The Drop In CEO

How Technology Can Help You Build Better Customer Relationships, with Deborah A. Coviello of Drop in The CEO Podcast - Featuring the Lately CEO

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Transcript

Speaker 1: (00:01)

No problem, but, um, yes. Oh my God. Yeah, Vermont's beautiful too. I used to live in new England when I first graduated school, uh, lived in Newport, Rhode Island, and then, um, then Massachusetts and then finally wound up in Manchester, New Hampshire, and was frequently even when I was in college, in, in New York, going in and out of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, really, really beautiful up there. We would probably still be up there if the economy didn't tank early in my marriage. And so we kind of came back to New Jersey where the family, the support was rebuilt from there. And then we picked up and moved away again, but that's okay. Our kids were a little bit older, but uh, like the change, but do miss, like I said, New Jersey,

Speaker 2: (00:42)

The tough thing. Like up in Vermont, New Hampshire, it's really hard to make a living. I mean, you know, it's similar to here. Like most people here still work in the city and then, you know, there's a, COVID changed this, but there's a commuter bus. That's 10 minutes away that used to go down like probably two dozen times a day. I mean, it was all the time. Mm-hmm , you know, and like most of the people I know, work in the city and have like a part-time place up here.

Speaker 1: (01:08)

Yeah.

Speaker 2: (01:09)

Or they're construction workers, you know, or cuz there's just not a lot of business up here. So anyways, whenever we meet anybody, we're like, what do you do?

Speaker 1: (01:19)

Work from anywhere. And that's what I love. I love the opportunity to do podcasting and just meet interesting people. If I could just maybe tell the reason why we're here today and what I hope to get, but also I wanna make sure that I promote whatever it is you want to share. Obviously you've done a lot of speaking, a lot of podcast guesting, but uh, I was in search of C-suite leaders, CEOs, presidents, founders of their own company because they have a unique journey and often have insights to share with other aspiring leaders or maybe you have a product or service that could be interesting to any of the C-suite leaders that also happen to listen to the show. Um, but first of all, female business owner, okay. That's interesting to me, uh, I'm trying to wait the podcast more 50% female, 50% men. They're just by the statistics.

Speaker 1: (02:07)

There just happens to be more men that I bring on to the show, youngish kind and something that's super, really cool. And I just wanna learn more about what you do, uh, sincerely wanna understand, uh, your career journey. What, what worked well for you, any pivotal points and stumbling blocks along the way. And also even now in your own business, to the extent we elevate your business or we elevate your brand, you tell me where you want to go with that, but obviously we wanna know what has worked well for you. So our listeners can have some actionable tips, things to think about and things your baby learned along the way. Um, and even now in your business, what keeps you up at night? Those are been the kinds of questions I may be taking you through, but I also wanted to open it up to what are some things that you might want me to ask you so I can tee those questions up along the way

Speaker 2: (02:56)

You can go anywhere. David, I'm an open book so I can cover all the, all the topics you covered. No problem. Um, and I'm, I'll make sure to address the C-suite. Um, and I'm not that young I just invest a lot in ice cream.

Speaker 1: (03:12)

I do the best I can too, but you know, I, um,

Speaker 2: (03:15)

Hard.

Speaker 1: (03:16)

This is, it is what it is. It's a little bit of makeup, a little bit of low maintenance. Still have the Capri pants on but it's um, yeah, I, I don't feel my age as well. I've got three grown children. My youngest is 20.

Speaker 2: (03:29)

See the photos they look, they look very handsome.

Speaker 1: (03:32)

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. So this one, the boy, uh, this one he's actually 26 and um, after graduating college decided to continue a military career. So he's in Germany right now. Wow. This, this one over here, Danny. He's actually 31 married and lives in Zurich, Switzerland with his wife both. Wow. I know. And then the daughter down here and over here is actually 20 and studying architecture at the university of Kentucky, but doing a study abroad in Florence, Italy starting this fall. Oh

Speaker 2: (04:01)

My gosh. You had good places to go.

