cover of episode Steph Smith, Head of Trends.co // Building In Public, Finding Your First 1000 Users + Growing Online

Steph Smith, Head of Trends.co // Building In Public, Finding Your First 1000 Users + Growing Online

2020/11/12
logo of podcast Creator Lab - interviews with entrepreneurs and startup founders

Creator Lab - interviews with entrepreneurs and startup founders

Frequently requested episodes will be transcribed first

Shownotes Transcript

Steph Smith leads Trends at The Hustle. She’s a serial indie maker, writer + marketer.

She’s been a nomad since 2016 & has traveled to 50+ countries while working, learning to code + creating.

Watch + subscribe on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qQtciVUeOMU)

Let us know what you think on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bzaidi) https://twitter.com/stephsmithio)

What You'll Learn:

  • how to pre-sell + validate your idea
  • economics of self-publishing vs traditional book deals
  • what you can learn from games like chess
  • defining your personal monopoly
  • finding your first 1000 users
  • writing for humans vs google
  • leveraging communities + viral platforms

Timestamps

  • 00:00:00 Intro
  • 00:02:00 What You Can Learn From Chess
  • 00:07:39 Chess vs Real Life
  • 00:13:33 Pre-Selling An Idea
  • 00:17:51 Economics of Book Deals vs Self-Publishing
  • 00:19:23 “Steph is an animal…in a good way”
  • 00:21:19 Healthy Competiton + Sibling Rivalry
  • 00:25:38 Lifestyle Creep + Golden Handcuffs
  • 00:27:14 Steph’s Book: “Doing Content Right”
  • 00:29:09 Avoiding Scammy “Online Marketers”
  • 00:34:08 Personal Monopoly + Your Differentiator
  • 00:39:04 Example: Costco’s Differentiator
  • 00:43:17 “What You Wouldn’t Do In Person”
  • 00:46:34 Growth Models To Grow Efficiently + Compound Over Time
  • 00:48:02 Bedrock Channels: Importance of SEO
  • 00:51:09 Example: Writing For Humans vs Google
  • 00:55:46 How We Do Keyword Research
  • 01:01:43 Tools To Use + Ranking For Keywords
  • 01:04:38 First 1000 Users – Do Things That Don’t Scale
  • 01:08:40 Leveraging Communities + Viral Platforms
  • 01:12:06 “How To Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatedly”
  • 01:15:25 The Power Of Building In Public
  • 01:19:22 Wrap-Up