The Creative Deficit
How to break free from the algorithm and release your creative soul.
Hey hey! Welcome to my first series, ‘Your Map Back to Meaning’. NGL, I started writing this in May 2024. Yep! It's taken me 11 months to post. Let's just say, my fear got in the way. Another story for another time. You can read the intro to my series here. Buzzing to hear your thoughts and feels!
Before we begin, let's get on the same page…
The creative deficit feels like a dry and tasteless rice cake. I mean, who on earth thought these would be a desirable snack? I think I'd rather eat a bowl of Weetabix without milk. Then again… Yuck. Dry AF! That's what the creative deficit feels like: Dry. Boring. Tasteless. Yuck.
Since becoming a mother for the first time, I've been observing social media from the sidelines, absorbing insights about how we show up and share parts of ourselves through the content we create.
My days are busy, but not like they used to be (pre-motherhood) when I was pouring so much of my time and energy into building my business. It's a different kind of busy because I am the primary carer for my beautiful baby. I adore being a mum, but finding time for myself and the things that energise me and excite me feels a lot harder than it used to be.
Picture this: It's May 2024 and the sun is shining. I'm on the phone with my husband, walking home, and I'm struggling to explain what I'm actually struggling with. That's how much I'm struggling. I'm frustrated because I just can't seem to get creative, be creative, or feel creative. I feel like my spark is buried under a heap of toys, washing and never-ending to-do lists. I feel like I've lost my ability to tap into my creativity, and I don't know how to get it back.
This is my fourth year building my business, 5 Stories, and trust me, I know the importance of being visible on social media to show my audience who I am and what I can do to help them. And I know the importance of protecting my time and attention, more so now I'm a mother. My time and attention mean more to me now than ever before. And I'm choosing to be stingy with it. In the gorgeous words of Esther Pearl, “Attention is the greatest way to show love.” And my baby deserves it all. But then, my creative work needs it too. Gaaah! You see where I'm going with this now, don't you?
Listen. I'll be real with you, I've struggled (BIG TIME!) with showing up in the online world to build my personal brand. It's seriously fucked with my creativity. It's seriously fucked with my soul. After some time away from the hustle, hype and FIGHT to be seen and known in the online world, I think I know why I've been struggling to get, be and feel creative. Let's get into that.
The Algorithm Trap
In February 2024, it felt like the whole of LinkedIn was taking part in a 30-day posting challenge. Including me. The idea was to spend 10 minutes a day writing a post to share on LinkedIn that day. At that point, my baby girl was only 4 months old, and 10 minutes of non-disrupted time to write was insanely hard to come by. And let's be real people, GOOD WRITING takes time.
'To be a good writer, you not only have to write a great deal but you have to care. All good writers write terrible first drafts. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts.” - Anne Lamott
I'd wake up every day feeling like 'I should' post something today. My mood would change. My energy felt spiky and snappy. I'd spend a ridiculous amount of time (4 hours!!!) and energy thinking of a story, a unique point of view, a piece of insight – something real and true to share with people. I wanted to create and give value on an emotional and practical level. But I really, really struggled, and it made me miserable.
When it came to posting and sharing what I created for my audience, I became obsessed with how much engagement I was or wasn't getting. I'd feel this aggressive push to keep opening LinkedIn to check how many likes and comments I had. Then, I'd feel anxious when the engagement was low. Then, I'd see all these robotically written posts in my feed get SO MUCH engagement. Then, I'd compare my content to theirs. Then, I'd think about what I could've done better. Then, I'd share my post with a few people I know and ask them to comment (cringe, I know!) to try and boost its reach.
And no! I'm not in a 'love me' 'like me' 'want me' pod - these people are my actual, real friends. Then, I'd go on a comment-on-35-posts spree. You know why? Because (apparently) that's what it takes to make the algorithm happy and get more eyeballs on your content.
Let me ask you this: How many people are engaging with you because they actually resonate with what you've shared vs people engaging with you just to boost their own reach and visibility? Sit with that.
The Era of Sameness
Speaking of the influence the algorithm has on us, how much content are we seeing that everyone else is seeing too? I'm talking about the content that's making us LESS OURSELVES.
A friend of mine shared a Substack piece with me that resonated HARD. It's written by
and called, 'Is the algorithm making us LESS stylish, LESS interesting, LESS...ourselves?'My immediate response to this was a loud, 'YES!!!' Followed by, 'Finally, someone gets it and GETS ME!!'
