The Evolution of Content Creation: How Putting People First Drives Business Success

Hey, hi everyone. Now, welcome to your show E-Coffee with Experts. This is your host, Ranmay here. And today we have Dr. Kate Williams, who is the founder and CEO of People First Content with us. Hey, Kate.

Hey, thanks for having me. Great to be here.

Lovely. Kate, before we move any forward, let’s get to know the human behind the mic. Talk us through your journey. How did it all start? Now, having your own agency, what were the initial challenges and How is it going now?

Yeah. If you go all the way back to the beginning when I was in college and decided, I realized, looking back now, why I chose to go to grad school, it was because I loved writing and I loved researching, and I just couldn’t think of another place I could go that would pay me to do that. And so I decided I wanted to get my PhD, go into academia. And so that’s how I ended up with my PhD in English. But along the way, I had a few other career pivots. So I started working at Nordstrom in College Which if you’re not familiar with Nordstrom, it’s a department store. I know we don’t have any here in Oklahoma, so I haven’t been to one in a while. But I worked there part-time in college and then got promoted to manager of the Espresso Bar, which was really… At the time, I just thought, Oh, it’s just another job. It’s great. But looking back, it’s really helped shape my career, my understanding of customer service and managing people. So that was an entry point to management for me. From there, I went to grad school I went to Eastern Michigan University, and I moved here to Tulsa, Oklahoma to get my PhD.

During that time, I started writing just on the side, freelance writing, just to make some extra money. I had young kids at home, couldn’t really get a real job in the summer. So I I decided to start freelancing and realized how much I really loved that aspect. I loved writing for the web more than writing academic papers. So then when I graduated, in 2015, got a job at a local company here as their first in-house content writer. Then came on board, worked. I was tasked with building a content team at a time when we still didn’t quite know what content was. There was a lot of just figuring it out as we went, which was fun but stressful all at the same time. Then decided to go out on my own. In 2018, I started my business. 2019, I went full-time. I have been doing it ever since. It’s been five years, exactly. Started in April of 2019, full-time.

Oh, lovely. Great. What are some of the key lessons Start, Kate, you’ve learned throughout your 25 years of experience and various business tools like you mentioned? How do they influence your leadership style, like your agency, People First content?

Yeah. The one thing that Nordstrom really drums into is people first. The customer experience is everything. I was young and naive and dumb and didn’t… I just thought that’s how the world worked. I thought that’s how business worked. I thought that’s how all companies worked. I think being there early in my career was really really good because I carried that with me throughout. When I talk to people now, it’s interesting. One of the things that they say that makes us different from other agencies, they’ll be like, I feel like you actually care about me. I feel like you’re not just trying to sell me something. You’re telling me, but you need to do X, Y, and Z because it’ll actually help your business. Caring about people, it’s good for everyone, but it’s good for business. Putting people first, and that’s where the name came from. We put people first in everything that we do, from the content we create is written for people, not algorithms. That was my initial tagline, to taking care of clients and actually getting to know them as people. I think that’s the fundamental lesson is just caring about people above everything else.

I just loved it when you said you write content for the people who… And not for the Google algo, it’s because the content is going to, end of the day, be consumed by humans to make that decision to either buy a product, use a service or not. So many of us at times, they forget the fact that while we’re writing the content, the storytelling, and all the emotional question of it is as much important because the decision that has to be triggered to make the purchase or the monetary transaction happen has to happen in a human’s mind and brain. It is hard for matter. It is very important that you write to them.

Yeah, exactly. When we talk to clients, Hey, who’s your customer? What do they want? A lot of people get stuck. I don’t know what to write about. I’ll just be like, Tell me about your latest sales call. How did that go? What questions do they have? You can just get so much from there. You write to what people care about and want to hear about. That’s everything. Then you can, of course, optimize it for SEO. As long as people are clicking on it and liking it and sharing it, you’re going to rank. People first, then the algorithm.

Lovely. Great. And Kate, with content, it has been more than a year now that ChatGPT and all the AI influx happened. So what is your general take on AI machine learning? Where are we heading with all of this? And how much of it is or how is it used at people-first content?

