My recent Now Go Create podcast guest, Daisy Amodio, heard exactly that – and went ahead anyway.

Daisy is the founder of The Proposers and one of the world’s leading proposal planners. She’s staged more than 5,000 marriage proposals across the globe, from £500 pop-ups to a £1 million, multi-country epic that ended with faces projected on to Niagara falls. She’s done fake drug arrests, dressed 50 cats as waiters, and now masterminds ultra-luxury weddings – including a royal one.

In this blog, I’m pulling out the creative and entrepreneurial lessons from our conversation: how Daisy invented a category, how she mines clients for stories, and what it really takes to say “yes” first and figure it out later.

From ad agency to “queen of proposals”

Daisy’s story starts in a familiar place for lots of us – the creative industries. She was an account manager at M&C Saatchi, loved her job, and had no plans to leave. Then her brother asked for help.

He wanted to propose, had no idea how, and – in his words – “no creative bone in his body”. Daisy designed a treasure hunt around london, ending at sunset with a harpist and a big yes.

Afterwards, she did what many of us would do: she googled “proposal planner”.

Nothing. No category. No competitors. No obvious proof that anyone wanted what she’d just done.

Instead of parking it as a nice one-off, she followed a gut feeling that something was there – weddings were getting bigger, social media was exploding, and big, shareable moments were becoming the norm.

So she did some “research”: a questionnaire to 500 men.

The verdict?

• most thought it was a terrible idea
• “why spend money on proposing? just get down on one knee”
• “why would you leave a good job for that?”

Even her (very supportive) boyfriend reminded her she still had to pay the bills.

The exception? Her agency. They loved the idea, gave her space on stage to share it with the whole company, and even lent her web designers to get her first site off the ground.

Fast-forward 13–14 years and that “rubbish idea” has turned into:

• 5,000 proposals
• two tv series (including Will You Marry Me? on channel 4)
• a wedding planning business and a royal wedding

If you’ve ever had an idea shot down, Daisy is proof that external validation is not the only signal you should listen to.

Inventing (and then defending) a category

Because she was first to market, Daisy’s initial “strategy” was deceptively simple:

• get a website up
• talk about “proposal planning” clearly and consistently
• benefit from the fact there was zero competition in search

She ranked page one on google for proposal planner because literally nobody else was using the term.

Of course, success attracts competition. Today:

• there are proposal planners in almost every country
• hotels and attractions run their own proposal packages
• there’s a steady stream of copycats

Her answer? Double down on expertise and niche.

“there is nobody in the world more of an expert than me at proposals. it would be physically impossible.”

She’s done more proposals than anyone else, across more cultures, budgets and styles. And she’s built a natural funnel: if someone has a decent budget for the proposal, she can transition them into her wedding business afterwards.

The creative engine: deep client discovery + Pinterest stalking

As romantic as it all sounds, Daisy’s process is grounded and quite systematic.

When she’s pitching or planning, she wants to know:

• how the couple met
• what they love about each other
• favourite colours, foods, music
• in-jokes, nicknames, shared obsessions
• visual clues – Pinterest boards, instagram feeds, playlists

A favourite example is her first ever paying client:

• the girlfriend was an aspiring artist with a pinterest board full of handmade hearts
• Daisy invited her to what looked like an art gallery show in Richmond
• 10 canvases lined the walls – each a new “artwork”, actually about their relationship
• the final piece was wrapped in her favourite purple velvet
• underneath was her own heart artwork from pinterest, re-created to say “will you marry me?”

They later used the pieces at their wedding and still send Daisy family photos.

The whole experience is built on story mining: turning private details into public moments.

Fake arrests, cat waiters and a million-pound waterfalls

Part of what makes Daisy’s work so compelling – and so good for TV – is how wildly different each brief can be.

A few that stood out:

• Fake drug arrest in barcelona
  • she and her team slipped “drugs” (oregano!) into the girlfriend’s pocket
  • fake police “arrested” her, bundled her into a car, and told her she’d never go back to america
  • she had to identify her supposed dealer in a line-up
  • instead, her boyfriend stepped forward, dropped to one knee and proposed
  • she loved it – because pranks were central to their relationship
• The cat-themed proposal
  • 50 actual cats dressed as mini waiters
  • the couple stroked them, had cake, discovered the ring, then danced to a jazz song about cats
  • deeply niche, totally on-brand for them
• The £1 million “no budget” brief
  • his original ask: project his face onto the Eiffel Tower
  • daisy said yes… then discovered every authority in france would say no
  • she came back with alternatives and ended up:
    • hiring out disneyland paris privately, with fireworks and personalised characters
    • taking the couple around the world, staging iconic moments on each continent
    • culminating at Niagara Falls at night, with both of their faces projected on to the water

Her attitude is “say yes first, work out the how later” – and then quietly deal with the logistics, regulations and politics behind the scenes.

