My secret sauce for learning about business
Plus celebrating the first 100 days of podcasting.
Hi all,
Happy April! This is a big month for me — I just wrapped up my 100 Day Podcast Challenge and I’m excited to turn the learnings from the past 3 months into ways to make the podcast even better. For those who have asked me about my “long game” as a creator, this podcast is it. I’m going all in with this one and lots of great content is in store. Stay tuned!
Over the course of this challenge (and really ever since I started creating TikTok content) I’ve been asked about how I deepen my knowledge of the business, tech, and consumer topics I cover. Some of them won’t come as a surprise (podcasts — duh, newsletters, online courses) and I dig a little deeper into them in this podcast episode — but here are three strategies that I apply alongside these resources to build confidence around articulating and sharing thought leadership (that I actually think have helped me more than the resources themselves).
Creating content. In general, business-oriented content creation can serve as a powerful forcing function to turn raw information into useful insights, helping you sharpen your thinking. As Polina Pompliano recently pointed out in our interview, writing (or TikToking/podcasting in my case) is often the act that helps you arrive at insightful conclusions instead of the insight being the prerequisite to beginning a piece of writing. If you can find a format through which to publish regular insights on a sector or topic of your choosing, it will massively accelerate your understanding of that space and hone your ability to convey it clearly even beyond your current expertise. And the fact that consistent content creation builds your person brand (as Adrian Alfieri pointed out in our interview last week) doesn’t hurt either.
Creating case studies. I might be biased, since my rise on TikTok was catapulted primarily by case studies & brand breakdowns, but in my experience taking content creation one step further to focus each piece of content specifically on a given company or business can be a helpful way to use the particular to gain a more complete, enriched understanding of the general — whether that is a sector, trend, or industry. I could read 100 articles on 100 different DTC brands and ultimately gain a shallower understanding of the state of consumer brands today than I would if I read 100 diversified articles on three or four well-covered companies. Going broad tends to be the default in media consumption these days, but if you can strategically dive into the right case studies (even if generating any actual case studies is for your eyes only), you’ll uncover insights you couldn’t have spotted without plumbing those depths.
Building community. Whether your goal is to become an expert in AI (as it were) or in climate tech, the most advantageous position you can ultimately put yourself in is to become the builder of community. You can either insert yourself into an existing community or — even better — build your own. The conversations you’ll have, the “case studies” you’ll absorb without even trying, and the network that you’ll build will position you to more easily access the best kind of learning which is often directly from the most active & knowledgeable nodes of a given industry. Community-building is, of course, not an easy lift by any means. But if you’re serious, this longer-term strategy can pay dividends with the secondary benefits of relationship-building in the process.
I’d be curious to hear what other resources and tools you use to stay-up-to-date on the business trends & sectors relevant to you and if you’ve tried your hand at content creation or community-building and what the results were for you. My inbox is always open.
xx
Dulma
THE BOTTOM LINE
The three things from each episode that you need to know.
Ankur Nagpal — Founder of Teachable & Ocho on Money, Wealth & Happiness
On The Pros of Working With a Founder-Investor: If you’re working with an investor who also was or is a founder, the relationship automatically positions them as a peer rather than a superior. There’s less of an implied power dynamic. In addition to being able to help with tactical things like growth or fundraising, founders-turned-investors can really add value when navigating areas like founder psychology and mental health. “It helps reinforce the insane nature of the things we do.”
On Building Your Brand As a Founder: “Fundamentally, people don’t care to follow corporations. People like to hear from people.” When you begin to create content, dive deep into what you’re already interested in and share authentically. Don’t be afraid to experiment across channels. Encourage your team to build their own personal brands, even if that means using company time and resources — in turn, that generally reflects well on the organization.
On Raising Money Pre-Product Market Fit: It’s often not worth it. Raising money is an illusion of progress for society, employees, the press — “it’s a vanity metric and one of the easiest traps to fall into.” But if you don’t have product-market fit and you’ve already raised money, you’ll likely end up building up your team in a way that makes it hard to pivot quickly. It can slow you down and end up weighing on you, even though it may feel exhilarating in the short-term.
This is just the bottom line from my conversation with Ankur. For the rest of our discussion, listen to the podcast episode here.
Jason Yeh — From Prestige to Passion in Silicon Valley
On Navigating Self-Doubt When Starting Something New: “There can be a lot of self-doubt around your ability to do something new or to create something that people would want.” Start by focusing on producing something valuable even for just one person, and then from there for five people. It will continue to grow.
On Stepping Into the Uncomfortable: “People need to be pushed into not being comfortable. You need to be okay with taking risks in order to level up.” Moving away from what’s comfortable and easy, like a cushy job at a big company, requires throwing away something that’s safe and potentially setting yourself up for failure — but failure is the mother of success. Figure out the next thing you’re excited about learning, and stay only until the picture of what you want is clear. Don’t get comfortable.
