Kate Leto is an executive coach for senior product leaders, author, and speaker who’s well known in the product world for helping product leaders develop core skills like empathy, active listening, and managing up.
Petra Wille, one of my other clients, put the two of us in touch back in 2022. Kate knew that investing in regular content in the form of blog posts, newsletters, and social media posts was important to continue to build her coaching business, but she was looking for a little help to lighten the load of content creation so she could focus on her core coaching activities.
We originally worked together on a VIP day experiment where I edited a few pieces of content for Kate and wrote social media posts to promote them on a predetermined half day. This initial project was such a success that we decided to work together on an ongoing basis and continued to do so throughout 2023 and 2024.
I recently sat down with Kate so she could share more about our collaboration. Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.
What made you decide that you needed help with your content?
Content right now feels like it’s a must-have if you’re going to be a solo entrepreneur. In the market that I’m in—product coaching—your voice has to be heard, it has to be clear, it has to be concise, it has to be on message, and it has to be relatable.
Content right now feels like it’s a must-have if you’re going to be a solo entrepreneur.
And while I love writing and really enjoy the process, I found I was putting way too much time into creating a blog post or even writing a LinkedIn post or anything like that. I knew I needed help, but I also knew from the experience of working with other content people in the past that I needed help from somebody who knew the world that I was in. And that was really hard to find.
How did you find out about and decide to work with Melissa?
I was introduced to Melissa by Petra [Wille], who I think was introduced to Melissa by Teresa [Torres]. So I knew that she knew this space, which was a huge asset and benefit for me. And when we met, I knew that she was going to be able to help bring more precision and structure and flow to the words that I was trying to put out there.
How would you describe the experience of working with Melissa?
I find it nice. I think we built up a good rhythm. What we found is that if I put a little bit of time into putting together an outline for a blog post or an article as well as some resources, I just give it to Melissa and she can take it from there. Or if I write an article, then Melissa can go and finesse it to actually pull it together and make it much more cohesive.
One thing I appreciated was the agility that Melissa has in the different types of content that we were working on together.
Being a solo entrepreneur, my needs change. Sometimes I had an article or a blog post or something for LinkedIn. Other times, I asked her to help me pull together content for my website or copy for landing pages. This was content that helped position me within the market and make it clear what I do and what I don’t do and how people can work with me. That was very helpful.
We’ve also been able to work together on a new type of offering for me, which is this gated area of my website, like a mini course, where people can get access to different examples of the type of work that I do and start to take things on for themselves.
Even though we’ve worked on a range of different projects, Melissa could always help me maintain a consistent tone of voice and structure and bring in her perspective and keen eye on what works and what doesn’t.
Even though we’ve worked on a range of different projects, Melissa could always help me maintain a consistent tone of voice and structure and bring in her perspective and keen eye on what works and what doesn’t.
I think over time she’s gotten to know my tone very well, which makes it a lot easier to shift between different projects while still having that common thread and common DNA.
What types of results have you seen since working with Melissa?
A few times our articles have been picked to be profiled on Medium, so I’ve gotten a lot of traffic from that, which is great. I’ve often gotten comments about how strong my writing is and people actually want me to look at their things. So of course in those cases I’ll tell them, ‘Oh, no, it’s Melissa, you should talk to her!’
I’d also say that working with Melissa saves me time and it helps me keep that consistency in tone, structure, and flow.
Who do you think would benefit the most from working with Melissa?
I think a lot of people are similar to me—the solo entrepreneurs who know that content is such an essential part of building awareness in their brand and creating new business, getting their voices heard.
I’d say especially within technology and product because Melissa has a great understanding and grasp of that world, but I don’t think it has to be limited that. She’s a talented writer and editor, so I think it can go far beyond that.
A big thank you to Kate for taking the time to share her experience of working together! If you’re interested in exploring how I can help you with any of your content projects, please fill out this form or send me a quick email at hello AT ms-content DOT com and I’ll get back in touch shortly!