075 - Kate Bradley Chernis: When You Have No Off Button (VIDEO)
Why do we often put up a front in our business lives to disguise our real selves? In this episode, Emily and Kate Bradley Chernis, Co-Founder and CEO of Lately, are breaking down that front for a refreshing take on being yourself in the business world. Plus, tips on navigating the psychological impacts of pandemic PTSD.
Whether you’re pitching VCs, talking to your team, or trying to appeal to your audience and customers, it’s okay to let people behind the curtain. So why do we often put up a front in our business lives in order to appear professional?
And how do you send a hug over Zoom?
Garyvee has used Lately AI to automatically post engaging video clips on social media.
Kate Bradley Chernis is Co-Founder and CEO of Lately, a startup backed tech powerhouses including angel investor Jason Calacanis with the LAUNCH Accelerator and Lately user Gary Vaynerchuk’s VaynerMedia. Kate and Emily Binder broke down the front for a refreshing take on being yourself in the business world.
With her XM radio DJ, fiction writing, and marketing agency background, Kate knows good words. She shares tips for the most effective language for your sales and marketing copy and social posts.
More topics include startup advice from two women entrepreneurs and navigating the psychological impacts of pandemic PTSD.
What is Lately AI?
Lately is an AI-powered social media marketing platform that helps marketers scale their publishing and reach. Lately’s artificial intelligence uses your historical social media data to learn what works with your audience and what to post next.
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About Lately and Kately
Marketers can use Lately AI to instantly transform podcasts, videos, and any online news articles or blogs into dozens of social posts that are automatically pre-vetted to resonate with your target audience.
Jason Calacanis interviews Kate Bradley Chernis about her company Lately on This Week in Startups.
As a former marketing agency owner, Kate initially created the idea for Lately out of spreadsheets for then-client, Walmart, and got them a 130% ROI, year-over-year for three years.
Prior to founding Lately, Kate served 20 million listeners as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM. She’s also an award-winning radio producer, engineer, and voice talent with 25 years of national broadcast communications, brand-building, sales, and marketing expertise.
TOPICS AND TIMESTAMPS:
02:30: Meet Kate Bradley Chernis and step behind the curtain with Emily
05:05: The kindness of strangers and the "translation of a hug"
08:12: Things that are keeping us sane during quarantine and the stress of the pandemic, and the value of self-care
11:30: How the pandemic is impacting body language, facial expressions, and our ability to connect with customers, friends, and family in a virtual space
Lately is an AI-powered social media marketing platform that helps marketers scale their publishing and reach. It can also transcribe podcasts and cut videos into short clips for social.
12:53: Diving into Kate's background and her experience with XM radio
18:55: There's a lot of VC money floating around there is possibly a hunger to do more and invest more to seek entertainment, excitement, and positive influence. Furthermore, companies naturally present themselves as strong or weak investments based on how they perform under pandemic conditions.
Kate Bradley Chernis and This Week in Startups Host and Lately Investor, Jason Calacanis with fellow LAUNCH classmates Taylor Monks and Max Coleman
"If you're surviving now as a company, you're suddenly very attractive. Because this is the hardest time to survive, so it's clear cut. You don't really have to explain the value of your company if you're making it in a pandemic: it's already there." - Kate Bradley Chernis
Most long-form content like blogs, videos and podcasts takes hours to create, then collect dust. Get exponentially more eyeballs on your hard-earned work by unlocking the value with Lately’s AI.
22:00: All about Lately.
It takes the average human 12 minutes to write a social post. In 1.8 seconds, Lately's AI will give you dozens. Multiply that times the hourly salary of any content creator on your team, and you have mind blowing time and money savings.
26:25: Showing personality can be difficult when it comes to your brand and social media.
Related episode: Robert Sofia: What Your Brand Should Say on Social Media
28:00: People spend more time on Facebook's platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp than any behavior outside of family, work, or sleep. That makes for a lot of data for marketers to comb through.
