Marketing Dopamine • October 21, 2026
Why You Cannot See Your Own Patterns
It is remarkably easy to see what someone else should do with their business.
Their message is unclear. They are spread across too many platforms. They keep starting new projects instead of finishing the one in front of them. From the outside, the pattern is obvious.
From the inside, it never is.
That is true for every one of us, myself included.
We are always too close to our own business to see it clearly.
When you are inside your business every day, every decision has a reason behind it. Every habit made sense when it started. Familiarity hides the patterns that an outside eye would notice in minutes.
This is not a lack of intelligence or effort. It is simply how perspective works. The brain stops noticing what it sees every day, the same way you stop noticing a picture that has hung on your wall for years.
That is why the best insights often come from someone else. A colleague, a mentor, a group of peers who are working through the same questions. Not because they know your business better than you do, but because they are not standing as close to it.
Sometimes the clearest view of your business comes from someone standing beside you.
You do not need to see everything on your own. You just need the right people close enough to help you look.
Lisa Carmichael is the author of The Marketing Dopamine Workbook: From Awareness to Action, available now, a companion to her book Marketing Dopamine: What Your Brain Is Really Doing When You Think You’re Building a Business, coming soon. Learn more at marketingdopamine.com
Couldn’t agree more! Diverse perspectives are so important, whether they come from within our own teams or from outside through mentors and coaches. Having people who can offer a fresh perspective helps us recognize patterns, ask better questions, and see new possibilities.
Absolutely! I think one of the biggest benefits of having different perspectives is that people often see things we’ve overlooked. I’ve learned that asking better questions and being willing to listen can open the door to ideas we might never have considered on our own. Thanks for sharing!
Also if you map out exactly what you’re doing, and then ask yourself, ‘What would I advise __________ to do in this situation?’ helps too…
That’s a great way to look at it! Sometimes we’re so close to our own situations that it’s hard to see things clearly. Asking ourselves what advice we’d give someone else can help us step back and see things from a different perspective. Thanks for sharing!