Part 2: Does your brain have too many tabs open? The solution for creative brains in business
Last week I talked about creative brains not thinking in straight lines.
They think in images and connections, one idea activates another, and they can hold many threads at once.
This is a superpower in creation mode — designing, problem solving, making art, building offers. But the moment you have to take what’s in your head and get other people excited about it (selling, promoting, even just answering “so what do you do?”)… you need a different mode.
You need linear thinking: the skill of communicating one piece of information at a time, in a sequence.
This is where I see a lot of people get stuck, they think they have a marketing problem, but often it’s a sequencing problem: you’re telling the right stories in the wrong order… or trying to tell every story all at once.
9 questions to ask yourself (to diagnose the real issue)
In this 30 min video I share the questions I ask every founder to get a sense of what their actual issue is:
a) a marketing problem (e.g. do they need a more compelling story)?
b) a product problem (e.g. something in the business needs to be decided on)?
c) something a bit more mysterious (e.g. not feeling comfortable being seen, afraid of the responsibility of serving more customers... etc)
Once you watch the video, do this 7-day exercise (10 mins a day)
What usually gets revealed
There are two main things this exercise surfaces.
First, which decisions still need to be made.
The questions that feel hard to answer are rarely about wording. They’re usually pointing to something structural: a fuzzy promise, an unclear target customer, an offer that doesn't have a clear shape.
Second, it trains your brain on what actually matters.
Our brains decide what matters by repetition. If you look at these questions every day (and answer them simply) your creative mind will start collecting evidence and clarity in the background. You’ll start finding inspiration out in the world where you least expect it. It feels a bit like magic!
Important: This only works if you:
- write short answers, not essays
- keep workshopping answers
- keep multiple versions “just in case”
(Doing these things just perpetuates the problem we're trying to solve, this works when you practice deciding, not perfecting.)
At the end of the 7 days:
People who did the exercise consistently usually notice that:
- they feel calmer when talking about their work
- they start seeing things out in the real world to help them answer
- they start to trust their own brain a bit more
If you try this out, let me know how you get on! I'd love to hear - I usually do this 1:1 so if you get stuck it's helpful for me to know so I can refine the process.
Thanks,
Niamh