Storytelling as the spine of the experience

We talk about “storytelling” endlessly in business, but daisy lives it in a very literal way.

For her, storytelling means:

• narrative from first contact to final yes – the enquiry email, the pitch deck, the build-up, the reveal, the photos afterwards
• physical storytelling in the space – props, colours, textures and music that all link back to the couple’s story
• continuity into the wedding – reusing proposal elements in the wedding decor, stationery or rituals

No two proposals or weddings are the same because no two stories are the same. The “big gesture” makes the headlines, but it’s the small, specific details that make people feel truly seen.

6 takeaways from Daisy’s story

You might not be projecting faces onto waterfalls any time soon, but there’s a lot we can steal from Daisy’s approach.

Here are six prompts to take into your own work:

1. Trust your gut, not the poll
   If 500 people tell you your idea is rubbish, they might be right – or you might be early. Check the logic, then listen to your instincts. Not every idea needs a focus group’s blessing.
2. Mine your clients’ world for specific details
   Don’t stop at the brief. Look at pinterest boards, playlists, social feeds, old photos. The gold for storytelling and creativity is often already there – you just have to go looking.
3. Offer both templates and true bespoke
   Packages give reassurance, speed and scale. Bespoke work feeds your creative soul and your portfolio. You don’t have to choose; you can design your business to hold both.
4. Say yes, then design the constraints
   You don’t have to know exactly how you’ll do something the moment you say yes. But you do need to quickly create the boundaries, resources and plan that make it possible.
5. Build a team before you break yourself
   If you’re still “sticking 5,000 crystals on by hand” in your business, ask where you can start handing things over. Your future work (and health) will thank you.
6. Remember: if there’s no playbook, you can write one
   There was no rulebook for proposal planning. Daisy wrote her own.

Listen to the full episode here.Now Go Create Podcast

And if this sparked something for you – an idea you’ve parked, a niche you’re too scared to own – maybe this is your nudge to dust it off and explore it again.

The word strategy has the power to intimidate. It gets wrapped up in war metaphors, chess analogies and books like The Art of War. People get promoted into “strategic roles” with no training, and are then quietly expected to just… know how to do it.

That was true for me, and it was true for my guest on the Now Go Create podcast, Julian Cole.

Julian is a strategy consultant who’s worked with brands like Uber, Apple, Facebook and Disney, and runs the brilliant Strategy Finishing School. In our wide ranging and illuminating conversation we talked about:

• What strategy actually is (without the jargon)
• Why insights need to be emotional, not just clever data points
• How to use AI as a strategic sparring partner
• The soft skills and office politics no one talks about – but everyone needs
• Practical ways to build your own strategic confidence

This blog pulls out the key ideas for anyone who wants to get better at strategic thinking in their creative or communications work.

So… what is strategy, really?

Let’s start by stripping it back.

Julian’s definition:

Strategy is a plan that uses limited resources to get you to your goal.

Inside that, there are four core pieces:

1. Goal – where do we want to get to?
2. Problem – what’s in the way of that goal?
3. Insight – a revelatory truth that makes us see the problem differently
4. Solution – how we’ll get around the problem

If the way forward is already obvious – for example, “we just need to build this app” – then you don’t really need a strategy. You just need to do the thing.

Strategy becomes useful when:

• things are confusing or complex
• more people are involved
• nobody is quite sure why you’re doing what you’re doing

That’s when you need a clear, shared story: here’s the goal, here’s the real problem, here’s the insight and here’s the plan.

A much quoted example (with great reason)

To make this more concrete, Julian used the classic Snickers campaign example.

• goal (consumer) – young guys want to feel part of the group
• problem – when they’re hungry, they act out and push their friends away
• insight – “you’re not yourself when you’re hungry” – that moment of being hangry is the real issue
• solution – eat a snickers, the most filling chocolate bar, and you go back to being “you”

Once you see it through that lens, the whole campaign clicks into place. PS I know that getting to this is a lot easier in hindsight but it’s a text book example.

Why insights aren’t just data points

The word “insight” gets thrown around a lot. Most of us (me included) have probably slapped “insight” above a line that’s really just a fact.

Julian’s definition is more demanding:

an insight is a revelatory truth that makes you look at the problem in a new way.

How do you know when you’ve got one?

