In this episode, I’m excited to be speaking to Caity Cronkhite, Seattle-based founder and CEO of Good Words LLC.

We talk about her experience of starting up as a tech writer both in-house and freelancing, before starting and growing her own successful business in the technical writing industry, and the successes and struggles of operating Good Words LLC in these strange and unpredictable pandemic times.

In this episode we're speaking to Philip Kiely - author of 'Writing for Software Developers' - about being a first-time author, adventures in Budapest, and how to infiltrate a hackathon during a blizzard!

The KnowledgeOwl crew joins longtime host Jacob Moses to discuss their acquisition of The Not-Boring Tech Writer podcast, including why Jacob started the podcast, how the podcast has evolved, and what listeners can expect for the future.

Mariana Moreira—Technical Writer at Zup Innovation and Community Manager of Brazil’s budding technical comm community, Tech Writing BR—shares how you can begin creating usability tests for your organization.

Laci Kettavong—Marketing and Member Coordinator at Stoke—shares how you can understand basic design principles to improve your documentation.

Dr. Chris Lam—technical communication professor at the University of North Texas—discusses his newest platform, CrowdsourceTPC, and how you can use it to find insights and resources to advance your career.

Longtime open data advocates Jesse Hamner and Kyle Taylor help us understand the value of open data and how the civically-minded technical writer can get plugged into this exciting movement.

Mike McDermott—Director of Language Translations at MadTranslations—shares how organization can have a seamless, successful translation process, including how to research the right translation service, who to get involved in the research process, and how to create content optimized for translation.

Kate Mueller—Support Sorceress and Cheese Monger at KnowledgeOwl reflects on her career to share the criterion you should consider as you choose the right knowledge base for your organization, including how to get started in your research, how to get company buy-in, and which essential features you should look for in a knowledge base software.

German technical writer Joachim shares how prospective tech writers can land their first tech writing internship.

Alexander Yant—occupational therapist turned tech writer advocate—reflects on his career as occupational therapist to share how you can understand your reader as a whole, including why empathy is one of the most important aspects of audience analysis, how tech writers can boost their audience analysis skills, and how effective audience analysis can demonstrate your value as a tech writer.

Margaret Eker—technical writer at Magento, an Adobe company—shares how you can boost your researching skills as a tech writer, including how tech writers traditionally research new features, why tech writers should research the domain in which they work, and which steps you can take today to boost your research skills. 

Tad Dieken—tech writer at Accuray—shares how to get started contributing to GitHub, including how to find projects that interest you, how to overcome imposter syndrome in GitHub, and which new skills you may learn in the process.

Tom Johnson—technical writer at Amazon—shares how to get started in API documentation, including where the tech writer fits in the API documentation process, what skills tech writers need to excel at API documentation, and where to find the best resources to ramp up those skills.

Kacy Ewing—soon-to-be-Brooklyn-based tech writer—shares the skills you need to excel in creating contextual help, including how to position yourself in the user experience process, how to practice your contextual help writing, and where to find the best examples of contextual help.

John Espirian—technical copywriter and author of the soon-to-be-released book Content DNA—shares how you can find your content DNA, including how to find your niche as a writer, how to market that niche to prospective clients, and how to use your niche to win big clients.

Chad Sterling—Product Technical Communications Specialist at KUKA—shares how you can transition into technical writing, including where to find a tribe of technical writers, how to use your existing skills to transition into technical writing, and how to ramp up your skills to find your first gig.

Jamie Roddy—Manager of Technical Communicators who leads a team of global technical communicators—shares how you can use your detective skills as a technical writer, including which detective skills are most useful for technical writers, how to ramp up those skills, and how detective skills can help you transition into other fields within a software company.

John Paz—Senior Content Designer at Atlassian and mentoring wizard—shares his experience mentoring prospective tech writers and how you can do the same, including how to find prospective mentees, how to foster a relationship with mentees, and how mentoring can boost your own technical writing career.

Chad Lott—content marketer at Zenreach—shares his experiences as a content marketer, plus, shares tips on how technical writers can transition into the field, including how content marketing differs from technical writing, how content marketers succeed, and how technical writers can use their existing skills to transition into content marketing.

Kathleen Franks shares how you can use your skills to start writing for nonprofit organizations, including which technical writing skills best assist nonprofits, how to use your skills to advocate for nonprofits, and how to use your skills for more than just grant writing.

Jody Winter—Auckland-based technical writer of 15 years—shares how you can embrace the long game of technical writing, including how to observe and respond to changes in the field, how to respond to seasons of burnout, and how to find opportunities to ramp up your technical writing skills.

Ash Blankenship—founder at Acme Design—shares how you can find your unique perspective on technical writing to brand your work, including how to use content to build your brand, how to choose the right platform to build your brand, and how to build a tribe that believes in your approach to technical writing.

Anne Janzer—author of Writing to Be Understood—shares how technical writers can make their technical writing more interesting. We discuss where technical writers may currently miss the mark in their writing, how technical writers can use cognitive science to make their writing more interesting, and small steps technical writers can take today to begin applying the concepts.

Katie Price, instructional designer at Azusa university, on the podcast to share with us how technical writers can transition into instructional design, including what types of projects instructional designers work on, what skills you need to learn to excel in instructional design, and how to use your existing skills to transition into the field.

Kyle Taylor—Solutions Architect at FFW and President of a Denton-based technology nonprofit TechMill—shares with how you can contribute to open source projects, including how to choose the right project to contribute to, how to translate your contributions into your portfolio, and how to create open source documentation that developers will love.

Thaddeus Dieken – Technical Writer at Accuray – shares how you can get your first job in technical communication, including how to effectively search for jobs, market yourself as a qualified entry-level candidate, and how to navigate the workplace. 

Kim Campbell – Professor and Chair of Technical Communication at the University of North Texas – shares how you can begin teaching technical writing, including how to develop the right skills, adopt the right mindset for teaching, and enjoy a fulfilling career in academia.