e193 How I Finally Got Comfortable Calling Myself 'Creative' And Why It Matters
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[00:00:00] Welcome, welcome to the Rewild Your Business podcast. I'm your host, Gill Moakes. Thank you so much for joining me again this week for the second time in 2026. I wanna say, Ooh, it's already shaping up to be a bloody good year. I just know it's, I've got this feeling in my bones about this year. I really have what I wanna talk to you about this week.
It's. About how I finally only over the last couple of years, and I'm 58 this year, so it's taken a good long while, but I'm finally now able to say very proudly, I'm a creative person and the reason I wanted to create an episode about this is because I think there's a lesson in it that's wider than just creativity.
That's my version of the story I was [00:01:00] telling myself, but I think there is something in here for all of us around our identity, what we believe is and isn't true about who we are. This is something that I battled with for so long. I would tell anyone willing to listen that I didn't have a creative bone in my body.
I would say that all the time, and honestly, I really believed that. I really believed it because in my head, creative only meant one thing. It meant being able to draw or paint. You know, like an artist for me that. Was my childhood, I guess, definition of creativity. And since I can't do that, and that is not me being humble, trust me, I literally cannot draw a paint to save my life.
That's definitely not a story I'm telling you. [00:02:00] That is not my wheelhouse. It's not something I'm particularly interested in, and it's not something I'm good at, but because I can't do those things myself. Non-creative person. So I really wanna dive into this today and look at what this means, what it means when we do this to ourselves and what it means for our potential in our lives and our businesses.
Okay, let's dive into the episode. Welcome to rewild Your Business, the podcast for women doing the work, their soul intended. I'm Gill Moakes. I'm an international business coach and I'm a guide for women doing the work that matters. Rewilding your business means cutting away what doesn't belong to allow, what does to thrive.
Finding simplicity in your work, and it's about bringing a whole of who you are to the [00:03:00] table. Whether you are building something new or finding your way back to what really matters to you. I'm so glad you're here. So honestly, I think the biggest thing I realized, and I, I guess it's a few years ago now, that I really did a lot of work around this and had almost a bit of, but as I'm saying that to you, I'm kind of validating it in real time.
Was it a long time ago or is this really actually a more recent thing? That I've really been comfortable calling myself creative? I think it's, I think it's actually a fairly recent thing, last couple of years maybe. I say I had been using this very narrow definition of creativity my whole life, and by doing that, I'd really been denying what is actually a fundamental part of who I am.
So, yeah, while this episode is about creativity, it's really about something bigger. It's really about the stories we tell ourselves about who we are [00:04:00] and who we're not, the lines we draw that keep us small, all the facets of our identity that we reject based on someone else's decision, right. So I wanna talk a bit about how I got comfortable calling myself creative, and also perhaps more importantly, I want you to start looking at the stories you are telling yourself about your own identity that are maybe keeping you stuck, right?
So I grew up watching people who could draw and paint beautifully. My sister is a fantastic artist. I've said that to her recently and she's looked at me with quite a surprised face, but she used to absolutely mesmerize me with her art. I had friends that were very artistic. My niece is qualified architect, but she's also a really renowned artist now living in Athens.
Me, I'm not an artist. I would [00:05:00] produce something that looked like a five-year-old had sneezed on the paper, right? So somewhere along the line I decided that creativity isn't for me. It's just not something I have. And that story followed me. It followed me from childhood where I almost became the butt of the joke at school in the art class.
You know, I would be quite clumsy. So I'd have to make a massive mess. And I was just known as the person that you kind of didn't wanna. Stand anywhere near in the art class if you valued your clothing. I carried that story of not being creative into adulthood, into life, into my business. So I would look at other business owners and I would think, you know, their creatives.
You know that using creativity as a noun, that person is a creative, and I would consider those people to be the ones with the beautiful brands, the aesthetic, gorgeous Instagram feeds, [00:06:00] you know, the visual identity. That just really worked all the time while I was kind of over here somewhere else, just talking and writing and thinking.
But I didn't count any of those things. To me that wasn't being creative. And that's the thing that I completely missed the way I think is creative. The way I can take a complicated concept and really make it land with someone, maybe with you, my lovely podcast listeners, and the way I can do that with a couple of sentences, right, that's creative.
The way I write the rhythm, the voice, the way I structure an idea so that it really hits home. That's creative. This podcast, this podcast you're listening to right now. This is me being incredibly creative, taking what's inside my head and turning it into something that can connect [00:07:00] with you. Right? But I couldn't see it for so long.
I just didn't class that. Those skills, those talents as creative. Maybe you are listening to this and say, well, that's just a you thing, Jill, because it's obvious to me. And maybe that's true. Maybe it was so obvious, but honestly it wasn't for me. That wasn't my experience. Right. And now what's changed is.