• if people just nod – it’s probably a truth or a stat
• if people raise their eyebrows, laugh, or say “oh wow, I’d never thought of it like that” – you’re closer to a real insight

It should land emotionally first, and then you can back it up rationally with data.

He gave a lovely example from a project on robot vacuums. His junior strategist had gone through Amazon reviews and found a line that said:

“Roomba is like your drunk roommate trying to clean.”

Instant reaction: of course it is. It’s irrational, bumps into things, does its own chaotic route. That line has feeling and freshness – and therefore, potential as an insight.

Using AI as a strategic sparring partner

We also talked about something lots of us are experimenting with right now: using AI tools to help with strategy.

Julian’s line, which I love:

“AI is like salt in cooking – use it at the start and the end, never all the way through.”

In practice that means:

• use ai early to open up territories, dig up clichés, stereotypes and category truisms
• then you step in as the human in the loop – to judge, shape, validate and sense-check
• you might use ai again at the end to help polish, summarise or generate alternatives

A few prompts and angles he likes:

• “what are the clichés about this category / consumer / problem?”
• “flip each cliché and tell me what the opposite might be.”
• “what emotional contradictions sit inside this situation?”

But – and it’s a big but – the feeling of an insight still has to come from you. Ai will happily give you neat-sounding lines; only you can tell which ones actually shift how you see the problem.

Your next strategic step

If strategy has always felt like a mysterious dark art reserved for people with “director” in their title, I hope this conversation with Julian makes it feel:

• more human
• more emotional
• and much more learnable (spetoiler, this is something we teach at Now Go Create!)

Start small:

• frame your next piece of work as goal–problem–insight–solution
• notice which lines hit you in the gut, not just the head
• use AI sparingly as a curious collaborator, not the whole answer
• and pay attention to how ideas actually move through your organisation

You don’t need to wait to be “given” a strategic role. You can start thinking and working more strategically from where you are, with the briefs already on your desk. Get in touch to find out how we can help you to develop your critical thinking and strategic skills.

Listen to the full episode here to help sharpen up your critical thinking and strategy skills.

If you’re opening a blank document and feeling absolutely nothing – no spark, no pull, no excitement – this one’s for you.

Lately, I’ve been in a creative slump myself. A heavy, slowed-down, slightly foggy state where ideas don’t feel blocked exactly, just harder to reach. Work is intense, life is full, and my personal creative reserves feel low.

And if that sounds familiar, I remind myself that:

This is normal.
This is human.
And it will pass.

Let’s talk about what a creative slump really is – and what actually helps when you, or your team are, in one.

One of my early Now Go Create podcast guests, the singer-songwriter Dyo, once said something that completely reframed how I think about creative blocks:

“Creative blocks don’t actually exist – the moment you name it, you give it power.”

A block suggests a wall – something actively stopping you.
A slump, on the other hand, feels more like quicksand – slow, heavy, draining.

But what if neither of those labels is really helpful?

What if you’re not blocked at all – you’re just in a different creative mood or even a different creative season?

Sometimes what feels like being stuck is actually your creativity asking for:
– Rest
– Play
– A change of pace
– Space to wander
– Or simply… time

When we label the experience too harshly, we risk making it feel bigger and more permanent than it really is.

The reality of creativity (it’s not always Instagram-pretty)

We love to romanticise creativity – the post-it notes, the playlists, the perfect flow state.

But real creativity looks more like this:

– Staring at a screen full of doubt
– Feeling under pressure
– Working when you don’t feel inspired
– Getting something “good enough” over the line
– Questioning yourself the whole way through

Even as someone who teaches creativity for a living, I don’t get to flick a magic switch whenever I want. Creativity moves more like a tide – it flows, it ebbs, it returns.

The worst thing we can do? Panic when it feels like it’s gone out. It hasn’t. It always comes back.

The creative CAT Scan – a simple check-in when you feel flat

When I feel out of sorts creatively, I use something I call a Creative CAT Scan. It’s a fast way to understand what’s really going on under the surface and an idea I borrowed for the amazing Elizabeth Gilbert.

You can do this in five minutes with a notebook.

C – Curiosity

Ask yourself:
– Am I still asking questions?
– Am I noticing details?
– Is anything intriguing me right now?

For me, curiosity shows up in tiny moments – like noticing tube ads on my commute and wondering:
Why that image?
Why that headline?
What was the creative thinking behind it?

When curiosity drops off, it’s often a sign I’m overwhelmed rather than uninspired.

A – Action

Ask yourself:
– Am I taking any creative action at all – even tiny ones?

