Agencies sell creativity. It's on every website, every creds deck, every award speech. But when it's time to choose who runs the business, creativity suddenly becomes much less important.

In this episode of The Unspoken Yes I put a name to that contradiction. Why it exists, who benefits from it, and whether the leadership model this industry was built on still makes sense in a world where everything keeps changing.

I talk about the myth that creatives can't run businesses, the Peter Pan problem nobody wants to admit, and why the agencies doing the best work today are precisely the ones that have put creative leadership at the center of the business.

If you work in advertising, this episode will make you look at the industry differently.

You know the feeling when every idea dies before it hits the page? That's not a creative block. That's you getting in your own way, too soon.

In this episode, we get into why the more ads you've made, the harder it gets to start one. How that little voice shows up earlier every time. And why "stuck" usually just means you bailed before the idea got interesting.

We cover the classic traps: perfectionism, comparisonitis, the fear that this one won't be the one, and what to do when you're deep in a brief and every thought feels DOA.

If you've ever sat there convinced you've got nothing, only to realize later you didn't wait long enough, this one's worth your time.

Selling creative ideas used to be part of the craft. Today, it’s often harder than coming up with the idea itself.

Come with me to explore why selling creative ideas has become so difficult, what’s changed in client behavior and decision-making, and why talent alone no longer gets ideas approved.

This conversation is for creatives, strategists, and leaders who sense that something fundamental has shifted. From risk-averse clients and broken feedback loops to politics, process, and performative collaboration, the problem isn’t creativity. It’s how decisions are made, avoided, or quietly deferred.