On the Similarities Between Fundraising and Dating in High School: So much of investing is not scientific — there’s a feeling around whether something is going to be exciting, and a lot of that is based on signals in the market — mainly, how many other investors are interested. People underestimate how powerful the experience of FOMO can be for a VC. They need to feel like “they’re not the only game in town, that a lot of people want to talk to you, and that your time is precious. There’s sexiness around a deal that a lot of other people want to ‘date’.”
This is just the bottom line from my conversation with Jason. For the rest of our discussion, listen to the podcast episode here.
Adrian Alfieri — The Power of Content for Growing Your Network & Your Sales
On Networking Through Content Creation: Interviewing people in new, interesting formats — and creating content around it — is a great way to build relationships. Asking people for a little bit of their time, in a low-friction manner, in return for something that will add value for them, is beneficial for both parties. “Use the social proof [that the content you’re generating provides] to build a network for yourself before you drop what you want to drop.”
On The Value of Social Proof: “The value of transmuting brand equity — showing up consistently with a really high-value person — is an extremely powerful thing.” For Alfieri, interviews with figures like Mark Cuban on his newsletter ultimately resulted in invitations to dinners and investment opportunities. People will assign you value based on who you’re associated with — even if it’s just through the content you’re creating.
On How B2B Startups Should Approach Content: “Everyone looks for social proof when making a buying decision. The same is true for B2B.” Isolate that social proof — whether it’s the investors in your company, recent press, or high-value customers — and then amplify it across content creation, distribution, and referral channels, through proof-based content like case studies, white papers and testimonials.
This is just the bottom line from my conversation with Adrian. For the rest of our discussion, listen to the podcast episode here.
Brian Rappaport — What Brands Need to Know about OOH Advertising
On The Basics of Out-Of-Home Advertising: OOH is anything that’s not social/online, print, or broadcast, and is quite literally, outside the home. It could be billboards, ads before your movie in theaters, digital activations at the airport. It’s a channel that’s composed of many different tactics and formats but “gets you in front of your audience in an unblockable, unmissable way.”
On Best Practices for OOH: Great creative and copy that’s short and sweet. Ask yourself, “If I walk by this on the street, is it going to pop?” It’s important to consider a specific call-to-action, a strong logo, and a theme if you’re using multiple different pieces of creative. If you do it right, “especially in major markets, you have the ability to create moments that are going to live a second life on social and be amplified by potential consumers.”
On The Evolution of OOH: Ten years ago, OOH was just billboards and what you saw on the subway. Engagement was how many cars drove past your sign at a given time, and there was no true digital aspect to the channel. Now, you have the ability to follow a customer along their daily journey, through both physical and digital activations, and the tracking has grown by leaps and bounds. “The vastness of the out-of-home space and how many formats there are — that has truly changed.”
This is just the bottom line from my conversation with Brian. For the rest of our discussion, listen to the podcast episode here.
LEARNING FUND
Invest in your business knowledge.
This Week: “Exit Strategies”
There are quite a few different exit strategies, each one used depending on the stage and size of the company and the goals of the exit. Some are more widely known and pursued than others. See below for a quick breakdown on a few of these strategies.
IPOs (Initial Public Offerings): Listing your company on a public stock exchange and selling shares as stocks to shareholders. IPOs generally offer the chance to make more profit than any other exit strategy, but also involve intense regulatory processes and an ongoing commitment to shareholders, even once the company is publicly held.
M&A (mergers and acquisitions): Selling your business to another company. Though M+As can be expensive and time-consuming, compared to other exit strategies, they give business owners the most control over negotiating and setting the terms of the deal.
Acqui-hires: A type of M&A but focused more on acquiring a company for its talent/team, not the product or service it’s building. Often, a startup that fails to meet its more ambitious growth targets may pursue acqui-hire strategies, and the company is shut down after the transaction is completed.
Liquidation: Closing down a business and selling off any assets. Considered a more “final” exit strategy, any cash earned must be used to pay off debts and existing shareholders.
SMALL INVESTMENTS, HIGH RETURNS
A little support goes a long way.
This Week: Omsom
I’m lucky to have recently connected to one of the Omsom co-founders Kim Pham (who was also one of the first guests on the podcast!) which gave me a chance to hear about their bold colorful ethos fueled by a mission to celebrate Asian heritage specifically through its many cuisines & flavors.
I’ll be the first to admit that cooking foods you’re not familiar with can be daunting (and sometimes even the dishes we grew up as with Mongolian dishes in my case!). But Omsom brings both authentic flavor (that spans a breadth of Asian cuisine) and ease of cooking with their sauce/base starter packets, cooked up in partnership with AAPI restauranteurs and chefs.
With branding as festive as their addictive flavors, a social media strategy that is second-to-none in the DTC space, and a transparency as a fledgling team that can’t help but inspire emotional resonance, you should be keeping an eye on Omsom (and stocking their products in your pantry). If you haven’t tried any yet, I recommend starting with The Best Seller Set for $55.
Got a product or brand you want us to shout out? Nominate them below!👇🏼