It’s My Life

What It Really Means to Build a Creative Business on Your Own Terms

There’s no shortage of people willing to tell creatives what success is supposed to look like.

More sales.
More visibility.
More polish.
More “this is working right now.”

And to be fair, some of it does work. At least at first. But somewhere along the way, something subtle happens. The business that felt like yours starts getting quietly rewritten.

Not because you sold out.
Not because you lost your values.
But because growth brings attention, and attention brings advice.

And advice, especially the well-meaning kind, has a way of blurring things fast. Suddenly, you’re making smart decisions that don’t feel quite right.

Your brand looks fine. Professional. Current. And somehow… flatter. Less specific. Less instinctive. Less you. That’s the moment most people think they need a reinvention. A new niche. A bolder personality. A louder version of themselves. But that’s rarely the real problem.

Two creatives can both be wildly successful, and build completely different lives.

One fills stadiums. Another plays to a packed room every week, surrounded by people who know every word. Different scale. Same integrity.

The same is true in business.

The issue isn’t that you don’t know what you want. It’s that you’re constantly being asked to measure it against someone else’s version of “working.” And that’s exhausting.

I’ve been there too.

I’ve followed advice that sounded sharp and looked strategic only to realize later it was sanding off the very edges that made the work mine. The wins came. But they didn’t compound. Because when decisions aren’t aligned, momentum doesn’t build. It fractures. That’s why I don’t spend my time telling people to “be more authentic” or “find their vibe.” What actually helps is understanding what’s changing, and deciding what doesn’t need to change with it.

Then Bon Jovi's “It’s My Life” hit differently one day. That anthem wasn’t just an earworm. It was a wake-up call.

I’m Frankie. You’re Frankie. We all are. And we don’t need permission to do it our way.

Here’s what building on your own terms really looks like:

• You don’t react to every new trend. You understand what it’s responding to then decide if to implement it.
• You can explain why something fits your brand not just that it’s popular.
• You make fewer decisions, but they hold up longer.
• Growth doesn’t require a personality change, just clearer judgment.

This isn’t about burning the system down. And it’s not about ignoring what’s working in the market. It’s about staying recognizable while you evolve across your words, your visuals, and the systems behind your business.

Because brands don’t lose momentum when they grow. They lose it when their decisions stop working together.

Let’s stop chasing someone else’s blueprint. Let’s build what actually fits.

You don’t need to get louder. You don’t need to reinvent yourself. You need fewer decisions that unravel, and more that compound.

And if that sentence made you exhale a little, you’re exactly who my work is for. If you want help thinking through what’s changing before it reshapes your business for you, that’s the work I do.

Jon Bon Jovi speaks about this idea of being true to ourselves in this clip I found through Oprah’s Masterclass.