What Steven Pressfield taught me about creativity in copywriting
Jim Hamilton
February 09, 2024
I used to scoff at the idea of calling myself a "writer."
I always enjoyed writing growing up...
But it was never central to my identity.
So when I discovered copywriting in 2016...
I tended to look down my nose at card-carrying Writers who clung to the label like grandmother's pearls.
I saw myself as more of a mercenary...
Someone who was using writing to design the life I wanted...
But without getting so hung up on being a member of the club.
That's changing, though.
Over the past year, I've stopped rejecting my writer identity...
And begun to embrace that what I do is art.
Even if I'm not writing the next great novel or following in the footsteps of Hemingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald.
It's a strange feeling.
Much of which is bubbling to the surface as I've started writing my first nonfiction book...
And set myself on a path to go beyond writer to author.
Anyway, one insight that's coming up again and again throughout this process is "creative voltage."
Steven Pressfield introduced me to it.
The idea is:
Creative energy is like electricity.
At first, you can't handle much of it.
But as you get better at capturing and executing on creative ideas...
Your capacity for creative voltage goes up.
You can handle more without frying your circuits.
More and more ideas begin to flow through to you.
Mine has exploded recently...
And I think I have personality-driven emails to thank for it.
Why?
The simple exercise of turning my own everyday experiences into useful lessons you can apply in your own life...
Whether that's to grow your social media audience...
Get more email subscribers...
Or convert more of those subscribers into clients & customers...
... Is like a creative push-up.
And that increased capacity is now spilling over into other areas of my life.
(like the book)
This is why I'm so bullish on using personality-driven emails to build your creator business:
Not only are they highly effective for monetizing your audience...
But they also increase your creative capacity faster than any other practice I know of.
An outcome with many downstream benefits.
So...
If you want my best-kept secrets on how to harness creative energy for fun and profit...
Then grab a copy of my 15-Minute Emails That Sell course below.
It's just $150.
And you can binge the entire thing in an afternoon if you want.
More details here:
Jim Hamilton
P.S.
Another hidden benefit of personality-driven emails:
They're much easier to produce.
A good content-driven email can take hours to write.
Meanwhile, I wrote this email on my phone while sitting by the pool and in less than 20 minutes.
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