I don't have any answers and I can't make any guarantees
A case for asking more questions than there are answers for
I almost never roll my eyes harder than when I come across some article or video titled something like: "I grew my newsletter by a gazillion subscribers and here's how you can too!" or "The 10 tips guaranteed to increase conversion by eleventy-hundred percent".
Yes, ‘gazillion’ and ‘eleventy-hundred’ are both business terms.
These types of titles are ubiquitous. Examples1 from my very very brief google and look at my Linkedin Courses before writing this newsletter:
Search Terms: “I grew my subscriptions”
Sample Results: “6 Foolproof Ways to Grow Your Business” and “How I Grew My Newsletter to 91,892 Subscribers Without Using Paid Ads”Search Terms: “Marketing Strategy”
Sample Result: “How to Create the Perfect Marketing Strategy for 2025” (emphasis is mine)Search Terms: “Customer Conversion”
Sample Result: “13 Ways to Increase Your Conversion Rate Right Now”LinkedIn Course: “Making Recruiters Come to You”
These types of titles are probably used because they are best practices, proven in A/B tests, and/or good for SEO (SEO loves a list…we have that in common), I understand that. There are just so many of these articles and videos that it all becomes a wash to me. In my years of…erratic, shall we say, full-time employment I have read these articles, I have skimmed all the LinkedIn posts and have taken these LinkedIn Courses (oh so many), I have compared and contrasted strategies for any number of topics in handwritten notes, no less, and still, I could not necessarily tell you what I remember from them.
Even before hitting multiple years of this weird employment journey, I probably would have rolled my eyes at these headlines. I tend to be suspicious of anything that bills itself as “foolproof” or “perfect” or guarantees any sorts of results. But, especially with the job market of the last five years and with the continuation of mass layoffs in all sectors (particularly tech and government-related), seeing article titles or courses that indicate there is a short list of things to do to gain stability, makes me feel more unstable and more incapable than ever. Of course, if they work for someone, who am I to judge how these types of articles are written or videos are formatted? Also, I’m not necessarily working constantly in these sectors I’m reading articles about. But, I do read the articles. And, I don’t just read them. I have tried many of these tips, tricks, and methods to mostly low degrees of success. (Basically no one is seeing my LinkedIn posts at this point.2) By and large, for me, reading these articles feels like climbing a rope in a high school gym, reaching the top, and then realizing that the knots that were supposed to support you in the journey are poorly tied and coming apart with any amount of pressure you put on them.
You have to take breaks from this kind of content. Well, I do. And I did. There’s only so long you can spend your days grasping at employment straws. But, in trying to get my creative consultancy off the ground in the last year and in being a writer continuously submitting to opportunities, these types of articles are hard to escape. I’m constantly in research mode for some aspect of the business, insight into various methods of creativity, or for new ways to write an artistic statement, and these types of articles are usually the only results on the first few pages of a google search. It is easier to find more targeted information in this context if you know where to look but not everyone knows where to look. So, creative fields have to be able to pull readers in, get those clicks. It’s just as important as anyone else for the arts to have good SEO. Maybe even more important, since the arts are seen as niche in many ways. We want people to be able to find the work that resonates with them. And, we want people to be able to find us. The arts is a career. We want to be able to make a living from the work we do and that requires visibility. Gotta take what help you can get.
Knowing all that, I will still roll my eyes when I run into a video with a title like “Overcome Writers Block in less than 30 Minutes - 7 Proven Tips.” In fact, I won’t just roll my eyes, I will bristle.
Consulting work is hard in that to make your mark, it behooves you to be some sort of expert. (This could be said about influencers and the like too.) People want to know that you know your stuff and sometimes the way to show them that is to make blanket statements and generalized lists that will, hopefully, inspire them to interact with you more, go to your website, seek out your services. As I’ve been pursuing working for myself in this fashion, it’s something that I worry about a lot. Maybe too much. Because it makes me bristle. And feel gross.
The older I get, the more I understand that I don’t know anything. So, I don’t want to present myself in a way that guarantees that I can solve xyz problem (related to creativity) for you. I don’t want my presence to be clickbait. I want my presence to be support and comfort.