This could be:
– Doodling
– Rearranging your workspace
– Taking a new route to work
– Planting bulbs in your garden
– Trying something slightly unfamiliar

Action doesn’t need momentum to start. Action creates momentum.

One brilliant tip from creative strategist Emma Mayo:

“Commit to just 10 minutes. Half of that might just be setting things up – and that’s fine. Once you start, you often keep going.”

T – Tenacity

Ask yourself:
– Am I showing myself compassion – or criticism?
– Am I pushing relentlessly instead of listening?

Coach Remy Bloomfield shared this:

“Creative slumps aren’t the enemy. They’re often a signal that something new is about to emerge – if we stop forcing it.”

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is step back.

Here’s the coaching question I’ve been sitting with during my own slump:

“What do I want to do – purely for fun?”

No output.
No productivity.
No shoulds.
No strategy.

Just joy.

This is where Julia Cameron’s idea of the Artist Date comes in – a solo, pre-planned experience purely to feed your curiosity and creative spirit. Not for content. Not for progress. Just for aliveness.

Mine right now? I’m genuinely tempted by a flotation tank. No goal. Just curiosity.

Wherever you’re at, remember to be kind to yourself and remember you sometimes have to retreat to move ahead.

The Situationists were a group of radical artists, writers, and intellectuals active mainly in the 1950s and 60s who believed that modern life had become a kind of performance – a “spectacle” – that disconnected people from authentic experiences.

Think of it this way: they looked around at post-war society and saw people going through the motions of living rather than actually living. Shopping, working, consuming media – it all felt scripted and fake to them. They called this the

“society of the spectacle.”

The group was led by a French theorist named Guy Debord, and they were particularly active in Paris. They weren’t just complaining about modern life though – they wanted to actively disrupt it and create moments of genuine experience.

This is where the dérive came in. By wandering aimlessly through cities, they were essentially rebelling against the efficient, purposeful way we’re supposed to move through urban spaces. Instead of rushing from home to work to shop to home, they’d drift and see what happened.

They also created “situations” – planned disruptions designed to shake people out of their routine consciousness. These could be anything from rearranging furniture in public spaces to creating alternative maps of cities that showed emotional rather than geographical relationships between places.

The Situationists heavily influenced the 1968 Paris student protests and continue to influence artists, activists, and urban planners today. Their core idea – that we should actively create authentic experiences rather than passively consume pre-packaged ones – feels surprisingly relevant in our age of social media and endless content consumption.

Essentially, they were saying: “Wake up! Stop sleepwalking through life and start creating it.”

I discovered the idea of a derive during my masters programme over a decade ago, and it completely shifted how I think about creativity and innovation. Instead of walking from A to B with blinkers on, you become hyper-aware of your surroundings, noticing connections you’d normally miss.

The magic happens when you connect the seemingly unconnected. A traffic light with a church in the background becomes a metaphor for leadership. Graffiti sparks thoughts about permanence versus transience. Street signs reveal our relationship with authority.

As someone who’s spent 30 years in the creative industries, I can tell you that some of my best ideas have come from exactly this kind of unplanned wandering. When you stop trying to force insights, they start finding you.

Summer holidays coming up? Perfect time to drift a little. Listen to the short episode here

Download this week’s worksheet here.

This ‘nudge’ is part of my Creative Summer School, a free, six-week email series dropping into your in-box each week

• Get a simple creative tool or tip from me

• A partner podcast episode to help you go deeper and learn on the move

• A practical worksheet or prompt to instantly apply the nudge to real work or life projects

• An optional “buddy system” to check in and share learnings boosting accountability and connection

• A short, snappy WhatsApp-style audio note from Claire with bonus stories and inspiration

• All the resources and worksheets are yours to download for your own use or for running creative sessions with your team.
• Sign up here https://mailchi.mp/nowgocreate.co.uk/creative-nudge

Well… what if you switched on your creativity too?

Introducing the Creative Nudge Summer School

I’ve created a completely free six-week summer school to help you build tiny creative habits that fit into your life, not your to-do list.

Here’s why: creativity isn’t about having loads of spare time or being “naturally talented.” It’s about noticing, reframing, and borrowing ideas from the world around you – in ways that take minutes, not hours.

What you’ll get:

• One short email each week packed with easy nudges to spark fresh thinking.
• One 4 minute mini-podcast episode designed for beach walks, coffee breaks, or even waiting in holiday traffic.
• Tiny creative habits that build confidence and inspire new ideas, without adding any pressure to your summer.

What will we explore?

