What Is Creativity

I talk about creativity a lot, and how there’s a lack of it in the fitness industry

I think it’s maybe the biggest problem in the fitness industry, because it encapsulates all of the other issues that we should solve

Content, marketing, coaching, scaling, collaborating - All of these are problems of creativity

But we wouldn’t know this - Because our definition of creativity is actually art, because that’s what we’re taught at school. For years, I told myself and others that I’m not creative in the slightest - because I can’t draw, paint or write music.

Now I would say that creativity is one of my stronger suits when it comes to ‘traits’

As Naval Ravikant says, ‘Creativity is problem solving’

But when we’re not creative, then we can’t escape what everyone else is doing - because the same thoughts lead to the same next thought, the same tactics lead to the same ‘next tactics’

This means that everyone converges to do the same thing.

A piece of content where water in glasses is moved around to demonstrate energy balance, does well. It is then copied by 100s of other people, who do slightly better, or slightly worse than the original.

Content experts tell people to copy content that is doing well, so we get more of the same.

We get the same marketing playbooks, the same pricing structures, the same class formats, the same content strategies, the same tech used.

Everyone reaches a similar plateau - marginal gains become the only game (2% better retention, slightly better ad copy, incrementally better programmes or communities)

There are paradigm shifts happening in the industry, and it’s fascinating to see how bad (and uncreative) the response is, in real time.

GLP-1s are handing coaches the question of ‘What problem do we solve if appetite suppression is handled chemically’, and instead they’re immediately bashing anyone who uses them, and explaining why they’re so bad for everyone.

The rise of AI is asking coaches ‘What problem do we solve if information and personalisation are free?’, and instead coaches are shouting ‘I can programme better than robots’ in a panicked, slightly unhinged response.

These, and other questions - are imminently solvable, and the coaches who solve them in the best and most creative ways? Will dominate the next 10 years in the industry, no matter what that looks like.

If you can optimise for any skill in 2026, optimise for creativity.

Connections

• [[The Red Queen]] — This spark IS the Red Queen applied to coaching. Everyone copies what works → everyone converges → marginal gains become the only game. Creativity is the metabolic escape from the Red Queen. Without it, you’re just running faster on the same treadmill.
• [[Older Problems Are Harder To Solve - Evolutionary Economics]] — The paradigm shifts (GLP-1s, AI) are old problems wearing new clothes. “What do we solve if appetite suppression is handled chemically?” is a behaviour change question — ancient. “What do we solve if information is free?” is a trust and value question — ancient. The uncreative response (bashing GLP-1s, bashing AI) is Red Queen failure.
• [[You aren’t fixing the old problems]] — Creativity is the prescription for the diagnosis. If the old problems (trust, selling, behaviour change) are what matter, creativity is how you solve them differently from everyone else. Content convergence is a symptom of not being creative about the old problems.
• [[Senior developers get more from AI than juniors]] — Creativity + AI is exponential. A creative coach using AI to explore unconventional connections gets disproportionate returns. An uncreative coach using AI gets faster convergence to the same plateau everyone else is at.
• [[The Lionel Messi of Content]] — Messi IS creative applied to football. Not more effort, but different effort. The 3 explosive movements are creative solutions — spatial insight that others can’t copy. Same for coaches: the creative ones don’t produce more content. They produce different thinking.
• [[Have I spread myself too thin?]] — “Find a way to do them all” IS a creative response to overwhelm. The default (uncreative) advice is “drop things and prioritise.” The creative response is: how can I use AI, partnerships, MVPs, and clarity to solve all of these?

Tensions

• Creativity can’t be optimised. You can optimise content, systems, funnels. But creativity resists systematisation — which means it also resists scaling. Can you build a business model around the one thing that can’t be templated?
• The GLP-1/AI response isn’t just uncreative — it’s tribal. Coaches bashing GLP-1s and AI aren’t just failing to be creative. They’re performing in-group membership ([[Health is now a signal]]). The resistance to creativity is partly a signalling problem.