Speaker 1: (04:05)

I know last summer I did visit Europe when the boys were there. So I may go there again in the fall, but make my starting point Italy where my daughter will be. So yeah, I mean, they need to see the world. It's not just the us, uh, they need to have a global perspective. Um, for sure. I just don't feel as old as those kids happen to be, but uh, they keep me young and on my toes. So

Speaker 2: (04:26)

Yeah, for sure. Well, congrat, that sounds like a great, great group you got

Speaker 1: (04:29)

There. Well, thank you. Um, okay, so we'll take the interview anywhere, but I honestly sincere, just wanna learn about you and your business. I will take the bio that was provided to me and just, um, just distill it down just a little bit.

Speaker 2: (04:42)

Sure. Anything

Speaker 1: (04:43)

You want. Thank you. Uh, when I say we're gonna go, I do a dynamic intro for about 30 seconds. Promote promoting myself. I say I'm happy to have this amazing guest Kate Bradley. Sure.

Speaker 2: (04:57)

Rhymes with furnace.

Speaker 1: (05:00)

Just writing it phonetically. Thank you. Sure. And the name of your company lately? AI.

Speaker 2: (05:07)

Yep. Or you can just say lately, either

Speaker 1: (05:08)

One. Okay. Thank you. And I'll read the intro and then I'll say, thank you. Welcome on to the show. And then I will turn to my listeners a little bit and explain why I really want them to listen to this conversation, why I'm excited to it, to kind of draw them in. And then I'll say, you know, please share a bit about yourself personally, and the journey that you've been on, but I honestly wanna know more about what you don't cuz it's so super cool technology, uh, or what you do. Um, and then when it gets to the 25 to 30 minute mark, I'll say this has been a great interview. Any last closing, uh, thoughts you wanna share. So that's an opportunity to promote something that's happening. If you forget to mention a talking point, you can say it at that point. And if you want, how best for people to connect with you, but we also have all of your links and that'll get into the show notes. So with that, do you have any questions?

Speaker 2: (05:58)

No, it sounds great. You're so organized. It's very

Speaker 1: (06:01)

Impressive. That's why people hire me because I take chaos and try to make it organized. Cause I hate chaos. Right? Um, thank you. What, uh, this is again, just, um, we are recording both, but we'll only be audio, but for some reason you say, Hey, I'd like those sound bites. Uh, could I have the video? I could offer that to you, but we only publish on Spotify and all the other things. So

Speaker 2: (06:20)

Great. So then I'm not gonna put on the jacket

Speaker 1: (06:22)

no, it's okay. I just have to get in this otherwise it's me in a tank top and I don't feel as much as professional, so no, you look great. Thank you.

Speaker 1: (06:31)

Okay, we'll get going. And again, just thank you for being a guest on my show. You okay. Hello. I am Deb Coviello founder of the drop in CEO and I am so grateful. You have joined us on another episode with another amazing guest and I just have the good fortune of bringing their insights and inspiration to you. And if you love this podcast and I know you will please subscribe, rate, review and tell others so we can continue to build a great community and bring you great programming. And just know my brand is here to help the C-suite leaders of today and tomorrow navigate their challenges with confidence. But I am so excited to bring on this amazing guest Kate Bradley Turner. She is the founder and CEO of lately that learns which words will get you the most engagement interns, video, audio, and text into dozens of social media containing social media posts that contain those words again, an amazing asset and need for businesses today. And she is also OMI so much, uh, accomplishment. She is an award-winning radio producer engineer and voice talent with 25 years of national broadcast communications brand building sales and marketing expertise. And on top of also owning a marketing agency, she has also been a guest speaker on hundreds of sales, marketing entrepreneurial podcast, and has led numerous presentations across the industry. I am so excited and grateful that I found you welcome Kate to the show.

