Here at Performance Driven Marketing, we pride ourselves in taking the time to still do business with a handshake and to sit down with our clients and our employees in order to discuss how everything is going. Our communication, honesty, and real results have led us to become one of top marketing agencies in the state of Utah. Our highly skilled marketing agency consists of marketing specialists, web developers, SEO experts, graphic designers, content writers, and more.
Each month, we’d like to spotlight some of our specialists or one of our clients so that you can get to know us a bit better. We’ll kickoff this PDM Spotlight series with our content writers! The content writers are responsible for writing the content on webpages, blogs, city pages, recent projects, and more.
The Writing Team
Sydnie Howarth
For most of her life, Sydnie Howarth has been fascinated with writing, creating and entrepreneurship. After graduating from Weber State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Sydnie discovered blogging and SEO marketing. She is a content writer with a passion for making processes more efficient. She also has several Google Ads and Google Analytics certifications and a personal blog.
In her free time, Sydnie enjoys playing basketball, listening to alternative rock and indie music, and trying new ice cream shops. She also loves the outdoors, spending time with her family and reading literary fiction.
Sarah Masek
Sarah Masek studied sociology and criminology at the University of Utah. She’s always liked writing and editing, and has worked as an alpha reader and a beta reader for casual writers and published authors alike. After an internship with the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, she learned that she liked coming up with content for campaigns. That, combined with writing articles in her university years, led her to discover content writing as a career path.
Outside of work, she writes futuristic fantasy books and spends time with her horse. She also draws, paints, reads tons of fantasy, sci-fi, and romance novels, and goes to the gym.
Emily States
Emily States’ passion for content creation can be traced back to avant garde scribbles on the walls in red and blue Crayola. As her writing style has improved, she has taken to each new discipline with an insatiable desire to learn all the things, dive in, and see a job done well. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Microbiology, growing E. coli in the lab and later quality testing pharmaceuticals. However, while working in a lab coat will always hold an appeal of its own, Emily has discovered that her true passion lies more in the pen than in the pipette.
She drinks hot cocoa in July, champions Christie over Conan Doyle, and prefers Mondays to Fridays. When not typing away at a webpage, Emily loves traveling, performing on stage, painting, reading, and—shockingly enough—writing.
Marisa Nelson
She is a recent graduate of Weber State University with a Bachelor’s in Communication. She didn’t think that she would end up as a writer; her dream was always to do something creative. She thinks when she found Journalism and Communication, it was the perfect mix of writing, listening, and creativity that she needed. She currently lived in Brigham City with her husband, Taylor. She loves writing, reading, watercolor painting, traveling, and spending time with family.
Meet The Writers
1) What inspired you to pursue a career as a writer?
SYDNIE: For much of my life I have loved writing and expressing my feelings and thoughts through the written word. The little girl keeping a journal and writing short stories would be proud to see where we’ve gotten.
SARAH: I’ve always loved writing, ever since I was a kid hand-writing stories in notebooks, then writing fanfiction online, to then writing articles during university and working on my own books to get published. It’s fun, I’m good at it, and I love being able to learn with everything we do here.
EMILY: I just really love piecing words together in writing. I love the freedom to organize thoughts deliberately as you can through writing that is just not possible through spoken word. I also love watching stories take place as happens when I really get going.
MARISA: Having social anxiety for a majority of my life, writing my thoughts and dreams down was a way to express myself. I honestly never thought I would pursue writing as a career, but now there is nowhere else I would rather be. I have loved getting to talk with people and make connections through writing so I think that is the main reason I choose to pursue it.
2) What is your favorite part of this job?
SYDNIE: My favorite part of this job is getting to learn about and research a wide variety of topics.
SARAH: Being able to learn and the diversity of the projects we do. Everything has its appeal, from webpages to city pages to blogs. The environment here is wonderful too. Everyone works together and helps each other out.
EMILY: I love learning about the many different things we get to write about. The variety is a veritable feast.
MARISA: My favorite part (so far) is the variety of topics and clients that I get to write about! As well as all the people who have been so encouraging and helpful to me as I am learning.
3) What are your hobbies? What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
SYDNIE: I love basketball and reading. Much of my time is spent at the gym and spending time with family and friends.
SARAH: I love spending time with my horse, working on my books, drawing, painting, reading, and going to the gym. I don’t do them much, but I also love kickboxing, ballet, and archery.
EMILY: I really love traveling (and planning travel). I love performing, especially musical theatre. Then there’s painting, making clothes, game nights and nights around the fire, martial arts, reading, and watching black and white movies.
MARISA: I love to read and paint with watercolor! I also am addicted to sweets and love to make soda or ice cream runs with my husband or sister.
4) Have you read any books or seen any movies/shows lately that you’d recommend?
SYDNIE: I loved the newest season of Stranger Things on Netflix. A cinematic masterpiece if a show can be a cinematic masterpiece I also recently liked the book Warcross.
SARAH: I recently finished The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah, which was such a fun adventure with fantastic character dynamics. Sense8 on Netflix is an incredible show with beautiful cinematography and a unique storyline.
EMILY: I recently reread The Scarlet Pimpernel, and it gets better with each read. I also love the 1982 movie.
MARISA: Pivot Point by Kasie West was a book I finished recently that was way better than I expected! I also just finished Emily In Paris on Netflix and can’t wait for the next season.
