a pencil, and finding tutorials and doing something, right? It doesn't even cost a lot to start something. You don't have to buy all the fancy equipment. All I've been doing for the last week, even though I do have equipment for art, I have pencils and pens and uh like I have like a whole kit for painting. I literally just started using my pencil and it's not even that good of a pencil. Like I keep drawing with it, and I'm like, I actually need to sharpen it because like it's not the best quality pencil. And if you're doing any kind of art, you know that pencils do matter. Not all pencils are created equal. So that being said, pick up something. And even if you say to yourself, I'm not good at drawing, I'm not good at this and that, you don't have to be good at something. You just have to give your brain space to think. Because we are constantly bombarded with information from when you're in the car and you're listening to the radio or music, there's always ads and information. You log into Facebook, half of the stuff you see on your feed is gonna be ads. You go to YouTube, there's so much information out there. Your brain is not getting enough rest. That's why it doesn't feel creative, and that's why it feels like, oh my god, I have nothing to talk about in my business. Just take a break. Now, and when you do actually take that break for your creativity, you immediately start thinking of new offers, new content angles, new video ideas. For me personally, I started several different projects in the last week. And again, with no intention to monetize, with no intention to do anything just for me to create, because I have been bored from the business content. I'll be honest with you. Like, I love talking about it, but there are times when I'm like, I just want to talk about my favorite book. So that's what Substack is for. If you're like, I'm tired of seeing the same things and all these AI and Chat GPT generated stuff, go to Substack. And I literally challenged a couple of my friends. I'm like, if you enjoy writing and you feel like you haven't been doing that enough, go to Substack and you're gonna find a whole new audience as well. So from the marketing perspective, from the business perspective, if you have been building your business on different platforms, let's say you've been on Facebook and you've been on Instagram and on TikTok the whole time, even on YouTube, and you're like, I just want to connect with different people, try a completely different platform, try Substack. And I'm not suggesting this to you because it's like a hot platform to be on. I'm suggesting this simply as an option for you to experiment with something. And I think that's what really makes some entrepreneurs afraid of starting something. They're like, oh, like, I don't know if I'm gonna fail at this, or I don't know if I'm gonna have the time, I don't know if I'm gonna have the energy. Just literally do a challenge for 30 days straight. Start something, whether it's drawing, a Substack, just dropping one note on Sub Stack every single day with your own thoughts, whatever comes to mind. And I'm sure you have ideas every single day. You just need a place to voice them or word them. Because creativity outside of the business helps you with great content angles. It helps you with even video editing. So I've been creating this book talk videos on my TikTok account. That's the only place where I gave myself the permission to start and do something fun. And it got me a whole other idea for my business content, for my marketing content. So why not? Like literally ask yourself, why not start something? Okay, so I may give you an advice that maybe your coach is not gonna be happy with because a lot of the times business coaches say, you just have to have one niche, you just have to focus on one lane. I challenge you to start something for yourself for 30 days, regardless of what your coach says. Still keep doing what you're doing, your business, your main thing, your job, whatever the case may be, but start something for yourself where you give your brain the capacity to not be bombarded with information 24-7. And now the reason why a majority of the business owners lose their creativity, and like I said, you can get it back. The reason why they lose it is because they consume too much content. The doom scrolling, it doesn't really help unless you dedicate specific amounts of time to sit down and research the content, find ideas, write down those ideas for yourself, like what sparks like fresh ideas for your content or for your offers or whatever the heck it is that you're working on. And it's also that desire to make everything productive, to turn every single thing that you do during the day into a productive activity. So for me personally, when I read books, I know it's not productivity. I don't intend to make it my productive time. I specifically read books to give my brain a fresh perspective on something. No matter what I'm reading, whether it's dark romance, whether it's nonfiction, whether it's just like a rom-com or whatever the heck I'm reading, or like a fantasy book, it doesn't matter. I give my brain room to breathe, which it doesn't always have when I'm scrolling through social media. And I also want you to get out of that mindset that, oh, but it's a waste of time. Nobody needs my creativity. You're not doing this for anybody, you're doing this literally just for yourself. So things like journaling, writing, maybe writing poems if you're into that kind of stuff. Maybe it's doing Zentangle. This is actually a very therapeutic form of art. That's something that I've been doing a lot since I was a kid and in high school as well. Or writing for Substack or writing stories or coming up with stories. Maybe deep down in yourself you've been like, I really want to write a fiction book, but I don't know what to write about. Start writing about something. Because your creativity is kind of like a glass of water, right? So if you never fill it with water, that glass is always gonna stay dry. So your goal is to get that glass of water and every single day, or at least every other day, do something