Writing this post has been difficult. However, being a creative thinker, having a creative mindset, is a subject that is important to many of my clients, and myself, especially if it means having trouble staying focused on work related to building a business.

I don’t know if there’s a fine line between having a natural aptitude to think creatively, being able to see different patterns than people around you seem to be able to, and being neurodivergent in a way that is making your day-to-day life a challenge.

I reckon it’s individual.

My experience is, given the right conditions and environment, someone who’s natural thinking is considered more creative than people around her, will thrive and be an inspiring and important part of her workplace or classroom.

At the same time, if the same creative person is being pushed into “line”, she will not thrive. In fact, she will most likely develop symptoms of stress.

This is my experience from my time as a pedagogy in a children’s nursery, my experience in over 3 decades in the workforce, and from the world of business, my own and others’.

Having said all that, I will now move on with the blog post. :)

3 tips on working with a creative mindset as a multi-passionate entrepreneur

My first tip is one that I have taken years to figure out for myself. It may or may not be helpful to you.

To be honest, I’m still practicing the focus I need to get writing work done. That seems to be where I procrastinate the most.

Separate your creative mindset from creative work

If you can, see if you can create space for your creative thinking to fly in all the wonderful directions it wants, and equally as important, put her (your creative flying mind) back in her comfortable and temporary cage while you sit down to work.

Whereas creative thinking and a creative mindset is much about following curiosity, seeing patters in new ways, and basically being wide open in your thinking, creativity and creative work often thrives within boundaries.

It’s one of the many contradictions we live with as creatives.

A boundary for encouraging creativity might be a deadline, or working with just one colour.

Boundaries can be many things, and it’s useful to set yourself some as a creative entrepreneur.

Being a fan of small steps, I encourage setting a specific time for the creative work, not the thinking.

If I don’t write things down, and at times be a little strict with myself, I’ll just consume, and not create. Not just scroll Insta, but buy new courses, read things to learn something. Most of that is good, but I don’t create enough unless I set some boundaries.

I go off on tangents or just faf about. Reminding myself that focusing on writing is as much a self-kind practice, as letting my free-thinking girl take flight. Of course, what usually happens when I do sit down to write, is that the writing becomes easier. Funny that! :)

Your creative thinking can flourish within a boundary you set for yourself.

Use your creative mindset for your customer

A super way to make use of your creative thinking is to help your customer. Or the customer you hope to have.

Maybe you can send a nice welcome email when someone signs up to your newsletter, with a good dose of your creative flair.

You can make it surprising, personal, quirky, fun, informative…whatever your creative mind comes up with.

Or maybe you can create something super useful and unique for your customer, in a way only you can. A small product or a simple service.

That is an awesome way to make use of your creative mind.

Use your creative mindset in your marketing (argh!!)

I know! Ok, but if you take a leaf out of Marty Neumeier’s book and think that it’s not about marketing, it’s about mattering, then marketing is not yucky, and you can bring your brilliant creative thinking to finding ways you can really matter to your most favorite customer.

Maybe marketing is exactly where we, as creatives, can make good use of our funny ways? Creative thinking is super handy here.

I’ve ditched the advice/rules/strategies for posting business-related content on Instagram. Just the word “content” annoys me.

I now go against all best-practice and infrequently post my imperfect photographs with hardly any text and no hashtags.

Is it working as a marketing tool? No, it’s not. But I’m creating and not just consuming on the platform, and for now, that’s good enough.

Related: A simple guide to a creative mindset

Coaching creativity is not a “How-to” video on YouTube

Coaching creativity is an incredibly interesting and skillful job, as it’s as far from “how-to” or paint-by-numbers as you can get. In other words, there are no right or wrong way, there is no quick fix as much as we might sometimes wish there was.

But there is the wonderful world of creativity, imagination, fun, possibilities, deep sense of meaning and joy, not to mention all the incredible things we can create and build.

Thinking creatively is a gift as much as a practice, and I believe we can create better conditions for people and planet by using our creativity to innovate.

I am grateful for how-to videos on YouTube as much as the next person, but coaching creativity is a deeper personal process than a 4 minute video can fix. Maybe that is why we avoid it, and scroll Insta instead? Listen, I’m a creativity coach and I still procrastinate my creating with consuming.

It’s easier for sure, but is it as rewarding? Is it heck!!

If you found this post useful, I’d love for you to get my emails too. That’s a place I share most of what is going on in front and behind the scenes. .)