getting started

sharing more, (over)thinking less

Jun 02, 2024

Hi, welcome.

I’m Emma Williamson, I am a designer and copywriter based in Melbourne. You might know me as Em, @buttsalad_, or @girlwritescopy. Whatever route bought us together, I’m glad we’re connected.

This is Girl Writes Copy.
A weekly-ish newsletter made to prompt new thinking, provide inspiration, or stir action. It’s a space for contemplation and self-expression. The work I publish here ranges from clearing out the mental cobwebs of my week, to essays that I have been mulling over. If you like variety, design, culture, books, recommendations, and questions, this is a good corner of the internet for you. Girl Writes Copy, and a lot of other things too.

Born from the crowded lines of my notes app and voice memos recorded haphazardly, this is an invitation into my mind. It’s cluttered and busy, and I am learning to share more of it.

On that note – this week wrapped up.

7 Things I Consumed This Week

Dr. Jim Loehr: Change the Stories You Tell Yourself

This was a really pivotal listening in my thinking this week. It connected a lot of dots to other texts I am reading about stories we tell ourselves that shape our identity, especially for the neurodivergent among us. A piece on story, tension and identity will likely surface next week. Watch this space.

A Company is Not a Family with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky

Enjoyable podcast from a business leader with a non-traditional approach to leading with empathy and humanising workplaces. Loved.

How to Build a Business that Lets You Quit Your Job

Really liked parts of this. Key takeaways: people who are doing well aren’t necessarily working better or harder than you. They are removing bottlenecks faster than everyone else.

People don’t pay for information - they pay for packaging, speed, implementation or outcomes. The internet has all the information a person could need, so it’s obvious that people don’t pursue you or your service just for information, as they could find that themselves.

How to Discover Own Taste

Another important listen. I’ve felt for a while that taste is going to grow increasingly important as ChatGPT and AI tools envelop many creative practices. To be without tools and without taste is to be stranded. These spanners to creative industries are essentially pushing people to be more original, provocative and incisive about their taste.

Strategy is Your Words by Mark Pollard

I doggy-tagged almost every third page, a healthy sign of a book that was enjoyed.

5 Ideas That Resonated With Me
1. Focus on making a web, not a path.
2. Pay attention to what you are paying attention to.
3. Whose life are you trying to live?
4. Everything is story. Story is at the centre of how humans make sense of things, interact, and share with others. All we want is to feel seen. Stories are a tool to do this.
5. Life stories and writing stories parallel one another. There is tension, then release, tension, then release. Whether you look at the minutiae or larger seasons of your life, are you in a moment of tension or release?

Camera Roll this Week