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About Me

Journalist by training, writer by trade

For the last decade I've written about things that are hard to explain. Blockchain infrastructure at Ammbr, cybersecurity frameworks at Trescudo, AI change management in my current role. Before that I founded Essential Millennial and ran it as a publication, then as an agency. And before that, newsrooms. Find the story, check it, make it clear.

Kyle Smith, writer and content strategist
Kyle Smith, writer and content strategist
Kyle Smith working at a desk

Approach

Hands turning the page of a dense printed document with data tables beneath, representing reading source material closely.

Read it properly

I go to the source material rather than the marketing page: the whitepaper, the framework document, the engineer who built the thing. You cannot simplify something you only half understand, and that is where oversimplification comes from.

Find the entry point

Every technical subject has one thing that makes a reader care, and it is almost never what the company leads with. Finding it is most of the job.

Printed analytics reports and charts spread across a wooden desk, representing content performance reporting.

Watch what happens

I report performance quarterly and use it to decide what to write next. Writing the thing and then watching what it does has made me a better writer than any amount of theory.

A dark portrait of content writer and strategist, Kyle Smith, with half his face lit up while the other remains in darkness
Kyle Smith as a young journalist and writer
Kyle Smith – Technical Narrative Engineer and GTM Strategist for AI, Web3, and Cybersecurity brands
Kyle Smith as he makes the transition from journalism to content writing
01

I turn things around quickly

Newsroom habits stick. I'd rather send you a solid draft on Tuesday than a perfect one next month, because the version we argue about is more useful than the version I'm still polishing.

Kyle Smith, writer and content strategist
02

I'll tell you when I think you're wrong

Politely, and with a reason. You're paying for judgement as well as words, and a writer who agrees with everything is just an expensive typist.

A man inspecting his phone, representing data analysis
03

I handle the parts nobody enjoys

Style guides, editorial calendars, chasing subject matter experts for review. Writing is the visible part; the rest is what makes it arrive on time.

Four things that keep showing up

Kyle Smith from his days as a journalism student, prior to his transition to copywriting, marketing, and content strategy

I get obsessive about subjects I didn't choose

At Passion Posts I wrote about coffee, HVAC and sports supplements in the same week, and had to find something genuinely interesting in each. Most subjects have one, if you dig far enough.
Kyle Smith working at a desk

I'd rather be clear than clever

The temptation with technical writing is to sound like you understand it. The harder thing is to write so the reader does, which sometimes means throwing away the sentence you were proudest of.
Kyle Smith, photographed in Braga, Portugal

I ask the question everyone else is embarrassed to ask

Usually some version of "sorry, what does that actually mean?" It's the most useful thing a non-engineer brings to a room full of engineers.
An image of Kyle Smith - Content writer and strategist

I've been the whole team

Writing, design, video, web, SEO, invoicing, chasing payment. Running an agency alone for a stretch means I know what I'm asking for when I brief someone else.