Helene Christensen

When you’re building something new, everything feels urgent.

Every tool, every idea, every strategy seems like it could be useful. You’re assembling marketing tools, exploring AI solutions, deciding which social media platforms to be on. You’re juggling conversations, meeting people, absorbing everyone’s perspective on what you’re doing.

And that’s just the external inputs.

I know this firsthand.

And I am coming to the realization, that it’s impossible to avoid always starting with building the foundation (and it also is the fun part, if you are anything like me.

This looks like):

A website
A sales pitch
Branding
Defining your process
Talking to customers
Developing your GTM strategy

Each of these comes with a hundred possible ways to do it - different tools, different frameworks, different philosophies.

It’s overwhelming.

And then comes the FOMO - the fear that if you don’t do everything, you’ll be invisible. That if you’re not everywhere, no one will find you. That if you don’t try every growth hack, strategy, and platform, you’ll lose.

I am here to tell you, that if this is where you are, it’s time to reboot.

Now is the moment to step back, take a deep breath, and look at your situation with fresh eyes.

What Have You Learned So Far?

For me to get past this point of overwhelm, I decided, that before I’d add anything else to my plate, I’d ask myself:

What’s actually working?
What’s just noise?
What’s weighing me down instead of moving me forward?

You don’t need more ideas. You need to decide what you can let go of.

Let go of:

The tools you signed up for but never use.
The platforms you post on out of obligation, not impact.
The strategies that sounded good in theory but aren’t delivering.
The perspectives that keep pulling you in different directions.

Then, take it a step further.

What Did You Think You Were Making - And What Are You Actually Building?

Startups evolve. Ideas change. Sometimes, the thing you set out to build isn’t the thing you should be building.

I will tell you, that I had to go through months and months of ideation before I landed on my idea for a consulting company. I bought several domains, invented a variety of branding guidelines, decided on mulitple types of custoemrs and concepts for a business, before it suddenly clicked one day…

And I still am expecting that “click” will continue to click more into place.

If you feel stretched too thin, it’s time to get granular about your focus.

What parts of your original vision no longer make sense?
What assumptions did you have in the beginning that no longer hold up?
What can you shut down or put on hold?
What attention can you redirect toward what actually matters?

There comes a point in every process where we have to stop adding and start refining.

The early days of building—when you’re ideating, testing, trying things out—are incredibly valuable. But at some point, you have to drop everything you’re juggling and decide what to pick back up.

More importantly, we have to decide why we are heading in one direction as opposed to another.

The Power of Saying No

People talk about the art of saying yes. But to me, learning to say no is the real skill.

This is still something I am struggling with on a daily basis. (as an example I probably should stop trying to be on Instagram, and only focus on LinkedIn…)

But I know, that it’s critical to say no:

No to ideas that don’t align with where you’re going.
No to tools that distract more than they help.
No to spreading yourself thin across every channel.
No to advice that doesn’t fit your vision.

There is a real strength in not chasing every opportunity. To be one who dares to narrow their focus.

I understand that focus doesn’t kill creativity - it sharpens it.

When you say no to what doesn’t matter, you free up energy for what does.

The Secret: Creativity Doesn’t Stop—It Shifts

A lot of people resist this stage because they’re afraid that cutting things down will make their work boring.

But that’s not how it works.

Creativity doesn’t stop when you commit to something. It just moves into a new phase.

At some point, you’ll return to ideation, to thinking big, to opening yourself up to new possibilities. That’s my favorite part of the process—the moment when everything feels wide open, full of potential.

But you can’t stay there forever.

The best people I’ve worked with understand this. They balance expansion with focus. They know that great ideas still require discipline.

And they trust that creativity doesn’t die when you get granular. It thrives.

Where Do You Need to Let Go?

If you’re feeling stretched thin, overwhelmed, or stuck in an endless loop of possibilities, ask yourself:

What am I still doing out of habit rather than impact?
What tools, strategies, or ideas have I outgrown?
What am I holding onto because I’m afraid to let it go?

Now is the time to stop hoarding ideas and start refining them. Decide what matters. Drop the rest.

Because clarity doesn’t come from adding more. It comes from having the courage to let go.

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