Creative People Pleasing
It’s not your job to please others.
It’s not your duty to live up to their expectations.
Your only responsibility is to do the work that lights you the fuck up.
Even if no one else gets it.
Especially if no one else gets it.
That’s what creativity is: rebellion against conformity.
A worldview.
A taste of creative freedom.
The Creative Cage
But we get stuck.
We stay in our heads. We polish drafts. We doom scroll for “inspiration.”
It feels good in the moment, but nothing real comes out of it.
That’s creative masturbation.
We create, but don’t share.
We fear being seen.
We fear being misunderstood.
We fear failure, and we fear success.
So we stay small. Stay safe. Stay dry.
Toxic Creative Ego Traps
A few of my TikToks, which called out toxic creative ego traps, went viral.
People asked me for book recommendations.
There aren’t any, as far as I know.
So I’m writing the book.
Working title 👇
The Tao of Creative Self-Sabotage
Get Unstuck. Kill Overthinking. Stop Gaslighting Your True Creativity.
Think The War of Art meets The Power of Now.
Steven Pressfield meets Alan Watts while Eckhart Tolle makes herbal tea.
99.9% of creative blocks are self-sabotage.
We’re in a toxic relationship with our creative egos.
They gaslight us with fear and insecurity, keeping us stuck in endless loops.
Flow Over Force
Eastern philosophy, like Taoism and Zen, teaches that the ego is an illusion.
A cage built from our thoughts, fears, and limiting beliefs.
This book is about tearing that cage down.
Not discovering…but remembering your true creative self before the ego locked it away.
Before perfectionism sank its teeth into your work.
Am I scared?
Abso-fucking-lutely.
My inner critic screams:
“I’m dyslexic.”
“My English teacher told me I couldn’t write.”
“No one cares what I think.”
“I’m not good enough.”
“I’ll never finish.”
That’s my creative ego trying to gaslight me into submission.
That’s exactly why I have to do it.
Get Naked, Get Messy, Get Seen
We are creative people.
We create our own reality.
I’ve been creatively masturbating on this book since 2020.
Leaving me emotionally drained and ashamed instead of fulfilled.
To fulfil our creative potential, we need to stop masturbating and start truly connecting.
Reconnect with our true creative selves.
Remove the masks. Get emotionally naked. Get vulnerable AF.
Create to connect, not perform.
Detach from outcomes, results, and expectations.
The book drops in January.
Which means I may or may not be less consistent on here. 🤷♀️
So whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing…
👉 You fucking rock.
Don’t let your toxic creative ego gaslight your true creative self.
Jake ✌️
P.S. Niche Creator (our latest version is out soon).
Can't wait to read the book