North Star Podcast
Rob Henderson is one of my favorite up-and-coming writers. I like him because he's one of those people who doesn't fit into a category. He's a Ph.D. candidate in psychology, but I met him in a book club about technological stagnation. He's spent years in the academy, first at Yale and now at Cambridge, but most of his influence comes from his online writing. Most of all, he's interested in human nature. In particular, psychology, status, and social class.
info_outline Chrisman Frank and Ana Lorena Fabrega: How Childhood Education Will ChangeNorth Star Podcast
This week, I have two guests. Both are affiliated with Synthesis, a new kind of online school where kids learn through games and simulations. One is Chrisman Frank, the CEO of Synthesis. The other is Ana Lorena Fabrega, who is their Chief Evangelist.
info_outline Ash Fontana: Building Artificial IntelligenceNorth Star Podcast
Ash Fontana is an entrepreneur, investor, and author. As an entrepreneur, he was only of the early employees at an online investing platform called AngelList. From there, he became the Managing Director at Zetta, the first investment fund focused on artificial intelligence. Now, he's the author of the AI-First Company.
info_outline Li Jin: Creating the Creator EconomyNorth Star Podcast
My guest today is Li Jin, the founder and managing partner at an early-stage venture capital firm called Atelier.
info_outline Zena Hitz: Liberal Arts ThinkingNorth Star Podcast
My guest today is Zena Hitz, a tutor at St John’s and the author of an excellent book called Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life. Her book explores the meaning and the value of learning for its own sake, through images and stories of bookworms, philosophers, scientists, and other learners, both fictional and historical.
info_outline Tiago Forte and Will Mannon: Building Cohort-Based CoursesNorth Star Podcast
I have two guests today: Tiago Forte and Will Mannon.
info_outline Gagan Biyani: Building Silicon Valley StartupsNorth Star Podcast
My guest today is Gagan Biyani, the current CEO of an education startup that helps teachers run Cohort-Based Courses on the Internet and has students from around the world. Gagan also founded a multi-billion dollar online education platform called Udemy. Afterward, he founded Sprig, a food delivery platform that grew to a nine-digit valuation but eventually failed. So today, he has the distinct pleasure of being both the founder of a unicorn and the founder of a massive failure.
info_outline Trevor Bauer: Playing Professional BaseballNorth Star Podcast
My guest today is Trevor Bauer, who is arguably the very best pitcher in Major League Baseball. I wanted to interview Trevor not only because he's an excellent pitcher, but because he takes a radical approach to the game. He's a physicist and a scientist. A scholar and an entrepreneur. And you don't find that combination very often.
info_outline Nik Sharma: Building DTC CompaniesNorth Star Podcast
My guest today is Nik Sharma, the founder of Sharma Brands and an advisor to companies like Judy and Cha Cha Matcha. Nik is one of my very best friends, and my go-to person for all things commerce. Since we first met, we've spent hours exploring the future of marketing and commerce together, and recorded this podcast to give you a window into what our conversations are like.
info_outline Kevin Kelly: Seeing the FutureNorth Star Podcast
My guest today is Kevin Kelly, who co-founded Wired Magazine in 1993 and served as its Executive Editor for the first seven years. As one of the most important futurists of our generation, he's published a number of books including The Inevitable, What Technology Wants, and New Rules for the New Economy which is my favorite one. Coolest of all, he's also a founding member of the board of the Long Now Foundation, a non-profit devoted to encouraging long-term thinking.
info_outlineMy guest today is Matthew Kobach, the Director of Content Marketing at Fast and the former Manager of Digital and Social Media at the New York Stock Exchange. Matthew and I met on Twitter, where he shares actionable strategies for building brands on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and YouTube. He does it with a level of humor and honesty I’ve never seen in the social media industry.
This episode is a deep dive into Matt’s philosophy of social media. We started by talking about his all-time favorite television commercials and how they inform his social media strategy today. Then we spoke about how paid and organic social media should influence each other and why Cash App’s cash giveaways are such a smart social media strategy. Please enjoy my conversation with Matthew Kobach.
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Show Notes
1:39 - Who has surprised Matthew the most with the success of their social media strategy.
4:22 - Why social media is undervalued by the majority of marketing agencies.
8:32 - Why marketing to the "wrong" audience is still effective advertising.
13:08 - Matthew's favorite TV commercial of all time and why remembering the product may not be super important.
19:39 - How good advertising realizes things about yourself you haven't yet discovered.
24:03 - What social media post has been most successful for Matthew.
29:37 - How Matthew leveraged social media to land his current marketing job.
35:49 - Why focusing on organic long-term social media marketing instead of short-term paid became Matthew's niche.
39:07 - The convergence of organic and paid advertising and why Matthew thinks it's so effective.
45:10 - How having a long time horizon on your marketing strategy can help increase organic growth.
49:40 - Why giveaways have been and will always be successful.
54:49 - The greatest marketing lesson Matthew learned from his dad.
56:53 - Matthew's greatest takeaways from Peter Thiel's "From Zero To One."
59:09 - Why a fundamental change of social media seems completely unlikely without one particular element.
1:02:34 - How writing has become Matthew's "one weird trick" as a social media marketer.
1:06:20 - Why Matthew believes that at the opposite of a good idea is another good idea and why the inverse is also true.