• How to build creative confidence in ridiculously small ways
• Why your best ideas come in the shower (and how to harness that)
• How a simple walk around your neighbourhood can unlock your next big solution
• The art of borrowing brilliance from completely unrelated worlds
• How to reframe problems like a photographer changes angles
• And why resting is the most productive thing you can do for creativity

Who is it for?

If you’re thinking:

“I’m not the creative type.”
Perfect – this is exactly for you.

“I don’t have time for this.”
Even better – we’re talking about habits that fit into the tiniest gaps in your day.

“I’ll probably forget to do it.”
That’s why I’ll be your gentle weekly reminder, dropping into your inbox with a nudge

Ready to join us?

The first nudge lands on the 16th July. You can sign up at any time over the summer.

Sign up here for free!

Share the love

Know someone who could use a creativity boost right now? Share this post with them or include your team or colleagues in the exercises each week.

Why does this matter?

Many of us work on briefs that feel uninspiring, dry, or weighed down by constraints. This episode proves that creativity doesn’t depend on having a “cool” brand or unlimited budgets. Instead, the world’s best ideas often come from flipping assumptions, understanding cultural truths, and reframing products or problems in unexpected ways.

Here are some of the key campaigns we discussed – and what they teach us about creativity.

1. The world’s unlikeliest tourism campaign

Campaign: The Best Place in the World to Have Herpes
Organisation: New Zealand Herpes Foundation

This campaign reframed herpes from taboo into national pride by combining humour with cultural insight. Using Kiwi sporting icons, it created a spoof-style destigmatisation course with a leaderboard, encouraging people to engage, learn, and reduce stigma.

Arif noted how the team probably asked themselves:

“What’s the wrong way to do a herpes campaign? Then, what’s the opposite of that?”

This campaign shows how flipping assumptions can break creative deadlocks, especially when combined with bravery and authentic cultural relevance.

2. Turning tickets into opportunities

Campaign: Lucky Yatra
Organisation: Indian Railways

In India, fare dodging is common due to limited gates and checks. The insight behind Lucky Yatra was simple but powerful: while many people avoid buying train tickets, they spend willingly on lottery tickets.

So Indian Railways transformed train tickets into lottery tickets by adding a simple code. This reframed ticket buying from a burden into an opportunity, leading to a 34% increase in sales. It shows how creative problem solving doesn’t always require changing a product – sometimes it just needs a new lens.

Claire reflected on this as an example of related worlds thinking – connecting seemingly unrelated categories (rail travel and lotteries) to spark a solution.

3. Burger King’s cheeky gaming hack

Campaign: Burger to King
Brand: Burger King

Burger King used FIFA gaming to reinforce its underdog, playful brand personality. They noticed that two real FIFA players were called ‘Burger’ and ‘King’. Players who recruited both and completed plays triggering the commentator to say “Burger King” were rewarded with Whoppers.

This idea:

• Reinforced brand consistency while feeling fresh
• Used cultural relevance (gaming) and cheeky humour
• Out-thought competitors like McDonald’s with earned media rather than outspending them

Arif described Burger King’s long-term success as:

“The secret of brand management is to be new and old at the same time.”

4. AXA’s three words that changed lives

Campaign: And Domestic Violence
Brand: AXA Insurance

Domestic violence victims often stay because they cannot afford to leave. AXA added three words – “and domestic violence” – to their mandatory home insurance clauses in France, enabling victims to claim support and find safety. This affected over 2.5 million policies.

Claire highlighted how this moved beyond CSR into genuine product innovation with purpose baked in, proving that creativity isn’t just ads or stunts – it can be how you design your services to solve real problems.

5. Rocket’s unifying Super Bowl moment

Campaign: Own the Dream
Brand: Rocket (mortgages and financial products, USA)

Rocket united diverse Americans during the Super Bowl with a brand film featuring John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’. Arif discussed how emotion and music can create a sense of national unity, while Claire noted how it activated audiences to sing along, making them participants rather than passive viewers.

Practical takeaways from this episode

1. Flip assumptions – ask yourself “What’s the wrong approach here?” then reverse it.
2. Reframe products and problems – train tickets as lottery tickets, insurance as a route to safety (check out the podcast episode on related worlds)
3. Root ideas in cultural truth – humour for herpes only worked because it felt authentically Kiwi.
4. Balance consistency with freshness – like Burger King does by staying cheeky while finding new executions.
5. Use creativity to design services – not just campaigns. Creativity can drive business innovation with purpose.

Creativity thrives when we challenge norms, see constraints as springboards rather than blockers, and immerse ourselves in unexpected worlds. Whether it’s herpes, insurance, or fare dodging, brilliant creative thinking can turn any brief into something talkable, effective, and culturally powerful.