Speaker 2: (08:12)

Hi Deb. It's so nice to meet you and, and all of you listening. Thanks for joining us. This is super fun already. We've we've got, um, lots of, lots of traveling things to talk about, uh, as we've discovered. And I, I already feel like if you live down the street, you know, we'd be in trouble cuz

Speaker 1: (08:31)

Now I, I can't agree with you. Yeah. I mean, we were just chit chatting. We had a real remember to turn the record button on here because we wanted to bring this great conversation to you. But you know, just to let my listeners know, I am always in pursuit and curious about C-suite leaders, CEOs, founders of companies, uh, what their journey was like, what worked well for them? What were some of the challenges and in the process, get to know them and bring their insights to you. But, oh my again, female founder, CEO of a company with some amazing technology for which she serves, uh, companies and businesses. I can't wait for you to learn more about who she is, but Kate, without further ado, please share with us a little bit more about yourself personally, and the journey and the work that you're doing now.

Speaker 2: (09:15)

Oh, thanks Deb. Well, I think the fun piece to share is that I used to be, uh, you touched on it. I used to be a rock and roll DJ. So my last gig was broadcasting two 20 million listeners a day for XM satellite radio so it's, you know, I respect that microphone. You have, I, I have three of them in a box over here and I don't know why I haven't hooked them up to my laptop. I think it's cuz like I'm allergic to my former career. I'm kind of recovering, you know wow. But um, you know, that journey is not dissimilar to this journey. I mean, one thing that radio had when I was in, it was a bit of a sense in a, in an adventurous way of well and, and some negative ways which we can touch on. But, but lawlessness is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: (10:07)

It was wild west people in my day still were live. live on the air. The DJs were able to program the music themselves. So anything could happen right? There was that thrill of, oh my God, there's silence. What's wrong. You know, mm-hmm did she get the record on time? Um, did it, did the segue work? Was it a train wreck? That kind of thing. And we used to goof around. We used to, um, really celebrate the theater of the mind, Deb, which I am fascinated by. Um, we can touch on that for folks who don't know, but the theater of the mind is it plays two. There's two really avenues for it. One is in writing and these things tie together here by the way. So one is in writing and one is in sound. And so when you're listening to, um, music, for example, I'm gonna, I'm gonna just tangent, but it'll come back here.

Speaker 2: (11:05)

Mm-hmm your brain must instantly access every other song it's ever heard before in this quick instant. And what it's trying to do is take the new song and index it and pop it into the library of the memory or memory of your brain. It's looking for the right spot, right? And so just by default, it has to pull forth nostalgia and memory and emotion and all the things that QRU make memory so powerful. Now. So part two is authors have a similar, um, onus as the person wielding the mic as you do, which is to touch on nostalgia and memory and emotion in order to fuel trust in their writing so that I will do what they want them to what they want me to do. Right? Cause all communication is about call to action in the, in the very end. Now the way that these two, whether it's the wielding of the pen or the wielding of the microphone, the, the common, the theater of the mine is if you're good at your role, you leave space for the reader or the listener to fill in the blanks that you want them to fill in.

Speaker 2: (12:18)

Right? So it's like, they feel like they have a role cuz they do. It's very important, but it's guided by you. So the result is a two-way street, as opposed to a one-way street, we feel like we're part of the conversation. We feel like that we're part of the story and this is the ticket to creating fans or evangelists because they work for you for free, right?

Speaker 1: (12:44)

Yes. And I'm gonna let you keep going, but I wanna jump in here. I am smiling cuz I'm so get what you're talking about. I mean, first of all, you and I are east coast people. We could talk really fast, but what we need to do is slow down our messaging because the brain is trying to do exactly what you're talking about. Either consuming, written content or listening to our voices, they're listening to our voices, letting us and they're thinking whether they like it or not. Do they like the message that is coming out? And when we slow down, give them opportunity to process. As you say, they're trying to picture what we look like. They're trying to relate it to previous experience. They're trying to decide whether they keep listening or maybe go to another episode. So it is this very rapid methodical dance. As you say, the theater in us coming, move, bringing them in and then moving forward together. I love it. Keep going. Yeah.

