Introducing Creative Discipline: The field guide for big, scary, and important work.

You don’t need permission to be creative.

I’ve been sitting with this frustration for a while. The way most marketing today is just a stack of tactics.

A swipe file with no spine.

People are chasing what works instead of learning what lasts.

What’s missing is something MUCH deeper.

Context. Story. And the deeper logic of how creativity actually functions.

That’s why I’m writing to you today.

This is the first ever edition of Creative Discipline.

Yes - you’ve been on the journey with Creative Cuts and we’ve learned a lot along the way.

Now it’s time to take it further.

We’ll be coming at you from a perspective grounded in creative truth.

The kind of truth that survives technology cycles. Stuff you can actually apply.

Not for inspiration. For action.

Let’s begin.

The oldest truth in marketing is still the most ignored.

Marketing has never been about clicks or hooks or ad spend.

It’s been about belief.

Always has been.

Selling a product means creating a new reality someone wants to live in.

You’re offering them a reason to care. That’s as true for a toothpaste brand as it is for a political movement.

But most marketers don’t operate that way. They patchwork together “what worked for someone else” and wonder why it flat lines.

When I started thinking more deeply about the stories behind the biggest creative swings -

The Super Bowl ads, the category redesigns, the unexpected revolutions… I kept coming back to 1 idea:

Creativity is a posture. And it’s always practiced.

Why creativity comes from structure.

Most people think creativity is a flash. A moment. One single lightning bolt that changes the course of everything.

It’s not.

It’s a way of seeing the world. It’s a habit of asking, “What if this could be different?” over and over again, even when no one’s asking you to.

The best creatives I know build conditions where creativity can’t help but show up.

And THAT’S discipline.

That’s the kind of mindset that lets you pitch a Super Bowl ad that could get you fired - and stand by it.

It’s the kind of drive that lets you look at an outdated industry and say, “I can burn this down and rebuild it better.”

It’s the kind of persistence that lets you reframe a commodity into a must-have… even when there’s no rational reason it should work.

This is creativity as war planning

When I say “creative discipline,” I don’t mean aesthetic choices.

I mean applied strategy. The kind of creative thinking that wins wars.

It’s Eisenhower planning D-Day.

It’s Jobs launching the iPhone.

It’s Patagonia deciding to turn their mission into a movement (and telling everyone else to catch up)

And it’s also the everyday creative.

The founder selling an idea no one believes in yet.

The designer pitching a redesign to a scared client.

The teacher building a curriculum from scratch because the current one doesn’t serve her kids.

That’s what this newsletter is for.

To break down how those people think… and how you can think like that too.

Creative Discipline is the field guide for big, scary, important work.

Every edition will explore a different slice of creative truth.

Some will be strategic frameworks. Some will be historical case studies. Some will be real-time breakdowns of work I’m seeing in the wild.

But all of it will be rooted in this one belief:

Creativity belongs to everyone who wants it.

Until next time,

Chase.

PS

If you’re looking to find inspiration or get the best ad templates out there, come hang out with us at CreativeOS and tell your friends!