If you want to hear the full conversation and get practical tools for your own work, listen to episode 25 – Herpes, Home Insurance, and Fare Dodging: Creativity That Earns Its Keep here

Want your own Cannes Decoded?

Want to understand what really makes award-winning creativity tick – and how to apply it to your briefs or challenges?

Arif Haq and I are offering Cannes Decoded: a bespoke 90-minute session for your team. We’ll unpack this year’s most powerful campaigns, reveal the creative thinking behind them, and share practical tools to unlock braver, smarter ideas in your work.

If you’d like to:

• Get behind the scenes of Cannes Lions-winning ideas
• Inspire your team with fresh approaches and frameworks
• Learn how to flip assumptions and create talkable, effective campaigns

Then get in touch to book your Cannes Decoded session today.

Email claire@nowgocreate.co.uk to find out more and tailor it for your team’s challenges.

It sounds like science fiction, but it’s closer than you might think.

According to the World Economic Forum, an astonishing 85% of the jobs that today’s learners will do over the next decade haven’t been invented yet. They’ll use technology that does not even exist today.

For those of us in the working world right now, this raises a critical question:

How can you future-proof your career when you don’t even know what your future job will be called?

Why reinvention matters more than ever

At Now Go Create, we specialise in helping business professionals stay creative, resilient and adaptable. So when I heard about Christopher Bishop, a man who calls himself a Chief Reinvention Officer, I knew I had to talk to him.

Christopher has done exactly what many of us fear doing: he’s reinvented himself not once, but nine times. His career journey spans decades and includes some pretty remarkable chapters:

• Touring rock musician in the 1970s
• Studio musician in New York, performing with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley
• Composer for TV jingles
• Early web producer at New York’s pioneering interactive agencies
• Over a decade in strategy and executive comms at IBM, including projects that experimented with the early metaverse
• And now, a respected speaker and author, helping people navigate careers in quantum tech, AI and other cutting-edge fields

What I love about Christopher is that he is relentlessly optimistic about the future of work. While headlines tend to focus on which jobs AI might destroy, he focuses on how people can use creativity, curiosity and adaptability to thrive whatever comes next.

The future career toolkit

When I interviewed Christopher for the Now Go Create podcast, he shared something I found really practical: his Future Career Toolkit.

This toolkit is simple, but surprisingly powerful. It breaks down how to keep your career flexible and future-ready into three steps:

1. Voice: Define your unique brand

Your voice is your personal brand — your reputation, your unique perspective and the value you bring. Many people overlook this. They think a CV or LinkedIn bio covers it, but Christopher argues you should go deeper.

One way to uncover your voice is to look at your favourite films, books or games. What draws you in? What qualities do you admire? This helps pinpoint what matters most to you and what makes you stand out.

2. Antenna: Stay plugged In

Next, build your “antenna”. This is how you stay alert to trends and conversations shaping your industry and future ones too.

Christopher suggests listing a few trusted sources you’ll check regularly, from TED Talks and YouTube channels to podcasts and newsletters. Be deliberate about it. Which topics excite you? Which sources expand your thinking?

The idea is to develop a habit of scanning the horizon so you’re not surprised when change arrives, but prepared to seize it.

3. Mesh: Build and nurture your network

Finally, there’s your “mesh” — your network of connections, both inside and outside your current field.

Christopher recommends a simple goal: add five new connections each week. Find people talking about topics that spark your curiosity. Join groups on LinkedIn. Attend virtual or in-person events when you can.

The more diverse and active your network, the more resilient you’ll be when it’s time to reinvent yourself or spot unexpected opportunities.

You can hear Christopher coaching me through the process on the podcast episode.

If you’re a team leader, manager or business owner, you know how fast skills become obsolete. Many organisations still focus training budgets on old frameworks, but the biggest advantage today is helping your people get comfortable with ambiguity and new ideas.

Christopher’s toolkit is an excellent conversation starter for your next team meeting or personal development session. It gets people thinking about how they can take ownership of their careers instead of waiting for change to come to them.

Get the toolkit

I asked Christopher if we could share his workbook with you and he said yes!

You can download the free Future Career Toolkit right here

If you want to hear Christopher’s stories and insights in his own words, listen to our full podcast conversation:

Inside, you’ll learn:

• Why so many of us feel overwhelmed by change and why that’s normal
• How curiosity is more valuable than expertise in an unpredictable economy
• Examples of surprising future job titles you may never have considered
• And how to teach the next generation to embrace reinvention, not fear it

We live in extraordinary times. Technology is evolving faster than our job descriptions can keep up. The good news is, your best tools for staying employable have always been human: creativity, curiosity and community.