Speaker 2: (13:39)

you got it. And it's the thing is like, sorry to poo video, but video gives it all to you. So there it's a different experience. You don't have that interaction where the, the viewer gets to play a role. Right. Right. And you know, that was one of the things that was my specialty in radio. I'm great at making fans and I would set records and you know, I didn't even know what I was doing by the way. Like, I don't know if female folks listening, I find that my female friends have this similar problem is we don't even know how successful or great we are until someone else kind of recognizes it for us often. You

Speaker 1: (14:21)

Know? And then we have to acknowledge it too, because sometimes yes, our persona doesn't allow us to take those compliments or recognition to say, oh shucks, I just do that. But like, no, no, no. It resonates. You, people are becoming fans of what you say or how you say it.

Speaker 2: (14:36)

Right. And you're responsible for that. And it it's. I had to learn that that was the case. And now I do know that and I, and I see I'm able to dissect and, and um, sort of diagnose what I was doing and then explain it and help other people do the same thing. Whereas before I, I was exactly what you just said, well, duh, just do it. What are you talking about? You know, um, what is exciting about lately is taking these metaphors of life of my life and translating them into something seemingly totally unrelated. So touching back to the, the lawlessness. So I, I was also a line cook Deb all through high school, uh, well, junior high, high school and college. Um, cuz I, I was a athlete and I ate like crazy and I couldn't afford to feed myself so I got two free meals a day in the kitchen, you know, mm-hmm and uh, if you've read Anthony Bourdain's book, everything he says is a thousand percent true.

Speaker 2: (15:39)

I lived that. And while the sexual harassment is of course prevalent, if you can ride that wave, there's a, um, there's a feeling of, um, like how do I say this? There there's a feeling of glory. if you can survive those things and not only survive, but, but utilize and, and leverage it. So I found that in cooking and I found that in radio and I found that in venture land as well because, uh, little sta for people. So in my world, in startup land, venture capital only funds, um, female entrepreneurs, 2.7% of the, of the money that's out there. Can you imagine this?

Speaker 1: (16:29)

I have very low statistics on this. Uh, and, and we have to understand why, but then you and I have to rise above and try to figure out how to crack the code.

Speaker 2: (16:38)

That's right. So we have to bust our butts 98% harder than a guy, right. Or, or 97.3%, I guess might be but

Speaker 1: (16:47)

We're up the challenge. So we do what we need to do.

Speaker 2: (16:49)

We do, we just do it. Mm-hmm um, the, the lawlessness note though, like what I like about it again is there's this, um, line of the negative, which we just touched on, but then the positive, which is that excitement, you never know what's gonna happen, right? There's this roller coaster that I'm addicted to obviously, because some days, not even days, I'm so negative. I like get seconds. I get seconds of joy. And then two seconds later, I'm just like, my head is just right down into the toilet. You know, fully overwhelmed with all the stuff that's going on.

Speaker 1: (17:28)

I mean, I think that's a lesson for people just listening as we continue and listen to what your journey is, is that, um, there's ups and downs. And maybe there are statistics that say that things are stacked against us regardless of your demographic. But I think what it is is if we are just passionate about what we're doing, we're good at what we're doing because people give us moments of, uh, high fiving, even though we might take it, it in stride, let's just look at our careers, look at our businesses, reflect on what we are doing well and just know keep going. And don't worry about what you're not good at. Don't worry so much about the negative stack of statistic or something that's stacked against. You just know what you're good at and you will be recognized for your value. You will be creating fans such as yourself, Kate. So keep going.

Speaker 2: (18:13)

Thank you. It's true. You know, I had to, um, it was the year, maybe it was the year before COVID I think it was maybe 2019. Mm-hmm I realized that the mountain of to-dos was never, it was becoming so overwhelming that I could never, I couldn't see the light anymore at the end of the tunnel, like there, it was just endless and I knew that that wasn't gonna change. And so I decided that my perception could change. And so I needed to figure out a way to, to have a mindset shift. So I started meditating mm-hmm and it had a H huge effect. I mean, of, of course I'm still able to quickly wallow in, in the glass half empty, but when I'm, and I only do it 10 minutes today, I do the, my, um, what's it called? It's the app is called, oh, it's on my phone right here.

