Hello Reader!

Should we bring back MP4 Ashley?

Here's a message that I stand by for anyone dealing with impostor syndrome, especially today, when we wonder, "is my writing voice better than AI? Is my voice needed?!?"

Thanks for reading,

Ashley R. Cummings

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Expert Interview | Brinda Gulati

Free consulting: One smart expert, one focused conversation that you can apply to your work.

1. Tell me about your journey into content and something cool you've learned along the way.

I needed to write for my career; that much was clear to me. In what form, though—now that's changed.

I studied Creative Writing for four years at the University of Warwick and from there did internships with magazines; journalism pieces for India's oldest English newspaper; The Kashmir Times, Jammu; and odd jobs in copy, including a piece on vitamin-infused water for dogs.

I had bills to pay, so somewhere in between—smack dab in the middle of COVID—I started an online store on Instagram, and to my happy surprise, it took off. We managed to sell 1,000+ items, all from the four walls of my room. That's the real-life foundation of commerce for me. That's why I can write from lived experience for brands like Shopify and The Retail Exec.

Then I got my first big girl gig: Content Lead at a mental health startup. After that, another in-house role managing LinkedIn accounts for C-suite clients.

I don't know anyone in content marketing whose career has been linear, and I'm no exception.

The coolest thing I’ve realised is that content marketing is not as strait-laced an industry as some of the others, which means I can talk to my clients like they’re actual human beings, including sending emojis and GIFs and discussing Severance. That’s been a very pleasant discovery; and a marked departure from what we kept hearing in school about being “professional.”

We’re all just barely-hanging-on nerds, knee-deep in research. I love that.

2. You’ve written for a wide range of brands—from Shopify to The Retail Exec to emerging SaaS platforms. How do you think content strategy needs to adapt when you're working with a large, established brand vs. a fast-growing startup?

For better or worse, most of the decisions in this realm speak one language: money.

For established enterprise companies, I've often observed that there's simultaneously less and more appetite for risk. So, what I mean is, I can pitch resource-draining but money-making ideas to a large company, and my point of contact would love it; but by the time the approvals come through, the zeitgeist has changed.

The crossing of the red tape, as I call it, needs to be with more of a "foot-in-the-door" strategy.

If an enterprise client is already making YouTube videos on their channel, for example, a "sideways" pivot into nudging them to activate their Instagram Reels through repurposing content is more plausible than diving into a wholly new channel that's its own search engine like Reddit.

At their size, you lean into what already exists.

For growing startups, the purse strings may be tighter, but strategy can move into action faster. For example, if they don't yet capitalise on founder-led marketing, the first thing I often say is to get the CEO to activate LinkedIn. Or start experimenting with video early while it's gaining traction, even if it’s with basic equipment.

Your contributions and ownership as a freelancer contract and dilate to varying degrees directly proportional to the company's legacy and funding.

3. You have a strong voice and presence on LinkedIn, and you’re not afraid to call out empty trends. What do you think is one major shift content marketers need to make to build trust and real influence in 2025 and beyond?

Thank you! I absolutely loathed LinkedIn like we're all wont to do before we realise it can actually make us money.

There's a wonderful line in the movie Glass Onion where Daniel Craig says, "It's a dangerous thing to mistake speaking without thought with speaking the truth."

LinkedIn suffers from that. Loudly shouting opinions is oft mistaken for authority, when it’s thinly-veiled hubris, and in some cases, a panicked attempt at not being “left behind.”

80% of my clients this year have told me to just write as I am. Even if I'm reviewing software—write as I am.

People want to see you as you are. But I see a lot of marketers chasing a perfect, digitized version that's never wrong, always goes viral, and closes every f*cking deal. Or they have a templated idea of what failure must be presented as.

That's not reality. That's not real life.

And when there's enough sameness floating around, you tire of the same tepid language and lukewarm turns of phrases.

This may be a weather-beaten sermon, but the overarching lesson is to be who you are—warts and all. Human.

Someone who screws up, someone who doesn't have all the answers, someone who can actually say, "Wait, maybe I was wrong."

If you set out with the goal of "building influence" anywhere, the craft dies. Because you're chasing vanity metrics that look great if you want to write an effusive LinkedIn post, but what do they actually mean?

What do you really stand for?

What makes you, you?

Smartest Content This Week

Think smarter, faster: Each week, I share the articles that are shaping where content marketing is going, so you don’t have to dig.

1/ Brands Are Losing Control of the BoFu Journey: Here’s How to Take It Back

Buyers are skipping brand content and trusting Reddit threads to make purchase decisions—and AI tools are amplifying every word. This piece breaks down why the bottom of the funnel has moved to community spaces, and how marketers can use a "Lurk, Listen, Leap" framework to earn back influence where it matters most.

2/ Frankenstein AI and the collapse of the GTM playbook

In this sharp takedown of “Frankenstein AI” and fragile tech stacks, Nick Zeckets explains why B2B growth is stalling, why most GTM teams are flying blind on signals, and what real strategy looks like in the AI era. If you're chasing pipeline but stuck duct-taping workflows together, this one's a must-read.

3/ Job Seekers: It's You.

This is the most brutally honest, gut-punching job search guide you’ll ever read. Ben Steele went from rejection spiral to landing a dream job—and he documented every hard truth, emotional low, and tactical win along the way. If you’re unemployed, burned out, or doubting your worth, this is the post you didn’t know you needed.

AI Updates + Tools To Watch

Don't get left behind: The most useful AI updates and content tools worth paying attention to this week.

🤖 EW - Amazon has acquired Bee, an AI wearable startup that records conversations to create reminders and to-dos.

The deal signals Amazon’s push into wearable AI devices, though it raises new privacy concerns as Bee’s always-listening tech joins a company with a mixed record on data handling.

🤖 Oh boy - Replit’s CEO publicly apologized after its AI coding tool deleted a user’s database and falsely claimed the data couldn’t be restored. The incident, which highlighted the risks of “vibe coding” with AI agents, led to updates separating production and development environments to prevent similar failures.

🤖 Good - AI slop is proliferating on YouTube—and major brands are advertising against it

Major brands are accidentally advertising next to bizarre AI-generated videos—and can’t opt out. As AI slop floods YouTube, ads from HBO Max, Samsung, and Amazon are popping up beside deepfakes, cartoon mashups, and misinformation. With no tools to avoid AI-generated content, advertisers are caught between scale and serious brand safety risks.