for yourself, even if it's 10 minutes a day. Because I know you might be thinking, well, Jelena, I have a job, I have kids, I have a husband or a wife, I have all these different responsibilities, I don't have the time. 10 minutes is all it takes. Just do something. Let me give you specific examples. Let's say you are about to jump on a call, and you know those 10-15 minutes before the call when we're just like sitting and waiting for the person to jump in and you don't know what to do with yourself. This is not a really productive time. Take a sketchbook. So I have mine here. It says I choose violence. No, I'm not a violent person, but I do like the sticker. And just draw something for 10 minutes. Literally, the way I've been doing this, this is kind of my quote unquote strategy. I've been looking at the photos on Pinterest, and whatever inspires me, I go and draw it. And I look at it and I draw it, whether it's good or not. And for me personally, I don't think it's good. The people who have seen it, they liked it. But your goal is just to do it for yourself. So find the little pockets of time when you can do something creative, even if it's, again, like I said, 5, 10, 15 minutes a day. Do something before bed. So you put the kids to sleep, and instead of scrolling on TikTok, which I know we all love, but those 15 minutes that sometimes turn into an hour are gonna be better off spent with journaling or sketching or even going into your house and I don't know, like taking a photo or something if you're into photography. Now, let me give you a content marketing perspective on why creativity matters. So if you've seen any kind of content in the last couple of months and you feel like it's too vague, it's too boring, when you can clearly see that it was created by ChatGPT, the problem with that kind of content is it doesn't give any perspective, it doesn't use any smart metaphors, it doesn't have unique angles and stories. Literally, if you're only using AI to create your content and you're not using your brain and your own creativity, you're missing on the perspectives that only you can share your own unique perspectives on life and whatever it is that you're talking about. You're missing on the storytelling and you're missing on the creativity. When you are doing something creative for yourself, think on how you can incorporate that into your content. Because let me give you an example. So I said this to a client the other day, and I said, imagine a piece of content that's really easy to tell it's AI. It looks something like this. It's a very popular sentence structure. I'm gonna use a therapist example. It could be something like, you're not broken, you just need to go to therapy. So that kind of piece of content, it's like, okay, boring. Why would I what? Like, why would I even engage with that? There's literally no purpose in saying that just to fill the space on social media. But now, if you were to use your creativity, let's say you're writing about something or you're thinking about a story, and maybe you've had a transformational story and you're literally digging into your past, and maybe you're journaling about something that happened to you five or seven years ago or whatever. And maybe you are a therapist, so you want to promote your services. So you leveraging your story is gonna be a lot more powerful. And again, do not use it in your therapy practice if you cannot use it. Again, I don't know the standard practices there, so I'm literally just using that as an example. So do not come for me, okay, after this. But using your own story on how you overcame something and how it gave you a fresh perspective, and at the end, promoting your, I don't know, like therapy session or your coaching session at the end is a lot more powerful than just saying, like, look, you're not broken, you just need a freaking therapist. That's not a good piece of content, in my opinion. But you using your own reflections, your own thought process, your own point of views, and even interesting metaphors. Like, I could take one of my drawings and use a metaphor from that, something that comes up to my brain whenever I'm drawing, or when I'm reading something. Again, reading is another hobby that you could pick up that literally does not make you pick up your phone. And when I'm saying this, when I'm saying pick up a hobby, something that you can do, please let it not be a game on your phone. Like I love games on my phone. I have this zombie game that I've been playing for a couple years. I have not picked it up in months just because I started sketching, I started BookTalk account, I started drawing more and just doing other activities like aside from being on my phone. And yeah, your brain is really gonna thank yourself for that. And one thing that I want to leave you with is when you are thinking about that hobby, I want to reiterate this once again. You're not doing this with the intention to make your business better. You're not doing this with the intention to monetize your hobby because if you do it wrong, if you just approach it with the intention of monetizing, making money, making it productive, then you're just not gonna enjoy it as much. You want to do something that's actually gonna be fun and enjoyable, and you're like, okay, this actually gives me life. So pick up a hobby that has zero business purpose. Please, let's not make it relevant or even slightly connected to your business. So if you are a business coach, picking up a self-development book does not count as a hobby. Picking up a sketchbook does. Now go find something for yourself and do it. Because sometimes the best thing that you can do for your business is do something that has nothing to do with your business. You've been listening to CEO Declassified, where the secrets to power, presence, and profit are no longer undercover. If today's intel hit home, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, or share this with a fellow CEO. Want more behind the scenes intel? Come say hi on Instagram, Jelena Ostrowska, or check the show notes for more. Until next time, stay sharp, break the rules, and stay on the case.