Speaker 2: (19:07)

Um, I'll, I'll share it with you all. It's called waking up. I love it. 10 minutes, you have 10 minutes. It's very hard to find 10 minutes, but I managed to find it what I like the way that it's, um, Sam Harris, the way that he does leads his meditation, he leaves a lot of space for you to suck. It's just silence for you to be there as opposed to fully guided, which, I mean, the whole point of meditation is free you to take what you learn in the practice and exist in the world in the same way. Right. And, and part of that, not, not to lecture on meditation is this idea of being a witness rather than AB absorbing, um, whatever the things are. So if you can just watch it go by as opposed to take it personally or let it, you know, sink in or, you know, um, put a dent into your, into your protective armor, let's say, um, then it's much easier to ride the coaster, you know,

Speaker 1: (20:08)

I, yeah. And I could still relate to it. I mean, it's hard to, you know, even when one is going through challenges in their career. And I sometimes talk about, at the end of my corporate career, it was just very challenging cuz I was so inside of what was going on, I couldn't look on the outside, but I transitioned out and now anytime there is something negative going on or the activity is at a high level. Maybe not meditation though. I have done some is there, you just have to slow down and just stop and just think about all the things that are happening in your life, but to be able to step back and just pause what's in my control. What's not in my control. Is it good? Is it bad? And just be a little bit more intellectual about it, but also let the emotions go if there's any emotional attachment to the things going on, but it's that stepping back and just collecting yourself before you can come forward and put your best foot forward for the day ahead. So anything that can be done, whether it's beginning of the day or the end of the day to kind of reflect upon what's happened, it's always good just as an individual or leader to just pause because you get a sense of calm and clarity.

Speaker 2: (21:14)

Yeah. That's, that's, that's that gives you perspective. You know, I find even just for a, a brief moment and you know, my, my personal self care dad has, um, kind of skyrocketed since I became a CEO, because you know, you start to realize, obviously you are the most important person and everybody, um, good or bad, everyone reacts to you, right? That's part of being leader.

Speaker 1: (21:43)

I can so relate. I mean, I'm working with a CEO of a company right now and you can see them going from deer in the headlight because the world is all revolving around them and it can get overwhelming to, if you can be a bit of that to help smooth things over, gives them more time to do the things they need to collect themselves and be the leader the organization needs. So kudos to you for reflecting on that. It's so necessary.

Speaker 2: (22:08)

It's huge. I mean, you know, we, we Allo excuse me for wellness in our, in our budget of the company. And um, I really that guilty feeling that I'm doing something that's not work sometimes. Yeah. Ha I've learned to really push it aside because if I can't get this centered, if I can't get my head, my sanity, you know, my outlook then I'm, I'm only gonna be miserable for other people. And I'm lucky because I've sat, I've got people around me who can tolerate my not nice side. Um, which, you know, happens a lot actually. And I'm, and I've chosen them specifically because I, you know that myself, right. I, I know who I am. I know what I'm good at and I know what I'm not good at. Um, and having that wisdom, I'm gonna call it wisdom cuz I'm I'm 48. So I think I can call it wisdom at this point, uh, serves me well because I know I'm not perfect.

Speaker 2: (23:14)

Mm-hmm and I don't apologize often cuz I don't like to, I have an ego issue around that. I try to, um, but I've put my, put other people around me who don't need that, you know? And I surround myself with cheerleaders who can cheer them on cuz I know that's not my forte either. Right. Um, and these things, I don't know how long to be able to continue this. I mean we only have, well there's seven full-time employees and five part-time. So we're not a very large company, but I can't. Um, the, I can't imagine having to, when I, when I, I can't imagine this, but when I have to put be someone, not myself. Okay. When I have to really think about my words so carefully just to get the littlest things done or put on kid gloves, I, I just get, I, I collapse. I can't deal with it. It's just, um, it inhibits my whole day because I feel like that's time wasted for me. Right. Just get it done, get, get over yourself and be autonomous and move on. You know? And I've been so lucky that Chris and Lauren and Brian and my whole team, these guys are wild horses themselves just like me. Right.