"That's the goal, it’s to learn what people care about, right? Because if you don't know what they care about, then it's pointless. And as I learned over the years, what typical marketing tools look at are numbers, and people can't read the numbers or translate them, and this is a constant problem." - Kate Bradley Chernis
33:30: We had to ask, what does Kate, a fiction major, think about the Oxford Comma?
34:00: Opening the door to your audience and social media trends: what goes viral and what types of posts do Facebook or LinkedIn algorithms favor?
40:00:
What books does Kate recommend?
Prior to founding Lately, Kate Bradley Chernis served 20 million listeners as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM on “The Loft”. She’s also an award-winning radio producer, engineer, and voice talent.
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073 - Mikal Abdullah: Problem Solving With a Jiu Jitsu Master
Mikal Abdullah is an entrepreneur, Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu coach, and competitor, founder of Aces Jiu-Jitsu Club, U.S. Army Veteran, and professional fighter. Mikal’s diverse background makes for some very interesting conversation in this latest episode. Emily and Mikal talked about an array of topics including: entrepreneurship, problem-solving, branding, the military mindset, leadership, and more.
How does the philosophy of Jiu-Jitsu apply to solving other problems? Mikal Abdullah is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach, competitor, founder of Aces Jiu-Jitsu Club, U.S. Army Veteran, and professional fighter. Mikal’s diverse background makes for some fascinating conversation about an array of topics, including: entrepreneurship, problem-solving from a martial arts approach, branding, the military mindset, leadership, and more.
After honorably serving in the U.S. Army, Mikal started training Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai. He has competed and won in competitions around the world. Mikal now owns an industry-leading group of companies, including facilities, gear companies, and now an online training academy. Mikal also enjoys helping other business owners and entrepreneurs to reach their goals.
Topics:
Mikal Abdullah is an entrepreneur, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach and competitor, founder of Aces Jiu Jitsu Club, U.S. Army Veteran, and professional fighter.
02:00: Meet Mikal Abdullah, BJJ master
03:13: What is the purpose and thought behind Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ)? Why do people practice it?
04:40: Overcoming obstacles: you have to be in a clear frame of mind on the mat and in life.
07:09: What can people’s actions and tactics on the Jiu-Jitsu mat tell you about how they handle problems in real life?
“We call it a Jiu-Jitsu handshake...when you start to roll with each other, how they handle obstacles is how they handle obstacles. If they shy and wilt under pressure, then that is how they handle things.” - Mikal Abdullah
07:53: What do 360 reviews and rolling on the mat have in common?
“One of the greatest superpowers you can ever have is the ability to see yourself as others see you. The other is to see yourself the way you truly are.” - Mikal Abdullah
09:24: While perception can be a weakness, it’s also very important to be aware of in business, relationships, and Jiu-Jitsu.
10:39: Middle of funnel, top of funnel marketing, and Mikal’s company, Aces Jiu Jitsu Club International.
“When it comes to middle of funnel marketing, I think that community is a big deal. Conversations are king.” - Mikal Abdullah
13:00: Some aspects of the military can be incorporated into your marketing strategy. AARs or After Action Reviews allow for you to sort mission aspects for review and posterity. This inspired Mikal’s strategy of tagging conversations for review in defining the customer journey and their marketing/selling process.
Mikel’s marketing background is focused on top of funnel and middle of funnel strategy. “Branding is always adjusting or evolving.” - Mikel Abdullah
15:20: Branding: much more than just logo design
“As humans, when we use a compass to find a bearing and identify where we want to go and where we want to be, we often start walking, and we start moving in a curve or a zig-zag. It’s important to do a repeated check-in on where we are. For us, our branding is always adjusting or evolving.” - Mikal Abdullah
19:04: How do you form a subconscious or unconscious connection to your target audience? The ultimate success is connecting with your customer on this level.
20:26: Netflix, subscription businesses, DTC and virtual offerings. How did Mikal’s company Aces Jiu Jitsu pivot at the onset of the pandemic?