Use this toolkit as your starting point and share it with your team, your colleagues, and your family. Christopher’s book Improvising Careers: Succeed at Jobs that Don’t Exist Yet is out now and I for one cannot wait to read it.

The future may be uncertain, but your ability to navigate it creatively is not.

Stay curious. Stay ready. And keep creating.

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Listen to the Podcast Episode

If so, you’re not alone.This episode of the Now Go Create podcast is the one I wish I’d had years ago when I first started reviewing creative work. Judging creativity is both art and science, an emotional and ration actl. But with the right tools, we can move beyond gut reactions and personal bias to evaluate creative work with clarity, consistency, and confidence.Whether you’re a creative director, a comms lead, or part of an in-house marketing team, this blog distills the key takeaways and frameworks from the episode including insights from leading PR creatives and strategists I interviewed.

Why judging creativity is so damn hard

Creative work is subjective by nature. As the IPA puts it, judging creativity is where instinct meets intellect. One person’s “brave” is another’s “off-brand.” The stakes are high – what if you make the ‘wrong’ decision for the business or the execution doesn’t deliver how you thought/predicted/hoped it would.

But here’s the good news: there are tools to help. I’m sharing three proven frameworks from my creative kitbag you can use to assess ideas more objectively plus street-smart wisdom from fellow Creative Moment Awards judges Kim Allain (Golin), Greg Double (Burson), and Gemma Maroney (SHOOK).

Framework 1: the Heineken Creative Ladder

Use it for: evaluating ambition and originality

Created by Arif Haq working with Heineken, when he worked at Contagious, the creative ladder is a 10-step “dictionary” to help you articulate how strong an idea really is from clichéd to legendary. I interviewed Haq about it for my book back in 2016 and it really is a brilliant tool to help you to frame conversations about creativity, set a benchmark and challenge yourself and others to a higher standard. It works from 1-10.

You can’t jump to ‘legendary’ without passing through ‘ownable’ and ‘fresh’. The ladder helps teams build shared language, level out subjective opinions, and even bridge the gap between creatives and clients. Five is considered the minimum standard for Heineken and its agencies as the benchmark for creative work.

10 Legendary

9 Cultural phenomenon

8 Contagious

7 Groundbreaking

6 Fresh

5 Ownable

4 Cliché

3 Fusing

2 Hijacked

1 Destructive

Framework 2: IDEO’s lifeline cards

Use it for: reviewing work from multiple human-centred angles

The design lifeline cards from IDEO are a powerful tool to reframe and review creative work using seven lenses:

• Heart – does it come from a place of empathy?
• Beauty – is it elegant, iconic, evocative?
• Brains – is it strategic and novel?
• Bravery – did it take risks?
• Magic – is there awe or delight?
• Mastery – is there evidence of craft?
• Destiny – will it create long-term impact?

Pro tip: use these cards at any stage of the process – briefing, reviewing, or final evaluation. They’re like a Swiss army knife for creative conversations.

Download the cards here. They are a gift 😉 Print them off and share with your team.

Framework 3: James Hurman’s creative effectiveness code

Use it for: understanding the commercial impact of your ideas

This model focuses on the effectiveness of creativity through six levels, from basic behavioural influence to full-on brand fame:

1. Influences behaviour
2. Changes perception
3. Drives short-term sales
4. Builds long-term growth
5. Creates cultural impact
6. Achieves brand fame

Insight: This code helps you map your idea against commercial objectives and work towards meaningful results. I’ve merely scratched the surface, grab a cuppa, sit down and read the full deck here. They analysed and compared a total of 4,863 effectiveness award entrants and winners from 2011 through 2019, from every major market in the world: 1,031 cases from the Cannes Creative Insight: This code helps you map your idea against commercial objectives and work towards meaningful results. I’ve merely scratched the surface, grab a cuppa, sit down and read the full deck here. They analysed and compared a total of 4,863 effectiveness award entrants and winners from 2011 through 2019, from every major market in the world: 1,031 cases from the Cannes Creative and 216 cases from the IPA databank. You can’t say I’m not good to you 😉

What top-of-their game creative directors look for

Here’s what my podcast guests said when asked how they judge great creative work in preparation to the upcoming Creative Moment Awards:

“Start with insight. Then trust your gut.” – Gemma Moroney, SHOOK

“If it shows up in a non-PR WhatsApp group, it’s probably good.” – Greg Double, Burson

“I look for authenticity and impact beyond our bubble.” – Kim Allain, Golin

And when it comes to writing award entries:

“Don’t just tick boxes, tell a story.” Greg Double

“Make the judges fall in love with the idea.” Gemma Moroney

Listen to the full podcast episode here for all the juicy goodness.