Speaker 1: (24:35)

But what I've loved, what you've done is that you don't make excuses for how you are and you I'm sure you're not disrespectful in any way, but you are very clear on what the vision and future the company is. And you have hand picked the people that support that good, bad or indifferent, but they all understand what the end game is. Cause if you worry and fret about every little detail of maybe you don't say something exactly the right way, as long as it's not with any disrespect, you have built the culture of trust and under everybody being laser focused on the end game. So even if you have these little ups and downs along the way, people are still moving forward. And that's really key wisdom to your point about having the right culture and having the right team to take you through the ups and downs, you're gonna get there. And eventually you guys are gonna be high fiving and laughing for those little things along the way. But it's the big things that you're really going after.

Speaker 2: (25:27)

Yeah. And they do that too. I mean our, our slack channel is really fun. we've created quite a water cooler there and everyone has a great sense of humor to your point. And we're, we're very good at talking to no one. I mean, we've been working from home since the beginning. So COVID, didn't change that from my group. And that has BR a stronger sense of economy. Mm-hmm but also everybody knows when, when to share. I mean, if you're not, if you're not in slack making noise, you don't exist. Right. Mm-hmm if you don't show up to the, we only have two meetings a week, two formal meetings, that's it mm-hmm and the meetings are, here's a tip for you guys. How we, how we operate, we create agendas. It's a rolling agenda. I call it, um, where each person is at the top.

Speaker 2: (26:17)

There's like the discussion items. Yep. And at the bottom is each person's little area to summarize what they're doing this week and what they're, you know, moving onto for the next week. You are all required to read it an hour before the meeting, during the meeting, we don't talk about any of that stuff. We talk about whatever's on the discussion list, maybe one or two things. There's all almost never anything there. Cause we get it done at slack. So these two meetings really have one purpose, which is social. We hang out, we share what's going on this week. We remind ourselves that, you know, this person's, uh, first child just went to daycare for the first time. So maybe she's feeling a little weird this week, for example, right? This

Speaker 1: (26:59)

Is, this is so refreshing because actually you've given me some pause. If you have the communication channels open for which work is exchanged and things are done. And then you have the structure to at least inform and align what people are working on. I used to think that these meetings where to then simply resolve differences, like, okay, keep it short, keep it focused. What do we need to work on to get through the rest of the week? But I like what you say is that, you know, that's offline, you focus on the human connection and making sure you checking in with everybody, despite all of this flurry of activity for what you have a highly independent accountable workforce, it's time to check in. And I love that. Yes. More people should do that. Yes.

Speaker 2: (27:42)

Yeah. Because if we waited to solve the problems in these meetings, it's too long for us. We, we can't survive and we have to be very, very nimble. Um, and I I'll get on people about that. And even our customers, we, we tell it's so funny when we're, when we're working in an onboarding with enterprise customers specifically, you know, we'll set up weekly meetings for example. And we'll say to them, there is a help button within the product, click it. This is Lauren's phone number. And her email do not hold this, whatever whatever's going on with you don't hold it for the week and tell us, cuz then your experience is miserable for the week mm-hmm and we don't want that. We wanna solve it right away. Let's you know's move on, but it is the people's nature too, to do that. You know, mm-hmm one other thing that we do in slack dev is no, again, we're small enough to do this, but I've more or less forbidden threads so that everything is always very transparent because I hate repeating myself.

Speaker 2: (28:39)

I find that to be a huge waste of time. And I also have learned that when the, I learned this from, from cooking, because I worked at this one, um, restaurant where one day, a year when it was very slow, they had a swap the kitchen staff and the wait staff. So we could be in each other's shoes. And always after that day, the, the tip outs of the kitchen were like higher for a long time. Um, and so at our company, I know that it's really important for the engineers, for example, to have sympathy for the customer service team mm-hmm and sales, right? Everybody is all tied together. I think of it all as one, this same idea resonates in how we do our marketing, right? So we have, um, let me, let me say a little teaser and then we can back into it.

Speaker 2: (29:32)

We have a 98% sales conversion folks lean in. Let me repeat that. 98% sales conversion. And part of the reason we have that is because my entire team participates on social media together. So this is again, the social element that we just talked about. So we're, we're doing this in multiple layers, right? It also, by the way, is how the product works. So our artificial intelligence runs on human fuel and we're insistent upon that because a robot is dumb. It has to learn from a human. And so we teach our customers how to train the AI and that way it can get smarter much faster, but also get much, much, much smarter. So back to the, and I'm talking a lot, excuse me, but back to the 98% sales conversion, we get that because we don't do any paid ads and no cold calls and no cold emails.