Creativity is intensely personal; there is no catch-all for creative work and a creative process. I think it’s great to learn from other artist’s routines—particularly in different disciplines than your own. I do. And I think it’s smart to try out methods that work for other people. You can certainly try parts of every great artist's routine, read every tip about overcoming writer's block from every writer, and exactly follow every musician's formula for song-writing. Some of those things may work. Many of them probably won't. It’s the framing of “what works for someone else should work for you or you’re doing it wrong” where I think we go awry. That thinking causes people to beat themselves if they encounter any hurdle, set-back, or lull. It creates an environment rife for disillusionment. It pushes people away from creative pursuits. Which just…it makes my heart hurt.
We need creativity now more than ever.
I don’t have any answers. To anything really. I mean, I have advice that falls out of my face, that is sometimes wanted and sometimes not. But, existentially, I couldn’t tell you why any of this (gestures vaguely around) is going on and I have no way to figure it out. I don’t have solutions. I can’t make any guarantees. And I wouldn’t want to make it appear that I do. If this newsletter is any indication, I, obviously, have infinitely more questions than answers.
It probably seems silly to admit all this in a post that is about my struggle with traditional employment, my writing, and my pursuit of advancing my creative consultancy. Maybe it is. Maybe it’s really silly to say that I don’t know anything. That I don’t have any answers. That I can’t make any guarantees. That I have more questions than answers.
But therein lies one of my strengths, I think (I hope). I know how to ask questions. I know how to ask questions that are specific enough to open doors to vast prairies. I know how to ask questions big enough to spotlight one tiny detail. I love it when someone has a moment of self-discovery simply because they are asked a question no one has asked them before. Being prescriptive doesn’t take in account the unknown. Giving someone a solution—a blanket one, if you will—before any questions are asked ignores unsaid information that hasn’t been caught yet. It ignores the person’s own expertise that they may be unaware of, that they may not have accessed yet. I think it’s true in all areas of life. I think it is especially true when it comes to creativity.
“Artists, writers imagine worlds that don’t exist yet, that are beyond the one that we are living in.” That’s a quote I’ve heard in various forms many times, although I don’t remember who specifically said it or where.3 I think this vision can be expanded to everyone. Everyone has the ability to imagine worlds that don’t exist yet, futures that are as yet unpredicted. Everyone also has the ability to be creative. They go hand-in-hand. There are systems in place to convince us that that is not true. Or, if it is true, it’s only true for certain kinds of people. Or, it can only be true if you have the answers from the start and you are sure of set solutions. It can only be true if the one thing applies to everyone and everything.
We won’t get to new worlds through lists of “Ninety-aMillion Foolproof Ways to…”. We won’t get to new worlds pretending we have all the answers. We won’t get to new worlds by making any guarantees.
We will get to new worlds by asking questions first and asking more questions than there are answers for. We will get to new worlds by taking a moment to believe in ourselves as creative beings, by doing a creative activity, by letting creativity live alongside every other part of you.
Go doodle something. Or knit. Or collage. Or write. Or sing. Or bake. Do that. Do it without thinking too hard.
Then, ask your questions of it. See where it takes you.
Thomas Cole, generally credited as the founder of the Hudson River School, loved to ask questions of new worlds that were old worlds that are new worlds.
THANK YOU for reading. Very seriously, thank you. If you’d like to learn more about the newsletter, here’s my About page. It’s about…me…and this…newsletter.
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Sharing is also nice. Sharing is a great kind of support. Sharing is, in fact, caring.
I’m not going to link any of these articles or videos because I haven’t read or watched these specific ones. The headlines are more important for the purpose of this post.
Case-in-point, this week’s post is inspired by, and using some of the text of a LinkedIn post I wrote last week. That post currently only has 36 impressions so…if you are one of the very few people who started reading this and thought, “Hm, this sounds familiar” a hat tip to you, my friend.
If you know the source and/or the exact quote of this, please let me know and/or put it in the comments. I couldn’t find anything certain via a quick google or in my notes, but I’d love to give credit where credit is due.