About the Episode:
Ashley Grant shares her journey from accidentally adopting the nickname "famous Ashley Grant" to becoming a successful freelance writer. With experience dating back to 2007, she narrates the evolution of her career, from writing for newspapers to crafting online content for businesses. 

Ashley discusses why it's essential to prioritize readers when creating content and offers insights on balancing user value with SEO. As AI continues to shape the digital content landscape, Ashley advises writers to focus on authenticity, relatability, and addressing user needs. 

Today, we'll cover:
- The power of storytelling in personal branding
- Key tips for creating engaging and valuable written content
- Strategies for balancing SEO and reader value
- The evolving blogosphere and the impact of AI on content creation
- Leveraging AI to repurpose authentic content

What You'll Learn
1. Characteristics of Great Content
2. Optimizing for Search Engines and Readers
3. The Impact of AI on Writing
4. Repurposing Content with AI
5. Authenticity in Content Writing
6. Evolving Writing Strategies

Timestamps
02:34 Becoming a full-time freelance writer
05:36 Characteristics of great content
07:40 Balancing SEO and value in content writing
10:22 How to drive reader engagement through storytelling
13:20 The role of storytelling in building a personal brand
17:04 The importance of prioritizing customer needs
19:16 Leveraging AI tools for repurposing content
23:45 Authentic, relatable content and why they matter

Content Writing Philosophy: "Unless it's your story that you're writing about, you cannot make it about you. You have to speak to your audience. Because if you're talking about, oh, I, me, that's all about me, every single time you're writing a piece of content, you need to be thinking, what is in it for them? What is in it for your reader? Because if you're writing about yourself, then it's very clear that you don't care about what they want." — Ashley Grant [00:05:40 → 00:06:04 ]

The Future of Content Creation: "I think that what we're going to see a lot more is people trying to connect more with their audiences. They're not going to write these generic pieces that just answer the question. They want more than that. Though they do want the question answered." — Ashley Grant [00:10:28 → 00:10:41 ]

The Power of Personal Story in Branding: "I think that with personal branding, it needs to be, again, not just about you, but also your story, because that's one thing that nobody can replicate. Not any AI, not any person." — Ashley Grant [00:13:20 → 00:13:32 ]

Content Marketing Insights: "Of the clients I work with, the ones that are doing the best and hitting it out of the park with their content are the ones that aren't trying to make the sale. And I know that sounds counterintuitive because most of the time. All you're thinking about in business is, well, how do I move the needle? How do I make more money? But if you're caring more about the transaction than the person who's buying it, you've already lost them." — Ashley Grant [00:17:08 → 00:17:29 ]

Efficient Content Creation: "Take the amazing piece of long-form content you created, whether it be a YouTube video or a Facebook live, or heck, even a meeting you had internally with your own people, put it into a program, and then spit out some awesome content that you can then turn into other pieces of digestible content." — Ashley Grant [00:20:52 → 00:21:08 ]

Using AI to Produce Authentic Content: "Absolutely. The biggest reason is it's your content, it's your words, it's your voice. And so if you go to a ChatGPT or a Claude or a WordHero or whatever your favorite AI tool is, if you're just asking it to spit out something random, it's going to spit out something generic." — Ashley Grant [00:21:31 → 00:21:49 ]

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Blaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Castmagic
Ramon Berrios - Co-Founder of Castmagic
Ashley Grant - Freelance Writer