Speaker 2: (30:35)

We only use our own software, social, organic marketing for all of our marketing. And because we're good at training, it we've trained it so well, it learns exactly what messages and words and ideas our targets will respond to and knows to pick those ideas out of, uh, long form content and turn them into social posts. And so then we're watching online, who's liking commenting in Sherry. Those are warm leads for us because they are warm, you know, us and my whole team participates in it, right? So we have a channel called sharing and caring. You're gonna produce this episode. I'm gonna ask for the file. I'm gonna cut it up into dozens of pieces. I'm gonna publish it on my brand channels. And all of my employees are gonna publish it on their LinkedIn or Twitter channels. Right? Yeah. And we're gonna watch for when you publish it, as soon as you do my social marketing person, Katie, she's gonna grab the link to your LinkedIn post.

Speaker 2: (31:35)

She's gonna drop it in our sharings carrying channel and slack. And my whole team is gonna pile on to lift the visibility, right? This is how it works. Mm-hmm now this is hard. It's the hard way step, right? This is the hard way. I mean, it's made easier by, uh, AI obviously, but you can throw money at paid ads. That's easy. You can hire an agency. That's easy. You can line up a bank of SDRs and they play a numbers game and annoy the hell outta people and call them all day long. Or you can set up a long tail, which is what I know about from radio. And the difference is yes, it's harder and it takes a longer time, but the payoff is exponentially greater 98%.

Speaker 1: (32:23)

Okay. So I am over the top on this. First of all, thank you. I am looking forward to taking this moment in time that you and I are having and it going out into the world with your team. So I sincerely appreciate that. But what you bring to the table is a really, really important concept here, just for anybody investing in relationships, listening, we can listen to people in our world, parents, coworkers, mentors, our children, the community, and our brains are wonderful things. We can also consume all this data. We're listening to see what resonates with people and point you in a direction of more meaningful relationships, a more meaningful life, et cetera. You simply have created some technology that can help your clients curate that information and target who they go afterwards. I think it is so amazing, but I am just, this is amazing.

Speaker 1: (33:16)

And I also agree too, just this podcast interview with you. I too could have had an army of people doing cold outreaches to people, but I right now, and I'm incorporating 'em into my pod. I am reaching out directly with people. I think I can help. I know these people I've worked with these people and while they may not be able to work with me now I share my book. I give them access to all my social media. It is a long tail game. The patient thing gain is the problem. How long do you wait for the long tail to start reaping those benefits? But if you believe in what you're doing, you believe in your message, your position, your value, just keep going. Just keep going.

Speaker 2: (33:52)

Yes, yes. You can accelerate that by. So, so the trick that we're all trying to solve is how does my army of one become an actual army?

Speaker 1: (34:02)

Okay, cool.

Speaker 2: (34:04)

And you have to use automation to help that you have to, AI can help not only mine, but there's lots of different, you know, that can take many different forms. You also need friends, just a few together. We'll yeah, right. We're all in this together. So in my case, my friends or my employees, but also are our customers, right? So we've taken this idea of, I tell my team all the time, don't make the sale. I'll make a fan. That's your job. Right. Huge,

Speaker 1: (34:37)

Huge.

Speaker 2: (34:38)

It's huge. Because what I mean, what happens for us is even customers who leave us still talk about us on social. And that's what we're looking for. Is that ongoing? Um, what, what's the word I'm looking for? It's compounding, compounding, um, social proof and, and evangelism. So the, those metaphors we were talking about, see how they're everywhere, right? It's in the product, it's in how we work with our customers. It's in how we work as a team together and how we treat each other.

