Beyond the Game: How Writing Opened the Door to a New Creative World

I never thought writing would become my thing. Growing up, it was all about art, sports, and capturing moments on camera. But then I realized the best way to create impact wasn’t just through visuals, but through words.

My Journey into Content Creation

I've always had a passion and interest in art. It was even one of my favorite classes to take when I was in high school. As a kid I used to draw a lot and I was pretty decent at it. I used to love drawing anything I was interested in from basketball hoops, my favorite anime characters like Goku and Vegeta, cars and even my favorite shoes. I like to think this is where I got my attention to detail from. It was never something I fully tapped into because “ball was life” at the time and I thought I would go to the NBA during my younger years so that took a lot of my time, focus and energy.

I bought my first digital camera in 2016 but didn't really start taking it a bit more seriously until about 2019. When I decided I wanted to create a visual vlog of my trip to Paris and since that trip I haven't stopped creating. It's been a hell of a journey and since then I've created hundreds to thousands of videos and even got good enough to start charging as a freelance videographer. I don’t consider myself to be a videographer anymore but I have the skill and still love to create.

For years of that journey I never realized how important writing was until I decided I wanted to start communicating in front of the camera as well. I started to notice that writing is the foundation of everything in the media space and in everyday life. You are impacted by it daily whether you are watching your favorite TV show, reading a book, movie or listening to your favorite artist — that all starts with the skill of writing. Even if you don't consider yourself to be a writer I can bet that you do some form of writing every day from sending text messages, work emails, or a Google or Chat GPT search.

The Moment It Clicked

I remember having a content day with a friend and he showed up with his scripts ready to go and record and I showed up with just my camera and my thoughts. I watched him record video after video in a short amount of time and he was easily able to do that because he had his thoughts organized and that's when it started to click for me that this was truly a skill I needed to work on and get better at and since then it's been a habit I've incorporated into my daily life as an exercise to better organize and analyze my own thoughts. I quickly started to realize it's one of the most underrated skills you can develop.

How Writing Changed My Life

Writing has made me a better creator. It forces you to organize and refine your thoughts which helps make your ideas more clear. It also helped enhance my creativity, unlock new ideas and make connections between concepts. Whether for content creation, personal branding or marketing, storytelling is a major key. Humans love a good story because it's how we make sense of the world. Our brains naturally look for patterns and meaning, and stories provide structure to random events. They also create emotional connection to the audience and help activate your imagination. We have all been wired to love good stories since we were kids and that's something that doesn't change as you age. It's been a part of human culture for thousands of years.

Strengthens Your Communication

I've definitely come a long way with how I can express myself — that's credit to working on my writing. Communication is one of the highest levels of value and great writers have influence and authority that I desire to build for myself.

Clarity is huge for me and the more you write, you naturally start speaking more clearly which leads to you getting better at explaining things without rambling. It can help you sound more confident which makes people more likely to trust and believe you. Confidence sells and I bet that at some point you have had to sell yourself, whether that's in a job interview, to a potential spouse, in content creation or to your potential customers. People gravitate to those who communicate clearly.

Accountability

The more you write, the more accountable you become. Writing out your goals transforms your dreams into plans you can execute and by tracking your progress, you can see how far you've come and even how much you have been lying to yourself. The more you write about your goals, you reinforce them in your subconscious mind which makes you more likely to act on them. We all know people who have big dreams but no real plan of action because they never took the time to write it out. Writing helps you believe it. Once something is written, it can't easily be taken back. Written commitments are contracts to yourself.

It's Therapeutic

It helps me bring calmness to a chaotic mind. We can tend to drive ourselves crazy with our own overthinking at times which can lead to analysis paralysis. The more I have practiced putting thoughts into words, the less scary they become, which leads to being able to work on a solution. You can even use tools like Claude AI and Chat GPT to help with solutions, but you have to be able to verbalize your own thoughts first.

I used to dread writing papers in high school and during my time in undergrad. I was able to pass my classes with decent grades but never considered myself to be a writer, and looking back on it, that was mainly because I used to write about things I didn't really have any genuine interest in, and no intrinsic motivation came from that.