In this piece, Beth begins with sharing her observations and insights on how many women she saw in London one day rocking the exact same outfit. She then gets into the data and begins with this exercise:
“Close your eyes and think about different decades of the 20th century: the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. Can you picture in your mind the general look and feel of the era? The clothes (or at least a core silhouette), the hair, the make-up, the cars, the architecture, the food, the music of the era? Ok now do the same for the past 5-10 years.”
Hmmmm. The things that come to my mind are…balayage, avocados, Kylie Jenner's lips, necklaces with our names on them (so we don't forget them) iPhones, New Balance trainers, Teslas, cream/blush Stanley Cups, leggings, lots of plant pets, boho vibes, sequels galore and sampled-to-fuck dance beats ruining the R&B classics – oh, and Taylor Swift comes to mind, too.
WOAH! We really have lost our way. This is officially the era of 'sameness'. Got anything to add to this list?
There's a quote Beth shares from Laura Reilly Magasin, that lands it for me. It's this:
"Under the algorithm, it's easy to forget there are so many different kinds of people you can be."
Then she goes on to say, "Algorithms encourage us to consume things other people think are interesting. Algorithms reward creators and brands for making formulaic/derivative stuff with predictable mainstream appeal." Truth, Beth, TRUTH!
(Check out Beth’s follow-on piece here - it just dropped with this truth bomb: “It’s the entire machinery of late-stage capitalism that now rewards conformity over creativity.” Ooof!)
This is where we're at. We're in a hurry trying to show the world we're worthy. We're consuming content created by people who are disembodied. Imagine what that's doing to our hearts – our souls. It's no wonder we're in a creative deficit. It's no wonder we're all feeling exhausted. It's no wonder we're lonelier than ever. It's no wonder we're more anxious than ever. Damn!
A friend of mine paid a ‘Top LinkedIn Creator’ £1,000 for 1 hour to hear stuff like this and get her personal brand rinsed and roasted. She was told to use a bunch of AI tools to source high-performing posts from people who have similar audiences, and then recreate her own version of those posts with the help of ChatGPT. It just sounds and feels wrong. But that's where we are. That's the truth behind what we see and engage with online.
What is real? Who's being real? I personally don't think we know how to be real and true to ourselves through the content we create. It's all for show. It's all a performance – a perfection contest – a game of hide and pretend. When I've committed to being seen and known online, the pressure I've felt to create for attention and validation has felt exhausting. And it's not just me feeling this.
Everyone is saying the same thing, copying and sharing the same fucking quotes, and putting them on images with boring billboards. Every post feels perfectly constructed and polished to the last full stop. No context. No substance. Nothing new. Nothing creative. Just a tasteless soup - a continuous loop of remaking and repurposing things because we're desperate and craving those likes and spikes.
It feels wrong on so many levels, but the main level it feels wrong on is the human one.
The Meaning of Creativity
In this relentless quest to make the algorithm happy on social media platforms, we're making ourselves unhappy because the act of creating, sharing and engaging feels forced and fake – because our attention and intentions are in the wrong place. When we create and show up for business-related goals – for more reach and more digits – that's when we fall into the trap of losing ourselves and forgetting who we are. That's why we feel exhausted. That's why, I believe, we're all struggling to connect with our innate creative abilities.
But wait. What is creativity? And what does it mean to get, be and feel creative?
This feels important. Before we go any further, let's get on the same page. When I was reflecting on these questions, I stumbled upon these stunning words by Jen Hitze:
WOAH! GOOSEBUMPS.
This, for me, is exactly what creativity means. I believe creativity is connected to our inherent belonging. I believe creativity is a commitment to being fully seen and known - bringing the depths of our being into tangible form. YESSS!
"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." - Edgar Degas
Creativity is about making others see something new. But tell me, are you experiencing anything new when you scroll through your social media feeds? Is anything making you feel more alive – more present? My guess is, NO.
One of my favourite books to go to for inspiration when I'm feeling disconnected is, 'Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite’, by Paul Arden. Towards the end of the book (p130) is a red double page with LARGE words that read, 'ASTONISH ME!'. Followed by a small sentence that reads, 'Bear these words in mind, and whatever you do will be creative.' It's still the best piece of advice.
Creativity is when you do what you really love and therefore love whatever you do.
Creativity is doing the opposite of ‘fitting in’.
"The ego lives through the resistance of the present moment." - Eckhart Tolle
I think one of the reasons why we all struggle to connect to our natural abilities to "get", "feel" and "be" creative, is because we are struggling to be present in the moment with our ideas and the things around us that help us to expand on those ideas. Instead, we think and share the same things as everyone else. We choose comfort. We choose to fit in with the trends. We choose to create for vanity and validation over connection and belonging.