Whether you’re judging award entries, pitching to clients, or reviewing internal campaigns, the ability to evaluate creative work is a learnable skill. If your team would benefit from hands-on support to help determine impact, creative workshops or bespoke training, I’d love to help.

Book a discovery call with Now Go Create Founder Claire Bridges – email claire@nowgocreate.co.uk

“My brain talks to me a lot – and it talks a lot of sh*t.”

These honest words from Danny Dyer during The Assembly on Channel 4 hit home for many of us this Mental Health Awareness Week.

In this episode of the Now Go Create podcast, I’m joined by clinical hypnotherapist James Mallinson to unpack the idea of internal self-talk – and more importantly, how we can shift it from critic to coach.

James has worked with over 5,000 clients, from CEOs to elite athletes to everyday creatives, and shares practical insights for turning down the volume on your inner critic.

What is internal self-talk?

It’s the ongoing narration in our heads – the running commentary on everything we do, say, think, or feel. We have between 35,000–55,000 thoughts a day, and while many are neutral, others can be harmful. These are the “you can’t do this” and “you’re not good enough” voices – the ones that undermine us.

Why negative self-talk matters

James explains that negative self-talk amplifies vulnerability and can sabotage our performance – especially in high-stakes moments like pitching ideas or presenting work. It floods us with stress hormones and can literally freeze us in our tracks.

In high-pressure fields like special forces or elite sport, the difference between success and failure often comes down to mindset. It’s not ability – it’s what people are saying to themselves in the moment.

How it affects creativity

Negative internal chatter puts the handbrake on our creativity. Whether you’re holding back in a brainstorm or doubting yourself during a presentation, it’s often your internal dialogue doing the damage. And if someone has ever shut you down – a boss, a teacher, a creative director – those moments get logged and replayed as internal criticism.

How to change your internal narrative

Awareness is the first step. Once you notice the voice, James suggests getting specific:
– Write down what your inner critic says
– Note the tone, pitch, and pace – is it snarky, slow, mean, sarcastic?

Then: fight fire with fire. Replace those words with powerful, present-tense phrases that you’d want to hear – not soft platitudes, but strong, motivating language in a tone that resonates with you.

Need inspiration? One SAS client of James’ said his mantra was: “Shut the f*ck up. Go. Go now.”

Coach vs critic – who are you listening to?
While James doesn’t recommend naming your critic (it gives it too much power), he does suggest creating an inner coach. This could be your ideal self – or even someone else whose voice you trust and admire. Barack Obama, Bananaman, your partner – whoever helps you feel stronger, braver, more creative. Imagine their voice guiding you when you need it most.

Top tip for creatives
Don’t wait until you’re mid-pitch or in the middle of a brainstorm to try silencing your inner critic – prep emotionally before you go in. Just like rehearsing a presentation, rehearsing your internal dialogue can make a massive difference.

And if you’ve got a bank of great feedback? Use it. Keep a folder of kind words, client praise, or successful moments to revisit when self-doubt strikes. Let it remind you of what you’re capable of.

🎧 Listen to the full episode on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to help your team get out of their own way creatively?

I run interactive workshops that tackle the inner critic, build creative confidence, and unlock better ideas – even under pressure. Contact claire@nowgocreate.co.uk to discuss how I can help

“We are truly delighted to be unveiling the very first Independent Impact 50. The event in London and the scheme more broadly represent a long-overdue celebration of a community whose influence, impact, commitment and contribution has been ignored for too long.

A panel of 17 judges including agency and in-house leaders chose the winners. Analysis of the winner demographics are interesting and shows they are:

– 70% women and 90% white
– With an average age of 48
– Working in the PR industry for an average of 24 years
– With an average 9.5 years as independent practitioners

As PRovoke Media Maja Pawinska Sims said: “So this is where all the senior women have gone…” The full write up from Maja is on the Provoke website.

The award cements Now Go Create’s reputation as one of the leading authorities on creativity and innovation working in the UK, and Claire’s commitment to providing training and consultancy services at the highest level.

Claire said: “It’s incredibly gratifying to be part of these important inaugural awards. Micro businesses contribute massively to the overall economy and it’s with pride, grit and determination that we strive for brilliant client service and in my case building creative capability and training that really cuts though and sticks with individuals and teams. It’s wonderful to be recognised and in such amazing company. There are no other trainers on the list this year and I am incredibly proud that the work we do behind the scenes is being recognised.”