I've stopped comparing my creativity and the mediums that I choose as the outlets for my creativity. I don't compare those to someone else's medium. I stopped comparing apples and pears, if you like. No, I'm not a painter. I'm not a drawer. I'm not a visual arts creator. I started paying attention to what really does flow out of me naturally, my [00:08:00] creativity.
Um, once I did that, once I gave myself that permission to define creativity for myself on my terms, everything shifted and I started noticing it everywhere. You know, like when you're thinking about getting a new car and you start seeing that model of car everywhere, it's a bit like that. As soon as I had this realization and as soon as I dared to say, actually, hang on a minute, I'm incredibly creative.
Then I started noticing it. Then I started realizing like the way I solve problems in my business or in my client's businesses, that is creative, the way that I craft an email. It gets people nodding along that's creative. The way I can see patterns and connections between ideas that often a lot of other people miss.
That's something that people who jump on a call with me to explore working with me will often comment on. They'll [00:09:00] often say before the end of the call, I'd never seen that connection before. I'd never realized those things were connected. That's creative. I have been creative all my life. I just wasn't calling it that.
And of course, you know, it isn't just about creativity. Like I say, it's about the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. Identities we claim and the identities we reject, and how we let those stories shape everything we do and don't do in our businesses and our lives. So if you think about it, me saying constantly I'm not creative, kept me playing small in certain ways.
It meant that I didn't trust in my own ideas for a long time. It meant that I was second guessing the way that I would instinctively. Decision. Decision. You know, it certainly hold me back in those areas [00:10:00] and I'm kind of willing to bet that you have got your own version of this. Maybe it's not creativity, but it could be something like, I'm not good with money.
This is such a common one. So if you are telling yourself constantly, I'm just not good with money, or even I'm not good at making money, right. If you're telling yourself one of those kind of money stories, then you become the person that avoids looking at finances, outsources all of your thinking and responsibility around your finances.
Never really develops a relationship with the numbers in your business. You know, never looks those numbers in the eye. And so again, that story that you are telling yourself is shaping how you show up. This is a really true one. Maybe you are someone who is absolutely. Creative and you own that, like there's no tomorrow.
But what you do is you pair it with, oh, I'm creative, [00:11:00] so I don't have a strategic bone in my body. You know, the flip side opposite to the way that I used to think. Maybe you are that person that says, no, I'm, I'm creative, I just can't do the business side. So what does that mean? It means that you never trust yourself to make decisions for your business.
You outsource all of your thinking to someone else. You are nervous to ever take a risk or make a decision because you have classed yourself as someone who is not business-minded or, or whatever. Another really common one actually. Is, I'm no good at sales. I'm not a natural salesperson. Right? And when you keep telling yourself that you will make selling anything much, much harder than it ever needs to be, you are gonna convince yourself that you need a script or a system or someone else's process [00:12:00] instead of the.
Beautiful simplicity that actually is selling, which is having real, meaningful, useful conversations with someone demonstrating the value that you can add to them, right? But if you are saying to yourself, I am not a natural salesperson, you are never allow that to feel effortless for you. So there's loads of examples of the way we do this.
I think one that comes up a lot with the clients I work with will be around visibility. So these will be clients who are absolutely confident in the results they can get for their clients. They know beyond any shadow of a doubt that once they start working with a client, it's on. They are gonna get that client incredible results, but part of the identity they've taken on is I am not someone [00:13:00] who is willing to be visible, or I'm not someone who is naturally confident.
And so those people are gonna constantly wait to feel ready, gonna wait to feel sure, wait for some kind of like magical transformation to happen before doing the thing you know you need to do if you want to grow your business, right? That is show up. And all of these stories, we let them run the show, don't we?
You know, we let the stories make the decisions for us. The story we run in our head ends up almost like determining what we will and won't try what we will and won't claim for ourselves. And the saddest thing really about all of this is that 90%, maybe 99% of the stories that we tell ourselves are not true.
Now, I'm not saying there isn't an element of truth in some of the stories we tell ourselves a little bit like me. [00:14:00] It's true. I am not a great artist. I'm not a great creator of visual artwork, right? But I turn that story, which has the truth in it, into this big generic statement of I am not a creative person, and that is not true.
That was a story I picked up as a child, never questioned, allowed to just get reinforced and reinforced based on that one narrow definition that had nothing to do with how my brain actually works. Sometimes I wonder like how many opportunities did I actually miss because of that? How many times did I not put myself forward for something because I.
Had labeled myself not creative. And whatever your version of this is, whatever story you are telling yourself about, who you are not [00:15:00] is gonna be costing you to because there's something that I know for absolute sure, and that is that your business will only ever be as big as the identity you are willing to claim.