We choose to feel successful through reach and numbers over feeling successful through deeper, more meaningful connections with our audiences. And it's making us lonelier, more anxious and afraid of showing who we are and what excites our hearts.
This is our collective experience: the tiredness, the emptiness, the loneliness. We're not being seen or known on deeper levels, online or offline. We've forgotten how to show up and connect authentically because we've lost touch with who we truly are. We're scared to stand for something that's genuinely our own.
Our creativity is tied to the essence of our humanity. It's how we connect, how we make meaning, and how we express who we are. But we've lost sight of this because instead of creating for ourselves, we're creating for external validation. We're serving up our souls on a plate to the algorithms, and they're gobbling it up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Greedy fucks!
"The joy of creating becomes extinguished when it becomes an obligation." - The Minimalist Podcast
I believe this is why we're experiencing a creative deficit. So, where do we go from here? And how do we get out of it?
We need to think differently about two things:
How we create
Why we create
When we change how we approach our creation process, we change the way we feel about the creation process. It sounds simple because (DUH!) it is simple.
Let me break it down for you.
1. How we create
(With intention and undivided attention, not with frantic, algorithm-pleasing desperation)
Creating content for social media feels like running on a hamster wheel. We're all rushing to post, to be seen, to make the algorithm happy. But what about making ourselves happy? What about making our souls happy?
Creating with intention means slowing the fuck down. It means getting intimate with your ideas instead of rushing to shove them into a template that looks like everyone else's. It means protecting your creative energy by choosing when and how you show up.
Imagine you're sitting with your ideas, no pressure to perform, no metrics to chase. Just you and your thoughts, flowing. That's the happy spot - where creativity actually happens. Not when you're anxiously checking your phone every five minutes to see if your post is "performing."
Prince said it best: "I don't create music for money or for the radio. I create to express myself in the purest form possible." He wasn't creating to fit in. He was creating to stand for something all on his own. That's the brave thing. And that's the thing we've forgotten how to do.
Creativity needs room to breathe. It dies when it becomes an obligation. As I heard on The Minimalists Podcast: "The joy of creating becomes extinguished when it becomes an obligation." Feel that. Sit with it.
When you create, check in with yourself first:
Am I doing this to fit in or to express something true?
Am I creating from love or from fear?
Does this feel like an obligation or an opportunity?
Let it be a creative act again. Let it fill you up instead of drain you dry – like a boring rice cake.
2. Why we create
(For true connection, not algorithmic validation)
We're creating for the algorithm when we should be creating for humans, the people we exist to serve, the people who matter – our audience, and ourselves.
The truth? We create to be seen and known for who we actually are. Not some polished, sanitised version of ourselves that looks good in the feed. We create to make an impact by being ourselves, in our purest form.
I want to be me. I want to be known for being me. I want to make an impact by being me. And I bet you do too.
This is about being in the pursuit of true connection. Connection that feels real and true because what was shared felt real and true. Not some AI-optimised bullshit designed to trick the algorithm into thinking you're interesting.
When we create for the right reasons – to help others feel less alone, more connected, more understood – that's when the magic happens. That's when we create something that outlasts the dopamine hit of notifications.
What truly connects us and brings us together with our audiences are meaningful moments of connection through the stories we tell. That's why we build. That's why we create. Because it feels good for our souls. Because it sparks up our hearts. Because it means something to us on a collective level. It connects us back to what truly matters to us, and why it matters to our audience. Because we share something visceral - something that is felt, not seen or heard.
To conclude…
The algorithm doesn't need your spark – but the world does. Your creative deficit isn't a failure; it's a warning sign that you've been creating for the wrong reasons. Choose to stand for something over standing out for nothing. Reconnect with your creativity by remembering who you are and why you began creating in the first place.
To show up in more real, true and authentic ways, we MUST change how we approach our creation process.
This is your invitation to step away from the metrics and back towards meaning. To create slowly, intentionally, and from a place of love rather than fear. To astonish yourself first, and let that authenticity ripple outward.
The world doesn't need more content. It needs more of YOU – unfiltered, unbridled, and unapologetically real.
So, the next time you feel that pressure to perform for the algorithm, ask yourself: "Who am I really creating for?" Because when you create for humans – including yourself – you create something the algorithm can never touch: the connection that lasts long after the likes have faded away.
Tell me. Are you Feeling It too?
I am right here with you, my friend. If you know people experiencing the same feelings I talk about in this piece, share this with them to let them know they’re not alone. Let’s feel our way through it, together. And yeah, I know that sounds cheesy. 🤣
Speaking of cheese… I need to pick some up for dinner tonight.
In a bit!
Amanda 🫶
Oh this hit me on many many levels! Instant subscribe!!