Yeah, I think everyone was scared when it came out at first. Rightfully so. I think the writers who were most impacted were doing the low hanging fruit, so to speak, type of writing, the churning out the content mills and stuff. But even then people are recognizing the lack of authenticity. You see it on LinkedIn all the time. I’m in a networking group, people talk about it. Certain words they keep saying over and over in this ever evolving business landscape. No one talks like that. I think that’s one thing ChatGPT hasn’t quite replicated human thought, and people are recognizing it and picking up on it, which is why human-focused and human even written content is starting to stand out, and people are recognizing it more and more. For us, we’re focusing a lot on research-based content, and so we’re really encouraging our clients to do their own studies, do polls, come up with stuff that ChatGPT can’t replicate, and that other people can’t just regurgitate because it’s your study, it’s your client’s thoughts, it’s your ideas, it’s your subject matter expert speaking on this topic. And so that’s how we’re really finding ways to stand out among all of the influx of AI-generated content that’s out there.

Lovely. And Kate, you haven’t in the space for quite some time now. Looking back at your career, is there any advice you would give to your own younger self when it comes to navigating the world of content creation and business ownership?

Yeah. If I could go back to my college self, I think I’d be very surprised that I was writing content because this didn’t exist back in 2005, 2006 when I graduated. So for one thing, everything’s changing. I tell my kids, the thing that you end up doing with your life might not exist right now. So just to be open to the opportunities that might come your way. So I would tell myself that Grad school was fine and great, and I don’t regret going, but there are other avenues that might come up to pursue your passion. As far as business ownership, I never planned on owning a business. I meet a lot of people who knew early on they wanted to be entrepreneurs, and I was not one of I’m part of academia. It’s like you go to school and they put you on track to get a job. But this was at a time, a weird time for English departments, especially. Those options weren’t really there for me without having to do a lot of moving that I wasn’t prepared to do. So I ended up in business ownership after working for a few years.

And I think you just don’t know what you don’t know. I didn’t know a lot. I knew I didn’t know a lot, but I wasn’t sure what those missing pieces were. And I wish I had done more investing investing in myself in my business. I think that would have been… I was very cautious of having money, and I was very skeptical of spending it. And so now I wish I had invested a little more money into coaching or networking groups. I’m in a great networking group now that the investment has paid off multiple times, just in the great advice that I’m getting and the great people that I’m meeting. And so that’s the one big piece of advice I would tell new entrepreneurs and myself six years ago when I was starting to think of this, is don’t be afraid to invest in yourselves.

Lovely, lovely. Great. Erin, what has been your biggest challenge till date at People First Content?

Getting in front of people has been a big challenge. Once I talk to people, often they’re like, Oh, I didn’t know that’s what you’re doing. I didn’t know this existed. This is great. I need this. And so figuring out how to make ourselves relevant and get in front of people was a challenge. We’ve recently started doing some outreach, speaking of investing, invested with a growth strategy partner who’s helped with outreach so we can get in front of people, the right people at the right time, because that’s all it takes. When I talk to people, now I’m talking to the people who need what we’re offering, and that’s been a huge game changer for me.

Lovely. I’m glad you said that now you’re doing a podcast, right? Yes.

Exactly.

That is a good transition, I must say. Lovely, Kate. It has been a brilliant conversation. But before I let you go, Kate, I would like to play a quick rapid fire with you. I hope you’re game for it.

Okay, let’s do it.

All right. Your last Google search.

Oh, my God. I asked Google search. I don’t even know what it was. I talked about so many… I was writing about turning social media fans into followers today, so probably something along those lines. Social media. Looking at statistics on that.

That’s fair. All right. You lost your vacation.

Went on a cruise a few weeks ago to Mexico. Okay.

What did you do with your first fee check? First fee check of your life.

Of my life? I probably bought ice cream. I don’t remember. That’s what I did. That was a lot hard.

That’s okay. Your celebrity crush.

Christian Bale. Always since Newsy.

All right, the last one will not really go any further. Where do you find Kate Williams on a Friday evening after work?

Probably watching my kid either play soccer or basketball. That’s most likely. That’s where our weekends are right now. Soccer field or a basketball court.

All right. Great, Kate. Thank you so much for doing this with us. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much for your time. Yeah.

Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.

Cheers. Cheers.