Speaker 1: (35:11)

This is huge insight. I mean, obviously it's not rocket science, but we spend so much time with our teams, whether you're an employee or a business owner, we all have to, we don't have to necessarily like each other, you know, all the time, but at least there's an element of respect. And with over time, one can be a fan. I love that because that's what we're trying to do. It's that trust. And, um, you know, you're making me smile here because as I have been persistent now, um, 240 podcast episodes in business three and a half years, I am starting to see the people that I have connected with. I have supported and been a fan of, they are now also being a fan and promoting for which I am very, very grateful, but it just takes immense patience to be steadfast to that and, and build fans, not just sales and customers.

Speaker 2: (36:01)

It does. I mean, the Karma's real right. Yeah. You know, like goes around, comes around and I think people can belittle the value of social media specifically. And I understand why, and, and certainly there's so much noise. And I mean, even I follow Kim Kardashian on Instagram. I mean, I do, I don't like her stuff because I don't, I don't like hard it, cause I don't wanna, I don't know. I don't wanna go that far, but I'm totally swiping. Um, but you know, sales has always been social. This is not a new thing. It's not a surprise. I mean, since the person, whoever invented the wheel, they had to make somebody trust them enough to give them absolutely

Speaker 2: (36:49)

That rock coin, whatever it was. And that's really the name of the game is thinking about, you know, there is an objective to everything I do every word I say, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think often, sometimes either women can shy away from it or perhaps be CHID for, you know, that's where the word comes in. Right. But like, I am fully this conversation. I like you, I'm delighted to meet you, but there's something in this for me, this is lead gen. This is why I'm doing it. I'm not doing it to make friends. I mean, to be really honest, right. There's, there's, there's a, there's a reason here. Now the happy accident is I make friends and I love that. And it fuels me, you know, my, my, my soul at the same time. And I learned something, so an extra win there, right. And when you know what the objective is of social media or anything else, then you can back into it and, um, obviously be, be clear on your reasons, but then get something more out of it.

Speaker 1: (38:01)

You're always gonna get more out of it again, you and I together started with curiosity with intentionality of understanding the challenges of being a C-suite leader, learning more about your business. Maybe there are ways I can support you, refer you, but also the joy of just getting to know you, a strong individual, having a passion, having a clear vision. And I love, love, love how you have set up the culture and the ways of working for your company. A lot of people can learn from that, but we do have to at least on air, bring this to some closure here. Are there any last thoughts you may wanna share with our listeners?

Speaker 2: (38:38)

So I guess I should just tell folks what lately does if they're curious. Um, and I used to own a marketing agency by the way, Deb. So, um, just so people don't think I'm just this crazy radio person who had this random idea, but, uh, I did all this by hand for Walmart. like about, uh, I guess a dozen years ago and got them 130% ROI year over year for three years. So I had this model. That is what lately became in the end. And I didn't even sort of realize what I was doing. Of course, someone else had to kind of, you know, help me. Mm-hmm, make it into software and, and drag me into this wild, wild, crazy world. But lately, as you had said before, it, it studies your analytics of any social panel that you give us. And from that it learns what gets you the highest engagement.

Speaker 2: (39:33)

And then it builds a custom writing model for your specific individual voice or your brand voice, either one. And once it has the writing model, that's when it is able to help you repurpose long form content. That could be a video. It could be an audio like a podcast, or it could be any, any text like a blog or a newsletter or even chapters of a book. And with the writing model, it can split apart that long form content into dozens of micro promos. Mm-hmm that have a link to drive back to read, read the full, or watch the full kind of component there all on the form of social posts. So this idea is about not only repurposing, but it's really learning what your customers care about and being able to double down on that because that's, that's really all that matters. Um, so that's kind of what lately does. I think the thing that I would love to leave people with is what you're doing today, which is as a female entrepreneur, I'm an underdog. So, you know, yay. uh, but I can't do it without you. You are lifting me up and it's my job to pass that on. So thank you.

Speaker 1: (40:49)

You have been an amazing guest. I can't wait to learn more about the work you do, but it does start with just getting to know the human behind the vision and what you're doing. And you have left so many insights and inspiration for our listeners. I just wanna say, Kate, thank you so much for the opportunity. You've been an amazing guest and I do wish you continue success.

Speaker 2: (41:08)

Thank you.

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