Welcome to the first-ever The Creative Files newsletter. I'm so happy you're here. The Creative Files, like ES Content Creative, was born out of a desire to inject a little more thoughtfulness and inspiration into the world.
So often in our daily lives, we file our creativity away — as something we’ll do later when we have time, as something meant only for the artists and designers of the world, or as something we loved as a kid but must set aside to rise to the demands of daily life. Well, with this newsletter, we are reaching into our metaphorical filing cabinets and dusting that folder off. 📂
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the term “creatives” and how limiting it can be. Because I believe that to be human is to be creative, and when we tap into that generative part of ourselves, whether it’s to make a meal out of the hodgepodge contents of our fridge or to create content for our business, we connect with that spark within that makes us feel a little more alive.
And as AI floods our inboxes and feeds, tapping into this human spark is more important than ever — because it’s that very humanness, the feeling of connection we get when we can sense that someone has lived through the same things we’ve lived through, that makes us feel seen and makes us care.
In an article about the beloved Italian children’s book author Gianni Rodari for The Marginalian (a brilliant repository of creativity I highly recommend checking out), Maria Popova writes:
“Storytelling, Rodari realized, was a system for organizing thought into imagination, the way grammar is a system for organizing words into ideas.”
Rodari argues that this creative mindset, or “grammar of fantasy,” is present within all of us and must be “cultivated in all directions.”
Creativity he says is…
“thinking that is capable of continuously breaking the patterns of experience.”
With The Creative Files, my aim is twofold:
to shake up our daily patterns, if only for the few minutes it takes to read this newsletter, so that we can cultivate our curiosity AND
to examine this “grammar of storytelling” so that we can use it to connect with the people whose lives we are trying to improve through our work.
Now, hopefully, I haven’t hyped this space up toooo much. Without further ado, let’s get into the first edition.
💾 Inside our saved folder
Click on the image above for this whole thread from the brilliant author and poet@davidlarbi.
He offers a subtle reframe of the “fake it til you make it” phenomenon, speaking to the power of acting out your imagination.
📋 Copy/Paste
✂️ Copy : We should all take note of the way Cora brilliantly presented the problem of their audience — inbox overwhelm — and then immediately offered a solution in the form of a feeling — i.e., the freedom of “taking back their life” that their audience will gain from using their product. Finishing strong, they follow all that up with the money their product will save their client: $20 vs. $150K. 👏
📋 Paste: Now, let's apply this to your brand. Ask yourself: How will my client feel after working with me? Going beyond the practical “what” and cutting through to the feeling will make your copy resonate more. Once you've showcased the transformation, highlight the savings — in money, time, energy, or missed opportunity. What are the real costs of not working with you? Is that coming through clearly? If not, don't be afraid to spell it out. Reframing your price as the smarter, lower-cost path to the same (or better) outcome shows your audience that not taking action is the more expensive choice.