24:30: Harness the power to scale your business. Sometimes entrepreneurs aren’t thinking big enough at the beginning of their business journey.
26:17: The worst interview question: where do you see yourself in five years? Sometimes that can be a limiting approach to conversation and goal setting.
30:10: Words and language matter.
“We are attempting to communicate so many ideas in just a few words, and it’s so important to be effective and efficient so that you don’t have to go backward and correct things, or correct them as little as possible.” - Mikal Abdullah
34:00: Mikal‘s book recommendations
047 - The New Wave of Financial Literacy - Xipi CEO Christine Concepción
40% of Americans do not have $400 for an emergency expense. We have a problem. Xipi offers a fresh take on financial literacy targeting millennials with a relevant, entertaining tone. Christine and her team aim to democratize education about managing money.
Christine Concepción co-founded Xipi, a fresh and accessible take on financial literacy for millennials
Schools are more likely to teach you "Hot Cross Buns" on the recorder than what a Roth IRA is. With one in five students lacking basic financial literacy skills, it is clear that current methods aren’t working. Xipi (pronounced “Zippy”) CEO Christine Concepción and her co-founders teamed up to create a better way to educate people about their finances. Xipi’s brand is accessible, modern, and entertaining.
Christine experienced poverty in the South Bronx at a young age and realized that education was the way out. She attended Columbia for undergrad then worked in finance and hedge funds in Manhattan. She graduated Columbia Business School in May 2019. Shortly after earning her MBA, she and her cofounders launched Xipi, which was VC funded within about a month (unheard of).
Did you know that if you launch a startup within six months of graduating business school, you’re 80% more likely to succeed than if you wait? Always strike while the iron is hot.
Show notes:
02:30 Xipi will provide micro-lessons in five minutes or less to teach financial concepts through reading, video, or other forms of content - a voice component is coming soon
Beta launch in November 2019
06:00 Gamification is a big part of Xipi
Accessible language, less formal, more fun - targeting millennials with a social media focused marketing strategy, especially on Instagram
06:25 People with low levels of financial literacy rely on friends, parents, or friends to learn about money
06:40 Fact: 40% of Americans do not have $400 for an emergency expense. They often rely on payday loans to cover costs, which puts them in an even more grave situation with extremely high interest rates.
07:30 You see friends living their best life on Instagram but probably don't realize that 70% of young adults in the U.S. (people under 30) are receiving financial support from their parents (see stat from Forbes)
11:00 Is there any money in doing a financial literacy startup?
12:15 Yes. Plenty of companies doing good which have a layer of social responsibility are making money. See: BlackRock chief Larry Fink tells CEOs to fix society's problems in an increasingly divided world - Business Insider):
“Larry Fink, the investment manager who oversees nearly $6 trillion at BlackRock, set off a yearlong conversation among business leaders and policymakers last January when he wrote a letter to chief executives declaring that companies needed to do more than make profits.”
13:05 Disproportionate impact: lack of financial literacy hurts women, minorities, and LGBTQ the most (the people who make less money) - though all income levels can benefit from learning how to manage their money better
14:00 11% more women have degrees than men but two-thirds of student loan debt is held by women
15:30 This gamified education is for everybody - it’s fun, quick, and is the equivalent of a WOTD (word of the day) app or lesson
16:00 WTFWednesday is a Xipi Instagram theme, e.g.: WTF is a rate cut? Let’s learn vocabulary in more than one way.
When bae’s texts turn green… financial humor you can relate to from @GetXipi Instagram (follow for fun)
16:25 Business model: how will Xipi drive revenue?
16:35 Beta launch in November is invite-only, and Xipi will be open to all in spring 2020 based on a freemium model for year 1
18:20 What kind of voice component would be right for Xipi? They are considering an Alexa skill or Flash Briefing
Connect with Christine and Xipi:
Instagram: @GetXipi
Christine - LinkedIn
Xipi - Team: https://getxipi.com/team
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