It Makes You More Persuasive

No matter what field you work in, your ability to persuade is one of the most valuable skills you can have, whether you work in business, marketing, sales, leadership, and even your personal relationships. You can improve and refine this skill with writing by training your brain to structure ideas, anticipate objections, and influence people's thoughts and emotions.

I never used to think that thinking was a skill you can train until I started taking writing a bit more seriously. It forces you to think in a more structured way. I've been an athlete for the majority of my life, so I've experienced and witnessed how putting in the right reps can help you improve tremendously.

There are several proven frameworks for persuasive writing. Here are a few commonly used ones:

1. PAS - (Problem ,Agitate ,Solution) A classic structure used in marketing and sales. It’s effective for almost any type of content writing, from blog posts to ad copy.

2. AIDA - (Attention , Interest , Desire ,Action) A go-to framework for shorter-form content like tweets, email opt-in pages, and even as a general structure for long-form writing.

3. PASTOR - (Problem, Agitation, Solution, Testimonial, Offer, Response) Best suited for longer-form content, especially persuasive blogs and sales pages.

4. Ethos, Pathos, Logos -This method appeals to credibility (ethos), emotion (pathos), and logic (logos)—a timeless strategy used in speeches, essays, and persuasive writing. I remember writing a college entrance essay about this when it was completely foreign to me.

All of these follow a general structure that help spark curiosity.

Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to get people to buy into your ideas, and no matter how much tech evolves, your ability to persuade will never go out of style, which makes it a great evergreen skill to have.

It Gives You Leverage

By leverage, I mean getting more out than what you put in. It's one of the most high-leverage skills you can have because it allows you to multiply your time, impact, influence, and income without you having to be present.

During my time in the insurance industry, I took thousands of calls for those companies, and one thing they all had in common was that we had to follow a script/call flow, and whoever wrote those scripts greatly helped influence how much money those companies made.

A single piece of writing—a blog post, book, sales page, or email—has the potential to persuade, educate, or entertain thousands to millions. I like to read books, and the authors of those books only had to write them once to have an impact on me, and some of those writers aren't even alive anymore. Good writing works for you whether you are asleep, working out, traveling the world, and even after you die.

Long form writing holds attention. Think about any book you've read and how long it took you to read it.

Every single tweet costs nothing and has the potential to reach the entire world. It's the best lottery ever made. - Naval

Every great business, brand or movement starts with words and when you write you are capturing and packaging your own knowledge that you can turn into something that can be used forever. For example an article, script, ebook, course or newsletter.

Unlike working manually, writing compounds over time and can generate you income for years. We've all been impacted by writing up to this point in life. Think about how many posts you see on social media that only contain writing and a lot of those posts get shared and even go viral.

Exercise Your Imagination

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will." – George Bernard Shaw

Imagination is one of the highest levels of value and developing the habit has helped me exercise that. It's the blueprint to physical creation. Everything around us that humans have created was imagined by someone. Mental creation precedes what's created in reality. No house gets built without the imagination of someone and a blueprint. We are all powerful creators—don't underestimate the power of your own. Throughout my years as a creator, I've imagined so many things in my head before turning them into reality.

It Helps You Overcome Resistance

I still get blown away at what comes out of my brain when I sit down to write with intention, but you will encounter resistance. It thrives in the unseen—it's vague, emotional, and subconscious.

There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't, and the secret is this: It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance. -Steven Pressfield

Resistance is the invisible force that holds you back from what you know you should do, whether it's creating, building or pursuing your dreams. It often shows up as procrastination, self-doubt, fear and avoidance. Developing a writing habit has helped me to become more aware of this. Steven Pressfield wrote a really dope book about this called The War Of Art. I would recommend it to everyone because in this life we all encounter resistance.

"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." -Carl Jung

The moment you sit down to write, resistance loses some of its power. You get the chance to observe and analyze your own thoughts. For example, if you have been feeling stuck or unmotivated, you now have words to describe what's holding you back and you can ask yourself why and start breaking it down.

It becomes something you can look at and challenge instead of letting it define you. Instead of thinking you're lazy, you realize that you are just experiencing resistance but that's not who you are unless you truly believe in that identity.