So if you tell yourself you are not strategic, then you are never gonna step into the role of the CEO of your business. If you tell yourself you are no good with money or you can't make money, you are never gonna build the financially sustainable business that you want. These are facts. If you tell yourself that you are not a leader, you are never gonna be able to build your team.
And if you tell yourself you're not creative. And you are never going to trust your own ideas enough to build something truly authentic, something that truly represents the whole of who you are. And you know that for me, the ironic thing now is that the work that I am the most lit up by now, the work that I do [00:16:00] most with my clients is helping them bring the whole of who they are into their business.
I help women design businesses. That absolutely match the woman that they are becoming and. There's a really important thing to remember here, and that is that your identity determines your actions and your actions determine your results, and your results reinforce your identity. That's a loop. Identity determines actions.
Actions determine results. Results reinforce identity. So if you want. Different results. You're gonna have to break that loop. You are going to have to make a change inside that loop. If you want different results, you need to take different action. If you wanna take different action, your identity needs [00:17:00] to develop.
It needs to become full so that you can take the action to get the results you want. What I want you to think about this week have a bit of a journal around is what story are you telling yourself about who you are or who you are not? And, and this is important, where did that story come from? Because I bet you it came from somewhere outside of you.
It's gonna have come from someone else's definition, someone else's standards. Something you decided once years ago, probably based on really limited information or one bad experience or. Comparison you made to someone who does something differently. And honestly, I'll bet if you actually look at the evidence, if you really pay attention to what you are already doing, who you are already being, you're going to find evidence that that story simply isn't true.[00:18:00]
Or at the bare minimum, it's not the whole truth. Right? So for me, I am creative. I always have been. I just needed to stop using someone else's definition and start paying attention to mine. Okay, so this week's all about questioning those stories and do, do this, I hope you do. When, when you listen to these episodes and I sort of make a suggestion that you.
Journal and I give you some prompts. I really hope you just take a minute out of your day to do it. This does not have to take long. Just grab a bit of paper and just scribble down what comes to the top of your mind. It's really worth doing that. Don't make a big deal out of it. It's something, not something you've gotta carve out an hour for, but I think just hearing the prompts and really doing the work, the self-reflection work.
It makes such a difference, particularly with this kind of identity work. With the future self work, it really makes a difference. [00:19:00] Okay. As always, I would love, love, love you. To drop me an email and let me know what came up for you when you listen to this. So email me [email protected]. 'cause you know, I really love getting those emails.
They absolutely make my day. And the other day I was on a call actually in the wonderful. Lauren Jones is my co-founder of Unapologetic retreats on her group. Girls that Get Shit Done, message me or her if you would like to join. It's an incredible group. It's free to join at the moment for female founders.
One of those wonderful morning calls that just start your Thursday so beautifully. And someone on the call said to me, oh, Gill, I love your podcast. I absolutely love listening to your podcast. There's always something in it, you know, and, and it's so real. I feel like you give me permission to, you know, mess up sometimes and, and get over it.
And first of all, who would not wanna hear that from someone I love listening to your podcast. It just [00:20:00] like fills my heart. But also, I said on the call. Hello, Jolanda. By the way, if you're listening to this episode, I said on the call, the funny thing is that when someone says that to me, the first thing that comes into my mind is.
People are listening to my podcast, which is so ironic because I see the download numbers. I know people are listening. I know you are out there listening to this podcast, but still, when someone just validates like that and points out that something I mentioned in an episode, hit home with them and really meant something to them, oh my gosh.
It is just such an amazing feeling. If you don't have. Own original content platform, like a podcast, like a YouTube channel, like a blog, like a substack. Really, please consider starting now. I mean, I'm hoping if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you probably already do have one, but if not, please find an outlet [00:21:00] for your creativity because it impacts people and that is so bloody worthwhile.
Okay, so I just wanna reinforce one thing actually, before I sign off. I just wanna repeat something that I said earlier, because this is really worth remembering, and that is that your business, it's only ever gonna be as big as the identity that you are willing to step into. Your business will never outperform who you are.
So if you are keeping yourself inside an identity that is restricted, that is not the whole of who you are, that is some kind of clinical small version of you, your business will never outperform that. Your business will never outgrow that. Don't expect it to. So this week, start paying attention to who you actually are when you are not trying to be who you think you should be.
Right. I wanna [00:22:00] leave it with that because I feel like that's a good place to wrap up this episode. Hope you've enjoyed this one. I will see you back here again, same time, same place next week, and thank you so much again for listening. If you get a chance, would you consider just hopping onto Apple Podcasts and giving me a five star rating, please, and leaving a little, um, review or wherever you listen.
To the podcast because you would not believe the difference it makes in terms of the reach of the podcast. So I'd be so grateful if you would do that. Okay. See you next week, or speak to you next week. Bye for now.
