Dear Creatives... Be Like Elsa In Frozen And "Let It Go"

Where are all my creatives at?? 🙋

You ever make the most AMAZING-BEST-EVER-LIFE-CHANGING-INCREDIBLE piece of art (writing, photography, video, content, etc)… one you LOVE and think your audience will go absolutely bonkers for… "This will be the one that makes you go viral for sure!"… and then…

It tanks.

Maybe you sent it out to the world and the engagement was trash, or people interpreted it the wrong way.

Or maybe you sent it to your team / manager / editor / client and they basically told you to start completely over and that you were an idiot.

Anyone — in any line of creative work — has had the rug pulled out from under them.

Writing, like other forms of art, is a creative process, so sometimes it can be hard not to get emotionally attached to something that you thought would REALLY kill it with the audience — but it flopped instead. 🐟

Here's why this happens to literally everybody

You didn't fall in love with the ad. You fell in love with the HOURS. The version you scrapped at 2am, the line you rewrote eleven times, the shot you fought the client for — all of it gets glued to your ego somewhere between "first draft" and "final approval." So by the time it's done, you're not looking at a piece of creative anymore. You're looking at a piece of YOU.

And that's the trap. Because the second something becomes "a piece of you," you can't judge it anymore. You can only defend it. 🛡️

Every creative does this. Doesn't matter if you're 25 or you've been in the business 40 years like me — the attachment is the same. The only difference between a rookie and a pro is what happens AFTER the flop. The rookie takes it personal. The pro takes it as data.

Detachment isn't the same as not caring

Let's be clear — I'm not telling you to stop caring about your work. Care as much as you want in the ROOM. Sweat over the headline. Argue for the shot. Fight for the idea while it's still being made.

But once it's OUT THE DOOR? Different rules apply. Once it's in front of real people, your opinion of it stops mattering and their reaction starts mattering. That's it. That's the whole swap.

The pros who last decades in this business aren't the ones who never get attached — they're the ones who built a HABIT of letting go on a schedule. Ship it. Watch the numbers. Learn. Move on. Repeat. It's not magic, it's just reps — treating every single piece of work like a hypothesis instead of a masterpiece. 🧪

The same goes for work you may NOT LOVE or may not think is the best you've ever created… that's OKAY, too.

In fact… it might be the piece of work that absolutely CRUSHES it with your client or audience.

Build the testing muscle, not the ego muscle

Here's the practical version: before you ever fall in love with ONE piece, make more than one. Two headlines. Two thumbnails. Two openings. When you've got options on the table, you're forced to stay a little more objective — because you can't marry all of them.

Then let the DATA pick the winner, not your gut. Your gut got you in the room. The scoreboard is what gets you paid.

The more important thing is that you get attached to what CONVERTS, not just what you love. 💕

So… does your ad suck? (insert your form of art here)

Instead of putting it out to pasture before it has a chance to prove itself in a race… Why don't you just let your audience decide?

And - if you really loved it but your audience doesn't — well… let it goooo, let it gooooo! 🎶