Resistance thrives in confusion. When you don't know what to do next, the easiest thing to do is nothing. Writing helps you organize your thoughts and discover hidden patterns. Being able to recognize these patterns can help you feel unstuck faster. When you can see what needs to be done, resistance weakens. Instead of feeling overwhelmed about something you want to do like wanting to start creating content or a written newsletter, writing helps you break it into steps:

• Choose a platform

• Write the first rough draft

• Film a video with your phone for practice

• Refine your drafts

• Publish your work

You have to be ok with being a beginner but also remember that you are getting better with every rep. The hardest part of any creative process is starting, but I promise it gets easier when you can push through and take action even when you don't feel like it.

It Helps Build Your Personal Brand

If you can write well, you can build an audience that allows you to work on your own terms, and if you've been paying attention to how the economy is changing rapidly, building an audience is one of the most valuable skills you can have—especially if you want to be able to free yourself from a job or career you might hate.

Doing what you hate should only be temporary; that's no way to live and get the most out of life. If you don't even like what you do, there's a good chance you aren't even doing your best work. Intrinsic motivation is essential.

The more I started to realize how important it was, I noticed that the people who have had some of the biggest influence on me since I've started my creative/entrepreneur journey are all great writers who have built massive brands through writing, leading to book deals, thriving youtube channels, speaking engagements and running multimillion dollar businesses. Even Kobe Bryant, my favorite basketball player of all time, was a great writer. He went on to win an Oscar for his short film "Dear Basketball" after he retired.

If your mind is always racing, writing can help you think in slow motion. It's a skill anyone can develop and it's something you already do daily that can give you leverage for life. When I finally started to understand this I never looked back. It gives you the chance to scale infinitely (1-to-many instead of 1-to-1). It compounds over time, it builds influence and credibility. People trust writers.

How Writing and Video Editing Are Similar

I've been editing videos for years. The more I started writing, I began to notice how similar those processes are. No one writes a best-selling book or creates an amazing piece of work without refinement. It all starts with a rough draft. The first version of a written piece or video edit is usually messy and it's gonna need polishing before you have a version you can feel good about.

Whether you're writing or editing a video, they require a clear structure. Writers start with brain dumping their ideas, typically start with an outline for the article, script or essay, and editing videos starts with putting together a story or mood board or a sequence of clips that create a narrative the viewers can engage with.

A clear written piece eliminates unnecessary words similar to how a good video edit eliminates unnecessary footage. You gotta trim the excess fat to keep a smooth flow and improve your chances of keeping the audience engaged.

You might've heard the phrase "behind every great man stands a great woman." Behind the scenes of a great piece of content you consume like your favorite movie, book, YouTube video, song from your favorite artist—it starts with great writing.

Get Yourself In The Game

Start with a daily brain dump (5-10 minutes)

Every morning write down anything on your mind—ideas, frustrations, how you have been feeling, or random thoughts. You can do this in a journal or on PKM (personal knowledge management) software like Notion or Kortex which helps you store and organize your writing digitally. I personally do more digital writing but I also hand write in a journal and on my whiteboard which is super powerful as well.

Plan Out Your Days/Review Your Weeks

Doing this will give you writing reps and add structure to your days. I like to plan out my weeks on Sunday which is when I do a weekly written review of my past week about what went well and what didn't.

Write Down Your Wins Daily

Resistance grows when you tend to focus on how far you have to go instead of how far you've come. I started doing this one after reading The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan. Another solid book I would recommend to anyone. Writing small wins retrains your brain to see your progress not only your problems. Try doing this at the end of each day.

Share Your Writing Publicly (Even If It's Small)

Writing builds confidence in your ability to communicate and persuade. Try posting your writing on platforms like X (formerly known as Twitter), Threads or even LinkedIn. I used X to help me get over the fear of posting my thoughts.

Final Thoughts

Writing isn't just a valuable skill—it's a tool for self-mastery. The more you write, the better your ability gets to break through creative blocks, see your challenges as resistance, build confidence in your own ideas and gain clarity for your life.

Writing won't make you a better human being. That starts within, but it can amplify who you are and help you connect with a higher version of yourself that you wish to become.

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. -Steven Pressfield

If you found this newsletter valuable, share it with someone who's ready to level up their skills as a creator.