It’s OK to Come Back. Seriously.
There’s something I need to say, and I hope it reaches the right people.
It’s OK to come back. Really. No guilt. No shame. No awkward silences required.
Earlier this year, my company lost three projects to “AI.” That’s not code for another agency, it’s literal. The clients decided they could do what we do in-house using AI tools instead of a team of human creatives.
Now, I’m not anti-AI as many people think I am. I use it every day. I bounce ideas off Ruckas (my GPT bestie), I give it my ideas and it writes proposals for me, maybe the odd email. It’s a tool. A powerful one.
But it’s not me. And it’s not my team. And it’s not the creative process we’ve spent decades refining.
So when one of those clients was someone we had worked with for five years, it stung. It confused me. I sat back and waited to see what they’d come up with.
The result? A campaign that didn’t land. It didn’t perform the way they’d hoped. And here’s the wild part: when I reached out to talk, they were too embarrassed to speak with me.
This isn’t speculation, I know this because I still have a few friends inside that company. One of them told me (kindly, quietly) that the internal team was avoiding me not out of malice… but out of shame. Someone literally said, “We feel too embarrassed to call you back.”
Let me say this as clearly as I can:
You don’t have to be embarrassed. Not with me. Not ever.
Trying new things is exactly what you’re supposed to do. If you’re not experimenting, you’re not growing. But if something doesn’t work, whether it’s AI, a cheaper vendor, or your brother-in-law who says he’s “pretty good with Photoshop”, you are not trapped by that choice.
Admitting something didn’t pan out isn’t weakness. It’s leadership. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is backtrack, recalibrate, and make the right decision the second time around.
To help you feel better about your own missteps, I’ll share one of mine:
Five months ago, I had my gallbladder removed. (No, this isn’t a metaphor. This is biology.) What no one tells you about losing your gallbladder is that your digestive system becomes… unpredictable. Long story short: I had a full-blown sit-down potty accident. As an adult. At a business event. While trying to talk to someone about strategy.
So yeah. Things happen. We own them. We learn. We buy new pants.
The real mistake isn’t the accident. It’s pretending it didn’t happen and walking around like everything still smells like roses.
Here’s what I want you to take away from this:
You don’t have to ghost your creative partners because something didn’t work. We’re not mad. We’re not holding grudges....at least I am not.
AI isn’t the enemy. But it’s not ready to replace lived experience, human taste, or that little thing we call instinct.
You’re not the first person to try something new and realize it wasn’t the move. And you won’t be the last.
So if you’ve been thinking about calling me (or someone else you quietly cut loose), do it. No judgment. Just strategy, ideas, and getting back to doing great work.
Because at the end of the day, coming back isn’t failure, it’s wisdom. And we all need a little more of that.
P.S. If you want a system for finding and vetting great ideas, yes, even with AI in the mix, my book The Only Creative Process That Matters is available now. It includes the frameworks I still use today, including how I work with AI instead of trying to outsmart it.
Buy it. Read it. Just maybe don’t take it into the bathroom with you. (Unless you’ve had your gallbladder out. Then do what you need to do.)
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