5) What are your favorite productivity hacks? How do you stay focused?
SYDNIE: Focus has always been a difficult thing for me. I have tried setting timers, listening to different types of music, and various other things. I think the thing that’s worked best for me is being kind to myself and allowing myself to take a short break when I’m having a hard time focusing and then hitting it again. If I’m having a hard time focusing because of intrusive thoughts I’m having, I stop and write down what I’m thinking so that my brain can relax. I call this practice micro journaling.
SARAH: Getting the hard/time-consuming things out of the way in the morning, so that by the end of the day when your brain is fried, you can bust out easier tasks. I like competing with myself and seeing if I can beat my own personal times for things. As a perfectionist, there’s nothing like a ticking timer to get your brain to focus on the job at hand and get ‘er done.
EMILY: I stay focused by being aware of what my mind is capable of at each given moment. For example, if I’m really in a flow, I take advantage of that and write, write, write while I can. If I can’t muster that same kind of dedication, I devote my attention to other things that need to be done, gathering research, format articles, etc.
MARISA: This is a great question! I like to have things outside of work (hobbies, vacations, dates, etc.) that keep me balanced. I also find that staying organized and making a to-do list is helpful for me because I feel better when I can cross things off my list.
6) How do you get energized for work?
SYDNIE: A hearty breakfast and listening to upbeat music in the car.
SARAH: Energy drinks. I’ve been healthier lately, though, and turning more to green tea and smoothies with fruits that help boost energy, like apples, bananas, raspberries, etc. But the caffeine addiction is real, and I despise coffee with a burning passion. So, energy drinks and tea it is.
EMILY: I’m a very task-oriented person. The prospect of checking the box for each task I accomplish pushes me to do so.
MARISA: Thinking about new ideas on what to write helps! I have a fear of getting too comfortable and complacent with life, because I have before. So, challenging myself to find something new and try to work on my writing style each day is important to me.
7) Do you like writing with music or shows in the background or do you need quiet? If you listen to something while you write, what’s your favorite thing to listen to?
SYDNIE: I do listen to music!! That’s another thing that I love about this job. I’ve tried watching shows/videos, but I’ve found that makes it harder for me to focus. It depends on the day for what kind of music I listen to. I love listening to indie rock, upbeat pop music, alternative rock, rap occasionally, and classical music or lofi jams sometimes.
SARAH: I used to need silence, but now I listen to playlists. I usually listen to movie soundtracks and character playlists from my stories. If I’m working on posting content, I’ll put on an audiobook instead. Right now, I’m working my way through Sarah J. Maas’s Throne Of Glass series.
EMILY: I write best with no other distractions, auditory or otherwise. If my head is too cluttered, if the distractions come from within, listening to cinematic scores can help me focus my attention. Nothing with words unless I’m gathering research or formatting blogs.
MARISA: It depends on the day, but I usually listen to or watch something. I am currently rewatching New Girl for the 5th time while I work or I watch crime documentaries as I write, lol.
8) What’s something that made you smile recently?
SYDNIE: My three-year-old little cousin 🙂
SARAH: My horse always nickers and comes right over as soon as she sees me, no matter where she is. It never gets old.
EMILY: The ocean always makes me smile. Whether it be crashing surf along a rocky shore or churning waters beneath a speeding boat, there is something magical about the ocean.
MARISA: My niece just started crawling and she has the cutest giggle. We love getting to see her often and she makes us laugh.
9) What is your best piece of advice?
SYDNIE: Attitude is everything. Life can be dull and sad and difficult at times, but choosing to be kind to others and have a positive outlook can do so much for your personal happiness and peace. Taking life’s challenges a little less seriously and learning to laugh and smile when things are hard has been the greatest thing that I’ve done for myself in my adult life.
SARAH: No matter what you do, there’s someone who’s going to have an issue with it, so you may as well do what you love.
EMILY: “Your focus determines your reality.” If you look for the beautiful things of the world, you will find them. If you look for gray skies and trouble and misfortune, you will find them. If you look for magic in the little things, you will find it tucked into everything.
MARISA: Find the things that make you happy and do them. Don’t let people’s opinions or expectations stop you from living a joyful life. If you want to post videos on Tik Tok because it’s fun? Do it! Want to start a fitness page on Instagram? Do it! Want to sit at home and watch cartoons with a blanket? Do it! Life is too short to worry about the opinions of others.
10) Got any favorite quotes?
SYDNIE: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Bernard M. Baruch
SARAH: “Day One or one day: you decide.” – Paulo Coelho
“There are two kinds of people. Those who think, ‘I don’t want anyone to suffer like I did.’ And those who think, ‘I suffered; why shouldn’t they?’ Be the former.”
EMILY: “Fairy tales are more than true – not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.” — Neil Gaiman’s misquote of G.K. Chesterton
“An artist can do nothing slovenly.” — Jane Austen
MARISA: “Life isn’t perfect but your outfit can be.”
“Turbulent times are often opportunities to thrive.”
Do You Need Professional Content Writing Services?
If your website has low-quality or copied content or if you’re looking to start a site for your business, we here at Performance Driven Marketing can write compelling content that helps your site get noticed. To learn more about our content writing services or about any of our other marketing services, please don’t hesitate to contact Performance Driven Marketing today.